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RECENT PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: André Lalande - Léon Brunschwicg - William Stern - Ludwig Klages Ernst Cassirer - Albert Schweitzer - Carl Gustav Jung - Ralph Barton Perry Paul Haeberlin - William Temple |
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Diagrams The Development of Modern and Recent Philosophical Thought Major Influences on American Social Thought Unclassified Recent Philosophers One of the most comforting auguries of the spiritual recovery of France from the collapse of 1940 is the appearance of the fifth edition of Lalande's Vocabulaire Technique et Critique de la Philosophie in 1947, a work of immense knowledge and acuteness, and universally hailed by historians of philosophy of all nations to whom it renders invaluable services. Aided by an imposing array of French philosophers, in this book, Lalande has given not the definitions of terms which he himself considers adequate, but those which are used by various philosophers from ancient times to the present day, and to these semantics he has added a restrained critique of the philosophical use of language. Lalande's own philosophy, of course, is more disputable. He revolts against favorite ideas, especially against monistic evolutionism. According to Lalande, two laws rule over the world. The one, evolution, is dominant in biology, the other, involution, a term nearly identical with entropy, in the physico-chemical world. Life, as it can be observed, results from a compromise between two antagonistic tendencies of which the one is directed toward increasing individual differences, and the other toward elimination them. Man's will must choose between these two tendencies. He is bound to decide because Lalande denies that the vital impetus is a reliable guide for the organization of human life. Opposed to Spencer and critical of Bergson, Lalande adheres to a moral rationalism. Lalande's principal work Les Illusions Evolutionistes was published, in its definitive form, in 1931. In The Radical Academy Essay: Involution, by André Lalande Elsewhere On The Internet
When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, they compelled Léon Brunschwicg to leave his position as professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne, robbed him of his collection of precious books, and destroyed his manuscripts. Even though the Germans knew hardly any of his works, the fact that he was a Jew and that his wife had been an under-secretary in the Popular Front cabinet of Léon Blum was sufficient cause for his removal. Despite all the possible dangers, Brunschwicg refused to leave France and spent the remaining years of his life in complete isolation. During this period, he wrote valuable studies of Montaigne, Descartes, and Pascal which were printed in Switzerland and the United States. For his granddaughter, who was then in her teens, he composed a manual of philosophy, entitled Héritage de Mots, Héritage d'Idées (Legacy of Words, Legacy of Ideas) which was published posthumously in 1945 after the liberation of France. To Brunschwicg, philosophy meant not a system of doctrines, but the expression of an attitude toward the totality of material and spiritual beings. It was essentially a reflection on the activities of the human mind in the fields of mathematics, physics, morality, the arts, and the history of civilization. Brunschwicg energetically emphasized the creative power of the human mind and demonstrated its function in the network of relationships that make up the framework of the universe. Brunschwicg made highly important contributions to the history of science and philosophy, and at the same time contributed to the understanding and solution of practical problems. His reinterpretation of Descartes has become the foundation for a new idealism. He was a man of universal interests as evidenced by his lectures which criticized newspaper editorials as well as Plato or Kant. He was a friend of Marcel Proust, the novelist, and of Marcel Denis, the painter; a patron of the theater and modern art exhibits; an ardent French patriot, and a fighter for human rights. In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
When William Stern (picture), in 1927, wrote his autobiography, he summarized his external life in two lines by naming three cities: Berlin, where he was born and had studied philosophy, and Breslau and Hamburg where he had been, and was then, a professor. He had no idea that six years later Hitler would oust him, notwithstanding all his merits, and that he would thus come to teach at Duke University and Harvard. Stern became famous as a pioneer in applied psychology. His contributions to the psychology of deposition created a sensation among jurists, and his investigations of the psychology of childhood attracted the attention of educators. Of equal importance were Stern's concept of the intelligence quotient and other studies on intelligence testing. This successful psychologist also became a highly respected and influential philosopher. According to Stern, psychology and philosophy must follow the strategic principle of "marching separately and battling commonly." Stern was strongly opposed to what he called "scientification of psychology" because its result was "mechanization of spiritual life." His philosophy of critical personalism tries to overcome the antagonism between common sense, which believes in separate persons, gods, or vital forces, and impersonal science, which regards the whole world as a system of elementary units and all individuals as physico-chemical aggregates. Stern declared that the person is the primordial and most pervasive unity in the range of the experimental world. Any attempt to dissect it, to typify or to reduce it to notions or principles he rejected as distortion of facts. Stern's concept of person is larger than that of the human individual. It comprises also groups. The person is to be distinguished from the thing. The person is a whole, individuality, quality, while the thing is an aggregate, quantity, comparable with other things. Personal development is no mechanical interchange between the person and his environment. It involves a constant; though not necessarily conscious, readiness to realize values which are suggested by environment. Stern's concept of history denies both biological evolution and the dialectical process, and also Rickert's reference to general values. Stern's personalism begins as ontology and proceeds to "axiosophy." In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
Between the two world wars, Ludwig Klages (picture) was one of the most influential harbingers of German anti-intellectualism, and his latest utterances seem to indicate that, even after Germany's catastrophe, he was not prepared to recant. He remained a rabid sympathizer with Nazism, although he preferred to live in democratic Switzerland and to admire the house Hitler built without moving in. But even after the end of World War II, Klages continued to express hostility toward democracy, Western civilization, reason and logic, while enjoying the indulgence of a democratic government. In his youth, Klages was associated with the German poet Stefan George who, inspired by Baudelaire and Mallarmé, adhered to the theory of art for art's sake but declared that the cult of artistic form realized the highest ideals of human beings Devoted to Roman Catholic traditionalism, George and his circle detested the principal tendencies of 19th century civilization, especially positivism, naturalism, materialism and rationalism. From this position, Klages, after a period of graphological and characterological studies, proceeded to extreme anti-intellectualism, denouncing thinking consciousness as a destroying force. In his principal work, Spirit, the Adversary of Soul, Klages holds that body and soul form the natural unity of human existence in which spirit has invaded from outside in order to split this unity and in this way to kill the foundation of life. While the soul, directed by instincts, feelings and traditions, forms a sensually colorful world, spirit analyzes this world into abstract atoms, in order to subject nature to human will. This is condemned by Klages as sacrilege. While combating natural science as the main representative of the destructive spirit, Klages denies the value and right of any conscious and voluntary knowledge. Return to unconscious life is regarded by him as the way to salvation. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
Ernst Cassirer's (picture) philosophy proceeds from the basic conviction that historical investigation and systematic order do not contradict each other, but rather are conditional and mutually support one another. Their result is the demonstration of the "immanent logic of history," based upon the critical examination of abundant empirical materials. Cassirer's works contributed to historical development of epistemology. In Philosophic der Symolischen Formen (1924), he dealt with the functions of linguistic and mythical thinking, coordinating the world of pure knowledge with religious, mythical, and artistic ideas. Cassirer was firmly convinced that the different approaches to reality cooperate in the formation of a totality of meaning. During the Kaiser's reign in Germany, he was denied appointment as a professor and tolerated only as a lecturer. Under the Hitler regime, he was compelled to emigrate -- first, to Sweden, where he was a professor at the University of Goetenborg, then to the United States. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
The greatest and most universities of the world have offered to Albert Schweitzer (picture) a professorship endowed with all possible advantages. As the historian of The Quest of the Historical Jesus (Geschichte der Leben Jesu Forschung, 1906; English edition, 1910), of Paul and his Interpreters (1912), and The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1931); as the authoritative biographer of Johann Sebastian Bach (1904); as the author of Civilization and Ethics (1929) and The Philosophy of Civilization (1932), Schweitzer could have made his own choice whether to become a professor of theology or of philosophy, of musicology or of history, in America, England, France, or Germany. But he declined the most promising offers. Sacrificing a brilliant academic career in order to study medicine, he became a missionary-physician in Lambarene, French West Africa. From 1913, Schweitzer lived in that plague-stricken area, devoting himself to the medical treatment and spiritual education of the black community there. He traveled to Europe and, in 1949, to America to deliver lectures, to do research for his books, and to gather funds for the maintenance of his activities in Africa. In the wilderness, Schweitzer remained a man of widest interests and original views on life, science, philosophy and religion. He interprets the teachings of Jesus as determined by the expectation of the imminent end of the world. Although far from Europe, he warned against Hitler's savageness, but was not heeded. The fundamental idea of Schweitzer's ethics and philosophy is "reverence for life," which involves sympathy with and respect for all creatures, as well as human solidarity and devotion to spiritual progress. While most other philosophers of life are somewhat inclined to exalt egoism, will to power or sensualism, to Schweitzer the cult of life means altruism, love of mankind without regard to origin, creed or color. Further, altruism does not mean resignation but rather enhanced activity on behalf of humanity. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
From 1906 to 1913, Carl Gustav Jung (picture) was one of the most enthusiastic adherents and disciples of Sigmund Freud. He was the editor of the Annual for Psychoanalytic Research, and, at Freud's suggestion, was appointed the first president of the International Psychoanalytical Association. His separation from Freud hurt the latter a great deal, and Freud subsequently criticized Jung's own theories with animosity, which was paid back in kind by Jung. Jung started as a clinical psychiatrist but, at the same time he showed great sympathy for spiritism, and retained in his late years a special interest in occult forces and mystical experiences. In addition to his temporary devotion to Freud's psychoanalysis, Jung was also a student of the philosopher Heinrich Rickert, whose distinction between the methods of natural and social sciences he adopted. Jung called his own doctrine "analytical psychology," at first and then "complex psychology." To him psychical is the true reality, and all conflicts between mind and nature are of no fundamental importance but are derived from the difference of origin of psychic contents. He conceives the psychic as of both individual and general character. The conscious personality is the focus of psychic processes. Without such a focus, no organized ego, no continuity of experience is possible. But the contents of psychic experience, Jung insists, reach beyond the range of individual consciousness. The individual is in a state of fusion with his environment, with the social group to which he belongs, with his nation and race. This fusion is taking place in the realm of the unconscious which completes and compensates the conscious in man. Any psychical structure of the human individual is shaped by the tension between the conscious and the unconscious, and the extension of the unconscious to the psychic life of the group, nation and race is of fundamental importance for the psychology of the individual. Its attitude toward the objects is determined by the tendency to either introversion or extraversion, one which is predominant and forms the humane type. This classification of men has aroused general interest and is the most frequently mentioned part of Jung's doctrine. However, according to Jung, the aim of mature man must be totality of the psychic, harmony between the cultivation of the self and the devotion to the outer world. He regards progress of culture as conditioned by the enlargement of the realm of consciousness. Both the progress of culture and the development of the individual are placed and kept in motion by what Jung calls energy, but which he tries to differentiate from physical energy. Despite secession and mutual polemics, Jung retained many of Freud's conceptions. However, Jung substituted a general principle of energy for Freud's sexual drive as the moving cause of human life and destiny, and his interpretation of dreams and their symbols is different from the methods used by the founder of psychoanalysis. While Freud, notwithstanding his interest in instinctual drives, is essentially a rationalist, Jung, although proclaiming the increase of consciousness as the cultural goal, is, by nature, a romanticist. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
Ralph Barton Perry (1876-1957) From his study of Kant, Ralph Barton Perry, the author of the classic biography of William James (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1936), proceeded to a revision of the critical approach to natural knowledge. He was one of the most active members of the group of American philosophers who, about 1910, elaborated the program of the "New Realism." However, soon thereafter he dissented from its majority and, banishing "moral and spiritual ontology" of any kind, arrived at a point which, based upon a philosophy of disillusionment, allowed him to take a stand on the "hazard of faith." In his booklet The Hope for Immortality (1935), Perry confesses to be empty-handed as far as theoretical evidence or even arguments for the probability of immortality are concerned. But he holds that, even in default of knowledge, belief is sometimes justified by the insistence or depth of the need which it satisfies. Assuming a less extremist attitude, Perry later explained his belief in freedom, which he defines as the exercise of enlightened choice. Freedom constitutes the dignity of Man but is also his generic attribute. Cultivation of freedom therefore does not set a man apart from his fellows but implies a sense of universal kinship. Consequently freedom and humanitarian consciousness, far from excluding one another, are inseparable. Philosophy, the social sciences and history are justified only as far as they contribute to the growth of freedom and humanitarian solidarity. The natural sciences can be regarded as part of humanitarian culture in so far as they revel the real world as a condition or source of human life. Neither does utility as such constitute the humanitarian character of a science, nor is science as such inescapably human. The philosopher of disillusionment maintains that humanity is always escapable. But, for that reason, Perry is an ardent advocate of a militant democracy, which must be "total but not totalitarian." In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
The evolution of Paul Haeberlin's (picture) thinking has proceeded from the religious belief of a Protestant minister to idealism, returned to a prevalently religious attitude, then approached a purely theoretical standpoint, and returned again to the view that religious experience, and not philosophical knowledge, is able to master the problems of life and to comprehend the meaning of existence. Haeberlin assigns a very important task to philosophy but he does not give it the last word. Haeberlin maintains that life, and existence are essentially problematical, and concludes that knowledge also is necessarily problematical. The human mind is characterized by him as the constant protest against this inevitable fact which remains a mystery to man but is not a mystery to God. Man is capable of becoming aware of his real situation only by assuming a religious attitude. Philosophy, provided it recognizes its true function, can help man to obtain knowledge of his real situation. Haeberlin has made valuable contributions to psychology, characterology, pedagogics and psychotherapeutics. He was especially successful in treating psychopathic children and young people in their teens. Since 1922 he was a full professor of philosophy, psychology and pedagogics at the University of Basel. His principal works are: The Object of Psychology (1921), Aesthetics (1929), The Essence of Philosophy (1934) and Possibilities and Limits of Education (1936). In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
When William Temple (picture), who had been Archbishop of York since 1929, became in 1942, Archbishop of Canterbury and in this way succeeded his father, Frederick Temple, the event was considered unheard of in the history of the English Church. But even greater astonishment was caused by the fact that the new Archbishop, the highest ecclesiastical dignitary of the British kingdom, was an avowed student of Karl Marx. Temple had had a thorough classical education, combined with training in logic, ethics, metaphysics and the history of philosophy. His tutor, Edward Caird, had initiated him in the philosophy of Plato and Hegel, but he also read with admiration Aristotle and Aquinas, and finally two such different thinkers as Bergson and Marx induced him to break with traditional idealism and to adopt a kind of dialectical realism. He adopted Marxian dialectics and subscribed to many points of the socialist program, especially those concerning public ownership; but the most radical realization of socialist ideas seemed to him insufficient for the thorough reform of human conditions. He remained convinced that only Christian faith can fulfill this task and that Christianity is necessary for the completion of human thought and life, as well as for the cultural progress in which he firmly believed. While in philosophy Temple turned from idealism to realism, in theology he turned from liberalism to orthodoxy. But just as he could say that, while being a liberal, he never for a moment had doubted the divinity of Christ, Temple, while an orthodox theologian, retained a liberal and tolerant attitude in questions of religious convictions. He defended discussion and believed in democracy, vital need for which is discussion. Temple never faced doubt as a personal problem. He was a happy as he was pious, and as simple and good-humored as he was dignified. The energetic manner in which he insisted on the close connection between faith and life revealed his judgment on mystical religion. Temple would not deny that the mystical experience might be the purest and intensest of all religious experiences. But just for the reason that it claims to be the most detached from nonreligious interests, he held that it is the least representative and least important of all religious forms. He declared that any philosophy that arrives at theism arrives at the study of the real world which is created and explained by God. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
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