It is widely assumed among contemporary philosophers that Descartes’ version of ontological proof, among other weaknesses, makes an impossible and unjustified move from the mental world of concepts to the real world of things. Contrary to this opinion I will try to show that Descartes’ famous principle of clear and distinct perception suffices to find an adequate inferential connection between the contents of the human mind and extra-mental reality. In a clear and distinct way we cognitively grasp the concept of (...) supremely perfect being as the concept that we do not construct by an arbitrary definition of the word ”God’. (shrink)

There are three main ways to acquire the knowledge of the existence of God and the knowledge of His nature. These are either the arguments taking into account the nature of the world and our thinking about the world, or it is the argumentation trying to prove the authenticity of certain historical events, or it is a reference to particular types of experiences, called mystical experiences. In the case of Christian philosophy we will have to consider, firstly, the cosmological and (...) ontological arguments for the existence of God, and, secondly, the attempts to show the authenticity of reports of the events regarding Jesus of Nazareth and, thirdly, the arguments in favor of the objectivity of mystical experiences recorded in the history of Christian religion. In regard to all of the above-mentioned three sources of knowledge about God, I would like to ask the following questions. How do we know that all of them refer to the same object? On what basis can we say that even if these three 'ways to God' are correct, they refer us to the same being? Are they independent of each other, and if they depend on each other in some way, what are the relationships among them? If we were not able to demonstrate that the item referred to by the term 'God' in all of these three ways is the same object or being, it would represent a significant weakness in Christian theology and philosophy. I will try to outline what relationship may exist between these three sources of knowledge about God. Then I will attempt to describe the criteria connecting all these sources of knowledge. (shrink)

Temptation and Free Will. A Solution to the Problem of the Relationship Between Human Free Will and God’s Omniscience The article aims to show that none of the today discussed positions concerning the relationship between human free will and God’s omniscience—determinism, compatibilism, molinism and libertarianian revisionism—is an adequate solution and proposes a position to some extent resembling Kant’s solution to his Third Antinomy, where he made the distinction between subject as causa phenomenon and subject as causanoumenon. God possesses not only (...) an absolute knowledge concerning all processes and events in the world, but He also has a full knowledge concerning what all human subjects will decide to do. Nevertheless, His absolute knowledge in this sense is compatible with human freedom, because ‘real freedom’ is ‘located’—as a causality of freedom—in individual human natures which already exist in eternity and of which our actual inner experience gives us only a ‘sensual scheme’ (Kant). Human persons are tempted by different life experiences which they receive, i.e. they are tested by God and it cannot be excluded that some of these personal essences will turn out to be only illusory and in this sense will be condemned. For all other persons worldly experience was planned by God as a necessary element of their future eternal life. Keywords:God, omniscience, freedom, determinism, eternal life, persons. (shrink)

The article presents the philosopher A. B. Stępień (born 1931). In the first part, against the background of philosophical trends of the 20th century, the main components of A. B. Stępień’s philosophical standpoint are characterised. The author of the article includes among them: in epistemology − anti-sceptical, anti-relativist and realist views; in metaphysics − theism and stress on the possibility of rational argumentation for existence of God; in axiology − objectivist views, especially in the field of existence of moral values (...) and norms derived from them. The next part of the article is devoted to a discussion of A. B. Stępień’s didactic activities with a special stress on his contribution to the development of Polish philosophy after World War II. (shrink)

The article presents the philosopher A. B. Stępień (born 1931). In the first part, against the background of philosophical trends of the 20th century, the main components of A. B. Stępień’s philosophical standpoint are characterised. The author of the article includes among them: in epistemology − anti-sceptical, anti-relativist and realist views; in metaphysics − theism and stress on the possibility of rational argumentation for existence of God; in axiology − objectivist views, especially in the field of existence of moral values (...) and norms derived from them. The next part of the article is devoted to a discussion of A. B. Stępień’s didactic activities with a special stress on his contribution to the development of Polish philosophy after World War II. (shrink)

This paper addresses two issues in Richard Swinburne’s book Are We Bodies or Souls? I interpret Swinburne’s modal argument as an example of a priori synthetic knowledge. Swinburne’s thesis that every person possesses “thisness” is compared with Kant’s distinction between the empirical character and the intelligible character.

The paper presents some principal motives that made I. Kant take the position of transcendental idealism. They are the following: the question of a priori synthetic judgements, the question of the cognitive and ontic status of space and time, the problem of the constitution of the phenomenal world, and the problem of the objectivity of empirical judgments (the so-called transcendental deduction). In relation to Kant’s solutions some objections have been formulated and a thesis that neither separately nor in combination can (...) the main four motives be treated as conditions sufficient for idealism and agnosticism. The author also seeks to show the relationship between transcendental idealism and Kant’s belief of the impossibility to solve the “great” metaphysical problems, therefore the problem of the existence of God, soul, and freedom. (shrink)

Nieprzezwyciężona wola Boga i tajemnica wolności stworzonych bytów. Komentarz do książki Opatrzność Boża, wolność, przypadek Dariusza Łukasiewicza Artykuł jest komentarzem do książki Dariusza Łukasiewicza Opatrzność Boża, wolność, przypadek. Zasadniczą jego tezą jest to, że nie istnieje wolność ludzka jako nie-kauzalny generator wolnych aktów. Prawdziwej wolności doświadczymy tylko w życiu wiecznym, a stanie się ona dla nas czymś realnym dopiero wtedy, gdy zostanie nam ujawniona nasza indywidualna istota. Życie wieczne polegać będzie, między innymi, na ujrzeniu, w jaki sposób wszystkie nasze działania (...) wypływają z naszej indywidualnej istoty. (shrink)

The paper deals with the nature of internal experience. The views on this subject appear in I. Kant, J.G. Fichte, E. Husserl, and K. Rahner. The author seeks to prove that internal experience is an intuitive experience in which the subject presents to himself or herself in the so-called intellectual inspection (intellektuelle Anschaung). The subject has the feature of atemporality (nunc status) and is capable of transcending each content while preserving its identity. ..Speculation\" means reflection: the structure of the person (...) of God is reflected in internal experience. He is semper stans. These views are compared with the standpoint of fourteenth-century mystics (J. Eckhart, J. Tauler, H. Suzo) about the so-called ground of the soul (Seelengrund). (shrink)

The article concerns the epistemological views of Adam Grobler contained in his book Epistemologia (2019). The first part of the article lists the basic goals that were set for the philosophical theory of knowledge, namely, distinguishing types of knowledge, discovering the essence of knowledge, describing and assessing human epistemic situation in the world, considering the most general idea of knowledge, confronting the issue of global skepticism, grounding human knowledge, considering the issue of starting point in philosophy, showing the genesis of (...) human knowledge (Kant, Husserl), considering the phenomenon–reality opposition and the opposition of categories of being and categories of thinking, abandoning the maximalistic epistemology in favour of naturalized epistemology. In the second part of the text, Adam Grobler’s epistemological position is diagnosed as (pragmatically motivated) skepticism. (shrink)

Artykuł składa się z trzech części. W pierwszej części pod uwagę brana jest możliwość, że ludzie, a być może także wszystkie inne skończone podmioty poznające, które dysponują zdolnością do formułowania ocen moralnych, podlegają uniwersalnemu złudzeniu co do hierarchizacji wartości moralnych, według których działają, a więc że mają odwrócone spektrum aksjologiczne. W części drugiej jest uzasadniana teza, że jedynym środkiem, pozwalającym wykluczyć możliwość podlegania radykalnej iluzji aksjologicznej przez skończone podmioty poznające, jest odwołanie się do metafizycznego pojęcia Boga, rozumianego jako pojęcie istoty (...) najdoskonalszej, i do Jego wiedzy na temat tego, co jest dobre, a co jest złe. Kwestia istnienia Boga oraz wskazanie, w jaki sposób należałoby religijnie konkretyzować pojęcie Boga, nie są podejmowane. Do przeprowadzenia prezentowanej w artykule argumentacji wystarczy, że Bóg będzie rozumiany jako osoba dysponująca atrybutem wszechwiedzy. Część trzecia jest poświęcona uwagom na temat relatywizmu moralnego, zagadnieniu tzw. dylematów moralnych oraz pojęciu istoty dobra moralnego. (shrink)