Contents/Inhalt/Sommaire

Croatian Philosophy (I)

3

7
11

31

P. Barii,
Editorial
Z. uljak,
Notes on Contributors
F. Markovi,
Philosophische Schriftsteller
kroatischer Abkunft jenseits des
Velebit vom XV. bis XVIII.
Ja h rh u n d e rt
K. Krsti,
Philosophie in Kroatien

51

D. Pejovi,
Philosophers of Old Dubrovnik

61

A. Kneevi ,
Some Linguistic Remarks About
C roatian Philosophical
Terminology

77

91

117

127

147 F. Grgi/J. Talanga,

M atthias Flacius Illyricus and
Sixteenth Century Logic

167 M. Girardi Karulin,

Das Problem der
Renaissancephilosophie als
Antizipation der Neuzeit

177 E. Bani-Pajni,
Andrija Dudi. Treatise on
Comets - Treatise on Man

189 Lj. Schiffler,

The Sources of Petris
Understanding of Poetics
and Beauty

Book Reviews
215

P. Barii,
D. Pejovi: Duh i sloboda
(Geist und Freiheit)

220

D adi,
H erm ann the Dalmatian
as a Scientist

J. Zovko,
F. Schlegel:
Transzendentalphilosophie

221

V. Filipovi,
Ans tze und Reichweite der
Flacianischen Hermeneutik

B. D bert,
L. H. Ehrlich, R. Wisser (Hrsg.):
K arl Jaspers Today

223

A. Paanin,
L. Siep: Praktische, Philosophie
im Deutschen Idealismus

F. anjek,
La p o rt e europ enne de
loeuvre scientifique dHermann
le D alm ate

I. Kordi,
M atthias Flacius Illyricus
und die Interaktion zwischen
A utor und Interpret als
herm eneutische Kategorie

Croatian Philosophy (I)

Editorial
Philosophy manifests itself as a thoughtfully interlaced, phenomenon which is
simultaneously denoted as individual and universal. Thus its manifestation
in some historical period also carries a sign o f concreteness, which is im
pressed upon it by the spiritual medium o f a determined nation in whom it
appears. Philosophy, through a millenia o f cultural history, certainly played a
key role in shaping the spiritual substance and national self-consciousness o f
specific European nations. One should not forget what their universities and,
in the first order, chairs o f philosophy meant for the German nation and their
specific idealistic world philosophy, what the critical spirit o f the philosophy
o f the Enlightenment meant for the French, or for the consciousness o f the
English who manifested their distinctive cultural self-substantiality in the em
piricist consideration o f the world, and what, for all this together, signifies the
spiritual foundation o f Occidental thinking situated in the Mediterranean at
mosphere o f the thoughtful encounter o f Jewish, Greek and Roman wisdom,
from which emerged the spirit o f Christianity and the Western metaphysical
tradition. A s a conscious cultural spirit, philosophy, is - according to the
words of Croatian thinker Franjo Markovi - that inspiration which animates
and directs the ideals of a peoples being towards a communal goal, links
together and leads towards progression. It is a formative power, which the
culture of a nation, expressed in the objective creations of art and science,
in social and political relationships gives a specific, characteristic appearance.
As the expression of national self-consciousness, it is the principle of self
creativity, through which a nation becomes an accountable factor in the society
of mankind and an active collaborator in the history of humanity.1
In the history o f philosophy concepts such as Greek, Roman or Jewish
philosophy became general signs with recognizable contents. Speaking on
world history, Hegel - taking into consideration the essential differences and
incommensurability o f the paradigms o f the Western and Eastern traditions
- spoke o f Indian, Chinese and Persian philosophy. During the Middle Ages
there existed the legitimate expression Arabic philosophy. From the universal
tradition o f Christian philosophy, there branched out in the modem age those
great philosophical traditions which Hegel reduced under the common
denominator o f Germanic philosophies: English (Scottish), French and
German philosophy. Here, he proceeds from a very pointed assumption, which
he takes from his Euro-centric concept o f the history o f philosophy, namely
i
Cfr. Albert Bazala, Filozofijski portret Franje
Markovia, Zagreb, 1974, p. 16.

SYNTHESIS PHILOSOPHICA

IS (1/1993) pp. 3-6

Editorial

that there exists only two philosophies: Greek and Germanic A controver
sial question, however, is asked in relation to this interpretative model: what
o f Spanish, Italian philosophy or the philosophy o f the Scandinavian peoples
who completely stand outside this framework? A particular problem for a
survey o f the history ofphilosophy is the appearance o f the traditions o f Rus
sian, American or Latin American philosophy. The pinnacle o f this problem
is the question relating to all those philosophical traditions o f small nations,
such as Hungarian, Polish, Austrian, Czech or even Croatian philosophy. Is
the syntagm Croatian philosophy at all philosophically legitimate?
Without any pretensions here to enter deeply into the argumentation on the
place o f Croatian philosophy and its significance for European thought, I
wish only to mention that the thematic block on Croatian philosophy origi
nated in the guidelines o f endeavour of the journal Synthesis philosophica,
which promotes and presents different philosophical traditions and the estab
lishment o f dialogue between them. Thus, up till now, in issues 7 and 8 were
published a block on Chinese philosophy, and in issue 11 a block on philo
sophy in Latin America, while in preparation for following issues are thematic
blocks on Russian, Japanese and Jewish philosophy. With this purpose in
mind, here, under the common title o f Croatian philosophy, are offered a
selection o f texts on the problematics of the history o f Croatian philosophy
and its individual representatives.
Together with an introductory exposition o f the selection o f articles for this
thematic block, it is worthwhile to mention that up till how there does hot
exist one exstensive survey o f the history of Croatian philosophy. Due to par
ticular reasons, a treatment o f this thematic was not desirable for a certain
period time. Thus, to this days, as a factographic review o f the history of
Croatian philosophy, the renowned encyclopedial article o f Kruno Krsti
remains significant, published in 1943, which is here offered in German trans
lation, printed later in reworked versions and Used for years as a point o f
departure for the research o f Croatian philosophy.Prior to this, at the very
beginning o f the thematic block, is inserted the text by Franjo Markovi, from
1881, Philosophical Writers of Croatian Origin on the Other Side of Velebit
from the 15th to the 18th Centuries, which is certainly outdated with respect
to today's state o f research. However, we include it here because o f its
programatical importance and turning-point role in stimulating research o f
the Croatian philosophical heritage in the previous century and in this century.
More significant research in Croatia began during the seventies o f the twentieth
century. In this framework, the significant developmental point was the sym
posium o f the Croatian Philosophical Society during the heated year o f 1968,
under the title Hrvatska filozofija u prolosti i sadanjosti (Croatian Philo
sophy in the Past and Present), which polarized Croatian philosophical
circles to their extremes. On one side, the spokespersons for studying the history
o f Croatian philosophy (Kruno Krsti, Vladimir Filipovi, Zlatko Posavac and
others) expounded arguments for the need for research and actualizing the
reflective achievements and works of more or less forgotten or neglected
Croatian philosophers, while on the other side were stressed objections that
this deals with an archivistic endeavour which is reduced to registering data
from the past and self-infatuation which springs from the ethnicity o f some
names from expirated centuries?

SYNTHESIS PHILOSOPHICA
15 (1/1993) pp. 3-6

Editorial

In the background o f that controversy, however, is also conducted a more

deeper theoretical controversy on the relation to national tradition in general
and that which is supra-national Namely, during the same year in Zagreb
was held a symposium and a thematic block was published in the journal
Praxis under the title National, International, Universal, where the
spokespersons o f the construction o f a new socialist culture give primacy to
the sphere o f the supra-national as a specific link in which the elements o f
national and universal are dialectically imbued. Emphasising that the major
danger to contemporary cultural development lies in the insistance on the
autonomy o f national cultures with the argumentation that this leads only
to their weakening and decline to the provincial level, the editors o f Praxis
see a solution in the construction o f not only internationalism, but also, above
all else, in the creation o f a supra-national cosmopolitan humanism. The
incarnation o f this sort o f supra-national structure which makes possible cos
mopolitan humanism is for them precisely the multinational Yugoslavia, and
therefore their major endeavour was oriented to the construction o f a general
Yugoslav culture. Here, in such an endeavour to construct a supra-national
Yugoslav model o f culture also layed, altogether immodest, the ambition to
offer the world a real solution for overcoming inter-national conflicts: Only
by going out more and more into the international plan, Yugoslav culture can
successfully resolve some o f its most acute internal problems. And only in
this way can we also contribute so that contemporary inter-national dissen
sions are overcome on a world-wide scale, not only by means o f true inter
nationalism, but also supra-national cosmopolitan humanism.
However, now in full swing o f historical changes, which accelerates towards
the end o f the twentieth century, in similar conditions in which it originated
at the beginning o f the century, Yugoslavia as an exemplary supra-national
formation disappeared, as did the new socialist culture. Thus, liberated o f
supra-national restraints, especially during the past several years in Croatia,
there has branched out research o f ones own spiritual heritage, which in the
Croatian national-cultural realization and which conceals universal spiritual
value.
To end, it is altogether worthwhile to mention that this selection o f texts does
not provide a complete survey o f research into Croatian philosophy. However,
in this selection are included some more important treatises which enable a
more rounded picture o f research into the history o f Croatian philosophy. On
the other hand, this thematic block includes articles written by more than one
generation o f researchers o f Croatian philosophy. This means that there can
be found authors who dedicated the major part o f their philosophical engage
ments to this thematic, as well as younger authors who have just commenced
2

G. W. F. Hegel, Werke, Theorie-Werkausgabe, Praxis 4/1967, pp. 542-543. The introductory

Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M., vol. 18, p. 131.
text and contributions were already printed
earlier in issue 3/1967 of the same journal,
3
under the pointed title Yugoslav Culture.
Only last year was an anthology of texts from
See also Praxis 4/1968 where texts from the
this symposium published, which was edited
symposium National, International, Univer
by Zlatko Posavac, Hrvatska filozofija u pro

losti i sadanjosti. Zbomik iz 1968. godine,

Croatian Philosophical Society, Zagreb, 1992,
p. 9. See a review o f this anthology in Syn
thesis philosophica 16.

SYNTHESIS PHILOSOPHICA
15 (1/1993) pp. 3-6

Editorial

to treat some aspects of Croatian philosophy systematically. Therefore, this

selection is in some way not only a thematic section o f the history o f Croatian
philosophy, but also a presentation o f researchers.
In the continuation will be designated short notes on the authors and texts
and their previous publications (where necessary) in the Croatian language,
so that, mainly for earlier original texts, one will have in view a presentation
o f the state o f research in the period in which they originated
Pavo Barii