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The Analysis of Wonder The Analysis of Wonder An Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann Predrag Cicovacki NEW YORK • LONDON • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 © Predrag Cicovacki, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cicovacki, Predrag. The analysis of wonder : an introduction to the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann / Predrag Cicovacki. pages cm Summary: “A concise introduction into the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950), written in a way to stimulate further study and development of his thought”– Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-6235-6790-3 (hardback) 1. Hartmann, Nicolai, 1882–1950. I. Title. B3279.H24C53 2014 193–dc23 2013045333 eISBN: 978-1-6235-6100-0 Typeset by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India For Heidi: Keep Shining “A man does not learn to understand anything unless he loves it.” Goethe Contents Chronological Table ix Introduction: Does Hartmann Matter? 1 Part I Being I.1 Philosophical Method 9 I.2 Being as Being 17 I.3 Modifications of Being 23 I.4 Strata of Real Being 29 I.5 Categories of Real Being 35 I.6 Categories of Being and Categories of Cognition 41 I.7 Ontology of Cognition 47 I.8 Critique of Intellectualism 53 Part II Values II.1 Nature of Values 65 II.2 Moral Values in General 75 II.3 Four Fundamental Moral Values 83 II.4 Four Forms of Love 89 II.5 Aesthetic Object and Aesthetic Act 95 II.6 Aesthetic Values 101 II.7 Truth in Art 105 II.8 Sublime 111 II.9 Critique of Moralism 117 Part III Personality III.1 The Realm of Real Being and the Realm of Values 125 III.2 Personality as a Value 131 viii Contents III.3 Pseudo, Spurious, and Genuine Personality 137 III.4 Fulfillment of Personality 145 Conclusion: Hartmann’s New Ways of Philosophy 153 Bibliography of Hartmann’s Works 163 Index 165 Chronological Table1 1882 Nicolai Hartmann was born on February 20, in Riga, son of Carl August Hartmann and his wife Helene, who were Baltic Germans. Nicolai was one of their four children. 1897 Attends a German-speaking gymnasium in Saint Petersburg. 1902–03 Studies Medicine in Dorpat. 1903–05 Studies philosophy and classical languages in Saint Petersburg. 1905–07 Continuation of studies in Marburg. 1907 Defends PhD thesis: “Über das Seinsproblem in der griechischen Philosophie vor Plato” [On the Problem of Being in Greek Philosophy before Plato]. 1907–08 Returns to Saint Petersburg to teach Greek and Latin in a gymnasium. 1909 Defends the Habilitation: “Des Proklus Diadochus philosophische Anfangsgründe der Mathematik” [The Philosophical Foundations of Mathematics of Proclus Diadochus]. Publication of Platos Logik des Seins [Plato’s Logic of Being]. 1911 Marries Alice Stephanitz. 1912 Publication of Die philosophischen Grundfragen der Biologie [The Fundamental Philosophical Questions of Biology]. Birth of daughter Dagmar. 1914–18 Service in German Military in World War I. 1919–25 University Professor of Philosophy in Marburg. 1 The chronological table is mostly based on Martin Morgenstern, Nicolai Hartmann zur Einführung (Hamburg: Junius Verlag, 1997), 14–28 and 191–2. Also used are Robert Heiss, “Nicolai Hartmann: A Personal Sketch,” Personalist 42:1961, 469–86; Nicolai Hartmann und Heinz Heimsoeth im Briefwechsel, ed. Frida Hartmann and Renate Heimsoeth (Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1978); Hans-Georg Gadamer, Philosophical Apprenticeships, trans. R. R. Sullivan (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985); and Wolfgang Harich: Nicolai Hartmann—Leben, Werk, Wirkung, ed. Martin Morgenstern (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2000). x Chronological Table 1921 Publication of Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis [Basic Elements of a Metaphysics of Knowledge]. 1923 Publication of Die Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus, Bd. I: Fichte, Schelling und die Romantik [The Philosophy of German Idealism, Vol. 1: Fichte, Schelling and the Romantics]. 1925–30 Professor in Cologne. 1926 Presents “Über die Stellung der ästhetischen Werte im Reich der Werte überhaupt” [On the Place of Aesthetic Values in the Realm of Values] at the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Publication of Ethik [Ethics]. Divorce from his first wife. 1929 Marries Frida Rosenfeld. Publication of Die Philosophie der deutschen Idealismus, Bd. II: Hegel [The Philosophy of German Idealism, Vol. 2: Hegel]. 1930 Presents “Kategorien der Geschichte” [Categories of History] at the Seventh International Congress of Philosophy, in Oxford. Birth of son Olaf. 1931–45 Professor in Berlin. 1932 Birth of daughter Lise. 1933 Publication of Das Problem des geistigen Seins: Untersuchungen zur Grundlegung der Geschichtsphilosophie und der Geisteswissenschaften [The Problem of Spiritual Being: Investigations on the Foundations of the Philosophy of History and the Human Sciences]. 1935 Publication of Zur Grundlegung der Ontologie [On the Foundations of Ontology]. 1938 Publication of Möglichkeit und Wircklichkeit [Possibility and Actuality]. 1940 Publication of Der Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriss der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre [The Structure of the Real World: Outline of a Theory of the General Categories]. 1943 Publication of Neue Wege der Ontologie [New Ways of Ontology]. 1945–50 Professor in Göttingen. Chronological Table xi 1950 Publication of Philosophie der Natur: Abriss der speziellen Kategorienlehre [Philosophy of Nature: Sketch of a Theory of the Special Categories]. Dies on October 9. 1951 Posthumous publication of Teleologisches Denken [Teleological Thinking]. 1953 Posthumous publication of Ästhetik [Aesthetics]. 1955–58 Posthumous publication of Kleinere Schriften [Shorter Works], Bd. I: Abhandlungen zur Systematischen Philosophie (1955) [Vol. I: Essays Concerning Systematic Philosophy]; Bd. II: Abhandlungen zur Philosophie-Geschichte (1957) [Vol. II: Essays on the History of Philosophy]; Bd. III: Vom Neukantianismus zur Ontologie (1958) [Vol. III: From Neo-Kantianism to Ontology]. Introduction: Does Hartmann Matter? A few years ago, a book was published with the title, Why Arendt Matters.1 In the case of Hannah Arendt, such consideration is hardly needed. Her analysis of the human condition, the origin of totalitarianism, and the banality of evil belong to the highlights of the twentieth-century philosophy, especially in its second half. While she may not get all the recognition she deserves, especially among philosophers, Arendt’s ideas are widely discussed and her books are available even in small bookstores. This is not the case with Nicolai Hartmann (1882–1950). In the period between 1925 and 1950, he was considered one of the leading German philosophers. His works—numerous, systematic, displaying his encyclopedic knowledge and covering a vast variety of subjects, from ontology and epistemology to ethics and aesthetics – quickly went into second, third, and in some cases even fourth editions. His 800-plus-page Ethik was translated into English five years after its publication, but that ended up being the only one of his major books rendered into this language.2 In the second half of the twentieth- and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Hartmann has been a neglected philosopher. He has been a forgotten giant. I find this state of affairs puzzling. From the first years of my philosophy studies on, Hartmann has been one of my inspirations, one of my “teachers.” Every time I open his books, I learn something; his texts compel me to think afresh about a variety of philosophical issues. For this reason, with this introduction to his philosophy, I want to re-open the case for Hartmann. This book will focus on the questions concerning the nature and value of Hartmann’s philosophy. More formally, the questions are: 1. What is at the core of Hartmann’s philosophy? 2. What relevance, if any, does Hartmann’s philosophy have for us in the twenty-first century? There are two main obstacles for this project. The first is that philosophy itself is in such a state of disarray that it is not easy to say anymore either 1 Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Why Arendt Matters (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006). 2 Recently translated is Nicolai Hartmann, Possibility and Actuality (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013). 2 The Analysis of Wonder what philosophy is, or what role it is supposed to play in our age. The second obstacle is that Hartmann kept away from all the main currents of philosophy of his time; this makes it difficult to engage him in a dialogue that could help estimate the nature and value of his philosophy. I will briefly clarify both issues. In a recent book, Ideas That Matter: The Concepts That Shape the 21st Century, A. C. Grayling, a well-respected Oxford philosopher, introduces our discipline in the following way: “‘Philosophy’ is derived from a Greek word literally meaning ‘love of wisdom’, but it is better and more accurately defined as ‘enquiry’ or ‘enquiry and reflection’, giving expressions to their widest scope to denote efforts to understand the world and human experience in it.”3 This introduction is so vague, so open-ended, so uninspiring, that, despite Grayling’s effort to make philosophy seem relevant, it only makes the reader wonder whether philosophy has any role to play in our lives: Can its concepts shape the twenty-first century? Do its ideas matter at all? When insiders are so confused, we sometimes find deeper understanding of a certain discipline among its “amateurish” admirers.
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