Original scientific paper
Bonifac Badrov on Croatian Renaissance philosophers in 1959
Draženko Tomić
; Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Based on Sabrana djela [Collected Works] I–III (1997) of Franciscan Bonifac Badrov (Livno, 1896 – Sarajevo, 1974), professor of philosophy at Franciscan Theology in Sarajevo, the paper examines his approach to Renaissance philosophy and Croatian thinkers of this period.
In the third part of Badrov’s Povijest filozofije [History of Philosophy] (1959), which he wrote for the students’ internal use, he also included a small chapter on Renaissance philosophy (1450–1600). He finds that specific philosophical and social mainstreams of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave way to new, mutually disparate Renaissance philosophical systems sharing a single common feature: rejection of Thomistic philosophy. According to Badrov, Renaissance philosophy has four main components:
1. revival of old systems: Neoplatonism, Neostoicism and hedonism;
2. natural philosophy;
3. political philosophy;
4. Renaissance scepticism.
Croatian thinkers of the Renaissance, Badrov holds, fall exclusively within the first group, that is, among those who worked on the revival of old philosophical systems, or more precisely, among the philosophers who leaned on Plato’s philosophy only. In its essence, he views Renaissance Platonism as eclectic Neoplatonism. Grounded on the understanding that Neoplatonism of the Antiquity was eclectic because from the theories of Plato and others it selected, accepted and applied what it considered to be most appropriate, Badrov’s statement should be understood in the sense that Renaissance Platonism had an eclectic approach to Plato’s works, but also to philosophical achievements of the classical Neoplatonism. However, it seems that Badrov’s analysis of the sources and originality of the Renaissance Platonism lacks depth.
The philosophers that Badrov treats individually are Juraj Dragišić, Benedikt Benković and Frane Petrić. In addition, he emphasizes that Dragišić devoted himself to logical problems, and that Benković in his approach to Duns Scotus’ works used Aristotle’s logical apparatus. While writing on Petrić, Badrov paraphrases Filipović’s Filozofija Renesanse [Renaissance Philosophy] (1956): »Überweg considers Petrić to be the forerunner and teacher of Giordano Bruno. He also influenced another Renaissance philosopher, Bernardino Telesio.« In the later editions of Überweg’s Geschichte der Philosophy, by contrast, we find that Bruno’s relationship to Petrić lacks clarity and that Petrić leans on Telesio in some of his views. Badrov states that Petrić refutes Aristotle’s philosophy and holds Platonism to be closer to Christian thought. The Sarajevo professor outlines Petrić’s doctrine on light. Further, on account of Petrić’s view of space as that which exists before the world, regardless of all things, Badrov places the philosopher of Cres among the thinkers who share an ultrarealistic view of space. Mainly, these philosophers understand space as some kind of an absolute and infinite reality, different from all other bodily realities, while for Petrić it is even a principle, the first of his four principles of the material world.
While preparing his most extensive manual Povijest filozofije, Badrov, as documented in his bibliography, drew from 17 works of the history of philosophy: three Zagreb editions (Albert Bazala, Franjo Šanc and Vladimir Dvorniković), five Belgrade editions (Borislav Lorenc, Branislav Petronijević, Dragan Jeremić and Bertrand Russell), six German and three French. All these books were published in the course of the twentieth century. Being too short and general, Badrov’s outline of Petrić offers sparse information for the establishment of any connection with Bazala’s statements on Petrić published in the second volume of Bazala’s Povjest filozofije [History of Philosophy] (1909). Šanc, however, in the second part of his Povijest filozofije [History of Philosophy] makes no reference to Croatian philosophers of the Renaissance.
Keywords
Bonifac Badrov; Renaissance philosophy; Juraj Dragišić; Benedikt Benković; Frane Petrić
Hrčak ID:
154384
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2015.
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