Stasio Šalkauskio filosofija šiandien
Stasys Šalkauskis’ Philosophy Today

Summary/Abstract: One can never has any guarantee about the relevance of philosophy or its concrete being here and now. Its being or non-being rebounds on entire social life, but it not easy detectable and provable. By asking about actuality of Šalkauskis we should reveal features, which, according to him, were essential features of philosophy. We could discover Šalkauskis as relevant partner of our reflections if we detect these features as some actual possibilities. Šalkauskis recalled common sense principle: “live before you philosophize”. Usually one thinks that philosophy is a supplement for one’s already secured existence. But Šalkauskis opposes this conviction with another, reverse, conviction: you ought to philosophize before you can live. Thus he opens a perspective of distinctively human existence, which differs from biological existence. Genuine beginning and basis of such existence is not facticity, but reflection of one’s own foundations. So, the overcoming of common sense in contraposition to philosophy remains as open approach to philosophy and every time requires one’s own step. The recent difficulty in understanding Šalkauskis consists in difference between his philosophical language and contemporary philosophical language. And overcoming of this difficulty requires active hermeneutics. Šalkauskis followed the notion of philosophy, which has been formulated by scholastics and has been traced in the history of Western thought from the “beginning”: it investigates things in respect of their first causes and ultimate ends. In this way the task of philosophia perrenis that is of metaphysical philosophy is being raised. Today eternity and metaphysics are considered as deceptive and deniable illusions, however after Nietzsche eternity and metaphysics are being reinterpreted as projections of fundamental strivings.

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