O (potrzebie) recepcji negatywistycznej metafizyki unitarnej Leszka Nowaka
On (the Need of) Reception of Leszek Nowak’s Negativistic Unitarian Metaphysics

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this review article is to discuss the perspectives of reception of metaphysical system proposed by Polish philosopher Leszek Nowak (1943-2009). In 2010 Krzysztof Kiedrowski published a book „Zarys negatywistycznej metafizyki unitarnej” [An Outline of Negativistic Unitarian Metaphysics]. The book was meant to be a handbook on the topic of Leszek Nowak’s metaphysical system introduced in three volumes titled collectively Byt i Myśl [Being and Thought]. In this review article the idea of such „promoting” of the system is examined. The analyses lead to the conclusion that Leszek Nowak’s system is almost completely neglected by Polish philosophers. The main difficult of Leszek Nowak’s system lies in its method, which is a combination of two philosophical traditions: Hegelian dialectics and analytical philosophy. Such combination „repels” many readers, and makes the system „opaque”. After the lecture of Krzysztof Kiedrowski book one can see clearer the very idea of the system. It becomes obvious that there are two features which make the system unique in contemporary philosophy. Firstly, Leszek Nowak proposed a system which is consistently unitary, which means that fundamental metaphysical divisions (abstract — real, material — ideal, body — mind, etc.) can be interpreted as parts of a wholeness (attributive, negativistic universe of possible worlds and enigma). This is a highly speculative idea. Its justification cannot be of empirical nature. The justification comes from its „usefulness”. Leszek Nowak used his system to paraphrase a large number of classical ideas of western and oriental philosophy. It is true that paraphrases lead to many unintuitive conclusions, which is not, by itself, a drawback. Unintuitive paraphrases allow us to understand better the fundamentals of classical philosophical traditions, and, secondly, they can induce doubts about „obviousness” of our philosophical traditions. It is the main goal of Leszek Nowak’s metaphilosophy: metaphysics should release human discursive powers from imprisonment of common sense. Krzysztof Kiedrowski’s book is the first step in the (postulated) reception of Leszek Nowak’s metaphysical system.

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