Shinichi Sohma: An Attempt to Reconstruct Comenius’s Concept of Usus

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Abstract

This presentation attempts to reconstruct Comenius's doctrine of usus, with particular attention to its usage in the Consultatio catholica. He employed usus within the triad theoria–praxis–usus. Moreover, he presented a theory of accidents that is axiological and praxeological, going beyond the framework of general metaphysics, and situated usus among the nine accidents: time, place, quantity, quality, action, passion, order, use, and love. In his conception of usus, being is not reduced to being regarded solely in terms of its usability. His perspective provides a logic that regulates use which is not grounded in truth. Furthermore, due to the fact that love stands above use in the order of accidents, love relativizes use and prevents use from turning into an ultimate principle. It has the structural function of restraining the selfpurposification of use. In addition, in his account of love there can be recognized a potential that is not absorbed into secular collective principles. On the other hand, insofar as a transcendent overcoming of self-love is maintained, his doctrine of usus does not directly connect to contemporary social theory. Yet, precisely because of that historical distance, his insight into usus can be received as a critical question addressed to the present.