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RECENT PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Wilhelm Wundt - Ernst Mach - Harald Höffding |
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Recent philosophical thought, for our purposes here, extends from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day and is generally characterized by four major movements:
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) One of the most notable opponents of Positivism was the German Wilhelm Wundt, considered to be one of the founders of modern experimental psychology. In his ten-volume work, Social Psychology, Wundt investigates the collective and social soul, producer of determined values such as language, custom, myth, etc. Wundt's most representative philosophical works are: Introduction to Psychology; System of Philosophy; and his Logic and Ethic. For Wundt, philosophy has one determined function: to systematize the results or findings of the various sciences in a single over-all picture of the world and life. Life the Positivists, Wundt begins with immediate experience, which is, according to him, the undifferentiated unity of subject and object, of representative and volitive elements. Reflection works upon this immediate datum, this undifferentiated reality, and draws from it distinctions and abstractions. Thus, through reflection, a distinction is made between subject and object; between content (sensations) and form (space and time). So, also, abstractions result in individual empirical concepts; in general concepts, which form science; and in the most general concepts, which are the basis of philosophy (world, soul, God). These last arise from the need in which man finds himself to go beyond the limits of space. Wundt considers the soul not as a substance but as an activity forever creating new syntheses. However, the soul is not reducible to the elements which enter into the composition of the syntheses, as mechanical Positivism would have it. For Wundt, all reality is activity. The ego performs its activity in so far as it finds an obstacle in another ego. Representation (knowledge) is nothing more than a mode of this interaction of the egos. All the particular activities of individual egos are nothing other than fragments of the Universal Will which, through this fragmentation of itself, objectivates itself in the history of the human race and its various peoples. Particular wills voluntarily or involuntarily bow before the Universal Will, and thus the universal plan intended by the Universal Will is realized. Wundt's metaphysics is simply an enlargement of his psychology. Being is conceived on the basis of the soul's activity. God is considered immanent in reality, that is, pantheistically and atheistically. In The Radical Academy
The positive contributions of Wilhelm Wundt to the Perennial Philosophy: None
Ernst Mach (1838-1916) Ernst Mach (picture) was professor of physics at the University of Prague, and later professor of philosophy in Vienna. In his Analysis of Sensations (1886), Mach defines physics and psychology in common terms and shows that scientific method is equally applicable to both. On this basis Mach offers a theory of knowledge based on the phenomenalism of Hume and the positivists. The world consists solely of sensations, the the "thing-in-itself" is an illusion. The aim of science is the discovery of facts. Other problems relating to the thing-in-itself are not the concern of science. Knowledge is built on pure experience through sensations. Metaphysics is opposed and voluntarism favored. Hence, knowledge is an instrument of the will, the result of the needs of practical life (pragmatism). Thoughts illuminate the will. Thoughts and observations are in agreement and express themselves in adaptation and selection. Mach resolves that body and mind are reducible into common elements. Physical things, in their knowable aspects, are reducible to the sum of their sensible properties (Hume, Mill, and the sensationalistic school). The physical object is a duplicate of sensible appearances. The physical object is identified with its sensible appearances. The physical and the mental are but different systems of homogeneous elements. An element's dependence on other elements is correlated with changes observed or experimentally induced in other elements. Science is therefore concerned with "functional relations" by which the elements of experience are controlled. The purpose of science is to "save experiences" by achieving ideas in which they are summarized and anticipated. How far the functional relations which appear as concepts in the finished product of knowledge are confined to the elements themselves, and how far they are creations of science, is not clear. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On the Internet
Harald Höffding (1843-1931) After a long, difficult struggle, Harald Höffding resolved to renounce theology and to devote his life to philosophy. It was his great esteem for Kierkegaard, the adversary of the established church and inquirer into the mystery of personal faith, that fortified Höffding in his decision. He became Denmark's most important modern philosopher, and his works have also been read and highly appreciated in France, England and Germany. Höffding was more interested in philosophical problems than in systems. Asked which philosopher was his personal ideal, Höffding answered Spinoza. But he rejected Spinoza's system. He only loved and revered his personality. Höffding called hi,self a critical positivist. He held that experience is of decisive importance to all a philosopher might think, but declared that experience is a problem that defies the efforts of all philosophers. To Höffding, philosophy alone frees human mind from habits, prejudices and traditions. It enlarges the spiritual horizon in such a manner as no special science can. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
The positive contributions of Ernst Mach to the Perennial Philosophy: None
Also see: American Pragmatism in the American Philosophy section. Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book...
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