Kontemplacja a filozofia u Jacquesa Maritaina i Plotyna

The paper compares the way in which Plotinus and Jacques Maritain understand the relationship between philosophy and contemplation. Both distinguish between discursive, conceptual reasoning and intuitive contemplation, and do not discount the importance of the first. However, they see in intuitive contemplation a very significant dimension of philosophy. Both distinguish two types of contemplation in terms of their relationship to essence and existence. While Plotinus did not possess a full conceptual understanding of essence and existence, some scholars suggest that he was somehow aware of the difference. The first type of contemplation is an intuitive knowledge of essence; the second is an intuitive state of “unknowing” which somehow grasps existence as such. The authors see the importance of this second type of contemplation differently: for Maritain it is a significant, but unnatural, experience of God via the esse of the soul, while for Plotinus it is the supreme human experience and the goal of philosophy.