The history of western philosophy offers few contrasts so fruitful as that of Plato and Aristotle... more The history of western philosophy offers few contrasts so fruitful as that of Plato and Aristotle. In particular, their respective teachings on the nature of universals has fascinated thinkers and theologians for millennia, leading the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges to remark in one of his short stories:
Immanuel Kant's groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 shattered the c... more Immanuel Kant's groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 shattered the crystalline intellectual chandeliers of the Enlightenment and brought the age of philosophical optimism to a crashing conclusion. Pangloss' certainty that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" was replaced by the post-Kantian conviction that, although this is not logically impossible, any assertion about it exceeds the human being's limits of knowledge. 1 Kant's critical revolution in philosophy consisted in his recognition of the epistemological contingency of subject and object. In establishing such an ontological reciprocality between experience and its subject, Kant also removed from the scope of human apprehension the possibility to cognise reality as such, without relation to a subject. Kant called the latter the noumenon, or "der Ding an sich." This designation appears in contrast to the phenomenon, which is to say, the object as it manifests to subjective cognition. In relegating human knowledge to the world of appearance, Kant cast out the 1 From Voltaire's Candide, in which the character Pangloss presents Leibnizian optimism in satirical stereotype of the Enlightenment naïveté.
Max Leyf Fall 2018 The Metamorphosis of the Idea: Goethe & Science With the voice of one crying i... more Max Leyf Fall 2018 The Metamorphosis of the Idea: Goethe & Science With the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Nietzsche announced the death of God. In the great panorama of history, Nietzsche's admonition in the end of the nineteenth century appears as the counterimage of John the Baptist's storied enunciation of God's first advent in the flesh, which the former had issued nearly two thousand years prior to Nietzsche's time. With the apocalyptic prophecy, Nietzsche both signalled the end of the epoch that his counterpart had fortold, and sounded the keynote for the one to come. In a characteristically sui generis demonstration of prescience, provocation, and discernment, Nietzsche diagnosed the postmodern descent into relativity, confusion, and finally into meaninglessness: What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Nietzsche's expressive image of an earth " unchained from [its] sun " immediately invokes the demise of the Ptolemaic conception of the universe at the hands of Copernicus' heliocentric doctrine. It also presents, by extension, an allusion to Immanuel Kant's self-described " second Copernican Revolution, " articulated in 1781 with the groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason. A century before Nietzsche's diagnosis, Kant had asserted a fundamental rift between the world and its knowability. For thousands of years before Kant's time, human beings had looked to the stars for reassurance of divine order, and furthermore had trusted in their looking. The acceptance of the Copernican model had shattered this paradigm of cosmic harmony. During the period to follow, the gradual assimilation of Kant's sceptical epistemology had undermined all trust in cosmic truth. A superficial evaluation of the Copernican Revolution might lead one to conclude that, by ousting the Earth from her central station, it had put an end to celestial evidence of human self-importance. In fact, however, the old geocentric universe had assured Ancient and Mediaeval man that the Earth was not supreme, but lowest in the celestial hierarchy. The wandering stars, like buoys afloat on a cosmic sea, demarcated nested spheres of divine intelligence. The latter encompassed and kept watch over the Earth at their center. In this light, one can appreciate the true significance of the Copernican Revolution: a symbol of twilight not of anthropocentric illusions, but of the conviction that the universe made sense. By dividing reality from experience, Kant's doctrine of critical idealism represented a consummation of this nightfall. The Earth was cut off from cosmic harmony by Copernicus; the mind cut off from the Earth by Kant. With characteristic perspicacity, Nietzsche noted and enunciated this " straying, as though through an infinite nothing. " The twin Copernican Revolutions, astronomical and epistemological, represented historic landmarks in this darkling trend. The physicist Steven Weinberg has recently offered a most expressive articulation of its present state. In contrast to the Great Chain of Being, the scala naturae , of Ancient and Mediaeval thinkers, in 1988 Weinberg describes the universe as a " a chain of accidents…a more-or-less farcical outcome...reaching back
The history of western philosophy offers few contrasts so fruitful as that of Plato and Aristotle... more The history of western philosophy offers few contrasts so fruitful as that of Plato and Aristotle. In particular, their respective teachings on the nature of universals has fascinated thinkers and theologians for millennia, leading the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges to remark in one of his short stories:
Immanuel Kant's groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 shattered the c... more Immanuel Kant's groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 shattered the crystalline intellectual chandeliers of the Enlightenment and brought the age of philosophical optimism to a crashing conclusion. Pangloss' certainty that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" was replaced by the post-Kantian conviction that, although this is not logically impossible, any assertion about it exceeds the human being's limits of knowledge. 1 Kant's critical revolution in philosophy consisted in his recognition of the epistemological contingency of subject and object. In establishing such an ontological reciprocality between experience and its subject, Kant also removed from the scope of human apprehension the possibility to cognise reality as such, without relation to a subject. Kant called the latter the noumenon, or "der Ding an sich." This designation appears in contrast to the phenomenon, which is to say, the object as it manifests to subjective cognition. In relegating human knowledge to the world of appearance, Kant cast out the 1 From Voltaire's Candide, in which the character Pangloss presents Leibnizian optimism in satirical stereotype of the Enlightenment naïveté.
Max Leyf Fall 2018 The Metamorphosis of the Idea: Goethe & Science With the voice of one crying i... more Max Leyf Fall 2018 The Metamorphosis of the Idea: Goethe & Science With the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Nietzsche announced the death of God. In the great panorama of history, Nietzsche's admonition in the end of the nineteenth century appears as the counterimage of John the Baptist's storied enunciation of God's first advent in the flesh, which the former had issued nearly two thousand years prior to Nietzsche's time. With the apocalyptic prophecy, Nietzsche both signalled the end of the epoch that his counterpart had fortold, and sounded the keynote for the one to come. In a characteristically sui generis demonstration of prescience, provocation, and discernment, Nietzsche diagnosed the postmodern descent into relativity, confusion, and finally into meaninglessness: What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Nietzsche's expressive image of an earth " unchained from [its] sun " immediately invokes the demise of the Ptolemaic conception of the universe at the hands of Copernicus' heliocentric doctrine. It also presents, by extension, an allusion to Immanuel Kant's self-described " second Copernican Revolution, " articulated in 1781 with the groundbreaking publication of The Critique of Pure Reason. A century before Nietzsche's diagnosis, Kant had asserted a fundamental rift between the world and its knowability. For thousands of years before Kant's time, human beings had looked to the stars for reassurance of divine order, and furthermore had trusted in their looking. The acceptance of the Copernican model had shattered this paradigm of cosmic harmony. During the period to follow, the gradual assimilation of Kant's sceptical epistemology had undermined all trust in cosmic truth. A superficial evaluation of the Copernican Revolution might lead one to conclude that, by ousting the Earth from her central station, it had put an end to celestial evidence of human self-importance. In fact, however, the old geocentric universe had assured Ancient and Mediaeval man that the Earth was not supreme, but lowest in the celestial hierarchy. The wandering stars, like buoys afloat on a cosmic sea, demarcated nested spheres of divine intelligence. The latter encompassed and kept watch over the Earth at their center. In this light, one can appreciate the true significance of the Copernican Revolution: a symbol of twilight not of anthropocentric illusions, but of the conviction that the universe made sense. By dividing reality from experience, Kant's doctrine of critical idealism represented a consummation of this nightfall. The Earth was cut off from cosmic harmony by Copernicus; the mind cut off from the Earth by Kant. With characteristic perspicacity, Nietzsche noted and enunciated this " straying, as though through an infinite nothing. " The twin Copernican Revolutions, astronomical and epistemological, represented historic landmarks in this darkling trend. The physicist Steven Weinberg has recently offered a most expressive articulation of its present state. In contrast to the Great Chain of Being, the scala naturae , of Ancient and Mediaeval thinkers, in 1988 Weinberg describes the universe as a " a chain of accidents…a more-or-less farcical outcome...reaching back
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