DESCARTES AND LORHARD: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN ONTOLOGY

Abstract

The author initially considers the philosophical circumstances that lead to the contemporary affirmation of ontology as the primary philosophy in the beginning of the 17^th century. To better distinguish the difference between the “old” and “new”, that is, the classical and modern philosophy, the relation between Descartes’ thematization of being,  according to the Aristotle’s request to investigate the being in different manner, is analyzed. This relation is expressively reductive, as it leaves only one of Aristotle’s four ways – displaying the false and true - with Descartes. The display of the false and the true is based on a certainty that the pros hemas, in relation to us, integrates that in itself, kat’auto. In the second part of the paper, the difficulties that come from the synonymous use of the terms philosophia prima, metaphysica and ontology are analyzed. The author concludes that the new term, in case of ontology, has not resulted in an establishment of a new kind of a philosophical discipline, but has in turn marked a new manner of deliberating through the old philosophical problems. The source of the confusion and the ostensible synonymy between ontology and metaphysics has appeared as a consequence of the constellation within which the new deliberation of old problems was easily identified with old disciplines. Taking that into consideration, it is pointed out that the consistent steps taken by the modern promoters of ontology were made to eliminate the term of metaphysics from the philosophical horizon, and not to create a false interchangeability with ontology. Starting with Jacob Lorhard, that is with the first act of the establishment of ontology, the introduction of the new term is somewhat stultified.