Powstanie filozofii na Litwie

ENThe first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. In 1507 the Dominicans started teaching philosophy ant theology to their novices. The Dominicans, and later the Jesuits. Franciscans, Bernardines. Carmelites, Trinitarians and other monastic orders, enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. The graduates of European universities introduced Renaissance ideas to Lithuanian society and applied a new humanist philosophical mentality’ in their own historical, fictional and public writings. Calvinism and Arianism were the prominent Protestant trends in theoretical thinking. The secular academic teaching was launched by the Jesuits, the most important event in the development of philosophy in Lithuania was the foundation of Vilnius university - in 1579. The disciplines used to second level scholastics were taught in its philosophy department: logic, natural philosophy /physics/, metaphysics and ethics. Scholastics were interested in the analysis of thinking and therefore elaborated a theory of logic of a high standard. In the lectures of the most courageous teachers a student could learn about the theories of contemporary scientists and philosophers of the Renaissance and modem times. The spread of modem philosophy in the second half of the 18th century prepared the ground for the acceptance of the ideas of the Enlightenment in Lithuania. Keywords: philosophy in Lithuania, intellectual life, Vilnius University.