Background
Petronijevic, Branislav was born in 1875 in Sorljaca, Serbia.
Petronijevic, Branislav was born in 1875 in Sorljaca, Serbia.
Professor of Philosophy, Belgrade. 614 Pfänder.
At the heart of Petronijevic’s thought is his method, a modified version of Hegelian dialectic. He differs from Hegel in maintaining that dialectic is concerned with contrary rather than contradictory concepts and that the stage of synthesis is inessential. It can either precede the antithesis, or be absent from the dialectic in those cases where the antithesis presupposes the prior being of the thesis. A synthesis is necessary only in the case where thesis and antithesis arc totally mutually exclusive, and this is true for only one pair of contraries, namely One and Many. In this case, there is a synthesis, the notion of a finite class of intensive, continuous points, such that all components have a mutual tendency to separation. Using this method, Petronijevic sought to reconcile the philosophies of Spinoza and Leibniz. He argues that the universe is evolving from a condition of instability towards one of absolute stability, in which there will be equilibrium in the relation between particular elements or monads and the universal substance which underlies them. This last is the subject of a special division of philosophy, beyond metaphysics, which Petronijevic called ‘hypermetaphysics’.