Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy The Religious Dimension of Experience: Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy Author: David W. Rodick Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1181 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSION OF EXPERIENCE: GABRIEL MARCEL AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY By DAVID WILLIAM RODICK Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2, 2009 © copyright by DAVID WILLIAM RODICK 2009 Dissertation Title: THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSION OF EXPERIENCE: GABRIEL MARCEL AND AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY Dissertation Advisor: David M. Rasmussen The French philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) was deeply influenced by the classical tradition of American philosophy. Marcel’s first essays focused upon the philosophy of Josiah Royce (1855-1916). Royce impressed Marcel due to his ability to engage in bold, imaginative construction and yet remain “faithful to the empirical tradition, which he deepened and enriched….” Marcel was also deeply influenced by William Ernest Hocking’s (1873-1966) major work, The Meaning of God in Human Experience which, for Marcel, not only reaffirmed the religious dimension of human experience but also served as “an advance in the direction of that metaphysical realism toward which I resolutely tended.” Lastly, Marcel had a sustained personal and philosophical relationship with Henry G. Bugbee Jr. (1915-1999) of the University of Montana. Marcel first met Bugbee at Harvard University while delivering the William James Lectures in 1961. Willard Van Orman Quine described Bugbee as “the ultimate exemplar of the examined life” and Calvin Schrag described him as “the most marginalized philosopher in America.” Part I consists of a comprehensive examination of Marcel’s philosophy, focusing upon the manner in which his thought exhibits a strong sense of “ontological continuity” – establishing a fundamental relationship between human being and the transcendent. According to Marcel “Finite thought is continually attracted by a beyond which eternally escapes it.” Part I will be followed by three sections (Parts II-IV) devoted to the relationship between Marcel and the thought of Royce, Hocking, and Bugbee respectively. The relationship between Marcel and these philosophers is based largely upon their mutual critique of abstract thinking and a shared belief in the presence of a decisive connection between human being and the transcendent. The thesis concludes with Part V entitled “The Religious Dimension of Experience,” which explores the manner in which a select cadre of American philosophers has successfully developed the philosophical implications of Marcel’s work. As Marcel indicated, “Perhaps the most important task on the plane of speculation is to deepen once again the notion of life itself in the light of the highest and most genuine religious thought.” Acknowledgement Despite its characterization as a culminating event, the Ph.D. dissertation – especially one in Philosophy – is destined in some degree to incompleteness. As Kant stated at the outset of the Critique of Pure Reason, we are implicated in a series of questions which we can neither answer nor ignore. This dissertation bespeaks incompleteness for the very reason Kant identified and for reasons of a more personal nature. As Wittgenstein said: “My spade is turned. This is simply what I do.” This project is the fulfillment of a life’s work. Beginning graduate studies late in life requires a significant amount of sacrifice. Failure to recognize this would constitute naiveté of the worst kind. I wish to thank the Philosophy Department at Boston College for acceptance into the Ph.D. program. Graduate seminars with David M. Rasmussen, Oliva Blanchette, and William J. Richardson, S.J. will be remembered as highpoints in my philosophical education. I also would like to express appreciation to David Rasmussen for showing an interest in my work, directing this dissertation, and providing support throughout a long, arduous process. Oliva Blanchette’s careful reading of the penultimate draft helped remove several typographical and textual errors. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. I wish to dedicate this work to my Mother, Vivian H. Rodick (1932-2008), who made this moment possible. Portland, Maine August 2009 vii You would not find out the boundaries of the soul, even by traveling along every path: so deep a logos does it have. Heraclitus A philosopher is a human soul which remembers its own divinity and behaves as becomes a god. Étienne Gilson There will be no saying, “Look, here it is! or there it is!” For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21 Truth is simple But seldom ever seen. Let nothing come between Simple man, simple dream. John David Souther And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. Forrest Gump I saw a highway of diamonds and nobody on it. Bob Dylan viii Table of Contents Introduction: The Religious Dimension of Experience: Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy ……………………………………………………………………………... 1 Part I: From a Broken World to Circulating Being: The Transcendent Trajectory of Marcel’s Thought …………………………………………………............................... 30 Part II: From Idealism to Communitarian Fulfillment: Marcel’s Royce Interpretation .…………………...……………………………………………….. 102 Part III: Gabriel Marcel and William E. Hocking: Companions of Eternity ……………………………………………………………………………….. 171 Part IV: An Inward Morning: The Experiential Philosophy of Henry G. Bugbee, Jr. …………………………………………………………………. 227 Conclusion: The Religious Dimension of Experience: Fertile Ground in the Recent American Landscape …………………………………………………………………. 290 John E. Smith ………………………………………………………………………… 291 Robert O Johann, S.J. …………………………………………………....................... 297 Carl G. Vaught ...………………………………………………………...................... 303 John M Anderson ……………………………………………………………………. 310 Robert C. Pollock ……………………………………………………………………. 316 The Future of Philosophy: A Brief Prospective ……………………………………... 321 Bibliography: ………………………………………………………………………… 324 vi 1 Introduction The Religious Dimension of Experience: Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy “Perhaps the most important task on the plane of speculation is to deepen once again the notion of life itself in the light of the highest and most genuine religious thought.”1 “A kind of magnetic field stretches around my life … one of the poles of this magnetic field was and remains, in spite of everything, America.”2 § Investigational Context The fact that Marcel’s philosophy has largely been relegated to the dustbin of philosophy bespeaks a very sad state of affairs. Despite his great popularity in the 60’s and 70’s as a “Christian existentialist,” Marcel’s thought currently claims few followers. Due to his emphasis on concreteness and his antipathy to abstraction in any form, Marcel’s writings are often misread as effeminate, unsophisticated, and lacking in philosophical rigor – even by continental standards! Unlike Derrida and other recent French writers, Marcel’s thought has failed to attract a subsequent generation of readers. This is unfortunate because Marcel’s thought is rich both in its content and its relevance to inter-disciplinary investigations. One aspect of Marcel’s thought that has yet to be explored is its relationship to classical American philosophy. The fact that American philosophy is driven by an appeal to experience in its rich dimensionality allows for an immediate synergy with Marcel’s thought. The purpose of this study is to present Marcel’s thought and its relation to three important American philosophers: Josiah Royce, William Hocking, and Henry Bugbee. 1 Gabriel Marcel, The Decline of Wisdom, trans. M. Harari (London: Harvill Press Ltd., 1954): 19. 2 Gabriel Marcel, Awakenings, trans. Peter Rogers (Marquette University Press, 2002): 211, 213. 2 The lines of connection between Marcel and these thinkers are various and rich. Few readers of Marcel are aware that the first philosophical position he embraced was objective idealism. This idealistic orientation gave Marcel a unique vantage point from which to understand and evaluate Royce’s thought. For this reason, the essays that comprise the Royce monograph – perhaps the least known of all Marcel’s writings – remain to this day a gold standard in Royce studies. Yet despite the idealistic tenor of his work on Royce, Marcel was clearly moving away from his idealistic orientation towards what he referred to as “metaphysical realism.” This shift in perspective was a direct result of his exposure to Hocking’s The Meaning of God in Human Experience – a monumental work emphasizing the primacy of intersubjective relations. Perhaps the closest thing to an American equivalent to Gabriel Marcel is Henry Bugbee. Marcel’s important notions of ontological exigence and secondary reflection are given concrete testimonial in Bugbee’s work, approaching a level of experiential intensity not seen in American thought since Edwards and Thoreau. According to Marcel, “Henry Bugbee and I inhabit the same land … [a land] illuminated by a light of its own.”3 § Thematic Orientation The religious dimension of experience provides an ideal theme around which to orient Marcel’s thought in its American context. Experience in its religious dimensionality
Recommended publications
  • Medieval Western Philosophy: the European Emergence
    Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9 History of Western Philosophy by George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence By Patrick J. Aspell The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy 1 Copyright © 1999 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Aspell, Patrick, J. Medieval western philosophy: the European emergence / Patrick J. Aspell. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol. 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title. III. Series. B721.A87 1997 97-20069 320.9171’7’090495—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-094-1 (pbk.) 2 Table of Contents Chronology of Events and Persons Significant in and beyond the History of Medieval Europe Preface xiii Part One: The Origins of Medieval Philosophy 1 Chapter I. Augustine: The Lover of Truth 5 Chapter II. Universals According to Boethius, Peter Abelard, and Other Dialecticians 57 Chapter III. Christian Neoplatoists: John Scotus Erigena and Anselm of Canterbury 73 Part Two: The Maturity of Medieval Philosophy Chronology 97 Chapter IV. Bonaventure: Philosopher of the Exemplar 101 Chapter V. Thomas Aquinas: Philosopher of the Existential Act 155 Part Three: Critical Reflection And Reconstruction 237 Chapter VI. John Duns Scotus: Metaphysician of Essence 243 Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • The Act of Presence
    The Act of Presence Key Readings from the Philosophy of Louis Lavelle translations, introduction, forewords and page-notes by Robert Jones All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1993-2010 by Robert Jones 20 Webb Court, Bingil Bay, Queensland, Australia 4852 No portion of the translations, introduction, forewords or page-notes may be reproduced by whatever means without permission of the copyright owner. ii All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1993-2009 by Robert Jones 20 Webb Court, Bingil Bay, Queensland, Australia 4852 No portion of the translations, introduction, forewords or page-notes may be reproduced by whatever means without permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1993-2010 by Robert Jones 20 Webb Court, Bingil Bay, Queensland, Australia 4852 No portion of the translations, introduction, forewords or page-notes may be reproduced by whatever means without permission of the copyright owner. iii For Philippe Chinkirch All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 1993-2010 by Robert Jones 20 Webb Court, Bingil Bay, Queensland, Australia 4852 No portion of the translations, introduction, forewords or page-notes may be reproduced by whatever means without permission of the copyright owner. iv Acknowledgments As signalled on the dedication page, main thanks go to my friend Philippe Chinkirch who introduced me to Lavelle during his stay in Australia in the early 1990’s. My first translations of the philosopher, most of them brief, date back to that time and were incorporated in various articles that appeared in the United States and Japan. Later, after M. Chinkirch had returned to Paris, he continued to feed my interest by sending hard-to- get texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St
    University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 4-16-2012 Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Krista, Hyde Dawn, "Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife" (2012). Theses. 261. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/261 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Krista Hyde M.L.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 2010 B.A., Philosophy, Southeast Missouri State University – Cape Girardeau, 2003 A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy April 2012 Advisory Committee Gualtiero Piccinini, Ph.D. Chair Jon McGinnis, Ph.D. John Brunero, Ph.D. Copyright, Krista Hyde, 2012 Abstract Thomas Aquinas nearly succeeds in addressing the persistent problem of the mind-body relationship by redefining the human being as a body-soul (matter-form) composite. This redefinition makes the interaction problem of substance dualism inapplicable, because there is no soul “in” a body. However, he works around the mind- body problem only by sacrificing an immaterial afterlife, as well as the identity and separability of the soul after death. Additionally, Thomistic psychology has difficulty accounting for the transmission of universals, nor does it seem able to overcome the arguments for causal closure.
    [Show full text]
  • Virulence and Digital Culture
    Virulence and Digital Culture Ryan E. Artrip Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In ASPECT: Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought François Debrix, Chair Timothy W. Luke Brian Britt Patricia Nickel April 18, 2016 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: Technology; Digitality; Digital Culture; Production; Information; Representation; Referentiality; Virtuality; Viral Media; Virulence; Sexuality; Linguistic Theory; Baudrillard; Hyperreality; Virtual Reality; Implosion; Critical Theory; Political Theory; Cultural Theory; Critical Media Studies; Poststructuralism; Epistemology; Ontology; Metaphysics Copyright 2016 Virulence and Digital Culture Ryan E. Artrip ABSTRACT (academic) This dissertation is a theoretical study of the role of virality/virulence as a predominant technological term in the reproduction of social and cultural information in the digital age. I argue that viral media are not new phenomena, only the name is new. Media have always behaved as viruses; it is only when they become hyper-intensified in digital technology that their virulent function surfaces in language and culture. The project examines processes of self-replication and evolution undergone by various new media phenomena as they relate back to the global profusion of social networks, data centers, and cybernetic practices. Drawing from several contributions in media theory, political and social theory, and critical media studies, I argue that digital media have a hyper-intensifying effect on whatever objects, subjects, or realities they mediate or represent; thus networked societies are virulently swarmed by their own signs and images in information. Through an examination of three primary categories of digital proliferation—language, visuality, and sexuality—I situate digital culture in a framework of virulence, arguing that the digital may be best understood as an effect of cultural hyper-saturation and implosion.
    [Show full text]
  • Haecceities, Quiddities, and Structure∗
    compiled on 18 December 2015 at 14:00 Haecceities, quiddities, and structure∗ Wolfgang Schwarz Draft, 18 December 2015 Abstract. Suppose all truths are made true by the distribution of funda- mental properties and relations over fundamental particulars. The world is then completely characterized by stating which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by which fundamental particulars. But do we have to mention the fundamental particulars by name? Arguably not. Arguably, all truths – or at least all truths we can ever know – are made true by the pattern in which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by fundamental particulars, irrespective of the identity (“haecceity”) of those particulars. Parallel arguments suggest that the identity (“quiddity”) of fundamental properties and relations can be omitted. It would follow that all truths (or all knowable truths) are made true by the abstract structure of the world, the pattern in which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by fundamental particulars, irrespective of the identity of the properties, relations, and particulars. I argue that this is almost correct: while not all truths are made true by the abstract structure of the world, the remaining truths are (in a certain sense) not made true by the world at all. 1 Introduction Most truths can be explained by other, more fundamental truths. That salt dissolves in water, for example, can be explained by the chemical composition of salt and water together with the general laws of physics. Explanations of this kind plausibly come to an end. At some point we reach a bottom level of fundamental facts that are not explainable in terms of anything more basic.
    [Show full text]
  • The Clever Body
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2006 The Clever Body Csepregi, Gabor University of Calgary Press Csepregi, Gabor. "The Clever Body", University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/48917 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca University of Calgary Press www.uofcpress.com THE CLEVER BODY by Gabor Csepregi ISBN 978-1-55238-594-4 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This open-access work is published under a Creative Commons licence. This means that you are free to copy, distribute, display or perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to its authors and publisher, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form, and that you in no way alter, transform, or build on the work outside of its use in normal academic scholarship without our express permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Metaphysics Today and Tomorrow*
    1 Metaphysics Today and Tomorrow* Raphaël Millière École normale supérieure, Paris – October 2011 Translated by Mark Ohm with the assistance of Leah Orth, Jon Cogburn, and Emily Beck Cogburn “By metaphysics, I do not mean those abstract considerations of certain imaginary properties, the principal use of which is to furnish the wherewithal for endless dispute to those who want to dispute. By this science I mean the general truths which can serve as principles for the particular sciences.” Malebranche Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion 1. The interminable agony of metaphysics Throughout the twentieth century, numerous philosophers sounded the death knell of metaphysics. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, Martin Heidegger, Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, and, henceforth, Hilary Putnam: a great many tutelary figures have extolled the rejection, the exceeding, the elimination, or the deconstruction of first philosophy. All these necrological chronicles do not have the same radiance, the same seriousness, nor the same motivations, but they all agree to dismiss the discipline, which in the past was considered “the queen of the sciences”, with a violence at times comparable to the prestige it commanded at the time of its impunity. Even today, certain philosophers hastily spread the tragic news with contempt for philosophical inquiry, as if its grave solemnity bestowed upon it some obviousness. Thus, Franco Volpi writes: ‘Grand metaphysics is dead!’ is the slogan which applies to the majority of contemporary philosophers, whether continentals or of analytic profession. They all treat metaphysics as a dead dog.1 In this way, the “path of modern thought” would declare itself vociferously “anti- metaphysical and finally post-metaphysical”.
    [Show full text]
  • Depopulation: on the Logic of Heidegger's Volk
    Research research in phenomenology 47 (2017) 297–330 in Phenomenology brill.com/rp Depopulation: On the Logic of Heidegger’s Volk Nicolai Krejberg Knudsen Aarhus University [email protected] Abstract This article provides a detailed analysis of the function of the notion of Volk in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy. At first glance, this term is an appeal to the revolutionary mass- es of the National Socialist revolution in a way that demarcates a distinction between the rootedness of the German People (capital “P”) and the rootlessness of the modern rabble (or people). But this distinction is not a sufficient explanation of Heidegger’s position, because Heidegger simultaneously seems to hold that even the Germans are characterized by a lack of identity. What is required is a further appropriation of the proper. My suggestion is that this logic of the Volk is not only useful for understanding Heidegger’s thought during the war, but also an indication of what happened after he lost faith in the National Socialist movement and thus had to make the lack of the People the basis of his thought. Keywords Heidegger – Nazism – Schwarze Hefte – Black Notebooks – Volk – people Introduction In § 74 of Sein und Zeit, Heidegger introduces the notorious term “the People” [das Volk]. For Heidegger, this term functions as the intersection between phi- losophy and politics and, consequently, it preoccupies him throughout the turbulent years from the National Socialist revolution in 1933 to the end of WWII in 1945. The shift from individual Dasein to the Dasein of the German People has often been noted as the very point at which Heidegger’s fundamen- tal ontology intersects with his disastrous political views.
    [Show full text]
  • 52 Philosophy in a Dark Time: Martin Heidegger and the Third Reich
    52 Philosophy in a Dark Time: Martin Heidegger and the Third Reich TIMOTHY O’HAGAN Like Oscar Wilde I can resist everything except temptation. So when I re- ceived Anne Meylan’s tempting invitation to contribute to this Festschrift for Pascal Engel I accepted without hesitation, before I had time to think whether I had anything for the occasion. Finally I suggested to Anne the text of a pub- lic lecture which I delivered in 2008 and which I had shown to Pascal, who responded to it with his customary enthusiasm and barrage of papers of his own on similar topics. But when I re-read it, I realized that it had been written for the general public rather than the professional philosophers who would be likely to read this collection of essays. So what was I to do with it? I’ve decided to present it in two parts. In Part One I reproduce the original lecture, unchanged except for a few minor corrections. In Part Two I engage with a tiny fraction of the vast secondary literature which has built up over the years and which shows no sign of abating. 1. Part One: The 2008 Lecture Curtain-Raiser Let us start with two dates, 1927 and 1933. In 1927 Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (volume II) was published. So too was Martin Heidegger’s magnum opus Being and Time. In 1933 two appointments were made: Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich and Heidegger as Rector of Freiburg University. In 1927 it was a case of sheer coincidence; in 1933 the two events were closely linked.
    [Show full text]
  • The Univocity of Substance and the Formal Distinction of Attributes: the Role of Duns Scotus in Deleuze's Reading of Spinoza Nathan Widder
    parrhesia 33 · 2020 · 150-176 the univocity of substance and the formal distinction of attributes: the role of duns scotus in deleuze's reading of spinoza nathan widder This paper examines the role played by medieval theologian John Duns Scotus in Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of expressive substance; more generally, it elaborates a crucial moment in the development of Deleuze’s philosophy of sense and difference. Deleuze contends that Spinoza adapts and extends Duns Scotus’s two most influential theses, the univocity of being and formal distinction, despite neither appearing explicitly in Spinoza’s writings. “It takes nothing away from Spinoza’s originality,” Deleuze declares, “to place him in a perspective that may already be found in Duns Scotus” (Deleuze, 1992, 49).1 Nevertheless, the historiographic evidence is clearly lacking, leaving Deleuze to admit that “it is hardly likely that” Spinoza had even read Duns Scotus (359n28). Indeed, the only support he musters for his speculation is Spinoza’s obvious in- terests in scholastic metaphysical and logical treatises, the “probable influence” of the Scotist-informed Franciscan priest Juan de Prado on his thought, and the fact that the problems Duns Scotus addresses need not be confined to Christian thought (359–360n28). The paucity of evidence supporting this “use and abuse” of history, however, does not necessarily defeat the thesis. Like other lineages Deleuze proposes, the one he traces from Duns Scotus to Spinoza, and subsequently to Nietzsche, turns not on establishing intentional references by one thinker to his predecessor, but instead on showing how the borrowings and adaptations asserted to create the connec- tion make sense of the way the second philosopher surmounts blockages he faces while responding to issues left unaddressed by the first.
    [Show full text]
  • Situating Martin Heidegger's Claim to a “Productive Dialogue” with Marxism
    South African Journal of Philosophy ISSN: 0258-0136 (Print) 2073-4867 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsph20 Situating Martin Heidegger's claim to a “productive dialogue” with Marxism Dominic Griffiths To cite this article: Dominic Griffiths (2017) Situating Martin Heidegger's claim to a “productive dialogue” with Marxism, South African Journal of Philosophy, 36:4, 483-494, DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2017.1342464 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2017.1342464 Published online: 26 Nov 2017. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsph20 Download by: [169.0.16.25] Date: 26 November 2017, At: 22:35 South African Journal of Philosophy 2017, 36(4): 483–494 Copyright © South African Journal of Philosophy Printed in South Africa — All rights reserved SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY ISSN 0258-0136 EISSN 2073-4867 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2017.1342464 Situating Martin Heidegger’s claim to a “productive dialogue” with Marxism Dominic Griffiths Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa Division of Studies in Education, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa [email protected] This critical review aims to more fully situate the claim Martin Heidegger makes in “Letter on Humanism” that a “productive dialogue” between his work and that of Karl Marx is possible. The prompt for this is Paul Laurence Hemming’s recently published Heidegger and Marx: A Productive Dialogue over the Language of Humanism which omits to fully account for the historical situation which motivated Heidegger’s seemingly positive endorsement of Marxism.
    [Show full text]
  • Aquinas' Principle of Individuation
    Aquinas' Principle of Individuation Patrick W. Hughes Denison University Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Thirteenth Century Catholic theologian and philosopher was one of the first Medieval philosophers to attempt to reconcile the newly re-introduced Aristotelian system with the Catholic religious thought ofthe day. Aquinas' numerous commentaries on Aristotle and his adoption of the Aristotelian thought form the basis for the whole of Aquinian metaphysics (as well as the basic Aristotileanism which pervades Aquinas' whole systematic philosophy), In this paper I will deal with a specific yet fundamental principle ofAquinianmetaphysics-the principle of individuation. On first reading of the Aquinian texts, the principle of individuation appears to be stated succinctly, yet further investigation into the concept of individuation reveals problems and ambiguities. As it is necessary for an understanding of the problem of individuation in the Aquinian system, I will start off with the basic ontology ofAquinas and then will proceed with one interpretation of the ambiguities which exist in the texts regarding the principle of individuation. I will then give a counter interpretation that Aquinas might level against my interpretation and the problems ofmy interpretation; finally, I will analyze any problems that arise from the Aquinian response. 1. Primary Substance in Aristotle and Aquinas The difficulty in dealing with systematic philosophy is that it is difficult to know where to begin, since each concept is built upon previous concepts and all of the concepts are fundamentally interrelated. Neverthe­ less, I shall start by explicating Aquinas' fundamental ontology. Aquinas, following Aristotle, points out that the world is made up of individual things-or what Aquinas calls "primary substances", Socrates, Rover, and the pine tree in my yard are all existing individual primary substances in the world.
    [Show full text]