From the series ‘60 years have passed...’ (6) [events, figures, interesting facts from 60 years of the SPCh].
2025-05-14
Prof. Tadeusz Ślipko (1918-2015) served as editor-in-chief of SPCh from 1978 to 1981. He was a philosopher specializing in ethical issues. In the field of specific ethics, he dealt in particular with bioethics, ecology, genetic engineering, and prenatal diagnostics. He also outlined elements of the specific ethics of natural communities, starting with marriage and family and ending with the morality of international life, issues of peace and war. In 1937, he began his studies at the University of Lviv. He joined the Jesuits and studied philosophy and theology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Krakow, which was moved to Nowy Sącz as a result of the war, and at the Bobolanum Faculty of Theology. From 1948, he studied social ethics at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, obtaining a master's degree and, in 1952, a doctorate on the basis of his dissertation entitled The Principle of Subsidiarity. In 1965, he took up a position as assistant professor at the Department of Ethics at the Faculty of Christian Philosophy of the Catholic Theological Academy in Warsaw. He obtained his habilitation at this faculty in 1967 on the basis of his dissertation entitled The Question of the Justifiable Defense of Secrets. In 1973, he was awarded the title of associate professor, and in 1982, full professor. From 1957 to 1964, he served as dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Krakow, and from 1976 to 1980 at the Faculty of Christian Philosophy of the Catholic Theological Academy. In 1988, he retired, but continued his lively academic and writing activities. He published nearly 30 articles, reviews, and other texts in the SPCh, including: Etyka a transplantacja serca (Ethics and Heart Transplantation), Rola rozumu w kształtowaniu moralności (The Role of Reason in Shaping Morality), Wolność warunkiem czy skutkiem wartości? (Freedom: Condition or Effect of Values?), and Animacja w świetle współczesnych poglądów chrześcijańskich etyków i moralistów (Animation in the Light of Contemporary Christian Ethicists and Moralists). In the second of these articles, he wrote: "Against the background of the overall argument, it cannot be denied that reason in the field of ethics has today become a problem for itself, and in fact, throughout the centuries, it has always been a problem for itself. In the name of the reasons arising from the very core of moral reality, a consequentialist understanding of the role of reason in shaping morality must be rejected. The recognition of absolutes, i.e., those things that are beyond the competence of reason, as the basis of morality, both at the level of the highest principles and in the sphere of the Decalogue, is an irremovable methodological postulate of a correctly structured theory of the norm-creating tasks of reason. However, this original objective order of moral ideals and norms does not make reason a passive spectator in the world of human moral behavior, nor does it reduce its role to the easy but mechanical activity of applying ready-made formulas of judgments and norms to individual human acts. The four planes of the moral-forming functions of reason as censor, interpreter, legislator, and emperor open up a wide field for its ethical activity. It is therefore only a matter of ensuring that, in fulfilling these tasks, it maintains the right direction and a strong normative basis" (p. 142). Issues 1 and 2 of volume 25 of SPCh from 1989 were dedicated to Tadeusz Ślipka on the occasion of his 70th birthday. They included articles devoted to Ślipka's work and texts dedicated to him. May 1, 2025, marked the tenth anniversary of the death of Rev. Prof. Tadeusz Ślipka, the third editor-in-chief of SPCh.
For more information, see: Tadeusz Ślipko (Polska Filozofia Chrześcijańska XX wieku [Polish Christian Philosophy of the 20th Century], vol. 9), Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Ignatianum, Kraków 2019.
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