Realistyczna krytyka esencjalizmu

The main purpose of this article is to provide a solution of the following problem: may the philosophy of being be substituted by the philosophy of essence? The undertaken purpose is approached in three stages. A first part of the answer starts with a presentation of reasons why the ancient metaphysics had to be a philosophy of essence (an essentialism or rather pre-essentialism), and then indicates an origin of inspiration for the philosophical comprehension of the being in an existential aspect. A second part is to characterize the essentialism through a presentation of its two typical models, which have been called there: “Greek model” and “Semitic model”. A third part of the answer presents these defects of the essentialism, which reasonably order to reject both its model types. In its general conclusion the article underlines an insufficiency of both material and formal aspects, and reveals a necessity of existential one in all the philosophical considerations.

Paweł Tarasiewicz