Jolanta Żelazna

Heidegger's esthetic proposal refers in a sense to the Aristotelian traditon where all phenomena, including esthetic ones, are investigated in the categories of matter and form. Heidegger, however, introduces his own terminology instead of the traditional notions: he speaks of "earth" instead of matter and the conception of form is replaced by "world". The Aristotelian connection of both factors which grounds reality of fenomena, go "The Origin..." form of "dispute", deciding of coming into being of a work of art, different from devices and common objects. The notion "world" is wellknown for all readers of "Being and Time", where it accompanies such existentials as "understanding", "openness", "commonplaceness", etc. A notion of truth was introduced in "Being and Time", too. It was interpreted here as a process of discovering what is hidden, as a specific game between the opening understanding of Dasein and the appearing phenomen. The truth-aletheia appears in this convention as a specific "dispute" between Dasein and the phenomen, taking on a mask of "the thing", a dispute difficult to clear up in the situation when Dasein, trusting its rational-technical abilities, reaches only to numerous uses of the thing, but not to "the thing itself". The cognitive-technical apparatus leads, according to Heidegger, to an assault, to an act of violence towards the thing, not to its "exposure". Creation, obtaining and establishing "the thing" - a work of art, would certainly be a situation when violence and its effects could be replaced by "insight into the thing itself". In "The Origin of Work of Art" Heidegger presents the assumptions, indispensible according to him, for "art"-techne, to come into being in Dasein. Art allow not only "insight into the thing itself", it conditions as well coming into existence of the thing which could not come into being without this ability. The interpretation of Heidegger's esthetic dissertation as a continuation of his studies in "Being and Time", completed subsequently by the essays concerning the essence of techics and poetry, lets connect the conceptions of truth and art with the postulate of authenticity of Dasein and even - as a far-going hypothesis - come to the following conclusion: the authentic Dasein is such being-in-the-world which attaches great importance to building of its most own "world-being-towards-death", open to its own finiteness, opening - with his understanding - the earth, which - when it closes over it - will become an empty place, witnessing of the loss. A work of art is the only trace after the authentic Dasein.

Spinoza searched for a language that could help him to create a monistic system of ethics. Latin was in the 17th century a fairly malleable medium of communication. In its philosophical use it was largely a creation of Descartes. Spinoza wanted to use it in a way that would resemble Euclid's treatment of geometry. He needed a language that would clearly and precisely describe the process by which a man could liberate himself from the power of affection that hamper naturaly propensity for social peace and mental equaenimity. He decided to begin by describing nature, which was responsible for man's proclivities and abilities. Consequently he needed a new conception of substance which on the one hand could be definied by some initial axioms, and on the other hand would sufficiently flexible to include various aspects of human thought. It is interesting that when Spinoza had to make a choice between flexibility and content, he resolved to adopt a strict method of reasoning at the cost of the received understanding of substance. It is possible that these linguistic considerations led him to adopt the view that substance is identical with God and as such encompasses all principles of operations of the human mind and premises for the deriving of all fundamental notions popular in his times.

Copernicus "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" as an exapmle of a discourse on a method In addition to the calculations conmprehensible to the astronomers, the work of Copernicus presented to Pope Paul III for approval, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, includes also a descriptive introduction. The author uses it to report on the current astronomical knowledge, explains the importance of the accomplishments of his great predecessors, as well as the reasons for which a correction of their theories is necessary. In this part of the work the importance of discovery and adjustment of a proper method to a specific area of nature research is stressed as well-long before the Descartian "Discourse on the Method"". Copernicus stresses that the misteakes of his predecessors occurred because "something necessary" would be often discarded, and replaced by something "alien, not belonging to the matter". The selective treatment of the phenomena and justification of the relations between them using non-meritorical indications and arguments might, but does not have lead to the correct conclusions. The introduction and the first tome of "De Revolutionibus" provide an example of a discourse on a method of creating knowledge. Copernicus displayed the benefits of his method, relating mainly to the authority of Aristotle, Ptolemy and Euclid. His accomplishment opened the way leading to revealing many other invisible assumptions, limiting the possibilities of researching nature. Some of them - the relation of subject and object, the trap of idealisation and usage of the models of researched phenomena - are discussed in the following article

Substance, attributes, modi - misunderstandings connected with the reception of Spinoza's "Ethics" The text tries to answer the question of the sources of misunderstandings connected with the reception of Spinoza's philosophy, especially with his understanding of the substance, attributes, modifications and infinity in "Ethics". Assumptions made by Spinoza, for instance the postulate of describing the human being as a "state in state" of Nature during a research procedure comply with the rules of model of the modern science. In "Ethics", based on "The Elements" by Euclid, the author presents the attempt to define the basic terms used by the philosophers and scholars of the 17th century, and, on this basis and taking axioms into account, he works out a number of theorems concerning Nature, including the nature of a human being. Euclid's "Elements" served as a template of the construction of a theory, which in a logically necessary manner, precisely and at the same time "suspending" the interference of destructive human emotions, proves the properties of the objects of geometry. Spinoza tried to establish a theory which would examine the properties of human mind and body treated as a subject of science in an equally rational, precise and emotionless matter, starting from the basic definitions. Its basics became, among others, definitions of substance, attribute and modification, inspired by the Aristotelian- Scholastic tradition. Those terms, interpreted in Christian Europe through the teaching of the Old and New Testament, have taken a completely different character and meaning in "Ethics". Upon encountering the text of definitions and theorems the readers were unable and, quite often, unwilling to resist the temptation of adding their own beliefs to the contents. This article treats of this conflict of language and beliefs