K. Twardowski’s ethical legacy in its modern retrospection (the 150th anniversary of birth)

2015;
: pp.103-108
Received: September 04, 2015
Accepted: October 13, 2015
Authors: 

Mykhailo Skalets’ki

Lviv Polytechnic National University

In the article, the author analyses views of the founder of the Lviv-Warsaw philosophical school, K. Twardowski, on the nature and origin of the morality and correlation principles of the altruism and egoism in human nature which are set forth in his program work «Ethics in the range with theory of evolution». The article asserts that, being an adherent of evolution theory, K. Twardowski argued that there were no innate norms of morality. Ethical norms are the product of evolutionary development as to their relative and variable character. Thus, all moral norms have relative and variable character, furthermore, there is a lack of «absolute» in the common for all «ethical dogmas» then this deprives it from the reliable criteria for differentiation of goodness and evil, which threatens «ethical anarchy» through doubting the possibility of any moral judgments and appraisals. Exactly this does not permit considering the ethics as a complete and exact science. As a follower of the positivism’s ideology, K. Twardowski put out a task to set an ethical and reliable scientific basis and to compare it to the exact sciences, such as logic or mathematics, and transform it into completed science. For this, it is necessary to set universal norms of morality which will play the role of «ethical dogmas» simultaneously, when relativity of moral principles absolutely does not mean that there are no common compulsory principles of behavior. It is only showing that we still have not known it and proves that ethics as a scientific doctrine is far from the completion. Therefore, only after the establishment of common compulsory humanity norms which will play a role of «ethical dogmas», it will represent a complete full science. However, because K. Twardowski was an adherent of the epistemological theory of the absolute by F. Brentano, who argued that the truth, when real, must be irrespective and unconditional, always and everywhere being like that, not able to change and evolve. He could not resolve this task.

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