Ksenofanes z Kolofonu i greckie źródła problemu poznania

Abstract

Criticism is nowadays broadly defined firstly, as a cognitive attitude consisting in investigation of rightness of one’s beliefs and considering true only those statements which are substantiated. Secondly, it is a cognitive attitude opposed to dogmatism (e.g. skepticism understood not as negative dogmatism but as zeteticism and ephecticism), which allows the possibility of changing one’s opinion as a result of occurrence of new facts or theories. Cosmological-ontological interpretation of early Greek philosophy, which is currently dominant, may be complemented (or even overcome) by a critical one. The article presents elements of Xenophanes’ philosophy (especially Xenophanes’ theological fragments) in the light of the problem concerning the historical origins of philosophical criticism. In this paper I try to recognize Xenophanes’ theological fragments not as a positive theology, but rather as an attempt to construct a dialectical metaphor (like in case of Gadamer’s interpretations of Plato’s polis), which has emphasized the epistemological assumptions of his philosophy.