DOCSLIB.ORG

Searchable PDF Format

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Searchable PDF Format Tl.Oizermon TheMainTlends inPhilosophy 5+[ This monograph is a theoretacal investiga' tion of the process of the history of philo' sophy. The author examines the polari' sation of philosophical systems in their main trends, viz., the materialast and idealist. He traces the stluggle between materialism and idealism on the basis of the dialectical-materialist conception of the history of philosophy, and brings out the scientific and cultural'historical significance of dialeetica! materialism in present-day world philosophical thought. TI.Oizerman TheMainTlends inPhilosophy A Theoretical AnalYsis of the History of PhllosoPhY Translated by H. Camphell Creighlon, M' A. (Oxon) m PROGRESS PUBLISHERS Moscow CONTENTS Designed by Yuri Yegorov Off3EPMAH T. I,I. TJIABHbIE (DI4]IOCO(DCKHE HATIPAB JIEIdVIfl Ha auztuticxo*t sswrce Page IN,I'RoDUCTION 5 l'tt ()ne. THE BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION AS A pRO- lII,t]M OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY I. 'I'IIt] SENSE AND MEANING OF THE BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL () r r ESTToN 19 L The Basic Philosophical Question and the Problematic of philo- sophy 1 9 J. Self-Awareness and the External World. The Epistemological Ne- cessity of the Basic Philosophical Question 22 .t. On the Origin and Development of the Basic Philosophical eue- srion . 33 'l'he .1. Basic Philosophical Question: Objective Content and Subjec- tive Form of Expression. The Real Starting Point of Philosophical Irrquiry Z7 'r'ltFl il Two stDEs oF THE BASrC PHILOSOPHICAL QUES_ 't'roN 54 'l'he l. Ontological Aspect: the Materialist Answer to the Basic Question 54 J. 'l'hc Ontological Aspect: a Contribution to the Delineation of the Itlcalist Answer to the Basic Philosophical Question 74 ,1, 'l'lrc Epistemological Aspect. The Principle of Reflection and the Itlealist Interpretation of the Knowability of the World 8Z .1. 'l'lre Epistemological Aspect. The Principle of the Knowability of the World and Philosophical Scepticism 104 l'utt l'rro. PHILOSOPHICAL TRENDS AS AN OBJECT OF RE- SIIAR('H IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY III 'I'IIIi I)IVERGENCE OF PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES AND Printed the in Union of Soviet Suialist Republics I'I'S IN'I'I]RPRETATION. METAPHYSICAL SYSTEMS AND I.IIII I)I']VELOPMENT OF THE ANTITHESIS BETWEEN MA. o38rll3iio*l6a I'IiXIAI.ISM AND IDEALISM 138 o u-m (C) Hslatelrcrno (Mblcrb>>, 1984 l, l)lrprrtt uboul Trends or Dispute of Trends? 138 l, Metnphvsicnl Systems. Spiritualism and the Naturalist Ten- English translation the revised of tlert y I Russian text 55 .1, Matcrlnlislrr thc Sole Consistent Opponent of Speculative Me- rsBN 5-01-000506-9 Progress Publishers 1988 @) telrlrysicul Syslcnrs 165 4. Kant's Transcendental Dualist Metaphysics 173 5. Toward a Critique of Irrationalist Speculative Metaphysics 184 6. The Dispute between Materialism and ldealism and Differences in Understanding Speculative Metaphysics 195 IV. THE GREAT CONFRONTATION: MATERIALISM VS IDEA- LISM. THE ARCUMENTS AND COUNTERARGUMENTS 2t5 l. The Struggle of Materialism and ldealism as an Epochal Cul- tural and Historical Phenomenon 2t5 2. Idealism vs Materialism. Materialism vs Idealism. Results and Prospects 234 3. The Diatectical-Materialist Critique of Idealiim' The Episte- mological Roots of Idealist Fallacies 262 4. The Dialectical-Materialist Critique of Idealism. The Principle of INTRODUCTION the Partisanship of Philosophy 274 CONCLUSION 296 LITERATURE 306 doubt about the ideological signifrcance of a the- NAME INDEX There is no the history of philosophy. For philosophy ST]BJECT INDEX oretical analysis of is the sole iield of knowledge in which agreement among its leading spokesmen is the exception rather than the rule' In the sc'ien'ces usually called exact or special, the area of rlisagreement is a comparatively small part of the vast ter- ritorv alreadv mastered, in which peace and harmony seemingly reigri.' Whoiver studies any of these sciences to some extent lacis choice; he assimilates established truths that will, of course, be refrned, supplemented, and in part. even reYised, trut hardly refuted. It is not so in philosophy, in w-hich. there is a host of doctrines, trends, and directions each of which, as a rule, has not only historical justifrcation but also a certain actual sense. In phiiosophy one has to choose, to soak oneself in a specifrc atmosphere of philosophical thinking, by nature polemical, so as to hnd one's point of view, refuting all others ihat are incompatible with it' But a search of that kind doc- l',resupposes study of the whole variety of philosophical irines, a condition that is obviously not practicable. ln concrete historical social conditions this situation of ('()rlrse has a certain, obligatory character. He who studies like the plrilosophy-browsing (or is beginning to) is not, of course, bookshop looking for some- 1re rron in a secondhand ihirrg suitable for himself. The moment of choice is inseparable fr.rri the purposive activity by which any science is mastered. Sirr.'e' the'hisiory of philoiophy investigates the real gains of plril,sophy, this choice beiomes an intellectual conviction rurttl itleological decision. The airn-of my book is to investigate the initial propositions .f l5r. history oi philosophy. This concerns the basic philo- sophical question and the main trends and directions in philo- sophy, are not truisms but quite special problems for research sophy, themes that are organically connected with one ano- in the history of philosophy. What makes them so? The aim ther; special study of them makes it possible to understand of my introduction is to provide a preliminary answer to that, philosophy as law-governed developing knowledge whose flnal which will, at the same time, pose the problem. result is dialectical and historical materialism. First of all, let me point out the indisputable but far from The present work is a direct continuation of my Problems always realised truth that the Marxian proposition about of the History of Philosophy,2 the subject of which was such the basic philosophical question is not simply a statement of an inadequately studied (in the general view) and largely debatable empirically obvious fact, but a' theoretical formulation of a problems as the specific nature of the philosophical form of definite discovery made by Frederick Engels. Only a few knowledge, the distinguishing feature and ideological function pre-Marxian philosophers came near to theoretical awareness of the problematic of philosophy, and the nature of philosophical that there is a basic question common to various philosophical argument and dispute. In this new monograph, at least in its doctrines, including opposing ones. Most of them rather assumed first part, on the contrary, I examine problems that are usually that each doctrine was characterised by its own main philo- only treated in textbooks, i.e. that do not constitute the subject sophical question precisely because it largely diverged from of research at all. But since these problems are of fundamental others. That is also, and even more so, true of contemporary significance, they deserve more than the attention just of non-Marxian philosophers. Albert Camus, for instance, claims teachers. Problems that are usually called elementary are that basic ones, the starting point of research, and the answers to problem, that of suicide. them no small way predetermine its direction and results. there is only one truly serious philosophical in To decide whether life is, or is not worth the trouble of living, is to Lenin, stressing that politics 'is a concentrated expression of answer the fundamental question of philosophy (28:15).4 economics' and that 'it must take precedence over economics', this prevailing tendency. noted in this connection that 'it is strange that we should have The separate exceptions only confirm return such elementary questions' is well The question posed by Camus must not be underestimated, to to 1142:83). It philosophic- known that this elementary question has proved to be not even if only because it forms part of a definite of the Ancient so simple, so matter-of-fact as not to need investigation. al tradition whose beginning was laid by thinkers era' The alienation Roughly the same can be said of the basic philosophical question. East and philosophers of the Hellenistic product, and the alienation of The Marxian proposition 'Truth is a process' (143:201) also of human activity and of its give profound sense. Yet relates to elementary but, I should say, fundamental truths nature regularly engender it and it that do not remain invariable since they are enriched by new it is not the basic phiiosophical question, if only because philosophical doctrines' But scientific data. it is not such for the majority of that main philosophical question perhaps it is a transmuted form of it, since it is a matter of the Textbooks expound the Or is it in popular form and provide a correct idea of the struggle ittitude of human consciousness to human existence? philosophy? is still incumbent of trends in philosophy, do a very useful job. But they often, the basic issue of existentialist It philosophy has its unfortunately, create a deceptive impression of excessive sim- on us, however, to investigate whether each plicity and very nearly absolute clarity about matters that are special basic question. philosophical problems by no means simple and clear. This fault is seemingly the obverse Neopositivists, having got rid of problems, long ago concluded of the methods standards that a textbook has to meet, since as imaginary and in fact not real the spiritual to the ma- it is limited to exposition of simply the fundamentals of the that the question of the relation of since was quite unclear science.'' The sole means of overcoming these shortcomings of terial was a typical pseudoproblem, it and whether popular expositions is to investigate the theoretical fundamen- whether what are called matter and spirit existed without meaning.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Antisemitismus Im 19. Jahrhundert Aus Internationaler Perspektive
    Marcel Stoetzler Durkheim’s and Simmel’sreactionstoantisemitism and their reflection in their views on modern society If one ever asked oneself what sociologyisall about, one could do worse than consulting Auguste Comte’s 1822 manifesto, Prospectus des travaux scientifiques nØcessaires pour rØorganiser la societØ,the Plan of the Scientific Works Necessary for the Reorganization of Society.1 It sketches out the historical-structural task that the new discipline,whose name Comte later popularized, was supposed to fulfil, namely to end-but-preserve—as the Germans would say, aufzuheben—the Revolution: safeguard its achievements from reaction as well as from further revolutions. Sociologywould do so by separating the good bits of modernity from the bad bits. The former Comte sawasgrounded in asecular,macro- historical trend of European historyand civilization, the latter in the undis- ciplined hubris of troublemakers led astraybymetaphysicalnonsense peddled by the Enlightenment, or more precisely,bythe non-positivistic strand of the Enlightenment.Sociologywould study and understand the laws of historyand silence the metaphysical troublemakers. Sociology’s commitmenttomaking thatmessy thing called societysafe for modernity(the industrial-capitalist world system of nation states constituted and populated by modernindividuals) remained tricky.Spanners were thrown into the machineryleft, right, and centrebypeople whowere not so positive about the positivestate of society. Rather ironically,most of those whocontinued and developed the Comtean projectofsociologydid so by basing it on some of those ghastly metaphysical ideas from the Enlightenment, notably those of Immanuel Kant. Sociology, at least in France and Germany, emerged mostly as a set of differing blends of positivism and Kantian, or neo-Kantian, idealism.
    [Show full text]
  • Stanislaw Brzozowski and the Migration of Ideas
    Jens Herlth, Edward M. Świderski (eds.) Stanisław Brzozowski and the Migration of Ideas Lettre Jens Herlth, Edward M. Świderski (eds.) with assistance by Dorota Kozicka Stanisław Brzozowski and the Migration of Ideas Transnational Perspectives on the Intellectual Field in Twentieth-Century Poland and Beyond This volume is one of the outcomes of the research project »Standing in the Light of His Thought: Stanisław Brzozowski and Polish Intellectual Life in the 20th and 21st Centuries« funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project no. 146687). The publication of this book was made possible thanks to the generous support of the »Institut Littéraire Kultura«. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Na- tionalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ To create an adaptation, translation, or derivative of the original work and for com- mercial use, further permission is required and can be obtained by contacting [email protected] Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Aspects of the Philosophy of Science in Japan
    Some Aspects of the Philosophy of Science in Japan By Hiroshi NAGAI I Philosophy in its strict sense had not been in Japan until her mod ern age, which broke out at Meiji Revolution about one hundred years ago. It must be remembered that the proper notion of philosophy has its historical origin in ancient Greece and that its development is performed on the basis of Greek tradition in Western Europe. From this point of view we Japanese have been in quite different circum stances from those of European peoples, whose philosophies, I presume, for all varieties in their character and trend, are united in a common mental circle, so that they are on intimate terms with one another. Of course, as generally recognized, it is an irresistibly clear fact that Buddhism and Confucianism had influenced intrinsically on the mental life of Japanese people for a long time, but their doctrines may not be called philosophic in the proper sense. We prefer to consider them respectively a sort of religious speculation or peculiar worldly Wisdom rather than as philosophy. This state of affairs will be said to be due to the special historical and geographical conditions in which our country was so long situated that we could hardly take any chance of international contact with European peoples and their philosophical thoughts. As the leading and decisive one of those conditions we can especially point out the political and social influences of the feudal -63- 64 government, which was established by the Tokugawas and lasted for almost three hundred years; its political absolutism strictly prohibited our countrymen living in four small islands from taking foreign informations.
    [Show full text]
  • From Premodern to Modern American Jurisprudence: the Onset of Positivism
    Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 50 Issue 6 Issue 6 - November 1997 Article 1 11-1997 From Premodern to Modern American Jurisprudence: The Onset of Positivism Stephen M. Feldman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Stephen M. Feldman, From Premodern to Modern American Jurisprudence: The Onset of Positivism, 50 Vanderbilt Law Review 1387 (1997) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol50/iss6/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW VOLUME 50 NOVEMBER 1997 NUMBER 6 From Premodern to Modern American Jurisprudence: The Onset of Positivism Stephen M. Feldman* I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1387 II. PREMODERN LEGAL SCIENCE .............................................. 1394 III. MODERN LEGAL SCIENCE .................................................... 1417 IV. CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 1439 I. INTRODUCTION What distinguished premodern from modern American juris- prudence? Whereas most commentators agree that the transition from premodernism to modernism occurred around the Civil War,' * Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Tulsa. I thank Paul Finkelman, Thomas C. Grey, Robert W. Gordon, Tony Sebok, Jim Mooney, Mark Tushnet, Marty Belsky, and Bill Hollingsworth for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. I also appreciate the financial support of the Faculty Summer Research Grant Program of the University of Tulsa College of Law. 1. See Stephen M. Feldman, From Modernism to Postmodernism in American Legal Thought: The Significance of the Warren Court, in Bernard Schwartz, ed., The Warren Court: A Retrospective 324, 329 (Oxford U., 1996) (stating C.C.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Relativism.Indb
    Richard Schantz, Markus Seidel The Problem of Relativism in the Sociology of (Scientific) Knowledge P h i l o s o p h i s c h e A n a l y s e P h i l o s o p h i c a l A n a l y s i s Herausgegeben von / Edited by Herbert Hochberg • Rafael Hüntelmann • Christian Kanzian Richard Schantz • Erwin Tegtmeier Band 43 / Volume 43 Richard Schantz, Markus Seidel The Problem of Relativism in the Sociology of (Scientific) Knowledge Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. North and South America by Transaction Books Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08854-8042 [email protected] United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Turkey, Malta, Portugal by Gazelle Books Services Limited White Cross Mills Hightown LANCASTER, LA1 4XS [email protected] Livraison pour la France et la Belgique: Librairie Philosophique J.Vrin 6, place de la Sorbonne; F-75005 PARIS Tel. +33 (0)1 43 54 03 47; Fax +33 (0)1 43 54 48 18 www.vrin.fr 2011 ontos verlag P.O. Box 15 41, D-63133 Heusenstamm www.ontosverlag.com ISBN 978-3-86838-126-9 2011 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed
    [Show full text]
  • The Lack of Historism: the Leftists' Experience
    The Lack of Historism: the Leftists’ Experience and its Contemporary Meaning Vlad Navitski, M. Phil., lecturer European Humanities University, Vilnius, Lithuania The article is devoted to the historical views of the different branches of the leftists in the last century and a half. But beyond this content a foundational – and constitutional for this paper – interest lies. I tend to show that theoretical stances of the leftists on history not only predetermined their own practice (and, surely were influenced by it), but also are exercised in the worldwide contemporary social and cultural trends, not related to the leftists practice at all. Among them globalization, practices of the multiculturalism/fundamentalism and identity politics should be mentioned in the first place. Key words: historicity, borders, transcendent order, subjectivity, modernity, temporality, technics Introduction In general, the peculiar imitation of the leftists’ practices – once specific for them – by the contemporary social trends was explicitly clarified by the leftists themselves (Gilles Dauvé)1 and by the more moderate researches (Jean Baudrillard). But, to my mind, in order to see what are the reasons or causes of such imitation we have to go further than just to identify this doubling with the cunning of the society of consumption, assuming even previously contradictory practices for its own sake (Baudrillard).2 Similarly, we shouldn’t stop on the mere statement of this doubling as the ridiculous parallelism (Dauvé). What we should here is to understand this imitation as the phenomenon bearing the constitutional meaning for the comprehension of the contemporary social and cultural trends. And this understanding, I believe, is – not only but mainly – possible, when we pay our attention to the leftists’ standpoints on time and history and their perturbation in the mentioned trends.
    [Show full text]
  • Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism By
    Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism by Nicholas Walter Baer A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media and the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Anton Kaes, Chair Professor Martin Jay Professor Linda Williams Fall 2015 Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism © 2015 by Nicholas Walter Baer Abstract Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism by Nicholas Walter Baer Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory University of California, Berkeley Professor Anton Kaes, Chair This dissertation intervenes in the extensive literature within Cinema and Media Studies on the relationship between film and history. Challenging apparatus theory of the 1970s, which had presumed a basic uniformity and historical continuity in cinematic style and spectatorship, the ‘historical turn’ of recent decades has prompted greater attention to transformations in technology and modes of sensory perception and experience. In my view, while film scholarship has subsequently emphasized the historicity of moving images, from their conditions of production to their contexts of reception, it has all too often left the very concept of history underexamined and insufficiently historicized. In my project, I propose a more reflexive model of historiography—one that acknowledges shifts in conceptions of time and history—as well as an approach to studying film in conjunction with historical-philosophical concerns. My project stages this intervention through a close examination of the ‘crisis of historicism,’ which was widely diagnosed by German-speaking intellectuals in the interwar period.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 Durkheim
    Durkheim’s and Simmel’s reactions to antisemitism and their reflection in ANGOR UNIVERSITY their views on modern society Stoetzler, Marcel Antisemitismus im 19. Jahrhundert aus internationaler Perspektive DOI: 10.14220/9783737009775.83 PRIFYSGOL BANGOR / B Published: 22/05/2019 Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Cyswllt i'r cyhoeddiad / Link to publication Dyfyniad o'r fersiwn a gyhoeddwyd / Citation for published version (APA): Stoetzler, M. (2019). Durkheim’s and Simmel’s reactions to antisemitism and their reflection in their views on modern society. In M. König, & O. Schultz (Eds.), Antisemitismus im 19. Jahrhundert aus internationaler Perspektive (pp. 83-102). (Schriften aus der Max Weber Stiftung; Vol. 1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress (Schriften aus der Max Weber Stiftung). https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737009775.83 Hawliau Cyffredinol / General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons Learned from German Sociology, 1933–45: Contexts and Content Wiebke Keim
    Lessons learned from German sociology, 1933–45: contexts and content Wiebke Keim To cite this version: Wiebke Keim. Lessons learned from German sociology, 1933–45: contexts and content. Social Science in Context. Historical, Sociological, and Global Perspectives, Nordic Academic Press, pp.95 - 114, 2013, 978-91-87351-04-4. halshs-01077333 HAL Id: halshs-01077333 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01077333 Submitted on 24 Oct 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Keim, Wiebke (2013): Lessons learned from German sociology 1933-45: Contexts and content. In: Danell, Rickard; Larsson, Anna; Wisselgren, Per (Hg.): Social Science in Context. Historical, Sociological, and Global Perspectives, Lund: Nordic Academic Press: 95-114. – Manuscript – Lessons learned from German sociology, 1933–45: contexts and content Wiebke Keim This essay deals with a specific historical context for sociology: the period 1933–45 in Germany. It raises questions about the definition and self-definition of the discipline.i How far did the given historical,
    [Show full text]
  • Hayden White and the Aesthetics of Historiography" (PDF)
    History of the Human Sciences http://hhs.sagepub.com Hayden White and the Aesthetics of Historiography Paul A. Roth History of the Human Sciences 1992; 5; 17 DOI: 10.1177/095269519200500102 The online version of this article can be found at: http://hhs.sagepub.com Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for History of the Human Sciences can be found at: Email Alerts: http://hhs.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://hhs.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://hhs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/5/1/17 Downloaded from http://hhs.sagepub.com at CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY on December 5, 2008 HISTORY OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES Vol. 5 No. 1 © 1992 SAGE (London, Newbury Park and New Delhi) 17- Hayden White and the Aesthetics of Historiography PAUL A. ROTH ... one cannot appeal to any specific ’sense of history’ as a basis for excluding any given critical practice from the list of proper critical approaches.... In short, one cannot check the fall into ’radical relativism’ to which pluralism in general is prone by appeal to ’a sense of history’, as if this were an unproblematic concept not threatened by the same ’relativism’ which critical pluralism wishes to avoid. (White, 1986, ’Historical Pluralism’) Ironies pervade debates concerning the nature of historical knowledge. Tra- ditional debates between, e.g., historists and positivists, center on whether or not there are differences in kind between the sort of knowledge produced by the human as opposed to the natural sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • Voltaire and the Necessity of Modern History Pierre Force Department of French, Columbia University E-Mail: [email protected]
    Modern Intellectual History, 6, 3 (2009), pp. 457–484 C Cambridge University Press 2009 doi:10.1017/S147924430999014X voltaire and the necessity of modern history pierre force Department of French, Columbia University E-mail: [email protected] This article revisits what has often been called the “naive presentism” of Voltaire’s historical work. It looks at the methodological and philosophical reasons for Voltaire’s deliberate focus on modern history as opposed to ancient history, his refusal to “make allowances for time” in judging the past, and his extreme selectiveness in determining the relevance of past events to world history. Voltaire’s historical practice is put in the context of the quarrel of the ancients and the moderns, and considered in a tradition of universal history going back to Bossuet and leading up to nineteenth-century German historicism. Paradoxically, Voltaire is a major figure in the history of historiography not in spite of his presentism (as Ernst Cassirer and Peter Gay have argued), but because of it. A significant proportion of Voltaire’s enormous output is historical in nature: alifeofCharlesXIIofSweden(1731),1 a cultural history of France under Louis XIV (1751),2 a history of the War of 1741 (1755),3 a history of Russia under Peter the Great (1760),4 aprecis´ of the age of Louis XV (1768),5 a history of the Parliament of Paris (1769),6 and a very ambitious Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations (1756),7 which was a secular continuation of Bossuet’s Discourse on Universal History. Yet Voltaire’s status as a historian is an ambiguous one.
    [Show full text]
  • Hayden White
    Modernism and the sense of history Hayden White The poet . is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living.1 – T. S. Eliot Whoever has approved this idea of order . will not find it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past.2 – T. S. Eliot When, however, one’s existence is inauthentically historical, it is loaded down with the legacy of a ‘past’ which has become unrecognizable, and it seeks the modern (Die uneigentlich geschichtliche Existenz dagegen sucht, beladen mit der ihr selbst unkenntlich gewordenen Hinterlassenschaft der ‘Vergangenheit’, das Moderne).3 – Martin Heidegger Many years ago my professor of philosophy, Lewis White Beck, told me that when two equally intelligent and sincere philosophers are unable to resolve differences of opinion on some matter of genuinely philosophical concern, it is more likely that it is because they share a common error or false enabling proposition than that they are doing philosophy badly. I want to suggest that this may have been true of many of those modernists and antimodernists I will be considering. Moreover, I want to suggest that one error or false enabling proposition that they may have shared is to be found in the conception of history and the historical or historicality in general which lay at the basis of many of their disagreements over the nature of time, temporality, the past, tradition, heritage, culture, civilization, and just about everything else that is implied in the label ‘modernist.’ 1 T.
    [Show full text]