An Extraordinary Deed of Czech Philosophy of the 20th Century: Engliš's Great Logic[Mimořádný počin české filosofie 20. století: Englišova Velká logika]

The essay deals with the conception of knowledge as developed by Karel Engliš (1880-1961), an important Czech philosopher and economist; its most comprehensive formulation can be found in his monumental work Great Logic which has been published only recently. Since this writing is extraordinarily abundant in inspiring ideas, we are here focusing only on several themes in order to evaluate the scope and fecundity of Englišʼs concept of three orders of thought (ontological-causal, teleological and normological): 1. human will and the possibility of freedom, 2. the discernment of logical and empirical means of cognition, and 3. the problem of purposefulness and utility of knowledge. These themes are considered in connection with Englišʼs critical treatments of both Voltaireʼs ideas (as typical for the Enlightenment era) and Schopenhauerʼs voluntarism and William Jamesʼs pragmatism. The confrontation of their approaches with Englišʼs concept of the orders of thought exemplifies the plausibility of a critically refined utilization of his methodological standpoint.