Philosophy of Nature and Philosophical Anthropology

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HERMAN DOOYEWEERD Series A, Volume 7 GENERAL EDITOR: D.F.M. Strauss PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY by Herman Dooyeweerd Translated by Magnus Verbrugge (Main Text) andDFMStrauss (Footnotes and Appendixes) Edited by D. F. M. Strauss Co-edited by Harry Van Dyke and Willem Ouweneel PAIDEIA PRESS 2011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dooyeweerd, H. (Herman), 1894-1977. Philosophy of Nature and philosophical Anthropology Herman Dooyeweerd. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-88815-214-5 This is Series A, Volume 7 in the continuing series The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd The Collected Works comprise the following series: Series A contains multi-volume works by Dooyeweerd, Series B contains smaller works and collections of essays, Series C contains reflections on Dooyeweerd's philosophy designated as: Dooyeweerd's Living Legacy, and Series D contains thematic selections from Series A and B A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright 2011 Ó The Dooyeweerd Centre for Christian Philosophy Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON, CANADA L9K 1J4 Publisher PAIDEIA PRESS Grand Rapids, USA www.reformationalpublishingproject.com Preface After Dooyeweerd had completed his first trilogy, “De Wijsbe- geerte der Wetsidee” (1935-36; transl.: “A New Critique of Theo- retical Thought”), already during World War II he began a second trilogy, titled “Reformatie en Scholastiek in de wijsbegeerte”. The first volume of this work appeared in 1949. The second volume was completed as well, but for different reasons it was never published at the time, except for part of it in the form of articles. The third volume, which, according to the title of the manuscript, was intended to be an “Introduction to the anthropology of the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea,” was never finished unfortunately. It is much to be regretted that Dooyeweerd did complete his cosmology but not the anthropology which was the elaboration of it. This anthropology, which had a central place in his transcendental criticism (the “starting-point” of his philosophy), should have become also the “crowning” of his philosophy (cf. his “New Critique” III, p. 781-784). In an interview (J.M. van Dunne et al., “Acht civilisten in burger”, Zwolle 1976, p. 54), Dooyeweerd sayd that after the war he was no longer interested in finishing the second volume (and therefore the third volume as well, WJO) of his “Reformatie en Scholastiek” trilogy because the traditional-scholastic school had suddenly lost all influence at the theological faculty of the Free University in Amsterdam. The manuscript of the third volume was kept by the Free Uni- versity, which made a microfilm of it. This formed the basis for a typescript made in 1978, which in the same year was carefully com- pared with the microfilm by the late dr. H.J. van Eikema Hommes. The typescript was the property of the Dr. Herman Dooyeweerd Archives Foundation in Amsterdam, and was later entrusted to the Herman Dooyeweerd Foundation in California. It was translated into English by dr. M. Verbrugge and edited by myself. This was no easy job because the text finishes in the middle of a sentence, shows many gaps, as well as some strikingly parallel parts, as if Dooyeweerd had rewritten certain sections. At the time of his death, the manuscript was therefore not at all suitable for publication. These things have to be taken into account when reading the edited version. ii REFORMATION AND SCHOLASTICISM IN PHILOSOPHY VOLUME III The contents of this volume are nevertheless quite important, however. Many points in Dooyeweerd's well-known “anthropo- logical theses” (see “De leer van den mensch in de Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee”, Correspondentiebladen 7, 1942, p. 134-144; reprinted in Sola Fide 7, 1954/2, p. 8-18), which form a summary of this volume, are clarified by it. It is in this third volume that Dooyeweerd deals extensively with the “act structure”, and particularly with the question which surpasses all the problems related to the temporal corporeality of being human: the question of the human I (or, the heart, the soul, the spirit). It is with the greatest pleasure that I present this important volume to the reader. I sincerely hope that it will receive the attention which it deserves. Willem J. Ouweneel Dr. Biol. (Utrecht, NL), Dr. Philos. (Free Univ., Amsterdam, NL), Dr. Theol. (Bloemfontein, RSA), Prof. in the Philosophy of the Natural Sciences (Potchefstroom, RSA), Prof. in the Philosophy of Theology and the Dogmatic Theology (Heverlee, Belg.). [Willem J. Ouweneel Emmalaan 1 NL-3732 GM De Bilt (+31)30.2204427] Contents PART ONE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE CHAPTER 1 The Enkaptic Structural Whole The enkaptic structural whole and undifferentiated individuality-structures .......1 The enkaptic structural whole and the different types of enkaptic interlacement .....3 CHAPTER 2 Molecular Structures The apparent paradox in the basic thesis of chemistry ....................6 The philosophical problem of structure in the relation between dissimilar atoms and their molecular combinations ............................6 The enkaptic structural whole as a typically qualified total form ..............8 Two seemingly incompatible series of data can be reconciled with each other by the conception of the molecule as an enkaptic whole. The evidence in favor of the continued actual presence of the atoms in a chemical combination and that in favor of the conception that the combination is a new whole ................11 The philosophical background of the older conception of the chemical combination as an aggregate of elements ...........................13 The neo-Thomist theory of Hoenen concerning the ontological structure of atom and molecule.......................................14 The neo-Thomist doctrine concerning the “gradation” in the realization of potencies; the conception of a heterogeneous continuum.................15 Critique of Hoenen’s theory ...................................16 The conception of material composites in pre-Thomist medieval scholasticism .....22 CHAPTER 3 The Living Cell Body Bohr’s biological relation of uncertainty ............................24 What is the meaning of Bohr’s relation of uncertainty with respect to the methods of organic chemistry in their application to biochemical processes?.......25 iv REFORMATION AND SCHOLASTICISM IN PHILOSOPHY VOLUME III The Aristotelian-Thomistic substance-concept and the identification of a living organism with the animated body .........................26 The cell as the minimal unit capable of independent life...................27 The typical physico-chemical aspect of a cell structure .........................................28 The so-called hylocentric, kinocentric and morphocentric structure of a living cell (Woltereck), viewed from the physico-chemical aspect .............29 The phenomenon of bi- or poly-nuclear cells .........................30 The smallest living units within the cell structure ......................31 Non-living components of the cell body and their enkaptic binding in the living organism ......................................32 Do bio-molecules exist? .....................................33 The problem of living protein is incorrectly posited .....................36 How far can physics and chemistry penetrate a biochemical constellation?........39 Does a specific living matter exist? ...............................41 CHAPTER 4 Mechanism and Vitalism The philosophical background of the mechanistic conception ...............43 Neo-vitalism also holds to the mechanistic view of the physico-chemical processes. 44 Neo-vitalism in contrast to older forms of vitalism ......................45 Driesch’s experimental “proofs” of the existence of “entelechies.” The so-called harmonious-equipotential system and totality-causality .............45 In Driesch’s “Ordnungslehre” the substance-concept is not meant in a metaphysical sense ........................................47 Driesch’s conception of entelechy differs drastically from the Aristotelian view .....49 “Entelechy” as a metaphysical substance. Driesch’s view of the scheme act-potency confronted with the Aristotelian conception ..................51 Driesch denies a typical biochemical constellation. The problem of how the entelechy influences purely mechanical matter......................52 The neo-vitalistic view confronted with the neo-Thomist conception. Driesch’s philosophy of nature transforms the Greek basic motive into the humanistic basic motive of nature and freedom...................56 CHAPTER 5 Molecular Structures and the Living Organism Woltereck’s hypothesis concerning a particular bio-substance ...............60 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF HERMAN DOOYEWEERD v The inductive material components in the living cell body: enzymes, hormones, organizers and genes ................................62 Criticism of Woltereck’s theory .................................67 Weismann’s theory concerning the continuity of the germ plasm .............68 The influence of the metaphysical substance-concept on Woltereck’s theory of “matrix” ........................................70 Woltereck’s philosophical standpoint. His dynamic ontological “Stufentheorie” ....73 CHAPTER 6 A Brief Summary of My Own View The Aristotelian-Thomistic substance-concept contrasted once more with the problem of the individuality-structure of the living body................78 The ontological problem concerning

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