Royal Institute of Philosophy

German PhilosophyAuthor(s): F. H. HeinemannSource: Philosophy, Vol. 30, No. 115 (Oct., 1955), pp. 358-361Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Institute of PhilosophyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3748776 .Accessed: 08/03/2014 14:07

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PHILOSOPHICAL SURVEY

GERMAN PHILOSOPHY

The re-emergence of Germany, ten years after her total surrender, is one of the most significant events of the moment. Proof of this is a work which is at once a balance-sheet and progress-report by specialists on political, social, economic, philosophical, scientific and artistic activities in this decade; a book of unusual interest: Deutscher Geist zwischen Gestern und Morgen, ed. by J. Moras and H. Paeschke (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart). Germany shows herself once again, in contrast with Britain's almost unbroken tradi- tions, as the land of broken traditions. The break was in this case so complete and abrupt that 1945 appears as "zero-point," and that problems arise in philosophy and elsewhere: What traditions, if any, shall be continued? What new beginnings and achievements are to be noticed? Anybody interested in the present state of German letters and civilization will find a mine of infor- mation in this book. From a philosophical point of view A. Portmann's paper on Biologie auf neuen Wegen and Th. von Uexkiill's on Psychosomatik are outstanding. Whereas the historians are somewhat evasive, and not prepared to accept responsibility for the Third Reich, prone to explain it away as a "jump into nothingness," and whereas the arts have not yet recovered from the loss of a whole generation and the aftermath of dictatorship, the biologists and psychotherapists are able to report real progress. This progress consists of the discovery of, and the experimental approach to, the inner life of animals, and therefore of a decisively new step in the study of behaviour patterns. A crude behaviourism is replaced by an analysis which takes account of the "inner behaviour," of subjective space and time, "language," etc. For anthropology this is just as important as the new light on the interrelationship between soul and body, which has emerged from psychosomatic medicine. Uexkull reports on its origin in the Freudian school, its transplantation to America, and its return to Germany after the war. Klaus Dockhorn, the author of a notable book on the political theory of the English Idealists, compares Deutscher Geist und Angelsdchsische Geistesgeschichte (Musterschmidt, G6ttingen). He rightly rejects Troeltsch's schematic distinction between Anglo-Saxon thought as "positivistic and based on natural law" and German thinking as "organic and holistic," and stresses certain similarities in the development of Anglicanism and Liberalism to German developments. The emergent picture of Anglo-Saxon history of thought is less convincing than his criticism, and not seen from inside the British tradition.

Heidegger's German prestige is still unabated and allows him to publish highly priced petits riens, such as Der Feldweg, six pages of poetic meditations on a country-lane for DM.i.35 (Klostermann, Frankfurt), and poems and aphorisms Aus der EBfahrung des Denhens, lavishly scattered over 27 pages, which could easily be printed on six pages, for DM 3.50 (Neske, Pfullingen). Here he reveals that "he who has great thoughts, must commit great errors" and that "singing and thinking are the twin stems of poetry." It is as if he wanted to prove that Hdlderlin's and Nietzsche's mantles had fallen over him. It is different with his Vortraege und Aufsaetze (Neske, Pfullingen), a collection of papers and lectures referring to technology, science and metaphysics, to thought, and an interpretation of fragments by Heraclitus and Parmenides. They are serious attempts to tackle problems like that of technology in an original manner. Technology, we are told, is not a creation of man, but 358

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PHILOSOPHICAL SURVEY something that happens, emn Entbergen des Seins, a release of natural forces. This ontological interpretation, proffered with masterful neologisms (technology Gestell), neither elucidates nor solves the problem, but evades it for the benefit of art. Pace Heidegger, the mastery of technology and the forces released by it, remain the problem. Philosophy becomes to a greater and greater extent a play on ambiguities; this is confirmed by his contribution to the Ernst Jiinger Festschrift: Freundschaftliche Begegnungen (Klostermann, Frankfurt/Main). Here he writes on Jiinger's Uber die Linie, in order to bring out its "higher ambiguity," and to show that the overcoming of nihilism demands a penetration to its essence, and that this penetration makes the will to overcome it obsolete. The Festschrift itself, with its contributions by Jiinger's friends, offers an indirect approach to the poet-philosopher, whose strength and weaknesses are likewise in this combination. Once a glorifier of war, he now prefers the twilight of ambiguity for a discussion of nihilism and the depersonalization of man.

A completely different climate of thought is represented by Arthur Pap's Analytische Erkenntnistheorie (Springer, Wien). It is a series of lectures, delivered in the University of Vienna in 1953-54, and is notable as a re-export of the philosophy of the Vienna circle, albeit in a free and critical trans- formation, to its original home. Pap deplores the virtual extinction of the school in Vienna itself and Schlick's vacant chair, and attempts in a sober and scholarly manner to acquaint the German public with the work done by the analytic school, especially Ayer, Carnap, Lewis, Quine, Reichenbach, and Russell. The book is informative and instructive, but the English reader will naturally prefer Pap's Elements of Analytic Philosophy. Well acquainted with the analytic school, and influenced by Quine and Goodman, W. StegmUller discusses the possibility of metaphysics in Metaphysik, Wissenschaft, Skepsis (Humbold-Verlag, Frankfurt/Main). He holds that the problem of meta- physics may be reduced to that of self-evidence (Evidenz), but that the question of what is evident (in metaphysics as well as in science) is undecidable. There- fore the question whether metaphysics is possible or not, is itself undecidable. The problem can only be solved by a practical decision for or against it. The same is said to be true of science. I suspect that this argumentation is based on the antiquated concept of an axiom as a self-evident truth. It is true that scientific reasons for the evidence of these axioms cannot be given, but the claim to self-evidence has long been dropped by mathematicians and logicians. But though its central thesis is not convincing, the book may be recommended because of its detailed discussion of other points of view. It may well be asked what is the evidence on which Walter Ehrlich's Meta- physik (Niemeyer, Tilbingen) is based. Without any critical qualms meta- physics is here defined as the science of the transcendent, and theses of a gnostic character are formulated without a shade of evidence or proof; the book, I am afraid, will hardly appeal to an English reader. Walther Bru-ning, in Der Gesetzesbegriff im Positivismus der Wiener Schule (Westkulturverlag, Meisenheim) attempts to show that the extreme nominalistic and conven- tionalist position of the Vienna circle had to be given up because it failed in its interpretation of the concept of law.

On the whole, the new books concerning metaphysics and philosophy of nature suffer from a lack of tradition, and therefore from uncertainty and unbalance. They tackle enormous problems boldly, but occasionally without complementary modesty and critical sense. Wanting too much they achieve too little. H. Wein, e.g., desires to open a Zugang zu Philosophischer Kosmologie (Oldenbourg, Miinchen). Indeed, physicists such as Einstein, De Sitter, Lemaitre, Eddington, and Milne have formulated new cosmological

359

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P H I L O S O P H Y hypotheses, but a "philosophical cosmology" is quite a different matter. Is it possible at all after Kant's destruction of "rational cosmology"? Wein, a pupil of Hartmann, tries to lay its foundation with the help of categorical analysis, concentrating on the problem of order. The result, however, that cosmological order is sui generis, i.e. neither ontological nor logical, neither mathematical nor pragmatic, is somewhat meagre. Joseph Meurer's Das Alter des Universums (Westkulturverlag, Meisenheim) should be read together with the prize essays on "The Age of the Universe," published by The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science in November I954. Meurer analyses the scientific and philosophical implications of "the statement made in contem- porary astronomy that the Universe is not older than io0o years" (which in this precise form is not universally accepted, but only an opinion derived from certain theoretical assumptions). He concentrates on the concept of time, and stresses the ontological implications of astrological research. Atomic physics are applied to the explanation of psychological phenomena by Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt in Atom und Psyche (Enke, Stuttgart, DM. I4.20). His thesis is that the soul has its origin in atomic forces, derives its power from them and obeys their laws. It is a modern reformulation of the old thesis that the soul has its root in the universe. But can it be verified at all, and if it could, would the specific quality of psychological data be access- ible to such an approach? Among these books Armin Muller's Die Grund- kategorien des Lebendigen (Westkulturverlag, Meisenheim) is the most inter- esting, partly because of its approach, and partly because of its wealth of biological and scientific material. In the line of Goethe, Carus, and Dilthey, the approach is that of a veystehende Biologie, i.e. of an interpretative biology which tries to understand an organism and not to explain it mechanically. Muller discusses the role of values in organic life and holds that already here a hierarchical order exists. He wants to show that the most important valuations of the human mind, as sketched by Spranger in his Lebensformen, are already implicit in biological life. Although this sort of pre-established harmony can hardly be proved, the discussion is stimulating and provocative.

Demythologizing forms the theme of Kerygma und Mythos, Bd. III (Herbert Reich, Hamburg). Whereas Kerygma und Myth, translated by R. H. Fuller, contained the original theological debate, this debate is here continued between Jaspers and Bultmann. It represents one of the very few serious discussions between philosophers and theologians in our time. Jaspers attacks Bultmann's Heideggerian "existentialist" interpretation of the Bible as unfruitful and misleading, defends the function of myth in contemporary society, and rejects Bultmann's claim that belief in God without Christ remains illusory. Bultmann replies that he has been misunderstood. Georg Cohn, in Existentialismus und Rechtswissenschaft (Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel), interprets existentialism as stressing the individual character of persons and things, in opposition to abstract concepts and rules. He defends a case- law, and attacks abstract jurisprudence.

Werner Jaeger's Paideia (De Gruyter, Berlin) is the first volume of the third edition of a work, the English translation of which was greeted by Sir Richard Livingstone as "the most important book of the century-indeed of any century-on its subject" in Philosophy, July I939. Since the text is unaltered, those interested in it may be referred to that review. Not Jaeger, but Nikolai Hartmann is the guru of Rudolf Stark's Aristoteles-Studien (Beck, Milnchen). His scholarly studies deserve the attention of all students of Greek philosophy. They are noteworthy for their interpretation of the concepts of esinEtpta and ew)pia, the first of which is by no means identical with positivist "experience." His thesis is that the traditional distinction 360

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PHILOSOPHICAL SURVEY between Plato and Aristotle is false and that Aristotle remained a "Platonist of a kind" throughout his life. Hans Jonas' Gnosis und Spdtantiker Geist, Teil I: Die mythologische Gnosis (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), is a work of unusual character. Conceived at Marburg under the influence of Bultmann and Heidegger in the thirties, its first part was published in I934 and is here reprinted together with the first half of the second volume, the greater part of which was already printed before I939. The last volume, devoted to Plotinus, is in preparation. The central idea of this book was expressed in a short paper on "Philosophy in the Age of Grrosis" by the present reviewer in the Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Philosophy, Naples, I924. It can indeed be shown that gnosis plays a dominating role in the philosophies of the first centuries A.D., including Plotinus. Jonas, however, replaces gnosis by "gnosticism," gives this term, on the one hand, a precise reference to a Weltanschauung with specific features, and, on the other, a wider denotation (comprising Christian Gnostics, Mysteries, Hermetica, Neopythagoreism, Neoplatonism, and certain parts of the Avesta). More- over, he applies an existentialist interpretation to his texts. I wonder how he will succeed in proving Plotinus to be a gnostic of this sort. As one of the very few modern books devoted to gnosticism, it deserves attention because of its provocative approach. Descartes' Dioptrik by Gertrud Leisegang, the daughter of the well-known late professor (Westkulturverlag, Meisenheim), may be recommended. It gives an analysis of a work completely neglected by philosophers, of its method, and also a German translation. Philosophers are prone to forget that the Discours de la Methode is but the subsequent formulation of a method already applied by Descartes in geo- metrical and scientific treatises, one of which is the Dioptric. Friedrich Schiller is represented as the poet of idealism by Herman Nohl in a lecture, originally delivered in I920 and now reprinted without alterations (Schulte- Bulmke, Frankfurt/Main). The same author, one of Dilthey's outstanding pupils, publishes a well written history of aesthetics under the title Die Asthetische Wirklichkeit (Schulte-Bulmke, Frankfurt/Main). German Literary Influences on the American Transcendentalists form the subject-matter of a study by Stanley M. Vogel (Yale & O.U.P.).

The Proceedings of the IVth German Congress of Philosophy, held at Stuttgart in September I954, are published in an enlarged issue of the Zeitschrift fur Philosophische Forschung, Vol. IX, No. 2. It reached us in going to press, too late for review.

F. H. HEINEMANN. Oxford.

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Article Contentsp. 358p. 359p. 360p. 361

Issue Table of ContentsPhilosophy, Vol. 30, No. 115 (Oct., 1955), pp. 289-384Front Matter [pp. 289-290]A Contemporary Moralist: Albert Camus [pp. 291-303]On Questions [pp. 304-317]Romanticism, Existentialism and Religion [pp. 318-332]Platonism and the Rise of Science [pp. 333-343]Fallacies in and about Mill's "Utilitarianism" [pp. 344-357]Philosophical SurveyGerman Philosophy [pp. 358-361]

New BooksReview: untitled [pp. 362-363]Review: untitled [pp. 363]Review: untitled [pp. 364-365]Review: untitled [pp. 365-367]Review: untitled [pp. 367-369]Review: untitled [pp. 369-373]Review: untitled [pp. 373-375]Review: untitled [pp. 375-376]Review: untitled [pp. 376]Review: untitled [pp. 376-377]Review: untitled [pp. 377]Review: untitled [pp. 377-378]Review: untitled [pp. 378-379]Review: untitled [pp. 379-380]Review: untitled [pp. 380]Review: untitled [pp. 380-382]Books Also Received [pp. 382-383]

Back Matter [pp. 384-384]