1996-2003: Publication of the Transcendental Anthropology and Retirement
Starting from late 1980s and into the 1990s, Polo began concentrating on developing his transcendental anthropology, and the greater part of his doctoral courses were dedicated to this. In these years, Polo gave several doctoral courses on transcendental anthropology as well as courses on the transcendentals, freedom, the practical reason and activity, the will and its acts, the logos, the I, the sentiments, and the human essence.
In these courses, Polo continued with his practice of lecturing and then taking the transcriptions of notes made by his students to further develop and clarify his thought while preparing eventual publications. In 1993, one of these courses was published as the last chapter of the Present and Future of Man(published in 1993), a work that included other earlier studies focussed on the anthropological consequences of his methodology of the abandonment of the mental limit.
Other works published during this period include The Human Person and Her Growth (1996), On Christian Existence (1996), Anthropology of Business Management (co-authored with Carlos Llano, 1997), Nominalism, Idealism, and Realism (1997) and two shorter works - The Will and Its Acts (Part I and II), published in 1998.
In 1996, on the occasion of his retirement, the University of Navarre organized an international congress dedicated to the study of Leonardo Polo's philosophy. The interventions presented at this congress were published by Anuario filosófico (vol. XXIX, 1996) and includes more than fifty studies of various aspects of Polo's thought covering a vast range of philosophical topics.
After retirement, Polo continued working on his anthropological thought and finally published Transcendental Anthropology I in 1999 andTranscendental Anthropology II in 2003. These two works cover the subject matter that Polo had originally intended for Being III and Being IV in the 1960s, and thus brings Polo's overall philosophical project to completion. In the prologue of the first volume, Polo refers to this work on transcendental anthropology as the culmination of his philosophical work in which all his other works can finally be seen from their proper perspective:
"This book is certainly the culmination of my philosophical inquiry. What I mean by this is that the method that has led up to it no longer gives more of itself. But, since this method makes possible access to abundant thematic fruits, this book is added to the harvest that is contained, but not exhausted in other writings. Because of its double value - methodological and thematic - the summit reopens the various thematic areas: it re-iterates them" (Transcendental Anthropology I, Prologue).
Transcendental Anthropology I contains the first part of the transcendental anthropology that Polo proposes as fruit of the third dimension of the abandonment of the mental limit. In it Polo justifies the need for an anthropology that is transcendental by distinguishing between the act of being of the physical universe (studied by metaphysics) and the act of being of the human person (the subject matter of transcendental anthropology). With this, Polo seeks to study the being of the human person on a level of act of being, but at the same time to distinguish this transcendental anthropology from metaphysics. A consequence of this is his proposal to expand the medieval theory of transcendentals to include transcendentals that are anthropological in character. From this perspective, the being of the human person is studied on a transcendental level as co-existence, transcendental freedom, personal intellection, and donal love. These personal transcendentals form the nucleus of Leonardo Polo's proposal for a transcendental anthropology.
Transcendental Anthropology II contains the second part of the transcendental anthropology that Polo proposes as fruit of the fourth and final dimension of the abandonment of the mental limit. From this perspective, Polo studies the manifestation of the person, which the human essence or, rather, the I: her body and her higher faculties (the intelligence and the will) as well as their acts and acquired habits.
With the publication of the second volume of Transcendental Anthropology, it can be said that the major elements of Polo's philosophy had finally been made public. Meanwhile, interest in Polo's philosophy continued to grow and mature. In 1998, one manifestation of this growing interest was the start ofStudia Poliana, a philosophical journal dedicated to maintaining the ever growing community of scholars interested in Polo and in new developments and publications from him. Another was the founding of the Instituto de estudios filosóficos Leonardo Polo (IEFLP) in 2004 in Malaga, Spain.
In these courses, Polo continued with his practice of lecturing and then taking the transcriptions of notes made by his students to further develop and clarify his thought while preparing eventual publications. In 1993, one of these courses was published as the last chapter of the Present and Future of Man(published in 1993), a work that included other earlier studies focussed on the anthropological consequences of his methodology of the abandonment of the mental limit.
Other works published during this period include The Human Person and Her Growth (1996), On Christian Existence (1996), Anthropology of Business Management (co-authored with Carlos Llano, 1997), Nominalism, Idealism, and Realism (1997) and two shorter works - The Will and Its Acts (Part I and II), published in 1998.
In 1996, on the occasion of his retirement, the University of Navarre organized an international congress dedicated to the study of Leonardo Polo's philosophy. The interventions presented at this congress were published by Anuario filosófico (vol. XXIX, 1996) and includes more than fifty studies of various aspects of Polo's thought covering a vast range of philosophical topics.
After retirement, Polo continued working on his anthropological thought and finally published Transcendental Anthropology I in 1999 andTranscendental Anthropology II in 2003. These two works cover the subject matter that Polo had originally intended for Being III and Being IV in the 1960s, and thus brings Polo's overall philosophical project to completion. In the prologue of the first volume, Polo refers to this work on transcendental anthropology as the culmination of his philosophical work in which all his other works can finally be seen from their proper perspective:
"This book is certainly the culmination of my philosophical inquiry. What I mean by this is that the method that has led up to it no longer gives more of itself. But, since this method makes possible access to abundant thematic fruits, this book is added to the harvest that is contained, but not exhausted in other writings. Because of its double value - methodological and thematic - the summit reopens the various thematic areas: it re-iterates them" (Transcendental Anthropology I, Prologue).
Transcendental Anthropology I contains the first part of the transcendental anthropology that Polo proposes as fruit of the third dimension of the abandonment of the mental limit. In it Polo justifies the need for an anthropology that is transcendental by distinguishing between the act of being of the physical universe (studied by metaphysics) and the act of being of the human person (the subject matter of transcendental anthropology). With this, Polo seeks to study the being of the human person on a level of act of being, but at the same time to distinguish this transcendental anthropology from metaphysics. A consequence of this is his proposal to expand the medieval theory of transcendentals to include transcendentals that are anthropological in character. From this perspective, the being of the human person is studied on a transcendental level as co-existence, transcendental freedom, personal intellection, and donal love. These personal transcendentals form the nucleus of Leonardo Polo's proposal for a transcendental anthropology.
Transcendental Anthropology II contains the second part of the transcendental anthropology that Polo proposes as fruit of the fourth and final dimension of the abandonment of the mental limit. From this perspective, Polo studies the manifestation of the person, which the human essence or, rather, the I: her body and her higher faculties (the intelligence and the will) as well as their acts and acquired habits.
With the publication of the second volume of Transcendental Anthropology, it can be said that the major elements of Polo's philosophy had finally been made public. Meanwhile, interest in Polo's philosophy continued to grow and mature. In 1998, one manifestation of this growing interest was the start ofStudia Poliana, a philosophical journal dedicated to maintaining the ever growing community of scholars interested in Polo and in new developments and publications from him. Another was the founding of the Instituto de estudios filosóficos Leonardo Polo (IEFLP) in 2004 in Malaga, Spain.
