CRACOW ACADEMIC ETHICS AGAINST THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The author analyzes thoroughly the history of the Cracow academic ethics in the Jagiellonian Century and stresses the need for dividing it into two periods. The first dates from around 1400 and the second starts in the sixties of the XVth century. Viewed from the standpoint of prevailing moral thinking, one may notice that Cracovian moral philosophers (Cracoviensis via communis) were mainly engaged with individual ethics, the so-called monastics and in their philosophical thinking they were under a strong influence of Burdian's 'felicitabilismus'. It is important to note that all discussions and comments on moral foundations were based on readings and re-readings of Aristotle's 'Nikomachean Ethics'. In the second period a turning-point in the Cracovian academic ethics took place, which was caused by the works of John Versor who indirectly referred to Aquinas and Albert the Great. Versor supported the Thomist view according to which moral philosophy is a science in two senses: theoretical and practical. The author shows that voluntarism reigned in the first period and that it lost his popularity in favor of intellectualism in the second period.