Stasys Šalkauskis: the contours of his system

ENStasys Šalkauskis (1886-1941) is a systematic philosopher. His books, articles, courses of lectures and even his speeches are based on a rigid logical framework made more distinct by a detailed articulation of parts, chapters and sections — it suffices to look at the contents of any of his works or the programme of his course of lectures to understand that, first of all, Šalkauskis used to draw up a detailed plan of the work and then set about implementing it. Unfortunately, some of those plans were left unrealized. The rigid framework was often left unfilled. Neither was this systematic thinker fated to create a system of philosophy. One can try to reconstruct the whole complex of Salkauskis's philosophical views. For the reconstruction of some parts of the whole complex more material is available, whereas for other parts there are only fragments. It is more possible to sketch an imaginary overview, which was not presented by Šalkauskis in any of his texts but is witnessed by all his texts, than to produce a real system of his philosophy. Such a sketch should bring to light the fundamental principles organizing Salkauskis's whole philosophical work and bring out the seeds of philosophy from which his philosophy germinated. This should help one understand the real value and meaning of his philosophical investigations. It is appropriate to start with the evolution of his philosophy.