The Presence of German Political Thought a Dissertation Submitted in Partial
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Finding Voice: The Presence of German Political Thought A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Philip A. Michelbach Committee in charge: Professor Tracy B. Strong, Chair Professor Fonna Forman-Barzilai Professor Victor V. Magagna Professor William Arctander O’Brien Professor Robert B. Pippin 2006 Copyright Philip A. Michelbach, 2006 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Philip A. Michelbach is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2006 iii DEDICATION For Lacy iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………….iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………………..v List of Figures ……………………………………………………………….vi Acknowledgements...……………………………………………………….vii Vita…………………………………….…………………………………...viii Abstract………………………………………………………………………ix I. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1 II. Luther and the Origin of Democratic Hermeneutics………………………..31 III. Pufendorf: The Political Elaboration of Luther……………………………..79 IV. Lessing’s Progeny: Democratic Possibilities in the German Enlightenment…………………………………………………….175 V. Attaining Political Maturity: Why Kant has no Political Philosophy to Speak Of…………………………………………………………………...239 VI. G.W.F. Hegel’s Triune Political Science………………………………….319 VII. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………415 Bibliography……………………………………………………………….478 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1……………………………………………………………………………...438 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the support and encouragement of my committee, my family, and my friends. In particular I would like to thank Victor V. Magagna for his exceedingly helpful comments and suggestions during the entire process of writing this dissertation. To John T. Scott I owe a debt for, in effect, giving me permission to begin thinking of myself as a political theorist. Finally, I thank Tracy B. Strong for encouraging me to find my voice. vii VITA 1990 B.A., University of Kansas 1993 M.A., University of Kansas 1998 M.A., University of Houston 2006 Ph.D., University of California, San Diego viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Finding Voice: The Presence of German Political Thought by Philip A. Michelbach Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, San Diego, 2006 Professor Tracy B. Strong, Chair Attaining Mündigkeit , political maturity, implies finding one’s voice. The attendant concept of citizenship gives the tradition of German political thought beginning with Luther its democratic imperative. I demonstrate the presence of this tradition in contemporary democratic theory through an analysis of Martin Luther, Samuel von Pufendorf, G.E. Lessing, Immanuel Kant, and G.W.F Hegel. The politics of interpreting and constructing the German language has shaped the language of modern politics. ix I Introduction With few exceptions, German political thought has had, perhaps especially since the Second World War, a bad name. It has been blamed for setting the conceptual climate that gave rise to Nazism; along with this it has be blamed for not providing any resources against the advent of the horrors of the twentieth century. If this was exemplified 50 years ago in a book like George Mosse's The Crisis of German Ideology: The Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich , it still conditions contemporary reactions. 1 And it is not just Germans, but anyone whose work seems overly influenced by them. So sensitive and erudite a writer as Judith Shklar can write in a review of Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self— a book that draws some portion of its inspiration from Herder and other early German romantics as well as Taylor’s engagement with Hegel—that the book provides no intellectual assets to draw on against the developments “in our horrible century." 2 Or Pierre Birnbaum, a leading French intellectual, finds, also with Taylor, much to worry about. 3 For many these problems go back to the origin of thought that might properly be called German— specifically to Martin Luther. Sheldon Wolin, for instance, finds in Luther no 1 George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology; Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich , [1st ed. (New York,, 1964). 2 Judith N Shklar, "[Untitled Review]," Political Theory 19 (Feb., 1991): p. 108. 3 Pierre Birnbaum, "From Multiculturalism to Nationalism," Political Theory 24 (1996). 1 2 insurance against the tyranny of the state. 4 For others, Hegel is the main villain: Karl Popper sought to cast him as the modern inheritor of Plato as an enemy of an open society. 5 Almost the only German political theorist who receives unqualified praise along these lines is Kant. It is the burden of this thesis to show that these accusations are wrong. Specifically I want to argue that German political thought, from Luther through the 19 th century, in fact provides democratic resources adequate to the challenges of modernity. I furthermore will want to argue, in a manner that may seem tendentious, that Kant does not provide resources adequate to modern democratic theory. Luther as Cultural Touchstone In his 1918 address in Munich on “Politics as a Vocation”—the title of which explicitly invokes Luther’s idea of professional calling—Max Weber argued, it is immensely moving when a mature person—no matter whether old or young in years—is aware of a responsibility for the consequences of his conduct and really feels such responsibility with heart and soul. He then acts by following an ethic of responsibility and somewhere he reaches the point where he says: “Here I stand; I can do no other.” That is something genuinely human and moving. And every one of us who is not spiritually dead must realize the possibility of finding himself at some time in that position. In so far as this is true, an ethic of ultimate ends and an ethic of responsibility are not absolute contrasts but rather supplements, which only in unison constitute a genuine human being—a person who can have the “calling for politics.” 6 4 Sheldon S. Wolin, Politics and Vision : Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought , Expanded ed. (Princeton, N.J., 2004). Chapter 5. 5 Karl Raimund Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies , [5th , rev.] ed. (Princeton, N. J., 1966). 6 Max Weber, Hans Heinrich Gerth, and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York,, 1946). p. 127. Während es unermeßlich erschütternd ist, wenn ein reifer Mensch—einerlei ob alt oder jung in Jahren--, der diese Verantwortung für die Folgen real und mit voller Seele empfindet und verantwortungsethisch handelt, an irgendeinem Punkte sagt: “ich kann kein anders, hier stehe ich.” Das ist etwas, was menschlich echt ist und ergreift. Denn diese Lage muß freilich für jeden von uns, der nicht innerlich tot ist, irgendwann eintreten können. Insofern sind Gesinnungsethik und 3 This statement is an expression of the moral and political vocabulary introduced into German by Martin Luther. The governing idea of Weber’s public lecture is that a person should have a calling, a spiritual authorization to engage in politics. The sacred character of a vocation requires a morally serious comportment that attends or perhaps even defines a mature mind. Political engagement is then seen to result from a kind of psychological maturity. Importantly, it is a maturity stemming neither from convention (for example, that the voting age is 18) nor from nature (e.g., human beings are adult animals in a reproductive sense in their teens). This is the maturity that frames a moral commitment, in Luther’s language a turning of the soul or reorientation. The impact of this conception of maturity extends the 18 th century ideal of cultivation ( Bildung ). Calling is to an application of the moral realm to the world, a central, if often misunderstood, implication of Luther’s theology. The exemplary instance of an act borne of this moral orientation is the quote attributed to Luther as he stood under the judgement of Charles V at Worms: “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” In his lecture, Weber recognizes the cultural resonance of such an action in echoing the essence of that phrase, 7 to which something anyone “not spiritually [innerlich ] dead” would respond. Consistent with Luther’s thought, Weber sees in this movement of spirit the distinguishing feature of humanity, the indicator that one is Verantwortungsethik nicht absolute Gegensätze, sondern Ergänzungen, die zusammen erst den echten Menschen ausmachen, den, der den “Beruf zur Politik” haben kann. Max Weber and Max Solms, Schriften Zur Theoretischen Soziologie, Zur Soziologie Der Politik Und Verfassung , Burt Franklin Research & Source Works, 241. (New York,, 1968). p. 203. 7 Weber misquotes slightly, reversing the order of the statement, i.e., "I can do no other, here I stand." 4 dealing with a “genuine” human being. The formally contradictory but spiritually complementary relationship between the eternal and the secular is mediated by this concept of humanity or spirit. Although Weber diverges from the Wittenberg Reformer’s thought in several aspects of his larger work—particularly as the result of the influence of Kant’s and Kantian thought—he nevertheless he evidences and perpetuates the