Original scientific paper

Karlo Balić and the pertinence of philosophical traditions

Pavo Barišić ; Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Karlo Balić (1899–1977), taking scholasticism as an example, demonstrated what it meant to revive tradition, to make the philosophical tradition pertinent. Useful in this respect is the historical-critical method and philological reconstruction of original texts. As a contemporary of the hermeneutic construction of the philosophical tradition, he gave a valuable contribution to the historical understanding of tradition and opened a new page in shaping the way original texts are reconstructed. What Balić did, for example, with the works of John Duns Scotus serves as a measuring-stick for the philosophical tradition in general. In this review of the pertinence of the philosophical tradition, the author concentrates on three issues. First, the approach to tradition in relation to investigations into its authenticity, and ways of reconstruction in the case of Scotus’ works. Secondly, the historical application of scholastic principles. Finally, the author examines Balić’s overview of the development of neoscholastic thought in Croatia. Balić, with his philosophical and philological research, sought to achieve what his contemporary Hans Georg Gadamer, in his philosophical hermeneutics, called the ’rehabilitation’ of tradition. In this light, the tradition contains within itself the moment of history and the moment of freedom. In spite of the fact that the life world often changes and is demolished, thereby highlighting constant flux in the world, it nonetheless preserves itself in the transfiguration and turn-about of all things, more so than first seems to be the case. The life world, in this way, enters into new associations, thereby receiving altogether different meanings.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

76602

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/76602

Publication date:

6.12.1999.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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