Désiré Mercier (1851-1926) : wokół kantyzmu i apologii wiary

Abstract

The figure of Désiré Mercier (1851—1926) — Belgian philosopher, theologian, cardinal and later the Primate of Belgium, the founding father of the neo-scholastical Leuven School and a great restorer of Thomism — has long inscribed itself into the history of contemporary philosophy. He is remembered in particular among those representatives of classical philosophy who saw in the rebirth of scholasticism, which occurred at the turn of the 20th century, a chance to establish modern, realistically-oriented philosophy that could withstand the challenges of contemporary idealism in its varied versions — particularly those connected with broadly-understood legacy of Kant’s philosophy. What, then, are the philosophical foundations of Mercier’s polemic with Kant? What alternative does Mercier propose for the subjective, in his view, concept of synthetic a priori judgments? The present monograph constitutes an attempt at answering these questions, among others. The first chapter contains a synthetic reconstruction of the main theses of Mercier’s criteriology, while the second chapter discusses the fundamental lines of Mercier’s disagreement with Kant’s ideas. Chapter three comprises a polemic analysis of the issue of the apologetic engagement of neo-scholasticism, with particular attention being paid to the stance espoused by Mercier as well as the Polish alumni of the Higher Institute of Philosophy in Leuven. As such, the present work constitutes a complementary look at the issues discussed in Désiré Mercier’s General Theory of Certitude, published by the University of Silesia Press in 2008. The monograph is addressed to those who, on the one hand would like to familiarize themselves with a synthetic and systematized approach to Mercier’s theory of certitude as well as the main axis of his disagreement with Kantianism, and on the other hand — receive an in-depth study of the apology of faith in neo-scholasticism.