Publication Details

Abstract

The author analyzes in his paper the anti-Kantian opinions of J. B. Horvát, professor at the university of Trnava in the latter half of the Igth century, that were expressed in his Declaratio infirmitalis fundamentorum operis Kantiani Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Budae 1797). Horvát backing the philosophical positions of the newer scholastics, approaches Kant as theologian and is concerned first of all with the rescue of classical metaphysics and, within its frame, of natural theology, the impossibility of which as sciences Kant proves. In these intentions Horvát fights against Kant's agnosticism and apriorism and finishes with the criticism of his criticism of proofs of god’s existence. He starts from a certain Aristotelian-Lockean empirism and tries to prove that at least the basic properties of objective reality are recognizable such as they are in themselves. So space, time, size, shape etc. We gain all information a posteriori, there are no innate ideas. Even the notion of god is discursive, created mediately on the basis of experience. God is not an object of experience, though, but certain observations and considerations about the world lead us inevitably to his notion. Horvát, that is to say, accepted empirism only as a starting point of recognition, while in the question of its extent he backed the old, speculative-rationalist positions. This is why he accepted the proofs of god's existence which Kant contradicted (the ontological, the cosmological and the physical-theological one) and defended them against Kant. Horváťs standpoint was dogmatic-theological on the whole, little philosophical and therefore it did not interfere with the essence of Kant’s teaching. E. g. in the question of recognizability of the world Horvát took recourse to god’s goodness, that was said to have been unable to create the world, to give it to us to enjoy it, but then to deceive us so that we should not recognize it. We were given a so called sound reason by god, but god’s existence is found out also by sound reason. On the whole, Horváťs attempt is the only thorough effort in the history of Slovak philosophy to confront Kant critically and from this aspect it has its value.