„ВОЛИМ ДАКЛЕ СПОЗНАЈЕМ“: КРИТИКА ЗАПАДНЕ ФИЛОСОФИЈЕ ПО СВЕТОМ ЈУСТИНУ НОВОМ (ПОПОВИЋУ) И ЊЕНЕ СВЕТООТАЧКЕ ПРЕТПОСТАВКЕ
“I LOVE THEREFORE I KNOW”: THE CRITIQUE OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY ACCORDING TO SAINT JUSTIN THE ΝEW (POPOVIĆ) TO AND ITS PATRISTIC PRESUPPOSITIONS

Author(s): Dionysios Skliris
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Philosophy, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Holy Fathers; asceticism; Western philosophy; Bogočovek
Summary/Abstract: The paper will observe Saint Justin’s critique of Western philosophy as well as his proper philosophical insights. The claim of this paper is that the point of departure of Saint Justin’s critique is the traditional Orthodox view, based on the Greek speaking Fathers, according to which true philosophy is likening to God (τὸ ὁμοιοῦσθαι Θεῷ). The latter is the Christological integration of man in the Logos of God in the Spirit. Two interdependent dimensions of this philosophy are dynamism and catholicity. The former means that philosophy is an initial thirst provoked by the consciousness of one’s deficits, as well as a primordial urge for infinite and complete life. The latter means that the fulfillment of this striving is the eschatological integration of the different elements of human nature and civilization as well as the salvation of human intersubjectivity in Christ. Inside History this dynamic path to catholicity entails ascetic catharsis. True philosophy is thus not an initial given of discursive reason but an aporia leading to a struggle of purification, in order to achieve the discernment of the world’s logical (i.e. “logos-bearing”) character. The critique of Western philosophy is based on this traditional view. The two interconnected problems of Western philosophy are the self-referential character of the subject and the relevant conflictual fragmentations of thinking. In what concerns the former, Western thought is inaugurated by Augustine of Hippo, followed in Modernity by René Descartes and Immanuel Kant as a break of the individual from the surrounding world and a concomitant turning to the self as a foundation of truth. But this is tantamount to a celebration of partiality. The evolution of Western thought is thus dialectical, since every view proposes a fragmentary priority thus opposing the pre-existing philosophical status quo. This conflictual nature of Western thought might lead to a narrative of progress through dialectical oppositions. Nevertheless, it has the ontological deficit of undermining salvation as an integration of elements that might be antinomical yet without being conflictual. Saint Justin’s philosophical approach helps us perceive how antinomies can be saved in love without being turned into conflictual oppositions.

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