From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology [2 ed.]

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BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY

ANTHOLOGIES

im

Expanded Second Edition

Edited by

Lawrence Cahoone

odernism An A^Kology Blackweir PubMshfing

^^'

k

From Modernism to Postmodernism

BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY ANTHOLOGIES Each volume in

this

outstanding series provides an authoritative and comprehensive

collection of the essential to

complement the

primary readings from philosophy's main

fields of study.

Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, each

unparalleled resource in

its

own right, and will provide the ideal platform for course use.

1

Cottingham: Western Philosophy:

2

Cahoone: From Modernism

to

3

LaFollette: Ethics in Practice:

4

Goodin and

Pettit:

Designed

volume represents an

An Anthology An Anthology (expanded second edition)

Postmodernism:

An Anthology (second edition) Political Philosophy: An Anthology

Contemporary

An Anthology

5

Eze: African Philosophy:

6

An Anthology An Anthology Lycan: Mind and Cognition: An Anthology (second edition) Kuhse and Singer: Bioethics: An Anthology Cummins and Cimmuns: Minds, Brains, and Computers - The Foundations of Cognitive Science: An Anthology Sosa and Kim: Epistemology: An Anthology Kearney and Rasmussen: Continental Aesthetics - Romanticism to Postmodernism: An

7 8 9 10

11

12

McNeill and Feldman: Continental Philosophy:

Kim and

Sosa: Metaphysics:

Anthology

An Anthology An Anthology Jacquette: Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology Harris, Pratt, and Waters: American Philosophies: An Anthology Emmanuel and Goold: Modem Philosophy - From Descartes to Nietzsche: An Anthology Scharff and Dusek: Philosophy of Technology - The Technological Condition: An Anthology Light and Rolston: Environmental Ethics: An Anthology Taliaferro and Griffiths: Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology Lamarque and Olsen: Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art - The Analytic Tradition: An

13 Martinich

and

Sosa: Analytic Philosophy:

14 Jacquette: Philosophy of Logic: 15

16

17 18 19

20 21

Anthology

22 John and Lopes: Philosophy of Literature - Contemporary and Classic Readings: 23

Cudd and Andreasen:

Feminist Theory:

24 CarroU and Choi: Philosophy of Film:

A Philosophical Anthology

An Anthology

An Anthology

From Modernism to Postmodernism An Anthology

Expanded Second Edition

Edited by

Lawrence Cahoone

^&k ^€/

Blackwell Publishing

/

Editorial material

and organization

BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Maiden,

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This expanded second edition published 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

2008

6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

From modernism p.

cm.

—

to

postmodernism: an anthology

/

edited by Lawrence

Cahoone

—

2nd

ed.

(Blackwell philosophy anthologies; 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.

Postmodernism. L Cahoone, Lawrence

E.,

1954- IL Series.

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5

Contents

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

x

Introduction

1

Part

Modern

I

Civilization

Introduction to Part 1

From

and

its

Critics

1

I

17

Meditations on First Philosophy

19

RENE DESCARTES 2

3

From

A

DAVID

HUME

From

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts

Treatise on

Human

Nature

27

32

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU 4

From The

Theory of Moral Sentiments

38

ADAM SMITH 5

"An Answer From

to the Question:

'What

is

Enlightenment?'

"

45

49

the Preface to Critique of Pure Reason

IMMANUEL KANT 6

From

54

Refections on the Revolution in France

EDMUND BURKE 7

From

Sketch for an Historical Picture of the Progress of the

Human Mind

63

MARQUIS DE CONDORCET 8

"Absolute Freedom and Terror" G.

9

W.

F.

70

HEGEL

"Bourgeois and Proletarians"

75

KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS

CZ)

Contents

Part

II

10

From

Modernity Realized

Introduction to Part 77?^ Origin

83

II

85

of Species

88

CHARLES DARWIN 11

From "The

Modern

Painter of

Life"

96

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE 12

From "How CHARLES

13

Make Our

to

Ideas Clear"

102

PEIRCE

S.

"On Truth and

Lies in a

Nonmoral Sense"

109

"The Madman"

"How

116

the 'True World' Finally

Became

a

Fable"

1

The Dionysian World

17

117

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE 14

"The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism" FILIPPO

15

From

118

TOMMASO MARINETTI

Course in General Linguistics

122

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE 16

From "Science

Vocation"

127

New Architecture

132

as a

MAX WEBER 17

From Towards

a

LE CORBUSIER 18

"Lecture on Ethics"

139

From

143

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN 19

From

Civilization

and

its

144

Discontents

SIGMUND FREUD 20

From The

Crisis

of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology

149

EDMUND HUSSERL 21

From

Dialectic

159

of Enlightenment

MAX HORKHEIMER AND THEODOR ADORNO 22

From

169

"Existentialism"

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE 23

"Letter on

Humanism"

174

MARTIN HEIDEGGER 24

"The Mirror

Stage as Formative of the Function of the

I

as

Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience"

195

JACQUES LACAN 25

From "The Nature and THOMAS KUHN

c^

Necessity of Scientific Revolutions"

200

Contents lU

I'loin

DWIll

Part

lUl.i.

Postmodernism and the Rc-c\aIuaiioii of Modcriiit>

III

Iniioiiuclioii to P.M

27

lthlnstn(tl Stnicty

I he- (^(irninii (ij I*osl

I

IV) 221

111

I'rciich Post-St met lira! ism

224

"'DiJJtruncc''

225

r^ACQl KS DKRRIDA

28

"Nict/schc, Cicncalog)

From

,

I

listory"

241

"'IVulh and Power"

252

MICHEL FOl'CAULT 20

"The Sex Which

is

Not One"

254

LUCE IRIGARAV 30

From The

Postmodern Condition:

A

Report on Knowledge

259

JEAN-FRAN9OIS LYOTARD 31

From

''1227: Treatise

on Nomadology - The

War Machine"

278

DELEUZE and FELIX GLATTARI

Y,>.4l«>**''*-*i

Baudelaire, Charles, from

R W

I'uturism" (trans

.Straus &: (Jirouv, Inc

of Spenes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 19*^6.

ol

Selected Writings (ed. R.

3W 44

from chapter and

not

eilitor's

Toininaso, " Ihe i'ound-

lilippo

Manifesto

M\^.\

xolunu-

this

is

Mini ami Arthur W. (^ippoielli) from Mar-

("Stru;^u;le

and from

section

\larinetti,

ing

Norton \

7.^;

()7

("Recapitulation

14

Niet/sche's,

ifhtti: .>

4, 62 6;

lor lAistence"), pp. 51

fourth

jip

Conip.un,

WW

ol

4 ("Natural Selection"), pp.

sion"), pp. .>7i,

c\;

ilu-

(opxriglii

I*)7S.

from chajMer

l)ar\Nin, Charles,

chapter

edition),

Norton

Inc.

1(1

Tucker (ed),

Reader (second

New

473 S.V

Robert C.

in

lintels

.W

.

Norton

&:

Used by Company,

Inc.;

20

Husserl,

Edmund,

Part One, section 'S-S, pp.

7-14 and Part Two, section 9h-91, pp. 48-59 from The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (trans. David

1967 by Walter

Carr).

Evanston:

Kaufmann. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. * Note that the title given to this

Press,

1970.

Northwestern

Reprinted

by

University

permission

of

Northwestern University Press;

C^

Acknowledgments 21

Max

Horkheimer,

Theodor Adorno,

and

28

ogy, History" (trans.

and Morality," pp. 81-93,

Memory,

Dialectic

in

Enlightenment (trans. John Gumming).

of

New

Ithaca:

Bernard Frechtman)

(trans.

and

Human

New

versity Press; [B]

York: Citadel 1985. Copyright

©

view by Alessandro Fontana and Pasquale

1957,

Pasquino

by

Knowledge:

Publishing

Carol

Writings

Humanism"

Heidegger, Martin, "Letter on

Frank A. Capuzzi, with

David

Farrell Krell, ed.

New

193-242.

pp.

J.

David

&

Row,

&

Row,

C

1977

29

Publishers, Inc. General

©

copyright

1977 by David Farrell

"The Mirror

Selection,

trans,

by

The

Pantheon

Books,

Random

of

division

a

Inc.;

Irigaray,

Luce,

"The Sex Which

is

Not One"

New

from

Claudia Reeder)

French

Courtivron),

New

York: Schoken, 1981, pp.

©

Editions de Minuit,

Alan

30

in

Ecrits:

Sheridan,

Lyotard,

A

Introduction

Jean-Francois,

xxiii-xxv).

Sections 9-11

(pp.

31^7), and

(pp.

Section 14 (pp. 64—7) from The Postmodern

New

Condition:

A

Report

Knowledge

on

(trans.

Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi). Min-

1977, chap-

Minnesota

neapoHs:

Kuhn, Thomas, "The Nature and Necessity

1984. Originally published in France as

of Scientific Revolutions," chapter IX, pp.

condition postmoderne:

92-110, from The Structure of Scientific Revo-

Copyright

Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1962. Copyright sity

©

1962, 1970

uit,

The Univer-

of Chicago. Reprinted by permission of

Daniel,

Bell,

New

York: Basic Books, 1976. Copyright

1976 by Daniel

Bell.

of Basic Books,

La

savoir.

and foreword

1984 by the University of Min-

by permission of the Uni-

Minnesota and by kind permission

of Manchester University Press; 31

Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari, from "1227: Treatise on Nomadology -

©

The War

Machine," chapter 12 of A Thousand Plateaus

Reprinted by permission

a division

©

le

Press,

1979 by Les Editions de Min-

nesota. Reprinted

The

Society, pp. ix-xxii.

©

rapport sur

Paris. English translation

versity of

1976" from

"Foreword:

Coming of Post-Industrial

of

University

copyright

University of Chicago Press;

27

1980 by

ter one, pp. 1-7;

lutions.

26

©

Used by permission of

Press.

99-106. Copyright

Revealed in

as

W.W. Norton & Company,

York:

25

Stage as FormaI

Experience,"

Psychoanalytic

1972, 1975, 1976, 1977 by Michel

Paris;

of the Function of the

tive

Other

Feminisms (ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de

Collins Publishers, Inc.;

Jacques Lacan,

and

Colin Gordon). Copy-

(ed.

Harvester

(trans.

Reprinted by permission of Harper-

Krell.

Interviews

Selected

1972-77

©

House,

introduction and introductions to each selection

Colin Gordon) in Power/

(trans.

Foucault. This collection

Farrell Krell),

1977. English translation copyright

by Harper

right

(trans.

Glenn Gray and

York: Harper

from "Truth and Power,"

pp. 131-3, answer to final question of inter-

1985 by Philosophical Library, Inc. Pubhshed with

1977 Cornell University. Used

in Existentialism

Emotions^ pp. 15-24 and 46-51.

arrangement

Cornell University Press, 1977.

©

by permission of the publisher, Cornell Uni-

from Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings

24

NY:

Inter-

F. Bouchard), pp. 139-64.

"Existentialism"

Group; 23

Donald

Copyright

from

Jean-Paul,

and

Practise: Selected Essays

views (ed.

tinuum Publishing Group; Sartre,

Donald F. Bouchard

and Sherry Simon), from Language, Counter-

The Con-

York: Seabury, 1972. Copyright C

22

Foucault, Michel: [A] "Nietzsche, Geneal-

from "The Concept of Enlightenment," pp. 23-9, and from "Juliette, or Enlightenment

of HarperCollins

(trans.

Brian Massumi), pp. 351-5, 361-2,

Publishers, Inc.;

366-7, 369-71, 380-9, 416-18, 420-3.

Derrida, Jacques, "Differance," pp. 129-60

neapolis:

University

©

Minnesota

of

MinPress,

1987 by the University

in Speech

and Phenomena and Other Essays on

1987. Copyright

HusserVs

Theory of Signs (trans. David B.

of Minnesota Press. Originally published as

Allison). Evanston:

Mille Plateaux, volume 2 of Capita Iisme

Northwestern University

et

Schizophrenic. Copyright

©

Northwestern University Press. This transla-

tions de Minuit,

and Athlone Press,

tion includes the introduction to the original

London;

Press,

1973.

Reprinted

by permission

1968 lecture by Derrida (the graphs);

(^

first five

of

para-

32

Cornel

West,

Paris

1980 by Les Edi-

"A Genealogy

Racism," chapter four of

of

Modern

his Prophesy Deli-

Acknowledgments vcrutm!

In

U>S2, pp. 47

Press,

W est.

by C.ornel

I'oster,

mils:

1WS2

(

W est-

Cultural Poltttis, pp.

115.

New

that

illustrations

New

The

York:

Press, l^S.v

1^)1

Gayatri

C'.hakravori\,

29+-313 from

4,

Marxism and

Speak.'" in Culture

Nelson

Gary

(ed.

the hiterpretatiun

cism

chapter

gies,"

Gornell

141-61

pp.

6,

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Feminism.

in

University

from

The

Ithaca,

NY:

1986 by Gornell University. Published

|:

the

Open

tion of

pp. 97-118 from

43

5

New

York

New

sity

44

of Difference.

5 in Justice

and

45

4"

1990

Giroux, Henry A., "Towards

Postmodernism, Feminism and Cultural

1991. Gopyright

University of

New

Butler,

(

1984 by the University of Ghi-

Jencks, Gharles: [A]

"The Death of Modern

9-10 from The Language

New

York:

Ri/.-

1986; [B] from chapter 2 (pp. 14-20) and

\\ iley

46

New

Reproduced by permission of John

&

Sons Limited;

Haraway, Donna, pp. 190-6, 203-7, and 21233 from "A Manifesto for Gyborgs: Science,

Technology and 1980s"

in

Socialist

Feminism

in

Feminism/ Postmodernism

Linda Nicholson). London and

New York

New

the (ed.

York:

Routledge, 1990. Reprinted by permission of

Press;

39

115-20.

of (>hicago Press;

1986.

to

York. Reprinted by per-

mission of State University of

Postmodern

from chapter 7 (pp. 57 9) of What is PostLondon: Academy Editions,

1991 State

(

A

103-7, and

Modernism?

Politics.,

pp. 45-55. Albany: State University of

Erring:

Rorty, Richard, "Solidarity or Objectivity.-"

zoli,

Postmodern

a

Pedagogy," section of the Introduction

6-13,

of Post-.Modern Architecture.

Princeton

Princeton:

pp.

.Architecture," pp.

the

permission of Princeton University Press;

Press,

mart

la

el

pp. 3-19, from Post- Analytic Philosophy (ed.

by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by

York

()riginall\

John Rajchman and Gomel \\ est). New York: Golumbia University Press, 1985;

Marion, pp. \11-A, 136-48, 152-

University Press, 1990. Gopyright

38

1993.

Editions Gallimard, Paris. Re-

Mark G, from

Taylor,

Gopyright

and the author;

of Identity," chapter

Politics

Ciane

.Mike

Sage Publi-


.S4),

aiul

humanitarian policy, whose abstract grids undercut

Mirror

n/

mechanisms by which urban neighbor-

hoods had traditionally maintained themselves

Then

viable communities.

m

ami Contrudictiim

as

in 1^)6() in his (lomplcxity

Architecture Robert

Venturi

communication requires

insisted that architectural

not simplicity but complexity and even contradiction.

.Modernism's search (or

style

had been summarized by Mies van der Rohe\s

slogan "less "less

is

more,"

is

to

a

simplified uni\ocal

which

\ cnturi replied

come both

bore." In the decade to

a

modernist style and the idea of

through uniform, technocratic, top-down solutions increasingly

fell

out of favor. Alternately, other

architectural theorists, including Peter

and Bernard Tschumi, structuralist

methods

modernism

transcend

to

Eisenman

employed post-

explicitly

while avoiding what they regarded as Venturi's capitulation

the

to

popular building trends of

mass capitalism.

Not

other radical changes almost too numerous to recount: the end of the

colonialism after

last

vestiges of

World War

II,

European

the development

of mass communications and a media culture in the

advanced industrial countries, the rapid modern-

much

ization of

of the non- Western w orld, and the

shrinking of the globe by international marketing,

telecommunications, and intercontinental missiles. In

many

\\ estern

nations there was a significant

delegitimation of authority, most prominently seen in

the

political

explosion of students

around the world, culminating

USA,

Paris, Prague,

ends, to be sure).

among

the

young

virtually

1968

in

in

the

and China (towards different

The

revolt against authority

educated,

about-to-be-

or

educated, classes was profound.

It

was

in

this

highly charged university setting, within an increasingly

ernism

complex

postmod-

social context, that

in the strictest sense

among some younger

was born

professors.

in

The

France

attack of

(lotulttmn:

Richard

Report

I

.

Philosophy and the

Rorty's

not

(l'>79).

I'he

last,

the dexelopments of post-Heideggerian (Continen-

philosophy and post-\\ ittgensteinian analytic

tal

philosophy were converging on

Rorty

anti-foundationalism.

American albeit

kind of pragmatic

a

representati\e

postmodernism,

of

pragmatic garb, giving "postmodern"

in

meaning

seemed

arms, on all

to resonate with the post-structuralist cri-

tradition.

We must

caution, of course, that

not the onl) philosophical

is

istti

postmodernism

recent l\ to rebel

against what might be considered the strains of

In the late 1970s, three books galvanized postas a

movement; Charles Jencks's

dominant

modern thought. As postmodernism de-

veloped, others responded to the problems of late

twentieth-century society and culture with

a call for

This "pre-

a return to traditional cultural forms.

modernism" can be seen in the widespread political conservatism that first emerged in the 1980s, the nity

moral regeneration, for

and

a return to

commu-

re-emergence of nationalism

religion, the

and ethnic tribalism, and religious fundamentalism (especially Islamic,

Hindu, and Christian). Alasdair

Maclntyre put the issue ideals are suspect, then

starkly: if

we

"Nietzsche or Aristotle," a

which

in the

postmodern-

a leap into

West means

either ancient

Greek

Judeo-Christian notions. In political theory, the

'spremodernist" >(.

Enlightenment w ith the choice

reincoporation of premodern principles,

ism or

,xr

are left

elements

of conservatism

-mmunitarianism echoed,

\^ji

global

in

far

and

milder tones,

resurgence of nativism, nationalism,

aitd militant

fundamentalism that began with the

Iranian Revolution of 1980 and was accelerated in

the Balkans and Central Asia after the

Sc

iet

"Nietzsche or Aristotle" reverse

order)

by

McW orld,"

is

theorist

opposition,

Jiirgen

Benjamin

"Jihad

versus

the postmodern global service econ-

omy and mass

modern

of the

thus matched (albeit in

political

Barber's geo-political

like

fall

empire. Maclntyre's philosophical choice

culture versus an anti-modern trad-

fundamentalism, and/or nationalism.

Habermas, continue

to

intellectuals,

defend the

legacy of rationalism and liberal individu-

alism by developing a non-foundational version of

tique of Reason and Authority.

modernism

a

philosophers outside the l,uro|)ean

for

At the same time, of course, other

its

Vietnam,

became an

thereby

the university that was literally one of in

7'he

KnowleJiie,

that

\iitnre

itionalism,

on the American war

1977), Jean-

on

Parisian students on the French government, on

capitalism, and

(

while

call for

mention that society was undergoing

to

Irihitciture

emploNing the term "postmodern," argued

the

reform

social

.

savnir (1979; I'nglish translation:

Pnstnnu/ertt

anti-urban, anti-human impulses of this alleged

the social

MtiJcrn

Francois Fyotard's Im CimJitwn PostmoJeme: rap-

77?^

Enlightenment thought. Their reformed "pro-

modernism" seeks

to obviate either a fearful return

CT)

Introduction to the

premodern past or an impulsive leap

postmodern

Thus ends our

how postmodernism

insist,

what

and

it

means

de-

two separate

are

understand what

first

whose decline postmodernism announces.

must gain some understanding of what

is

it

We

meant

by modernity.

makes the precise

latter

consciousness rather

Modern? derived from the Latin modo,

distinguished from earlier times.

and places

history. It

is still

used in this

current, as

is

has been used

It

to distinguish con-

temporary from traditional ways, and can refer to any sphere of

cares about

science,

is

ma-

expectancy; the rest

life

we should never

is

unimport-

lose sight of these

and material advances. But here

the American sociologist Peter Berger asks the right

simply means "of today" or what

in various periods

modern

chines, industrialization, advanced living standards

we simply

question: are

The term "modern,"

"Who

to say,

What makes modernity modern and expanded

is

definition of the

difficult.

One may be tempted

essential practical

What

dem-

certainly unpreced-

the non-technological components of modernity?

ant." Certainly

II

is

ented, the complex and interpretive nature of the

meaning of

questions. In order to examine the

postmodernism, we must is

industrial production, with capitalism, Hberal

ocracy, individualism, etc.,

brief history lesson. But, as post-

modernists would \eloped

into the

future.

life

in principle

and any period

local,

in

contextual sense,

hence "modern English" and ''modern dance" do

planes.'

That

ancient Egyptians in air-

the sole important shift in

is, is

mod-

ernity a difference in tools and material conditions,

rather than a difference in the selves, their

worldview

,

human

beings them-

their sense of self? If only

the tools matter, then the sole significant difference

betw een a corporate executive in a Boeing 747 and an astrologer in the Pharaoh's court

would imply

the 747. This

is

that the modernization of undevel-

not imply that the historical period of these tw o

oped countries

phenomena

nothing to do with culture and psychology. But,

are the same. Likewise, the invention

of writing was certainly

"modern"

in

comparison

to

pre-literate society. a fixed

reference in contemporary intellectual discussion. the new civilization that developed in

centuries, fully evident

case.

The

oger

lies

to

admits that

is

unique

in

it is

Exactly what makes this civilization some extent uncontroversial. Everyor^e Europe and North America develop }^

and applied

a

new, powerful technique

study of nature, and

new machine

for t^e

technologies

and modes of industrial production that have led to

an unprecedented

ards. It

this

is

this is not the

difference between executive and astrol-

not only in the airplane, but in the hu-

harder to understand and specify than airplanes,

that this civilization

in the non-relative sense that

is

problems arising

social

last several

rise in material living

form of modernity that

stard-

is

tO'

ay

makes the

this recognition

makes modernity modern

human history. unique

having

by the early tw entieth cen-

"Modernity" implies

modern

complex cultural and

affair,

man mind, or, in what might be the same thing, human culture. But because minds and cultures are

Europe and North America over the tury.

purely technical

from modernization have shown,

"Modernity" on the other hand, has It refers to

as the

a

is

The

debate

historical to

is

specification of

what

controversial.

complicated by the question of the

parameters of modernity.

when modernity

question of what

is

second decides the

started

is

The decision as

entangled with the

modernity; your answer to the

first.

Did modernity

in the

West

begin in the sixteenth century with the Protestant reformation, the rejection of the universal power of the

Roman

Catholic Church, and the development

described as "modernization" or simply "develop-

of a humanistic skepticism epitomized by Erasmus

ment"

and Montaigne? Or was

in the

non-Western world. In the West

arguably characterized as well by other

it is

traits: free

tury

with

the

it

scientific

in the seventeenth cen-

revolution

of Galileo,

markets, a largely secular culture, liberal democ-

Harvey, Hobbes, Descartes, Boyle, Leibniz, and

humanism, etc. Whether these traits are unique in human history is more controversial. Many historical societies

Newton?

racy, individualism, rationahsm,

have,

in

a

limited

sphere,

had

relatively

free

markets, respected individuality, engaged in rational planning

and

rational inquiry, created secular

or profane zones of culture, etc. \\ estern combination

(X)

While the modern

of science, technolos^v, and

a

\\"as

it

caused by the

first

development of

market economy in eighteenth-century England?

Or

the republican political theories and revolutions

of the United States and France in the late eight-

eenth century?

What about the industrial revolution

of the nineteenth century?

Much

can be learned

about the pieces of the puzzle from these disparate views.

There

is

no non-circular wav

to

decide

,

Introduction

among ihcm.

!'\)rluiiai(.l>, at least for

pher, there

is

also

question

not.

W hat

is

no need

When

did niodernitN beijin-

some new form

knoNN that

of

lile'

human

Kurope and North America,

Inii,

enouu;h to

is

It

societ\ eNolved

fully eviilent b>

whose \arious pieces had

1^M4,

priniar\

the inner nature, the probable destin\, and

is

the \alidit\ of this ne\N NNa\ of

in

the philoso-

Our

to ileeiile.

mto

,

sa\

positive self-image

has most often given to

Kniightenment, entific

is

of

\\

specific

ture, literal ure aiul music,

ments

thai

thrixeil

nineteenth cenlur\ iwentieth cenlurN

m Msual

where

it

art,

its

architec-

move-

refers to

from the seconil

half

of

the

ihruugh ihe

half

of

ihe

lirsi

As meniioneil abo\c,

saw unjirecetlentetl e\|>erimentalion

ihis period

the arts: in

in

expression of Jackson Pollack; in literature, the

founded on

knowledge of the world and

rational

sci-

know-

premium

and freedom, and believes

such freedom and rationality

that

is

estern culture

picture born in the

a civilization

life

use

painting, from the realism of (iustav (iourbei and

ledge of value, which places the highest

on individual human

common

the impressionism of Claude .\lonel to the abstract

modern

itself, a

mtcd other,

jn^^iction,

is

an active process of exclusion. hierarchtzation.

constructed by,

can never say what

distinct mention,

and

rather than a motivated construction. Thus, the

pendent of all saying. Fourth, what

repression.,

opposition,

medi-

texts, representations,

The worU we know

representations.

it

aiuKsis uhich

modern period; what he meant was that the modern social sciences for the first time made "man" or "humankind" an a

n«it

In another

really at issue.

is

it

form

a

hether or

own normatiNe

consisientK make their clearh unleashes

\N

themselxes cannot

ihis implies that postmotiernisls

postmodernist miiiht produce

a

how

its

political

thought, writing, negotiation, and |>o\\er which

of

produced those ntirmative claims

necessary misreadini;.

'^

be, as already noted, repressed. P^or

examining a

social

a class or ethnic division,

system characterized postmodernists w

ill

discover that the privileged group must actively

produce and maintain

its

position by representing

Beyond obvious cases of the former, like Descartes' mind-body metaphysics, dualism often

or picturing itself- in theory, in literature, in law,

functions in a philosophical system to put the

under-privileged group(s) hy nature, while repre-

means by which we know and judge things outside the things judged, e.g. by making the validity of the

senting those groups as intrinsically lacking the

rules of reason or morality independent of nature or

psyche, the self

human

itself as

odological.

immanence in connorms we use to judge pro-

convention. Normative

trast asserts that the

cesses are themselves products of the processes they judge.

There

is

no access

to an "outside."

For

in irt

-

as not

having the properties ascribed to the

human

properties of the privileged group. In a

may be compelled

to represent

excluding sexual or aggressive feelings,

which, however, cannot simply be obliterated, and so

must be ascribed

to

cratic events (e.g. "I

chance situations, to idiosyn-

was not myself today"),

etc.

In

system, the dualism of "reality" and

example, where most philosophers might use an

a philosophical

idea of justice independently derived from a philo-

"appearance" involves the construction of a kind of

phenomena

sophical argument to judge a social order, postmod-

waste-basket into w hich

ernism regards that idea

does not want to sanctify w ith the privileged term

social relations that

justice

was created

it

and

product of the

serves to judge; the idea of

at a certain

serve certain interests, intellectual

as itself the

is

time and place, to

dependent on

social context, etc.

a certain

Norms

that the

"real" can be tossed ("mere appearances"). this

way can

system

Only

in

the pristine integrity of the idealized or

privileged term be maintained.^

^

are not

independent of nature or semiosis (sign production

and interpretation) or experience or

This leads postmodernists

to

social interests.

respond to the nor-

mative claims of others by displaying the processes

'"^

This strategic mode of analysis

the dialectical

method of the

G. W. F.Hegel (177Q-1831).

great

is

partly inspired

German

by

philosopher

Introduction Metaphorically, this can be expressed by saying that

it

the margins that constitute the

is

postmodernist

text.

The

to the apparently ex-

will attend

cluded or marginalized elements of any system or text,

because therein

Just

as

lies

the key to

psychoanalysis

in

creates neurotic

symptoms

structure.

its

postmodernists

turn

will

their

tion the very distinction of inquiry (e.g. philoso-

away

seldom mentioned,

those lines are crossed or blurred, clear

ent"

meaning of

take as secondary or peripheral to the a text, are read

by postmodernists

a

tries to write in a

no longer

is

postmodern

proposition aiming at

a

way

that

its

a

effects

No one

would be "consist-

with these commitments could

become

and

Once

art.

on the reader, or an aesthetic performance.

who

may

intended to be

is

it

by

a sentence written

practical

and

truth, or a practical utterance offered for

presumably accidental marginalia.

readers

whether

writer

Linguistic tropes, such as metaphors, which other

virtually absent,

from

etc.),

like politics

attention

lying.

is

Indeed, taken far enough their method must ques-

productive disciplines,

marks of the hidden

act of constitutive repression in

writing

all

dreams, and

from the well-known, openly announced themes in a text to discover tell-tale

write while recognizing that

phy, science, history,

seemingly unimportant conversational mistakes,

They must

presence, the ubiquity of difference.

repression

excessive like jokes,

undecidability of meaning, the absence of

ilege, the

help

but

hermeneutic pretzel.

as

crucial to the constitution of the text's privileged

theme. Pulling on these threads deconstructs the text, in

Derrida's famous term. Such deconstruc-

tion

the

is

undermines

making its

is

the text

and sometimes

implicit

This volume

explicit in

unstable, and/or immoral: false in that

sooner or

later

Part

it is

I

presents the reader with a small selection

of some of the most influential statements of mod-

menda-

ernity

be admitted, forcing an accepta fee

from the seventeenth through the nineteenth

centuries, as well as

some of the most famous

most human beings

these centuries

the privileged unit (the "return of the repressed' lin

North America continued

when

it

form of socal

takes the

oppression. Social disenfranchisement, marginalization of sexual

and

and

racial groups, is the

political case of this pattern.

This

is

Some

ics.

had

for the

the world in

at che

enced by the

postmodernists wish to remove such

to live

Europe and

in

and think

thousand years preceding:

as they

in small

towns and agricultural communities, imagining

mo 'al

heart of every postmodernist intervention in polit-

criti-

cisms of that evolving civilization. Throughout

of the excluded factors into the representation«of

Freud); immoral

modern

itself.

is false,

unstable in that the repression insst

lie;

structured chronologically around

West's philosophical evaluation of

kind of analysis through constitutive repression

the claim that the process of exclusion

cious, a

is

three phases in the development of the

own meaning.

Sometimes this

way

explicit of the

Putting Postmodernism in Context

IV

in

more

or less religious terms, uninflu-

scientific

and secular ideas emerging

educated circles in the great

cities.

It

was not

market economy and the

until the beginnings of the

while others, seeing in that wish a

republican political revolutions of the eighteenth

longing for an impossible authenticity, admit that

century that modern ideas had widespread concrete

repression,

there

is

no escape from repression and hope only

render repressive forces more diverse and

to

fluid, so

none becomes monopolistic and hence exces-

that

might, as a postscript,

own up

particularly troublesome feature of

ism, namely,

No

its

(that

is,

is

due

substantive

bound

to the fashions char-

who invented

reason

as

to write in a

just

But there

well.

way

it

happened is

a

more

Postmodernists

that reflects the self-

conscious apphcation of the preceding points to their

own

daily

life

writing.

They must write

while conscious

of constructivism, the disruption of authorial priv-

for

most people

new element of modern

twentieth century. Each

and religious

leaders,

and

whom are included here. that

what we have

under Part

of the location of postmodernism's birth

the Parisians

to write in a difficult style).

are

to a last,

postmodern-

notoriously difficult writing style.

doubt some of this

acteristic

But even then,

continued relatively unchanged until almost the

thought was opposed by cultural

sively onerous.

One

effect.

art,

It is

called

inertia, political

intellectuals, several

of

crucial to understand

modernity was always

attack. II

presents the critical analysis of

society,

modern

and philosophy that came with the

triumph of modernity, the society unique in

full

human history.

establishment of a It is in this

period,

roughly from 1860 to 1950, that Western modernity

ceased to be a primarily intellectual and political

phenomenon and

dramatically remade the every-

day socio-economic world

in

which people

live. It is

Introduction ihf

also

the world. vokccl a

in

pcri()(.l

the

bccaiiH-

uioikiiiiiN

iicopolilital

This actuali/atioii

new reaction from

instigatinu; a

of"

torn-

result inii

aesthetic

and

nioiUrmtN

in

period

a

of"

unprecedented

intellectual experimentation.

modernism

that resulted

both

is

The

influential for later

four selections of Pari

it.

Of the

to the

is

postmodernism. The

II

from

I

art-

a critique of

authors in this section Friedrich Nietzsche

Kuhn, and

pn»-

the

final

leidegger, Lacan,

constitute the historical transition

Hell

postmodern.

The

II

I

kiue

fitting

nuihoilological

dodge

the\

III

are

from the

jiost-

period, and are broken into four

or

Khetoncal

on both

flourishes

standmg, postmodernism to

which philosophy

ments is

philosophical claims.

unbe-

criticism b) a subterfuge

an iiu|uirer siiles

nolwiih-

raises crucial questions

bound by

is

The

to respond.

own commit-

its

charge of self-contradiction

an important one. NeNertheless,

is

it

a

purel\

negative argument that does nothing to blunt the criticisms

quiry. of

postmodernism makes of

The sometimes

is

traditional in-

obscure rhetorical strategies

postmodernism make sense

To

critique of the latter.

ern critique

selections in Part

W orld War

explkii

intellectuals anil artists,

boury:eois modernity and an expression of

most

in

debate over bourgeois values and mass

culture,

istic

W tsltin

which

(.loiiiiii.im

if

one accepts

say then that the

invalid because the kind

produces does not meet the standards or normal inquiry

a rather

is

«)f

its

postmodtheor\

it

of traditional

weak counter-attack.

It

categories: F^rench post-structuralism; critical ap-

says in effect that whatever critique does not ad-

propriations of post-structuralism; postmodernists

vance the interests of normal or traditional inquiry

who move beyond

is

and resistances

to

critique;

and

finally alternatives

postmodernism. These

will all

further discussed in the Introduction to Part

be

III.

invalid.

The same

charge was

made

against the

very patron saint of philosophy, Socrates, whose infernal questioning,

it

was

said in Plato's .Ipo/o'^y,

may be well to conclude this Introduction with a general comment about the validity of postmodernism. Some philosophers dismiss postmodern-

socially

ism for using intentionally elusive rhetoric, in part

mission. So, while the threat of self-contradiction

It

to avoid self-contradiction.

ernists literally jectivity,

this

and

If,

explicitly

they say, postmod-

undermine

truth, ob-

and the univocal meanings of words, then

would undermine

their

own

writing as well,

undercutting their meaning or truth. Postmodernists

would then be

vaHdity of their critics

in the position

own

denials.

To

itself

important

does raise

a serious

one

would

that

regarding

problem

prevent

justify

for

postmodernism,

way

from

traditional phil-

osophies hope to be, that fact does nothing to show that

normal inquiry

is

immune

be so easily dismissed.

convoluted fashion, unwilling to make

undermined

postmodernism

itself as valid in the

avoid

the

practical,

and could not

except for his eccentric claim to a divine

modernism

this,

and

beliefs,

of denying the

continue, postmodernists write in a coy,

ironic, or

led to nothing positive

to its critique. Post-

raises serious challenges

W hether

it

which cannot is

course, another matter, and one that

reader to decide.

n^hf, is

up

is,

of

to the

L

PART Modern

I

Civilization

its Critics

and

L

Introduction to Part

It

is

impossible to recount the dramatic changes

that stimulated

European modernity. Cxrtainly the

voyages of discovery of the

century,

fifteenth

I

hence the individual's autonomous employment of reason

is

human

the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth, and

by using

the scientific revolution of the seventeenth had a

that

profound

on the European mind. By the

effect

momentum

eighteenth century

behind

new

a

new

eventually create a

began

to

gather

of the world, which would

vit'ir

world, the

modern world

of science and industry and business and

cities

and

be encouraged; and that the meaning of

to

be

fulfilled

of truth

of

human

this

all

tury.

is

this set

machines rather than by nature, where the Rights of

Man

would replace the Divine Right of Kings, where

cities

would become home

who had

pragmatic strangers

left their local

to

com-

is

it

remains

imply one another, as

Even bit

if

sour,

if

effective legacy.

with our mother's milk.

some European

intellectuals did almost

critics

from within

and the

meant the

many

fact

we have come to find the milk and demand a more varied diet,

from the printing

It

in

Reason, F'reedom, and social Progress naturally

European modernity

press, the laboratory,

not the sole meaning

most

its

start.

not parents, princes or pulpit.

-

have ever since imbibed the conviction that

munities, where beliefs were increasingly generated

street,

politically

"Enlightenments," many versions of that century's

where the merchant would displace the landed aristocrat,

of ideas

of the Enlightenment - there are

We

be increasingly dictated by

and

largely a product of the eighteenth cen-

While

contribution -

to

to

reconstruction

the

society for the better, materially

rhythm of

was

in

is

enable

will

cosmopolitanism and republicanism, where the life

some measure

this reason to grasp a larger share

existence

its

own

a

as

from the

was never without

house.

The

that a universal naive acceptance of

impression

Enlightenment

beginning of an accelerating process of change

rationalism dominated early modernity, to be upset

whereby modes of

only by the sophistication of the twentieth century,

living that

had altered

little in

thousands of years would eventually be turned

is

upside down.

plain to

Philosophically, the novelty of the age centered

on the idea of reason. that

humans more

It

signified

above

all

the belief

or less universally possess the

faculty of rational thought, less a

body of truths

than a capacity and a method for grasping them,

perhaps endowed to us by

humanity; that

this reason

is

God

as the essence

of

the ultimate and legit-

the result of historical ignorance.

It

was always

anyone with eyes and mind that modernity

meant the exchange of one kind of life for another, hence a very real loss: community, tradition, religion, familiar political authority, customs

ners -

all

were

at

and man-

the very least to be transformed,

if

not displaced. This sense of loss was reflected by

some of the

greatest thinkers of the eighteenth

and

nineteenth centuries.

imate earthly judge of truth, beauty, moral good-

In our brief selection, just as Descartes, Kant,

ness and political right independent of the dictates

Smith, and Condorcet are formulating and cele-

of tradition and authority; that

it

is

at

war with

ignorance and superstition; that, despite versality,

it is

its

uni-

individually possessed and applied,

brating the new rationality, skeptical

Hume

presses

it

to its

conclusions, and Rousseau and Burke

warn against

it.

Then

in the

nineteenth century.

OD

L

Introduction to Part Hegel's objection to

Marx

I

a

one-sided Enlightenment

most

respect, they are entangled in

it

in others.

Such

is

forever the fate of the critics of modernity,

who

of the emerging market economy. But however

oppose

ene-

much

mies must borrow

inspired

to offer the

influential critique

these thinkers criticize modernity in one

a force so

encompassing that even its

power

its

to fight against

it.

From Meditations on

Philosophy

First

Rene Descartes Frenchman Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is modern philosophy. Scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, he

opinions which

recognized the problems raised for traditional

mence

and from that time

of ten considered the father of

for

Scholastic thought - the dominant medieval syn-

I

thesis of Aristotle's logic and science with Chris-

century.

Spending much

of his productive

build

to

wanted

I

to

life in

be

anew

as this enterprise

waited until

I

theology and the

new

science. His aptly

Meditations on First Piiilosophy (1641)

is

named

to

virtually

doubt to the peace of certainty.

In

me

feel

that

for action.

my mind

the

the

all

if

appeared

had attained at

any

execute

my

to delay so long that

was doing wrong were

I

I

to

time that yet remains

in deliberation the

To-day, then, since very oppor-

tunely for the plan

a personal diary tracing his journey from the despair of

should

fitted to

me

design. This reason caused

occupy

I

could not hope that

I

should be better

tion

I

must once

from the fecundation,

But

very great one,

a

later date I

from which he could prove the existence of God. the proper method of science, and the existence of the material world, thereby harmonizing

I

any firm and permanent struc-

to establish

an age so mature that

Holland, he sought an absolutely certain founda-

that

had formerly accepted, and com-

ture in the sciences.

- by the scientific revolution of his

tian theology

was convinced

I

seriously undertake to rid myself of

all

have

I

view

in

I

have delivered

from every care [and am happily agitated

following selection, he begins his Meditations by

by no passions]' and since

I

attempting to doubt

myself an assured leisure

peaceable retirement,

all

his beliefs in order to dis-

shall at last seriously

and

cover whether any are indubitable. He famously

I

found his indubitable starting point

the general upheaval of

in

conscious-

Now

ness, the individual human mind's certainty of its own existence in absolute distinction from matter and from all other minds. The effect was to shift

I

for

this

all

perhaps never arrive

subjectivity to the center of philosophy.

'

I

things which

may

freely address

my

it

is

not necessary that

of these are

at this

myself to

former opinions.

false

-

I

shall

end. But inasmuch as

me that I ought no less mv assent from matters w hich

Passages in square brackets are from a French transla-

tion of the MvJitalioris

Of the

have procured for

reason already persuades carefulh to withhold

Meditation

all

object

should show that

in a

which Descartes himself corrected,

and which the translators from the Latin

text

have in-

he brought within the

cluded for the sake of their greater

clarity.

sphere of the doubtful.

It is

now some

were the

years since

false beliefs that I

youth admitted everything

I

as

true,

I

detected

had from

how many

my

earliest

and how doubtful was

had since constructed on

this basis;

Rene Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditations One and Two, pp. 144-57 from The Philosophical Works of Descartes, vol. (trans. Elizabeth Haldane and G. R. T Ross). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. I

Rene Descartes are not entirely certain

I

am

fmd

able to

and indubitable than from

me

those which appear to

manifestly to be

each one some reason to doubt,

in

this will suffice to justify

my

And

be requisite that

end

for that

examine each

will not

it

false, if

in particular,

rejecting the whole.

should

I

which would be an

endless undertaking; for owing to the fact that the

occasions

I

with

the downfall of the rest of the edifice,

it

which

first

my

all

to the present time

most true and

certain

have accepted as

I

me

to

sometimes

is

it

and

that these senses are deceptive,

it

wiser not to trust entirely to any thing by which

is

we have once been deceived. But it may be that although

the senses sometimes

many others

ceptible, or very far away, there are yet

be met with as to which we cannot reasonably

have any doubt, although we recognise them by

For example, there

their means. I

am

hands and

And how

this

body

sense,

whose

my

ness from sleep that

my

could

persuading

Now

I

deny that these not perhaps

it

and clouded they con-

bile, that

when

they are really quite poor, or that they are clothed in

pumpkins

they are mad, and

were

I

are really without covering, or

that they have an earthenware head or

are nothing but

to follow

I

sleeping,

should not be any the

must remember

in

my

I

am

things, than

moments. the night

do those who are insane

dreamt that

ticular place, that I fire,

moment

head which

deliberately

I

it

less

happened

to

found myself

I

am

am

a

it;

set

is

probable

waking

me

that in

in this par-

I

me

in bed!

that

not asleep, that

purpose that

what happens

And

almost capable of

now dream. we are asleep and that all e.g. that we open our eyes, shake

that

I

us assume that

these particulars,

hands nor our whole body are such us to be. At the same time that the things

false

been formed

at least

which are represented

least, i.e. eyes, a

in this

confess

to us in sleep

which can only have

as the counterparts

and that

true,

appear to

as they

we must

are like painted representations

of something real

way those general things at

head, hands, and a whole body, are

not imaginary things, but things really existent. For, as a matter of

fact, painters,

study with the greatest satyrs

skill to

even when they

represent sirens and

by forms the most strange and extraordinary

I

different animals; or if their imagination

it is

extend

in sleep

it

is

my

is

extrava-

gant enough to invent something so novel that

nothing similar has ever before been seen, and that then their w ork represents a thing purely

and absolutely

false,

it is

colours of which this

And

real.

for the

eral things, to

such

w it,

all

fictitious

the same that the

composed

are necessarily

[a

body], eyes, a head, hands, and

imaginary,

we

are

bound

at the

to confess that there are at least

other objects yet

which are

is

certain

same reason, although these gen-

may be

like,

same time

real

more simple and more

and

true;

and of these

just in the

as with certain real colours, all these

some

universal,

same

images of

things which dwell in our thoughts, whether true

and

real or false

To

myself

looking at this paper; that

appear so clear nor so distinct as does thinkins; over this

I

to

was lying undressed

move

I

and of

hand and perceive

that

in their

does indeed seem to

it

with eyes awake that this

insane

was dressed and seated near the

whilst in reality

this

I

astonishment.

it is

our head, extend our hands, and so on, are but

way

dreams representing

How often has I

less

in the habit of

same things or sometimes even

the

At

I

that consequently

and

made of glass. But

examples so extravagant.

At the same time man, and

or are

lost in

but merely make a certain medley of the members of

stantly assure us that they think they are kings

who imagine

me

am

I

such that

dressing

cerebella are so troubled

when they

let

is

cannot give them natures which are entirely new,

certain persons, devoid of

by the violent vapours of black

purple

astonishment

no certain indica-

clearly distinguish wakeful-

the fact that

hands and other

are mine, were

compare myself to

I

is

fire, attired in a

paper in

this

similar matters.

that

by the

here, seated

gown, having

which we may

tions by

and

deceive us concerning things which are hardly per-

to

dw elling carefully on this reflection

in

delusions; and let us reflect that possibly neither our

have learned either from the

I

senses or through the senses; but

proved

shall

upon

former opinions rested.

up

All that

I

place attack those principles

have in sleep been deceived by similar

see so manifestly that there are

destruction of the foundations of necessity brings

only in the

I

and

illusions,

such a

and

fantastic, are

formed.

of things pertains corporeal

class

nature in general, and

its

extension," the figure of

extended things, their quantity or magnitude and

number,

as also the place in

which they

are, the

time which measures their duration, and so on.

That is possibly why our reasoning is not unjust when we conclude from this that Physics, Astronomy, Medicine and their

all

other sciences which have as

end the consideration of composite things, are

very dubious and uncertain; but that Arithmetic,

Geometry and other

sciences of that kind which

does not

all this.

But in

remind mvself that on manv

" its

"Extension" means the space the thing takes up, size or

volume.

i.e.

Meditations on trc.u ol thiiiiis ih.il arc \ii\

»)nl\

siiii|>k- aiul

\i:v\

general, withoui lakmu; great (rouble lo ascertain

whether they are

some measure

and an element

am awake

1

and three together alwass form

or asleep, two

and the square

fi\e,

can never have more than four sides, and

be suspected

any

t)l

I

uncertaint\

falsit\ |or

does not

it

and apparent can

that truths so clear

Nevertheless

of the

have long had fixed

in

|.

my mind

the belief that an all-powerful Ciod existed by w horn I

have been created such as

that

He

place,

and

ceptions of

me

know

to pass that there

it

that nevertheless

no

is

themselves best,

now

I

sometimes imagine

I

possess the per-

[I

these things and that] they

all

to exist just exactly as

besides, as

know

I

no heaven, no extended body, no magnitude,

earth,

no

has not brought

am. But how do

I

seem

to

see them.' .\nd,

that others deceive

the things which they think they

in

how do

every time that

I

know

I

that

add two and

I

am

not deceived

three, or count the

sides of a square, or judge of things yet simpler,

if

anything simpler can be imagined.' But possibly

God has not desired that I should be thus deceived, for He is said to be supremely good. If, how ever, it is contrary to His goodness to have made me such that I

constantly deceive myself,

it

would

also appear to

be contrary to His goodness to permit

sometimes deceived, and nevertheless doubt that

He

does permit

me I

be

to

than believe that

But

let

a

them

us not oppose

grant that

all

that

is

have arrived

at

make out

to err

is

the state of being that

that

is

it

and deceive oneself

powerful.

To

hom

to reply, but at the that there

is

they assign

end

nothing

to be true, of

I

I

nude

my mind,

iliese

in

long and

custom having given them the

to

right

m\

mind against m> inclination and rendered them almost masters of my belief; nor

occupN

will

I

e\er lose the habit of deferring lo

placing

them

them or of

my confidence in them, so long as

as they really are,

in

time highly probable, so that there

is

ure doubtful, as

haNe

1

consider

I

some measshown, and at the same

opinions

i.e.

just

much more

reason to believe in than to deny them. That

consider that

purpose

set

be acting amiss,

shall not

I

contrary belief,

a

deceived, and for

a certain

w hy

is

allow myself to be

I

all

these

opinions are entirely false and imaginary, until last,

having thus balanced

with

my

latter fso that

I

taking of

if,

time pretend that

my

at

former prejudices

they cannot divert

my

opin-

more to one side than to the other], m> judgment will no longer be dominated by bad usage or ions

turned away from the right knowledge of the truth.

For

I

am

assured that there can be neither peril nor

error in this course, and that

too

much

to distrust, since

I

cannot

am

I

present yield

at

not considering the

question of action, but only of knowledge. I

then suppose, not that

shall

I

that

have

to fate or to

it

by

a

is

my

genius not

evil

employed I

continual

a defect,

it

is

my is

origin the less

God who

is

su-

my

credulity;

some measure

other external things are

all

and dreams of w hich

shall consider

I

idea,

I

and

if

by

this

means

it is

arrive at the

knowledge of any

do what

my power (i.e.

is

in

suspend

my power I

may

be.

But

to

at least

my judgment], to

any

being imposed upon by this arch

however powerful and deceptive he may

this task

is

a laborious one,

certain lassitude leads

And

me

life.

and insensibly

into the course of

suspect that his liberty

giving credence to these opinions than to that

not in truth,

these to this

and w ith firm purpose avoid giving credence

powerful and maturely considered so that hence-

from

all

remain obstinately attached

shall

enjoys an imaginary liberty,

less carefully to refrain

this

myself as having no

yet falsely believing myself to possess

things;

deceiver,

in

and

illusions

hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, nor any senses,

constrained to confess

cannot

deceiving me;

in

genius has availed himself in order to lay traps for

feel

formerly believed

powerful than deceitful, has

shall consider that the heavens, the earth, colours,

false thing, or

I

less

whole energies

his

ordinary

ought not the

.ii

and commonly held opin-

doubt, and that not merely through want of thought

I

hhm

ii>

ha\c

lo

or through levity, but for reasons which are very

forth

dt^m

I

re\ert trequentK to

still

familiar

have certainly nothing

in all that

which

ions

I

these reasons

sutllcient

I'or these ancient

figures, sound,

being so imperfect as to deceive myself ever, as the Author to w

mind.

nought but the

w ill be the probability of

clear that the greater

not

IS

it

and

some other method

succession of antecedents, or by

- since

God

way they suppose

reached - whether they attribute accident, or

But

a fable;

for the present,

here said of a

nevertheless in whatever I

to

so powerful, rather

other things are uncertain.

all

it

premely good and the fountain of truth, but some

this.

God

tal.se,

remarks, we must also be caret ul to keep them

cannot

There may indeed be those who would prefer deny the existence of

maiiitestl\

IS

an\ cerlainiN |in the sciences!

aciuall> existent or not, contain

ot cerlaintN

indubitable. I"or whether

seem possible

which

Philosophy

First

who in sleep when he begins to

just as a captive

is

but a dream, fears to

aw aken, and conspires w ith these agreeable that the deception

a

my

may be

illusions

prolonged, so insensibly

Rene Descartes of

my own

ions,

and

accord

my

back into

I fall

former opin-

dread awakening from this slumber,

I

would

the laborious wakefulness which

lest

follow the

is

them myself? But

not in daylight, but in the excessive darkness of the

body. Yet

w hich have

exist

I

w ithout

II

Human Mind; and

Nature of the

that

it is

did not exist?

I

can resolve them; and, just as

feet

on the bottom, nor can

am

which

I

I

swim and

setting aside

and

false;

I

certain.

is

might draw the it

on

as that

proceed by

shall ever follow in this

I

can do nothing is

Archimedes,

nothing in the

in order that

he

out of its place, and

terrestrial globe

elsewhere,

is

else, until

demanded only

that one

he w ill, he can never cause as I think that I

am

w ell and

reflected

must come

to

proposition:

I

time that

I

am happy enough

if I

only which I

is

certain

suppose, then, that

false;

me.

I

all

my

consider that

fallacious I

are but the fictions of

esteemed is

as true.'

see are

But

am,

different

know there

from those things

sidered, of Is

that

at all,

place

it,

certain that

careful to see that

I

I

clearly

enought what

am; and hence

some God, or some other call it, w ho puts these

being by whatever name we

I

am,

I

must be

do not imprudently take some

other object in place of myself, and thus that

I

not go astray in respect of this knowledge that

hold

be the most certain and most evident of

to I

have formerly learned. That

consider anew w hat

I

I

is

why

I

I

that

all

shall

do

now

believed myself to be before

embarked upon these

last reflections;

shall

withdraw

all

and of that

my

might

even in a small degree be invalidated by the reasons

there

have just brought forward, in order that

I

may be nothing

at all left

beyond what

is

absolutely certain and indubitable.

What

then did

Undoubtedly what

is

a

I

I

formerly believe myself to be?

believed myself to be a man. But

man?

Shall

I

Certainly not; for then

what an animal

is,

say a reasonable animal? I

should have to inquire

and what

into an infinitude of others

slightest

each

mentally conceive

I

not something

have just con-

we

things,

or that

thus from a single question

I

all

exist, is necessarily true

certain.

is

is

unless that

which one cannot have the there not

imagine

What, then, can be

Perhaps nothing

I

I

I

pronounce

do not yet know

I

who am

I

represents

movement and

my mind.

nothing in the world that

But how can

doubt.'

memory

possess no senses;

that body, figure, extension,

there

I

examined

carefully

it.

which

the things that

persuade myself that nothing has ever

I

existed of all that to

one thing

to discover

and indubitable."'

me to be nothing so long

something. So that after having

the definite conclusion that this

former opinions

hopes

and very

other, very powerful

who ever employs his ingenuity in deceiving me. Then without doubt I exist also if he deceives me, and let him deceive me as much as

same way

have the right to conceive high

myself did

I

cunning,

I

shall

of a surety

at all;

thought of something]. But there

I

point should be fixed and immoveable; in the I

not then likewise persuaded that

I

Not

some deceiver or

is

had discovered that

have learned for certain that there

transport

make an

have met with something which

I

certain, or at least, if

world that

my

the least doubt could

exist, just as if I

was absolutely

shall

I

i.e.

w hich

that in

all

be supposed to

road until

of a

so support

shall nevertheless

yesterday entered,

I

all

so discon-

and follow anew the same path

effort

I

I

can neither make certain of setting

myself on the surface.

it

had

if I

deep water,

fallen into very I

was no

persuaded myself of something [or

merely because

certed that

that there

in all the world, that there

exist since I

The Meditation of yesterday filled my mind with so many doubts that it is no longer in my power to forget them. And yet I do not see in what manner sudden

w as persuaded

I

that.^

cannot

I

heaven, no earth, that there were no minds, nor

more easily known than the Body.

I

But

these.'

any bodies: was

Of the

had senses and

I

what follows from

hesitate, for

was nothing

Meditation

myself,

I

Am I so dependent on body and senses that

been discussed.

just

I

have already denied that

I

for

am capable of producing am I not at least something.^

not possible that

it

tranquillity of this repose should have to be spent

difficulties

my mind.' That is not necessary,

reflections into

I

I

should not w ish to w aste the

remaining to

But

these.

I

me

is

reasonable; and

should insensibly

more little

difficult;

fall

and

time and leisure

in trying to unravel subtleties like

shall rather stop here to consider the

thoughts which of themselves spring up in

my

mind, and which were not inspired by anything "'

Greek mathematician

Archimedes

(287-212

bc)

boasted that with a lever long enough and the right place to stand, he could

move

the Earth.

beyond

my ow n nature alone w hen I applied myself of my being. In the first place,

to the consideration

then,

I

considered myself as having

a face,

hands,

Meditations on arms, and

that .system of

all

bones and flesh as seen nated b) 1

name

the

considered that

that

and

felt,

I

corpse which

thought, and

I

actions to the soul: but

what the soul was, or

walked,

I

referred

I

these

all

wind,

a

did stop,

I

imagined that

I

my

As

grosser parts.

body

to

had no

I

manner ofdoubt about

its

nature, but thought

knowledge

of

it;

a very clear

explain

it

formed

of

body

way

from

it;

by

all

that

and which can

By

the

given space in

a

fill

body

by hearing, or by

be excluded

will

is

of feeling or of thinking,

did not

I

I

was rather astonished

to find that facul-

them existed in some bodies. But w hat am I, now that I suppose that there is a certain genius w hich is extremely powerful, and, if ties similar to

I

may

say so, malicious,

me? Can

in deceiving

of

least

w ho employs I

affirm that

those things which

all

pertain to the nature of body? I

revolve

these things in

all

none of which

would be tedious

to stop to

I

is

in

it

have

body

it is

But

also true that

I

mind, and

thought I

I

feel

if

recognised in

my

been experienced here that thought it

it is

is

certain.

is

is

exist.

I

I

Napour,

But have

I

having I

find

I

exist,

think; for

all

do not now admit anything which

necessarily true: to speak accurately

I

am

these were nothing.

position

1

fact that

I

these

find that

I

is

not

not more

at

changing

\\ ithout

am somewhat. But

perhaps

not different from the self w hich

me.

I

whom

the

know

that

know

I

it is

true that

me, are

to

I

know

I

and

exist,

it

But

to exist.

I

am,

very certain that

is

it

not

now;

known

inquire what

I

really

am

I

.

about

shall not dispute

know ledge of my existence taken

in its precise

does not depend on things whose

significance

existence

sup-

that

can only give judgment on things that are

I

can

I

supposed were non-

I

unknown

existent because they are

1

which

all

have assumed that

1

only leave myself certain of the

same things which

sure about this,

the

not a wind, a fire, a

imagine or conceive; because

not yet

is

known

me; consequently

to

does not depend on those which

it

can feign in

I

imagination. .\nd indeed the very term Jft^n in

imagination proves to this if

I

me my

error, for

image myself a something, since

I

really

do

imagine

to

nothing else than to contemplate the figure or

is

image of

a

corporeal thing. But

certain that

I

am, and that

it

already

I

may be

images, and, speaking generally, relate to the nature of body are

have as

I

little

reason to say,

know

that

all

for

these

things that

all

nothing but dreams

[and chimeras]. For this reason

I

see clearly that

shall stimulate

'I

my

imagination in order to know more distinctly what

shall

I

I

if I

were

to say,

'I

is

do not yet perceive

am now and

real

awake, and

true:

distinctly

it

but be-

enough,

go to sleep of express purpose, so that

my

dreams may represent the perception w ith greatest truth and evidence.' .\nd, thus, that nothing of

all

that

I

know

for certain

can understand by means

I

of my imagination belongs to this knowledge which I

have of myself, and that

mind from

this

mode

necessary to recall the

it

may be

able to

know

its

nature w ith perfect distinctness.

But w hat then is

it is

of thought with the utmost

diligence in order that

own

ceased entirely to

should likewise cease altogether to

am

1

breath, nor anything

a

am

I

call

not a subtle air distributed

cause

am, I

am

I

have no

as not

I

body:

through these members,

perceive somewhat that

an attribute that belongs to me;

if I

human

imagination

members which we

collection of

a

my

not something more)

am,' than

of thinking?

But how often? Just when

am

1

I

sensation.

waking moments

What

not

if

I

things during sleep that

might possibly be the case

think, that

I

or a

which arc

thing which thinks.

a

shall exercise

I

any

is

can neither w alk nor take

many

at all.

It

mind

to say a

is

thing and really exist; but

a real

w alking

there

so that

alone cannot be separated from me.

that it

if

without body, and besides

perceived

find

I

pertains to me.

nutrition or

nourishment. Another attribute

one cannot

just said

enumerate them. Let us

me? What of

[the first mentioned]?

possess the

I

pass to the attributes of soul and see

one w hich

pow ers

his

pause to consider,

I

my

can say that

I

all

that

have answered:

I

order to see

in

I

consider to appertain to the nature of body: on the contrary,

I

by

receives

am, however,

I

.\nd what more?

foreign to it

which thinks,

iliinu

what thing?

to

power of self-move-

impressions]: for to have the as also

me.

by

it,

.1

terms whose significance was formerh unknown to

not, in truth,

touched [and from which

is

it

by smell:

taste, or

many w ays

in

but by something which

ment,

had then

I

thus:

it

to

which can be perceived either by touch, or

sight, or

which

had desired

I

which can be defined by

that every other

w hich can be moved itself,

had

I

something w hich can be confined

in a certain place, a

if

should have described

it, I

a certain figure:

such

and

according to the notions that

understand

I

like

flame, or an ether, which was spread

a

throughout

than

soul, or an understanding, or a rca.son,

did not slop to consider

1

if

that

was something extremely rare and subtle

it

ot

desig-

1

bod\. In addition to this

of

was nourished,

1

that

nu-mbcrs composcil

in a

Philosophy

First

a thing

am

I?

A

w hich thinks?

thing which thinks.

It is

a thing

W hat

w hich doubts,

understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills refuses,

which

also imagines

and

feels.

[

Rene Descartes Certainly

who

who

certain things,

who

denies

affirms that one only

who

true,

is

know

desires to

is averse from being deceived, who imagines many things, sometimes indeed despite his will, and who perceives many likewise, as by the inter-

more,

vention of the bodily organs? this

I

easily

be regulated and controlled.

Let us begin by considering the commonest

we touch and

fused, but let us consider one

example,

has has

should always sleep and though he

who

not yet lost the sweetness of the honey which

me

being employed

I

all

his ingenuity in

all

there likewise any one of these

Is

my

which can be distinguished from

take, for

understands, and

no reason here

that there

is

explain

And

it.

so evident of itself that

it is

who

doubts,

who

it is

desires,

add anything

to

to

have certainly the power of im-

I

agining likewise; for although

may happen

it

(as

formerly supposed) that none of the things

imagine are true, nevertheless this power

of imagining does not cease to be really in use, and

forms part of my thought. Finally, that

feels,

see light,

hear noise,

I

dreaming. Let it

seems

it

to

and that

I

speaking

it is

I feel

phenomena

said that these

that

am

the

be

me

so; still

that

feel heat.

what

I

heat.

are false it is

in

me

in this precise sense that

in truth

But

will

it

and that

I

be

am

at least quite certain

see hght, that

That cannot be

is

same

perceives certain

by the organs of sense, since

things, as I

who

to say,

is

I

hear noise

I

false;

properly

called feeling;

and used

no other thing than

is

From little

this

more

time

I

begin to

know what

I

am w ith

a

clearness and distinction than before;

but nevertheless

seems

it still

prevent

myself from

things,

whose images

me, and

to

thinking, are

that

cannot

I

corporeal

framed by thought,

which are tested by the senses, are much more distinctly

known than

that obscure part of

me

which does not come under the imagination. Although

really

it is

very strange to say that

and understand more existence seems to to

me, and which do not belong

in a

to

I

me and which

am

my mind

to

me, than others

convinced, which are

pertain to

word, than myself. But

case stands:

know whose

me dubious, which are unknown

of the truth of which

known

I

distinctly these things

I

my

real nature,

see clearly

loves to wander,

how

the

and cannot

yet suffer itself to be retained within the just limits

of truth. Very good,

let

us once

more

give

it

the

it

colour,

retains

it still

figure, its size are apparent;

its

will

it

in

speak and approach the

taste

becomes

liquid,

and when one

it

hard,

it is

with the

it

the things

all

But notice

it.

that while

what remained of the

fire

destroyed, the size increases,

confess that

strikes

no sound

it,

after this

We

Does must

did

know

I

so distinctly in this

could certainly be nothing of

It

that the senses brought to

things which

emitted.

is

change?

it it,

remains, none would judge other-

it

What then

piece of wax?

one handle

heats, scarcely can

same wax remain

wise.

strike

exhaled, the smell evaporates, the colour

is

alters, the figure is

the

you

if

to cause us distinctly to recog-

met with

nise a body, are I

and

emit a sound. Finally

which are requisite

fall

under

and hearing, are found

my notice,

since

all

taste, smell, sight,

to

all

these

touch,

be changed, and yet the

same wax remains. Perhaps

it

wax was not agreeable

thinking.

this piece

somewhat of the odour of the flowers from which it has been culled; its contains;

finger,

who

in particular.

it

Is

certain that

from myself? For

it

more con-

little

body

it

it is

cold, easily handled,

I

which

not indeed bodies in general, for

see;

thought, or which might be said to be separated

which

to wit, the bodies

these general ideas are usually a

Let us

most

believe to be the

comprehended,

distinctly

of wax:

attributes

I

we

matters, those which

been taken quite freshly from the hive, and

deceiving me?

who

it

even

as true as

is

has given

I

we seize the may the more

afterwards

exist,

which

though

there nothing in

when

freest rein, so that,

proper occasion for pulling up,

nevertheless understands

the others,

all

so

who now doubts

not that being

I

nearly everything,

these things

if all

But why should they not

nature.

Am

pertain?

no small matter

it is

my

pertain to

was what

I

now

think, viz. that this

that sweetness of honey, nor that

nor that particular

of flowers,

scent

whiteness, nor that figure, nor that sound, but

simply a body which a to

me

is

now

as perceptible

little

while before appeared

under these forms, and which

perceptible under others. But what, pre-

cisely, is

it

that

I

imagine when

I

form such con-

ceptions? Let us attentively consider this, and, abstracting from

wax,

all

that does not belong to the

us see what remains. Certainly nothing

let

remains excepting a certain extended thing which is

flexible

flexible

and movable. But what

and movable?

this piece

Is

it

is

the

not that

of wax being round

is

meaning of

imagine that

I

capable of becom-

ing square and of passing from a square to a

angular figure? No, certainly I

imagine

it

changes, and

it

is

tri-

not that, since

admits of an infinitude of similar I

nevertheless do not

compass the infinitude by

my

know how

to

imagination, and

consequently this conception which

I

have of the

Meditations on First Philosophy \\.i\ is

not brought about b\ the l.uuliv ol im.iuni-

atioii

W

now

hat

unknown?

I'or

I

bcconics iircatcr

it

when

nultctl, greater

when

this cxtinsion'

is

the heat increases; anti

clearly

when

wa\

tin-

is

still

should not conceive

1

according to truth what wax

I

not also

it

boiled, anil greater

is

it

Is

we

think that even this piece that

did not

ill

is,

are considering

is

capable of receiving more variations in extension

than 1

I

We must

have ever imagined.

then grant that

coukl not even understand through the imagin-

wax

ation what this piece ol

and

is,

mind alone which perceives it. wax in particular, for as to wax Hut what

clearer.

mv

is

it

in general

yet

is

it

of wax which cannot

this piece

is

that

say this piece of

I

be understood excepting by the [understanding or] mind.'

same

certainly the

is

It

imagine, and finally

always believed

is

have

I

that

is

per-

its

neither an act of vision, nor of touch, nor

of imagination, and has never been such although

may have appeared it

formerly to be so, but only an

mind, which may be imperfect and

intuition of the

confused as

it

was formerly, or

clear

and

my attention

distinct as

perceneil

first

I

In

means

lommon tion

have

been

Hut when

judgment,

when and

consider [the great feebleness of mind]

I

proneness to

its

greatly astonished

fall

[insensibly] into error; for

although w ithout giving expression to I

consider

me

impede

all this

and

in

am

I

my own

if it is

judge that

it is

present,

the

I

we

we see the and not that we simply say that

same from

From

colour and figure.

thoughts

almost deceived by the terms

of ordinary language. For

same wax,

my

mind, words often

this

I

having the same

its

should conclude that

knew the w ax by means of vision and not simply

by the intuition of the mind; unless by chance I

remember

and saying

I

that,

see

when looking from

men who

do not see them, but just as

I

say that

I

a

window

w hat

finally

I

to perceive this piece of

know

ledge above the

And

yet

I

see

what do

I

see

common

judge these to be

by the faculty of judg-

mind,

his

I

my

I

comprehend

that

aim

to raise his

know-

should be ashamed to

of speech invented by the vulgar; I

who

1

do

distinctly,

much more

truth

and certainty, but also w ith much more distinctness and clearness?

is

judge that the wax

P'or if I

fact that

I

see

clearly that

I

am

see

I

not really wax,

it.

it

or that

For

may

exist

I

when

may be

it

also be that

see, or (for

I

of the distinction) when

who

think

exists

am

from the

fact that

it

cannot be

touch

I

see, that

I

I

myself

judge that the wax

if I

the

it,

am; and

I

see

1

do not possess

if I

same thing

my

judge that

some other cause, whatever it persuades me that the wax exists, I shall still

imagination, is,

think

nought. So

will follow, to wit, that

what

that I

much

no longer take account

I I

or exists

myself from

eyes with which to see anything; but that

is

certainly follows

it, it

or

conclude the same. of wax

may be

external to

of me].

me

And

And what I have

applied to

all

here remarked

other things which are

|and which are met with outside

further, if the [notion or] perception

me

had

a

I

many to

clearer

and more

other cau.ses have rendered

it

prefer to pass on

more evident and

distinct,

quite manifest

me, with how much more [evidence] and

dis-

now know myself, since all the reasons which contribute to the knowledge of wax, or any other body whatever, are tinctness

must

it

be said that

I

my

mind!

And

other things in the

mind

itself

yet better proofs of the nature of

eyes.

derive the occasion for doubting from the forms

and consider whether

wax so

myself, not only with

is,

do not admit

I

myself anything but mind.' What then,

not

thus

say of this mind, that

I

of myself, for up to this point

seem

my

in it

not only after the sight or the touch, but also after

saw with it

shall

its

it

certain

be found

still

can nevertheless not perceive

I

human mind.

in

is

of wax has seemed to

see wax.

makes

may

error

it

men,

my

A man who

quite naked,

it

external

had taken from

really

solely

I

I

animals'

its

I

ment which

believed

some

if

of the

wax from

is

men. And similarly

I

It

what

cover automatic machines.' Yet

w hich

can be known.

pass in the street,

infer that

from the window but hats and coats which may

rests in

consider

I

the fact that

am

I

any

bv

But

more

composed.

it

there which might not as well

without a

it,

meantime

by the

present concep-

perception which was

in this first

perceived

that although

directed to the elements which are found in it is

to say

it

the

have most carefully exam-

I

distinguish the

I

vestments,

less

the

knew

I

least b\

at

is

m\

what way

in

forms, and when, just as

from the

in

that

and

What was

or

Yet

now

is,

it

what was there distinct.'

more

and of which

that

is calleil,

it

v\hen

vsas

belRved

I

woulil certainlv be absurd to doubt as to this, I'or

at present,

is

sense as

clearer

is

wax

the

external senses or

of the

ined what

it is

according as

what

ol

ami wIkm

it.

imaginative facultv, or whether

from the beginning. But

w hat must particularly be observed ception

see, touch,

I

same which

the

is

it

to be

it

that

loiueption

perlect

there are so

many

which may contribute

to

nature, that those which

the elucidation of

depend on body such

its

as

these just mentioned, hardly merit being taken into

account.

Rene Descartes But

finally

to the point

me

that

I

here

I

am, having insensibly reverted

desired, for, since

it is

now manifest to

even bodies are not properly speaking

stood,

I

is

the senses or by the faculty of imagin-

to

ation, but

by the understanding only, and since

well that

known from

the fact that they are

seen or touched, but only because they are under-

is

nothing which

is

me to know than my mind. But because it

difficult to rid oneself so

known by

they are not

see clearly that there

easier for

promptly of an opinion

which one was accustomed I

should halt

the length of

imprint on

my

for so long,

it

w ill be

a little at this point, so that

meditation

my memory

this

I

may more

by

deeply

new knowledge.

From A Treatise on Human Nature

IL Hume

David While

and

Descartes

other

"rationalists" held that there

knowledge beyond, "innate

and

some source

taken, and which undoubtedly requires the utmost

of

or prior to, experience (e.g.

modern

ideas"),

"empiricist"

philoso-

phers, starting with John Locke (1632-1704),

mental contents, hence all knowledge, derived solely from experience. Such a insisted that

all

seem tailor made for modern science. Hume (1711-76), member of the Scot-

view might But David tish

Enlightenment and the greatest skeptic of

modern

philosophy, radicalized empiricism to the

point of undermining science is

at least

itself,

as

pressions

is

nothing but a series of im-

among which we can

tions" or correlations. There

note "conjunc-

then no reason, or

is

evidence, for claiming that these impressions "inhere"

in

"substances" that endure

not perceive them, or for belief nection"

among

in

when we do

"necessary con-

impressions. Nothing

in

experi-

ence must be as it is. Hence any prediction of the based on past experience is merely a projection of mental habit or custom, even though, as Hume recognizes, we cannot live without making such predictions. Likewise, there can be no reason or evidence for asserting the necessary existence of something altogether beyond experience, that is, God. The Conclusion to the first part of his future

greatest work,

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739),

most poignant and disturbing expression of skepticism in the history of Western philosophy. is

to

sion.

Methinks

the

which

that voyage,

and industry

art

to

be brought to

am

I

a

1

ha\c under-

happy conclu-

man, who having struck

like a

on many shoals, and having narrowly cscap'd shipwreck to

in

passing a small

put out to sea

in the

and even

vessel,

frith,

has yet the temerity

same leaky weather-beaten

carries his ambition so far as to

think of compassing the globe under these disad-

My memory

vantageous circumstances. errors and perplexities,

it

normally understood. For experience, stripped

of preconceptions,

ponder

epistemological

is

makes me

The wretched

future.

condition, weakness, and

disorder of the faculties, enquiries, encrease

impossibility of ulties,

reduces

my

my the

or correcting these fac-

almost to despair, and makes

resolve to perish on the barren rock, at present, rather

in

And

must employ

I

apprehensions.

amending

me

of past

diffident for the

on which

I

me am

than venture myself upon that

boundless ocean, which runs out into immensity.

This sudden view of melancholy; and as

above

all

feeding

danger strikes usual

others, to indulge

my

flections,

my 'tis

despair, with

itself;

all

that

for I

me

with

passion,

cannot forbear

those desponding re-

which the present subject furnishes

me

with in such abundance. I

am

first

affrighted and

forelorn solitude, in which

I

confounded with

am placM

in

my

that

phil-

osophy, and fancy myself some strange uncouth monster,

who

not being able to mingle and unite

in

David Hume, Conclusion to Book One, pp. 263-74

But before

I

launch out into those immense depths

of philosophy, which inclined to stop a

lie

before me,

moment

in

my

I

fmd myself

present station,

from A Treatise of Human Nature. Book L.

1. Part IV (ed.

A. Selby-Bigge). Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1975.

Hume

David

been expellM

society, has

I

all

human commerce, and

wouM

abandon'd and disconsolate. Fain

left utterly

run into the crowd for shelter and warmth; but

cannot prevail with myself to mix with such deform-

upon others

ity. I call

to join

me,

in order to

make

a

company apart; but no one will hearken to me. Every

immediately present to our consciousness, nor presents us, be ever receiv'd as true pictures of past

upon me from every

myself to the enmity of cians, mathematicians,

can

wonder

I

my

declared

can

I

my

All the

I

must

on

every

I

shouM

they

if

person.-*

have

suffer.' I

express a hatred of

When

look abroad,

I

When

detraction.

I

contradiction,

dispute,

side,

calumny and

eye inward,

metaphysicians, logi-

and even theologians; and

at the insults

be surpriz'd,

foresee

have exposM

I

dis-approbation of their systems; and

mine and of anger,

all

side.

turn

I

my

find nothing but doubt and ignorance.

w orld conspires to oppose and contradict me;

tho' such

is

loosen and

my weakness, that I feel all my opinions

fall

of themselves,

when unsupported by

the approbation of others. Every step hesitation,

take

I

and every new reflection makes

an error and absurdity in

my

is

with

me dread

ing are, therefore,

I

venture upon

such bold enterprizes, when beside those numberless infirmities peculiar to myself,

which are that

common leaving

in

to

I

opinions

established

all

following truth; and by what criterion shall

guish her, even

if

fortune should at

last

I

sure,

am

distin-

I

guide

me on

No wonder follow

M (as

principle,

and

effects;

assent to

it;

and

feel

I

to

me

which instructs

me. Experience

future;

me

another principle,

is

to expect the

make me form

same

for the

certain ideas in a

intense and lively manner, than others, which

are not attended with the this quality,

same advantages. Without

by which the mind enlivens some ideas

beyond others (w hich seemingly little

a principle,

and both of them conspiring to operate upon

the imagination,

more

is

under

in the several conjunctions of

objects for the past. Habit

which determines

shou'd

nothing but a strong propensity

to consider objects strongly in that view,

which they appear

is

so trivial, and so

founded on reason) we couM never assent

to

any argument, nor carry our view beyond those few objects,

which are present

to these objects

to

our senses. Nay, even

we couM never

the

'tis

attribute any exist-

be) in

all its

falla-

implicitely

variations. 'Tis this

same

which convinces

principle,

when absent from

the senses.

But

human mind,

tho' these

two

some circumstances they

yet in

directly contrary, nor

effects,

and

at

same time believe the continu'd existence of

How

matter.

we

then shall

adjust those principles

we

together.' \\ hich of them shall

we

are

possible for us to reason

and regularly from causes and

justly

the

is it

prefer?

Or in

case

prefer neither of them, but successively assent

to both, as

is

usual

title,

we

among

philosophers, with what

afterwards usurp that glorious

w hen we thus know ingly embrace

a manifest

contradiction?

This contradiction wou'd be more excusable, were

compensated by any degree of

solidity

and

satisfaction in the other parts of our reasoning.

But

it

the case

When we

quite contrary.

is

human understanding to its to lead us into all

first

trace

up the

principles,

we find

seem

to turn

such sentiments,

as

our past pains and industry, and to

discourage us from future enquiries. Nothing

more curiously enquir'd

is

by the mind of man,

after

than the causes of every phaenomenon; nor are

we

content with knowing the immediate causes, but

push on our enquiries, before

we

cause, by

quality,

we

arrive at the original

are acquainted with that energy in the

which

it

operates on

w hich connects them in all

till

We wou'd not willingly stop

and ultimate principle.

on which the

tie

depends. This

our studies and reflections:

be disappointed, when we ion, tie, or

energy

its effect;

that tie

together; and that efficacious

lies

is

our aim

And how must we

learn, that this

merely

connex-

in ourselves,

and

is

nothing but that determination of the mind, which is

acquir'd by custom, and causes us to

transition

from an object

to

its

ence, but what was dependent on the senses; and

and from the impression of one

must comprehend them

of the other? Such

entirely in that succession

when

operations be equally natural and necessary in the

into ridicule

why

inconstant and

us of the continu'd existence of external objects,

it

can give no reason

must

it

her foot-steps.^ After the most accurate and exact of I

a principle so

which makes us reason from causes and

my

reasonings,

and understand-

senses,

of them founded on the im-

cious should lead us into errors,

many

find so

human nature? Can I be

all

agination, or the vivacity of our ideas.

confidence can

reasoning.

For with what confidence can

The memory,

perceptions.

one keeps at a distance, and dreads that storm, which beats

memory

cou'd those lively images, with which the

a

hope of ever attaining

Nay farther, even with relation to that succession, we cou'd only admit of those perceptions, which are

say

satisfaction,

vents our very wishes; since desire to

know

it

a

to the lively idea

discovery not only cuts off

of perceptions, which constitutes our self or person.

we

make

usual attendant,

all

but even pre-

appears that

when we

the ultimate and operating

A Treatise on Human Nature pniKiplc, as sonuihiiiu, which

wc

nal object,

ciihci

icsiilcs in ihc c\iii-

ouischcs, or

CDiiit.uhct

i.ilk

without a mcanmu;.

common

not, iiukeil, pcr-

is

nor are we sensible, that

hfe,

in

we

the most usual conjunctions of cause and efteci

are as ignorant ot the ultimate principle, which

them

binils

if

we

This

a \er\ it.

fancy; beside that these suggestions are often contrary to each other; they lead us into

credulity.

dangerous to reason than the

Nothing

at last

of the imagin-

flights

may

whom

among

Men

philosophers.

of bright fan-

be compared to those angels,

in this respect

the scripture represents as covering their

eyes with their wings. This has already appear'd

many

in so

instances, that

we may

upon

the trouble of enlarging

But on the other hand,

any

it

and leaves but

us;

which implies

refin'd

upon ing,

us?

This opinion

The

all

return?

it

for a

influence;

my

present feeling and

manifold con-

human

whose anger must

or what.'

I,

I

and

to

fiivour shall

dread?

\\ hat

that

I

am

and can look

more probable

my existence, Whose

reason has

my brain,

or likely

From what what condiI

court,

and

beings surround

be danger-

me? and on w hom have I any influence, or w ho ha\ e any influence on me? I am confounded with all

consequences.

these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the

have already shewn, that the understanding,

most deplorable condition imaginable, inviron'd

wouM

resolution, if steadily executed,

ous, and attended

it

acts alone,

w ith the most

fatal

and according

to its

principles, entirely subverts itself,

most general

and leaves not

with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every

the lowest degree of evidence in any proposition, either in philosophy or

from

common

this total scepticism

that singular

and seemingly

our-

only by means of

trivial

by which we enter with

We save

life.

property of the

difficulty into

remote

views of things, and are not able to accompany them

we do

with so sensible an impression, as

which are more easy and establish

for a general

it

elaborate reasoning

is

means you cut

those,

natural. Shall we, then,

maxim,

that

no refm'd or

ever to be receiv'd.' Consider

well the consequences of such a principle.

phy:

as

Where am

derive

fancy,

ery

upon

or no influence

belief and reasoning,

I

selves

little

wrought upon me, and heated

ready to reject

\

it.

.scarce forbear retract-

tradictions and imperfections in

I

w hen

can

interne view of these

tion shall

I

I

and condemning from

experience.

it

forgot,

here said, that reflections very

I

causes do

For

quickK

is

or no influence

little

and metaphysical have

a resolution to reject

and more

and e\en where

of;

is

difficulty

manifest contradiction.

makes us take

established properties of the imagination; even this

off entirely

all

You proceed upon one

By

this

science and philoso-

must embrace

And you expresly contradict yourself; maxim must be built on the preceding

of them:

since this

reasoning,

w hich

will

be allow 'd to be sufficiently

member and

iMost fortunately

it

faculty.

happens, that since rea.son

is

incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose,

and cures

me of this

philo-

sophical melancholy and delirium, either by relax-

ing this bent of mind, or by lively

impression of

my

some avocation, and w hich obliterate all

senses,

these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry w ith my friends; and when after three or four hours' amusement, I

wou'd return

to these speculations, they

so cold, and strain'd, and ridiculous, that find in

my

heart to enter into

Here then

singular quality of the

imagination, and by a parity of reason all

a

But what have

so

this

they ought not to have an\

the trivial suggestions of the fancy, and adhere to to the general

that

is,

and yet we do not, and cannot establish

rule, that

than another.

is,

not w hat ought to be

can only obser\e what

small impression behind

a

refin\l reflections ha\e

the consideration of

the understanding, that

i

has once been present to the mind,

upon no opinion even

farther.

know

1

seldom or never thought

is

have, there-

but betwixt a false reason and

part,

if

these instances all

spare ourselves

my

For

We

understanding.

left

commonly done; which

more

is

and nothing has been the occasion of more

mistakes cies

such errors,

and obscurities, that we must

become asham'd of our ation,

human

in the i^resent case,

assent to every trivial suggestion ot the

absurdities,

eniiiel\ the

at all.

to yield to these illusions.

If we we subvert

la\our ot these reasonings,

none

dangerous dilemma, whichever way we answer

For

m

done

very difficult, and reduces us to

is

into the most manitesl absurdities.

II

most unusual and

we ought

far

question

we embrace

II

retin'd reasoning,

we run

Hut this proceeds merel\ from an is,

all

relict

no choice

the imagination; and the question

illusion of

how

.

ami conilemn

his principle,

part\, then, shall

difficulties.'

fore,

toi;ether, as in the

e\traordinar\

we choose among these I

This deficiency in our uleas ceiv'd in

What

relin\l aiul meiaphvsical.

ily

I

determinM

them any

I

appear cannot

farther.

find myself absolutely and necessarto live,

and

talk,

and

act like other

common affairs of life. But notw ithstanding that my natural propensity, and the course of my animal spirits and passions reduce me to this people in the

Hume

David

maxims of the world,

indolent belief in the general

my former disposition, all my books and papers

I still

feel

such remains of

that

am

ready to throw

I

into the fire,

and resolve never more

pleasures of

life

my

humour, which governs

nay

I

me

my

senses and understanding; and in this I

shew most perfectly my sceptical But does

disposition and principles.

it

follow

,

that

I

which

strive against the current of nature,

me

may,

at present. I

yield to the current of nature, in submit-

blind submission

must

and phil-

sentiments in that splen-

etic

ting to

renounce the

for the sake of reasoning

osophy. For those are

must

to

and pleasure; that I must some measure, from the commerce and society of men, which is so agreeable; and that I must torture my brain with subtilities and leads

to indolence

seclude myself, in

sophistries, at the very time that

I

cannot satisfy

and conversation. iosity to

cannot forbear having a cur-

I

be acquainted with the principles of moral

good and

evil,

the nature and foundation of gov-

ernment, and the cause of those several passions

and

am

inclinations,

which actuate and govern me.

uneasy to think

I

disapprove of another;

I

approve of one object, and call

one thing beautiful, and

another deform'd; decide concerning truth and falshood, reason and folly, without

knowing upon

am

concern'd for

what principles

proceed.

I

I

the condition of the learned world, which

under such

deplorable ignorance in

a

ticulars. I feel

all

an ambition to arise in

lies

these par-

me

of con-

tributing to the instruction of mankind, and of

acquiring a ies.

name by my

inventions and discover-

These sentiments spring up naturally

present disposition; and should

I

my

in

endeavour

to

myself concerning the reasonableness of so painful

banish them, by attaching myself to any other

an application, nor have any tolerable prospect of

business or diversion,

arriving

by

means

its

what obligation do time.-*

And

to

at truth

I lie

If

But even suppose shou'd not transport

a fool, as all those

believe any thing certainly are,

my

my

who

inclination, I shall have a

and

resistance;

reason or

follies shall at

Where

be natural and agreeable.

least

against for

my

I

strive

good reason

no more be led

will

a

wandering into such dreary solitudes, and rough passages, as

These lence;

I

have hitherto met with.

are the sentiments of

and indeed

must

I

confess, that philosophy

I

shou'd be a loser in

this curiosity

in its

philosophy; and while the latter contents itself with assigning

new

causes and principles to the phasno-

opens a world of

in the visible world, the

its

and beings, and

scenes,

that narrow circle of objects,

reason and conviction. In

of daily conversation and action,

we ought

only because otherwise. to

warms, or water refreshes,

costs us too

it

Nay

our scepticism. If we

to preserve

still

believe, that fire

if

we

life

much

'tis

pains to think

are philosophers,

ought only

it

be upon sceptical principles, and from an inclin-

ation,

which we that

after

mixes

itself

assented

any

title

feel to the

employing ourselves

manner. Where reason

to.

with some propensity,

Where

to operate

At the time,

it

does not,

upon

it

lively,

is it

ought

tir'd

river-side,

and

am

my I

chamber, or

feel

in a solitary

my mind all

ought to prefer that which able.

all

those subjects, about which

so

many

I

my

and most agree-

philosophy, and shall not scruple to give preference to superstition of every kind or ination.

For

the

it

denom-

as superstition arises naturally

and

more strongly on the mind, and

with

Philosophy on the contrary,

and extravagant,

ments; and

are merely the objects of a cold

reading

it

often

if just,

can

present us only with mild and moderate senti-

a

itself,

is

able to disturb us in the conduct of our lives and

a

view into

my

safest

seizes

have met with

disputes in the course of

is

And in this respect I make bold to recommend

to be

walk by

collected within

naturally inclined to carry

w hich are the subject we ought only to

from the popular opinions of mankind,

amusement and company, and have indulg'd reverie in

to rest, like those of beasts, in

easily

never can have

am

al-

almost impossible

deliberate concerning the choice of our guide, and

actions.

that I

'tis

and

us.

therefore,

mind of man

which are

objects,

.

for the

former

own, and presents us with

more from the returns of a serious goodhumour'd disposition, than from the force of the incidents of

is

systems and hypotheses than

together new Since therefore

all

and ambition

into such enquiries. Tis certain, that superstition

much more bold

has nothing to oppose to them, and expects a victory

my

the origin of

is

me into speculations without the sphere of common life, it w ou'd necessarily happen, that from my very weakness I must be led

mena, which appear

my spleen and indo-

feel

philosophy.

serve either for the

it

I

point of pleasure; and this

my own private interest?

what end can

must be

I

Under

certainty.

of making such an abuse of

service of mankind, or for

No:

and

lation,

if false

and seldom go so

its

opinions

and general specu-

far as to interrupt the

course of our natural propensities.

The Cynics

are an extraordinary instance of philosophers,

w ho

from reasonings purely philosophical ran into

as

A Treatise on Human Nature

spcakinii,

was

c\ci

errors

the

coiuliut as

ot

t'\ira\.ii!;aiuic's

jircat

Denist- ihat

in

\/('///'

or

(iciurall\

aw

religion

in

am

worUI.'

ilu-

dangerous,

those in philosoph) onl\ riilieulous. 1

am

mankind, and

many employM

comprehend

all

that there are in I:n^lunJ, in particu-

domestic

their

in

common

themselves in their thoughts

who being always

gentlemen,

honest

lar,

will not

very

beyond those

which are every day expos'd indeed, of such as these

philosophers, nor do

amusing

or

affairs,

recreations, ha\e carried

little

I

objects,

And

to their senses.

pretend not to make

expect them either to be

I

associates in these researches or auditors of these

They do

discoveries.

them

well to keep themselves in

present situation; and

their

into philosophers,

of refining

instead

wish we cou'd communi-

I

some

in

particulars a diflereni turn to the

speculations o( philosoj^hers, and |>ointing out to

them more

those subjects, where alone

tlistinctly

the> can e\|>ecl assurance

sensible, that these t\No eases ot the strength

and weakness of the niind

gi\mg

b\

Nature

Human

and conxiclion

the only science of man; and vet has been

is

hitherto the most neglected. "Iwill be sufficient for

me,

can bring

iff

hope

it

a little

of this ser\es to

sjileen,

more

and invigorate

it

from

If the reader

himself in the same easy disposition, in

my

future speculations. If not,

his inclination,

and wail the returns

him

follow

let

him

follow

of application

man, who

a

studies philosophy in this careless manner,

than that of one,

himself an inclination to

who

is

more

feeling in

over-whelm'd

yet so

it, is

finds

let

and good humour. The conduct of

truly sceptical

that

which

that indolence,

sometimes prevail upon me.

me

and the

into fashion;

compose m\ temper from

with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject

it.

A

cate to our founders of systems, a share of this gross

true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical

com-

doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction;

earthy mixture, as an ingredient, which they

monly stand much

need

in

of,

and which wou'd

w hich they

serve to temper those fiery particles, of are

composM. While

warm

a

to enter into philosophy,

imagination

is

allow'd

and hypotheses embrac'd

and

never refuse any innocent satisfaction,

will

which

offers itself,

our inclination researches,

never have any steady principles, nor any senti-

ciples, but also that

which

will

suit

with

common

practice

sity,

in general indulge

most elaborate philosophical

in the

merely for being specious and agreeable, we can

ments,

upon account of either of them.

Nor is it only proper we shou'd

notwithstanding our sceptical

we shou'd

which inclines us

to

yield to that

be positive and certain

and experience. But were these hypotheses once

particular points, according to the light, in

remov'd, we might hope to establish

survey them

set of opinions, is

too

much

which

to

if

system or

a

not true (for that, perhaps,

be hop'd for) might

at

be

least

forbear

all

in

any particular

instant. 'Tis easier to

ourselves in so natural a propensity, and guard against that assurance,

chimerical systems, which have successively arisen

cism, but even our modesty too; and

and decay'd away among men, wou'd we consider

such terms as these,

the shortness of that period, wherein these ques-

undeniable;

tions

have

been

Two

the

subjects

and

of enquiry

thousand years with such long

in

which we

examination and enquiry, than to check

human mind, and might stand the test of the most critical examination. Nor shou'd we despair of attaining this end, because of the many satisfactory to the

prin-

propen-

exact and

occasion

full

we

w hich always

arises

from an

On

such an

survey of an object.

arc apt not only to forget our scepti-

which

a

'tis

evident,

due deference

ought, perhaps, to prevent.

I

make use of certain,

'tis

'tis

to the public

may have

fallen into

example of others; but

I

here

interruptions, and under such mighty discourage-

enter a caveat against any objections, which

may

ments are

be offered on that head; and declare that such ex-

reasoning.

a small space

of time to give any tolerable

perfection to the sciences; and perhaps

we are still

in

too early an age of the w orld to discover any principles,

which

posterity.

will bear the

For

contribute a

my

little

part,

to the

examination of the

my only

hope

is,

that

latest I

may

advancement of knowledge.

"Derise" means dervish.

The Cynics were

this fault after the

pressions were extorted from

me by

the present

view of the object, and imply no dogmatical spirit,

nor conceited idea of my sentiments that

and

I

am

a sceptic still less

own judgment, which

sensible can

arc

become no body,

than any other.

an ancient

philosophical school that advocated the violation of .social

conventions.

d^

^

From Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was

among

alone the

great

first

faith in

virtually

eighteenth-century intellectuals,

new Enlightenment A native of his be-

the

critic of

I

men,

appropriate to an honest man

loved Geneva, he led an emotionally complex and life.

Rousseau

felt

uncomfortable

in

the

emerging cosmopolitan world, which he believed made genuine selfhood impossible. He established his reputation

in

1750 by arguing

in

the

essay excerpted here that modern learning does not improve, but on the contrary harms, human morals.

In

a later work, his 0;scourse on the Origins

of Inequality

among Men

(1754), he revealed his

that

is

nothing and

science and progress.

troubled

It will

be

take in this question?

who

thinks no less of himself for

say to the tribunal before which

most learned

societies, praise

Academy, and

respect for the truly learned?

abusing science,

I

that listens to

witty as you are

ment of the

makes one long to go on all fours. it is now some sixty years since I

gave up the practice, impossible

for

me

to

I

feel that

resume

it

it."

is

unfortunately

Voltaire's wit to

the contrary notwithstanding, Rousseau never

argued

for

Has

of right.

to fear?

is

me?

admit

I

What

to the studious.

The enlightenment it;

then

of the assembly

but this

is

owing

to the

speaker. Fair-minded sovereigns have

whose outcomes

are uncertain;

and the position most advantageous

for a just cause

selves in disputes

is

to

have to defend oneself against an upright and

enlightened opponent

To

this

who is

judge in his

motive which heartens

me

own is

case.

joined

another which determines me, namely that, having upheld, according to truth,

whatever

cannot

fail

my

my

natural light, the side of

success, there

to receive; I will find

it

is a

prize

which

within the depths

of mv heart.

the restoration of the sciences and the arts con-

tributed to the purification of mores, or to their

corruption? That

'

I am not am defending virtue

never hesitated to pass judgments against them-

I

IVe are deceived by the appearance

I

composition of the discourse and not to the senti-

an actual return to primitive existence;

rather, he sought a new egalitarian way of life that would be just as authentic in the modern context as was primitive existence in its context.

have seen these points

before virtuous men. Integrit\' is even dearer to good

culture. He was chastised by the great Voltaire, who wrote to Rousseau: "no one has ever been so

read your book

I

told myself;

views of Marx, and roundly condemned modern

Since, however,

ignorance in a famous

of conflict, and they have not daunted me.

I

trying to turn us into brutes: to

can

reconcile contempt for study with

than erudition

in

it.

have to

How

appear.

I

I

dare to blame the sciences before one of Europe's

I

have

foreshadowing the

for social equality,

adapt what

difficult, I feel, to

men

concern

The one, gentlewho knows

side should

Horace,

32^

On

the

is

what

is

to

Art of Poetry,

be examined.

v. 25.

W hich

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp. 3-10 from Part One of "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts in T/ie Basic "

Political Writings of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (trans.

Donald Cress). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Companylnc..l987.

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts It

IS

iHauntuI sight to sec

a ur.uul aiui

somehow from nothing patc, hN

own

b\ his

the hght of his reason, the

which nature had en\eh)ped him;

means of

soar b\

self;

man timruc

ctlotts; chssi-

mind

his

shadows

rise

in

of all the sirtues

this sort of ciNilitx,

|{\

puts on fewer

guished themselves their

grander and more dilticuh, return to himsell

man and know

order to slud\

and

mar\els ha\e been re\i\ed

his end. All ot these

in the past

in

his nature, his duties,

I.urope had relapsed into the barbarism of the ages.

first

few centuries ago the peoples of that

.\

who

part of the world,

worse than ignorance.

lives, lived in a state

Some

nondescript scientific jargon, even more contemptible

than ignorance, had usurped the

knowledge, and posed to its return.

back to

.\

nearly in\incible obstacle

a

common

sense;

among

finally

it

The

us.

came from the

w ho caused them

sweet

served as our rules, able from the

to be

letters.

government and the laws see

pleasant.

to the safety

being of assembled men, the sciences, the arts, less despotic and perhaps

virtue, if

our maxims

true philosophy were insepar-

of philosopher! Hut so

many

man

too rarely found in combination,

of

taste.

'The heallh\ and robust

recognized by other signs.

is

in the rustic

gilding of the courtier that one will find bodily

-

which

a

It is

clothing of the fieldw orker and not underneath the

strength and vigor. Einery

The

no

is

less alien to virtue,

the strength and vigor of the soul. 'The

is

is

He

is

who enjoys competing

an athlete

contemptuous of

all

in the

those vile orna-

ments w hich w ould impair the use of

his strength,

most of which were invented merely

to conceal

some deformity. our passions to speak an affected language, our

mores were

rustic but natural, and, differences in

While the

behavior heralded,

at

first

glance, differences of

and well-

character. At base,

human

nature was no better,

letters

and

more powerful,

spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains with

w hich they are burdened,

if

To

foundations of society; it

Outer

Before art had fashioned our manners and taught

needs, as does the body.

make

title

all

man

elegance a

with works worthy of their mutual approval.

latter are the

if

such great pomp.

desire to please one another

the needs of the former

us,

wealthy man, and

nude.

needs of the

among

a

only too natural.

its

were

dispositions, if decency

good man

has

to live

in

may seem strange, but And the chief advantage of commerce with the Muses began to be felt, namely, that of making men more sociable by

The mind

panlomine.

Italian

in social interaction.

would be

it

from

of the taste acquired by good

fruits

appearances were always the likeness of the heart's

which perhaps

them the

times and

engaging, equally remoNcd

yet

rusticity as

schooling and perfected

sequence of events that

inspiring in

all

Expensive finery can betoken

the art of w riting w as joined the art of thinking

is

of

and virtue seldom goes forth

Greece. France in turn was enriched by these pre-

Soon the sciences followed

da>s

our ceniurs

it

least

of the throne of Con-

fall

\i\

qualities are

stantinople" brought into Italy the debris of ancient

cious spoils.

These are the

How

it

men

was the stupid Moslem, the

It

eternal scourge of letters,

reborn

name of

revolution was needed to bring

expected quarter.

manners natural

today live such enlightened

much \aunted

the

in

doubtlessU sur|>ass

ill

as

\ jihilosophic tone without pedantrN,

peoples.

from Teutonic

tew generations.

more agreeable

magnificence ami splendor

ami our nation w all

without having an>

the

all

.\thens and R(»me once distin-

airs,

regions; tra\erse, hke the sun, the \ast expanse of

even

relationships

apjHarances

the uniserse with giant steps; and, what

is

wlmh make

mores

in

so cordial and easy; in a word, (he

above him-

into the hea\enl\

uibaniiN

thai

among \ou

but

men found

w hich

their safety in the ease with

they saw through each other, and that advantage,

w hich we no longer value, spared them many

vices.

Today, when more subtle inquiries and

more

them the sense of which they seem to have

refined taste have reduced the art of pleasing to

been born, make them love their slavery, and turn

established rules, a vile and deceitful uniformity

that original liberty for

them

into

what

is

stitle in

called civilized peoples.

up thrones; the sciences and the

raised

arts

Need have

reigns in our mores, and

been cast

in the

liteness

and protect those who cultivate them!' Civilized

without ceasing,

them

that delicate

Happy

and refined

slaves,

taste

you owe

on w hich you

pride yourselves; that sweetness of character and

never one's

The

capital of the

Roman) Empire

fell

Byzantine (formerl\ the Eastern

to the

Turks

in 1453.

own

seem what one straint, the

society

do

all

minds seem

to have

ceasing, po-

makes demands, propriety gives orders;

strengthened them. Earthly powers, love talents

peoples, cultivate them!

all

same mold. Without

a

w ill,

the

common customs are followed, lights. One no longer dares to

really

is;

and

in this perpetual

men who make up if

this

herd we

concall

placed in the same circumstances,

same things unless stronger motives deter

them. Thus no one

will ever reallv

know those with

.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

whom

he

friend,

deahng. Hence

is

occasions, that

What

too

it is

for these very occasions that

it is

essential to

one's

to wait for critical

to wait until

is,

know

order to

in

would be necessary

it

it

since

late,

would have been

know him.

a retinue

No more

more unvaryingly subjected

waters have not been to the star

which provides us with

night, than has the fate of mores

of vices must attend

this incerti-

no more

Consider Egypt, that

sincere friendships,

cions, offenses, fears, coldness, reserve, hatred, be-

w ill unceasingly hide under

and

that uniform

under that much

of politeness,

veil

vaunted urbanity that we owe to the enlightenment

The name

of our century.

of the master of the

universe will no longer be profaned with oaths; rather

No

our scrupulous ears being offended by them.

one

will boast

of his

own

merit, but will disparage

No

one

will

that of others.

enemy, but

crudely wrong his

him. National

will skillfully slander

hatreds will die out, but so will love of country.

Scorned ignorance

a

dangerous

famous country from which Sesostris" departed long ago to conquer the world. She became the

mother of philosophy and the

fine arts,

and soon

was conquered by Cambyses,' then by

thereafter

Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and finally Turks.

Consider Greece, formerly populated by heroes

who

twice conquered Asia, once at

Troy and once

on their own home ground. Nascent

letters

had not

yet brought corruption into the hearts of her inhab-

but the progress of the

itants;

the dissolution

arts,

of mores and the Macedonian's yoke followed closely

upon one another; and Greece, ever

learned,

nothing in her revolutions but changes of masters.

men

the sobriety of the wise I

places.

all

vices held in dishonor, but others will be

who wish extoll

have them or affect them. Let those

as

times and in

school of the universe,

ever voluptuous, and ever the slave, experienced

adorned with the name of virtues. One must either

part,

all

first

excesses will be forbidden,

Pyrrhonism.'"

some

be replaced by

will

Some

in

that climate so fertile beneath a brazen sky, that

be insulted with blasphemies without

will

it

arts. \ irtue

on our horizon, and the same phenom-

light rose

esteem, no more well-founded confidence. Suspi-

deceitful

during the

has been seen taking flight in proportion as their

enon has been observed

trayal

and the

to the progress of the sciences

real

tude!

light

and integrity been

see in

it

merely

unworthy of my

Such

is

a

of the present. For

my

the purity that our mores have acquired.

Thus have we become decent men.

It is

for letters,

body which luxury and the

arts

had ener-

vated.

refinement of intemperance

praise as their artful simplicity."

Demosthenes could never

All the eloquence of

revive a

It is at

the time of the likes of Ennius and Ter-

ence' that '

Rome, founded by

shepherd and made

a

famous by fieldworkers, began

to degenerate.

But

Hkes of Ovid, Catullus, Martial,"' and that

after the

the sciences, and the arts to claim their part in so

crowd of obscene writers whose names alone offend

wholesome an achievement.

add but one

modesty, Rome, formerly the temple of virtue,

w ho

became the theater of crime, the disgrace of nations,

thought: an inhabitant of

I

some

will

distant lands

sought to form an idea of European mores on the

among

basis of the state of the sciences

us, the

perfection of our arts, the seemliness of our theatri-

performances,

cal

manners, the

the

affability

of our

quality

civilized

of our speech, our perpetual

and the plaything of barbarians. Finally, that of the world

tion of men of every age to night,

and circumstance who, from

seem intent on being obliging

one another; that foreigner,

mores

to

I

say,

was the eve of the day when one of her given the

no

is

effect, there is

no cause

But here the

real,

and our souls have become corrupted

is

are.

to seek

be said that

it

A

"

age.'

in pro-

The

daily rise

and

of

Roman

ca.

'"

No, gentlemen,

An 34:

location,

seemed

fall

of the ocean's

ancient school of skeptical philosophers.

in 6th century

Bc

poetry, and Publius Terentius Afer (ca. 190-

159 BC) was a

Roman

playwright.

Publius Ovidus Naso (93 greatest

(ca. 8-1—ca.

\'alerius

Roman

54 bc) was

writers. a

Martialis (ca.

bc-ad

18)

was one of

Gains \'alerius Catullus

famous Roman

40^a. ad

lyric poet.

Marcus

104) was a

Roman

satirist. ^'"

'"

its

Quintus Ennius (239-ca. 170 bc) was the father

this is a

the evils caused by our vain curiosity are as old as the world.

Taste.'"'

about that capital of the Eastern

legendary pharoah.

King of Persia

'

the

misfortune peculiar to our

Good

fall

was

destined to be the capital of the entire world, that

certain, the depravation

portion as our sciences and our arts have advanced

toward perfection. Will

of Arbiter of

Empire, which, by virtue of

^'

out.

effect

title

\\ hat shall I say

citizens

would guess our

be exactly the opposite of what they

Where there

to

capital

under the yoke which she had

imposed on so many peoples, and the day of her

displays of goodwill, and that tumultuous competi-

morning

falls

Tacitus claims that the

the idler Petronius

(d.

ad

Roman Emperor Nero made Good Taste."

66) "Arbiter of

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts rctugc ol the scifiKfs

than barbarism

ihc arts UaiiislKcl liom

.iiul

more perhaps

the rest of Kuropf

All that

oiii o(

most shamclul about

is

tkbaialurN and corruption; blackest assassinations,

wisiloiii

in bctraNals,

ami poisons; most atrocious

coexistence ot every sort of crime: that

in

the

what

is

constitutes the fabric of the historN of Constantinople.

I'hat is

the pure source

whence

radiates to us

not out ol stupidits that these people ha\e

IS

It

h)rms

preterreil other

men

other lamls idle

spent

their

and

virtue,

highest

the

praises,

peoples under the contemptuous ians,

learned to disdain their teaching.^

remote times proofs of

in

eyes' In .Vsia there

acknowledgement

an immense country where

is

in the field of letters leads to the

highest offices of the state. If the sciences purified

mores,

they taught

if

men

to

shed their blood for

name

forget that

I

Greece

that

famous

for her

was

it

happ\ ignorance

of her laws, that republic

men, so superior seem.'

O

bosom of

in the very

there was seen to arise that city as

humanit\ did

to

Sparta! Kternal

shame

While the

if

there

is

not a single vice that does not

have mastery over them; not unfamiliar to them;

if

crime that

a single

is

neither the enlightenment of

empire have been able

to shield her

from the yoke of

the ignorant and coarse Tartar, what purpose has

her learned

all

men

What

served.'

benefit has been

by the fine

of

The

event confirmed this difference.

became the abode of

country of orators and philosophy.

this

number of peoples who, protected

virtues brought about their

the

against

contagion of vain knowledge, have by their

model

for other nations.

learned just as science

is

us,

which subju-

the distinction of having the history of

its

insti-

taken for a philosophical novel."' Such

were the Scythians, about

whom we

have been

left

such magnificent praises. Such were the Germans, whose simplicity, innocence, and virtues a pen -

weary of tracing the crimes and

atrocities of an

educated, opulent and voluptuous people - found relief in depicting.

Such had been Rome

herself in

the times of her poverty and ignorance. finally,

Such,

for her

courage which adversity

could not overthrow, and for her faithfulness which

example could not corrupt.

'"

Education

of

w here.

The

"There,"

ments worth Athens has

Some

is left

less to

\

and

irtue."

to us except the

of their heroic actions. Are such

monu-

us than the curious marbles that

left us.'

wise men,

it is

true,

had resisted the gen-

and protected themselves from vice

eral torrent

in

the abode of the Muses. But listen to the judgement that the first

learned

and unhappiest of them made of the

men and

artists

of his time.

"I have," he says, "examined the poets, and I

view them as people whose talent makes an im-

pression on

them and on others who claim to be to be such, and w ho are nothing

w ise, w ho are taken of the sort.

"From to artists.

poets," continues Socrates, "I

moved on

No one knew

than

less

about the

one w as more convinced that

artists

especially fine secrets. Still,

I

"*

Probably Xenophon's (430-354 bc)

Cyrus.

less brilliant.

the very air of the country seems to inspire

has that rustic nation show n herself to this

day - so vaunted

is

Nothing of her inhabitants

among

to be seen ever\

said the other peoples, ''men are born virtuous,

gated Asia so easily, and w hich alone has enjoyed

tutions

Lacedaemon

memory

which virtue was

elegance

serve as models in every corrupt age.

picture of

Such were the

Persians, a singular nation in

The

those astonishing works that

own happiness and first

Athens

taste, the

Marble and canvas, animated by the hands of the

will

the small

arts

of her buildings paralleled that of the language.

From Athens came

Contrast these scenes w ith that of the mores of

and good

civility

Could

men?

tyrant

the sciences and scientists.

artists,

most capable masters, were

be to be peopled by slaves and wicked

a

you drove out from your walls the

poets,''

and

derived from the honors bestowed upon them.^ it

intruded

arts,

there gathered so carefully the works of the prince

the ministers, nor the alleged w i.sdom of the laws,

nor the multitude of the inhabitants of that vast

led

\irtues

their

to a vain doctrine!

themselves together into .\thens, while

vices,

wisdom

as for the

demi-gods rather than

of

peoples of China should be wise, free and invin-

But

barbar-

of

their country, if they enlivened their courage, the

cible.

other

groufK-d

liowexer, the\ consiilered their mores and

Could

a truth

which we ha\e existing evidence before our

debating

bestowing on

that arrogant reasoners,

themselves

itself.

Hut \vh> seek

thai in

(act

li\es

about the sovereign g(M)d, about vice and about

the enliiihienment on which our century prides

for

those ol the

of evercise to

IIkn were iml unaware of the

miiul

"^

Peisistratus (ca.

collection of

arts

I;

no

possessed some

perceived that their

600-527 bc) allegedly directed the

Homer's works.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau condition

no better than that of the poets, and

is

under the same preju-

that they are both laboring

Because the most

dice.

among them

skillful

excel in

their specialty, they view themselves as the wisest

To my way

of men.

of thinking, this presumption

this

it

follows that, as

put myself in the place of

I

be what

I

am

answered myself and God:

what

I

would prefer

the true, the good, and the beautiful.

between

something.

however,

I,

not in doubt about

am

I

- what

all

believe they

What

plicity.^

know

know nothing, at least Thus all that superiority the oracle, reduces to

ignorant of what

I

do not

fatal

the wisest of men in the judgment of

the gods, and the most learned of Athenians in the

opinion of

Greece, Socrates, speaking in praise

all

is

this strange speech.''

Roman simWhat are these

effeminate mores?

What

meaning of these

the

is

these paintings, these buildings? Fools,

statues,

what have you done? You, the masters of nations, have you made yourselves the slaves of the frivolous

men you Was it to

conquered?

Do

rhetoricians govern you?

enrich architects, painters, sculptors, and

you soaked Greece and Asia with your

blood? Are the spoils of Carthage the prey of a flute

Romans make

player?

these paintings; drive out these slaves gate you and

He would

not aid in

down

haste to tear

these amphitheaters; shatter these marbles; burn

among us, our learned men and our artists would make him change his mind.-^ No, gentlemen, this just man would continue to hold our vain sciences in contempt.

her

roofs and those rustic

of ignorance! Does anyone believe that, were he to

be reborn

all

splendor has follow ed upon

What

actors that is

saved by your arm and

become of those thatched

is

know."

Here then

Rome

hearths where moderation and virtue once dwelt.^

is

if I it.

wisdom accorded me by

being convinced that

I

But there

that although these

us:

people know^ nothing, they

been your misfortune to be

it

you had seen the pompous coun-

life,

honored more by your good name than by has

do not know - neither the sophists, nor the

this difference

had

if,

returned to

conquests? "Gods!" you would have said, "what

remain

to

poets, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor

in

thought,

want

am.

"We

am

to

it.

O Fabricius!"'" What would your great soul have

tenance of that

I I

study

know what they know nothing.

or what they are, to

have learned or to know that I

I

their

From

has completely tarnished their knowledge.

the oracle and ask myself whether

men have begun to appear in our midst," own philosophers said, "good men have vanished." Until then the Romans had been content to practice virtue; all was lost when they began to learned

whose

who

subju-

corrupt you. Let

fatal arts

others achieve notoriety by vain talents; the only talent

worthy of

Rome

is

that of conquering the

world and making virtue reign

in

it.

When Cineas""'

the enlargement of that mass of books which inun-

took our Senate for an assembly of kings, he was

date us from every quarter, and the only precept he

dazzled neither by vain

would leave

gance.

is

the one

left to his disciples

descendants: the example and the virtue.

Thus

is it

and

memory

to

our

of his

Rome

to rail against those artful

who seduced

nor by studied elethat frivolous elo-

quence, the focus of study and delight of

futile

men. What then did Cineas see that was so majes-

noble to teach men!

Socrates had begun in Athens, Cato"' the Elder

continued in

pomp

There he did not hear

and

tic?

O

citizens!

riches nor

all

He saw

your

arts

a sight

which neither your

could ever display; the most

the virtue and ener-

beautiful sight ever to have appeared under the

vated the courage of his fellow citizens. But the

heavens, the assembly of two hundred virtuous

subtle Greeks

sciences, again.

and

the arts,

Rome was

dialectic

prevailed once

with philosophers and

filled

orators; military discipline

The

sacred

names of liberty,

homeland

disinterest-

in

Rome and

of

governing the earth."

But

was neglected, agricul-

ture scorned, sects embraced, and the forgotten.

men, worthy of commanding

let

us leap over the distance of place and time

and see what has happened before our eyes; or rather,

our countries and

in

let

us set aside odious

edness, obedience to the laws were replaced by the

pictures that offend our delicate sensibilities, and

names of Epicurus, Zeno,

spare ourselves the trouble of repeating the same

Arcesilaus.'"'

"Ever since

things under different names. ""

Marcus Porcius Cato "the Elder" (243- 149 bc) was

highly respected for simplicity ""

Roman

I

summoned

I

make

a

general and statesman, famous

It

was not

in vain that

the shade of Fabricius; and

that great

man

say that

I

w hat did

could not have

of virtue.

Epicurus (341-270 bc), founder of Epicureanism;

Zeno of Citium (336-264 bc), founder of Stoicism; and Arcesilaus (316-241 bc), a famous Skeptic.

^"'

Caius Fabricius Luscinus

Roman general. "'^ An ambassador

(d.

250 bc) was

a great

of the Thessalian king Pyrrhus.

Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts platcil

tlu-

111

Anions

us,

l.ouis \ll oi

inouili ol is

ii

drunk the hemlock; but he woukl from

more

a cu|>

and scorn

hitler

still:

Uih\

I\

noi

li.ivi

-

chunk

h.i\f

the msultinu; ridicule

limes worse than

are a luiiuheil

that

I

woiiUI

Soir.iii-s

iiik-,

death.

how lu\ui\,

IS

ha\e

(.lissolulion aiul sl.i\er\

times been the punishment lor the arrogant

we ha\e made

et forts that

happy ignor-

to lea\e the

ance where eternal w isilom had jilaced

heavy

us.

with which she had co\ered

veil

all

Hut

worse

is

would be cNcn

the\

had the misfortune

hail

of

being

born learned. low humiliating are these refleiiioiis

manity!

How

lui

lui-

mortified our pride must be! What!

be the daughter of ignorance.' Sci-

(!oulil probit)

ence and \irtue incompatible.' What consequences

might not be drawn from these prejudices? But to

her

reconcile these apparent

for vain inquiries.

there even one of her lessons from which

need merely examine

at

points of conflict, one

close range the \anity

the emptiness of those proud

power us and which we so

titles

and

which oxer-

gratuitousl)

bestow

we have neg-

upon human knowledge. Let us then consider the

w ith impunity? Peoples, know then once and

sciences and the arts in themselves. Let us see what

we have lected

had not destined us

ihe least ol her kiml-

noi

per\erse,

are

thev

it

is

The

operations seemed to give us sufficient warning that she

Men

nesses.

the ili(fuuli\ \ou fmil in

ih.ii

leaching Nw/'//V use of his reason enjoys unlimited freedom to use his own reason and to speak in his own person. For to maintain that the guardians of

may "

A

for his

diet

is

own

and

A man

person, and even then only for a

a legislative assembly.

Immanuel Kant limited period, postpone enlightening himself in

know

matters he ought to

about. But to renounce

such enlightenment completely, whether for his

own person means

more

so for later generations,

and trampling underfoot the sacred

mankind. But something which

rights of

may

or even

violating

not even impose upon

imposed on

by

it

a

can

itself

monarch;

his uniting the

own. So long

collective will of the people in his

he sees to

it

that

all

be

less

for his legislative

upon

authority depends precisely

people

a

still

true or imagined

as

improvements

are compatible with the civil order, he can otherwise

leave his subjects to for this salvation,

do whatever they find necessary

which

is

none of his business. But

anyone forcibly hindering

his business to stop

it is

others from working as best they can to define and

promote majesty

their salvation. It indeed detracts

if

he interferes in these

from

his

the writings in which his subjects attempt to clarify their religious ideas to

governmental supervision.

This applies if he does so acting upon his own exalted opinions

-

which case he exposes himself

in

reproach: Caesar non

who

This

are not restricted

of freedom

spirit

even where

it

by any

also spreading abroad,

is

has to struggle with outward obstacles

imposed by governments which misunderstand

own

their

now may

function.

For such governments can

how freedom

witness a shining example of

without in the

exist

least jeopardising public

concord and the unity of the commonwealth.

own

will of their

out of barbarism so long as

measures are

artificial

not deliberately adopted to keep them in

it.

have portrayed matters of religion as the focal

I

point of enlightenment,

from

of man's emergence

i.e.

This

his self-incurred immaturity.

is firstly

because our rulers have no interest in assuming the role of guardians over their subjects so far as

the arts and sciences are concerned, and secondly,

despotism of a few tyrants

because religious immaturity

is

the most pernicious

and dishonourable variety of all. But the attitude of

mind of a head of state who

now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened age, the answer is: No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment. As things are at present, we still have a long way to go before men as a whole can

arts

be in

on better ways of drawing up laws, even

If it is

can even be put into a position)

own understanding

of using their

confidently and

ises that there is

being cleared for them to work freely in this

and that the obstacles

direction,

immaturity,

incurred

fewer. In this respect our age

is

self-

becoming

gradually

are

the age of enlight-

We

prince

who

does not regard

to say that he considers

it

it

have before us

whom we now

to

as

beneath him

his duty, in religious

matters, not to prescribe anything to his people,

a brilliant

But only

pay

who

a ruler

himself enlightened and

to say:

Argue

like,

likewise has at

as

much

as

we

shall

you

like

and

but obeyl This reveals to us a

strange and unexpected pattern in

(such as

always find

if

human

affairs

we consider them

in is

but to allow them complete freedom, a prince

who

the widest sense, in which nearly everything

thus even declines to accept the presumptuous

title

paradoxical).

of tolerant,

man who (as far as

men

himself enlightened.

is

be praised by

a grateful present

first

liberated

government

free to use their

is

He

deserves to

and posterity

as the

mankind from immaturity concerned), and

own

reason in

all

who left all matters of

A

advantageous to it

also sets

high degree of civil freedom seems a people's intellectual

up insuperable

a lesser degree of civil

freedom enough room extent.

Thus once

^'

"Caesar

is

not above the grammarians."

Again, Frederick the Great.

to think freely shell,

it

the

barriers to

freedom, yet

it.

Conversely,

freedom gives to

expand

to

intellectual its

fullest

germ on which nature has

- man's inclination and vocation - has developed within this hard gradually reacts upon the mentality of the

lavished most care ^

to

may say what no republic

guarantee public security,

about whatever you

who

numerous army

well-disciplined and

a

this

tribute.

is

has no fear of phantoms, yet

hand

example of

which no monarch has yet surpassed the

would dare

enment, the century, of Frederick.^'

A

one

to universal en-

lightenment, to man's emergence from his

if this

entails forthright criticism of the current legisla-

kind, in

now

for he real-

to his legislation if

reason and to put before the public their thoughts

tion.

is

no danger even

he allows his subjects to m^k^ public use of their own

well in religious matters, without outside guidance.

way

favours freedom in the

and sciences extends even further,

But we do have

distinct indications that the

Men

accord gradually work their way

within his state against the rest of his subjects.

a position (or

all

official duties.

- but

much more so if he demeans his high authority so far as to support the spiritual

and

their verdicts

these deviate here and there from

if

orthodox doctrine. This applies even more to others

in

and publicly submit

judgement of the world

to the

opinions, even

may

official duties,

their capacity as scholars freely

to the

supra Grammaticos^

est

his rule, ecclesiastical dignitar-

notwithstanding their

ies,

by subjecting

affairs

Under

conscience.

Critique of Pure

who

people,

thus

btioim-

^r.ulu.ills

able to act freely. KNeimi.ilK,

iiillueiues

which

uoNeniinenis,

principles of

the

iiu ii-.ismiilN

eseii

ti

ih.M

tiiul

ihemseKes

iheN ean

Reason

l)\ trealuig nun, who is manner appropriate to his

profit

more than a muihifu\

in a

liimiiiN

Author's Note 1

I

read todaN on the .U)th Septeniher in Huscliing's

\\

oihcntlutu-

eoneernini!:

Suihruhtai of 13th September month's

this

a notice

Momilssihn/i.

licilniisilu-

The notice mentions Mendelssohn's answer

same question

which

as that

ha\e answered.

1

not yet seen this iournal, otherw ise

hack the aho\e reflections.

onl\ as a

means of finding out by comparison how

may

thoughts of two individuals I

Moses Mendelssohn (1729 was

"«/»fr Jie Frage:

(Question:

What

is

far

the

coincide by chance.

86) published an essay,

("On

heisst Auflclarung?''^

Enlightenment"),

moderns have thought

the

in 17(S4.|

objects (idealism, scepticism, etc.), or atuhmpoA^,£,'/ idea of the

nbiained

through

except

.Siinilarlv,

what

in

chemistry

is

sometimes entitled the

experiment of reJtulion, or more usuall\ the synthetic process.

The

iittu/ysis

of the metaphysician separates

b\

distinction,

(

the fundamental laws of the nu>tions of the

Copernicus had

and (the

at

the

at first

same lime

Newtonian The

together.

undiscovered

v

assumed onlv

latter

to

what

as an hv (xithesis,

ielded pr«M>f Of the inv isible force

which holds the universe

attraction),

would have remained

if (Opernicus

had not dared,

in a

for ever

manner

contradictory of the senses, but vet true, to seek the

in the spectator.

to

alxive

the

Ixidies gave established certaintv

heavenlv

observed movements, not

ity

demanded

which must therefore Ik accepted

the correctness of this distinction. a great similar-

KwJi/iof/tJ

harmon> can never be

reaMin, and finds that this

able self-conflict, the experiment decides in favour of

This experiment of pure reason bears

////t

Reason

gous to Critique,

this hypothesis, I

first

heavenlv bodies, but

in point

which

is

of view, analo-

expounded

in the

put forward in this preface as an hypothesis

only, in order to

these

in the

The change

draw attention

attempts

at

such

a

to the character

of

change, which are always

pure a priori knowledge into two very heterogeneous

hypothetical. But in the Critique itself it

elements, namely, the knowledge of things as appear-

apodeictically not hypothetically, from the nature of

ances, and the dialectic

know ledge of things

combines these two again,

in themselves; his in

harmony with

w ill be proved,

our representations of space and time and from the elementary concepts of the understanding.

From Reflections on the Revolution France

in

Edmund Burke The French Revolution seemed to many to embody the new ideals of modern, Enlightened it threatened a new barbarEdmund Burke (1729-97), Irish by birth and a member of the English Parliament, provides us

He

the Revolution Society in this political

tells

sermon

that this iMajesty "is almost the only lawful

culture, while to others

king in the world because the

ism.

crown to the choice ofhis people"". As to the kings of the

with the

most famous

critique of revolutionary

modernity. His Reflections on the Revolution

in

France (1790), a letter to a French correspondent,

was

inspired by several events: the arrest of the

mob

royal family of France by a

on October

6,

1789; the seizure of all Church property by the French republic; and closer to home, a sermon by

an Englishman, Dr Richard Price of the Revolution Society, endorsing the principles of the French

Revolution for England.

(All

of this

was years

before the worst revolutionary violence the

"Terror.") Critical of

the

in

France,

modern attempt

to re-

place traditional social arrangements with abstract

equality

and individual

work remains the

classical source

principles

rights, Burke's

like

of true conservatism. But his traditionalism is

simple authoritarianism; Burke supported

no

Irish

and American independence from Great Britain because he felt that the Crown had abused the traditionally recognized rights of Ireland and the American colonies. He likewise approved the

world,

of

all

whom

ofjly

one who owes

his

(except one) this archpontiff of

the rights ofmen, with

all

the plenitude and with more

than the boldness of the papal deposing power in

its

meridian fervor of the twelfth century, puts into one

sweeping clause of ban and anathema and proclaims usurpers by circles of longitude and latitude, over the whole globe,

it

behooves them

to consider

how

they admit into their territories these apostolic missionaries

who

are to

not lawful kings. That a

their subjects they are

tell

is

their concern. It

is

ours, as

domestic interest of some moment, seriously

upon

to consider the solidity of the only principle

which these gentlemen acknowledge a king of Great Britain to be entitled to their allegiance.

This doctrine,

as applied to the prince

British throne, either

is

neither true nor false, or

founded, dangerous, position.

According

ics, if his

now on the

nonsense and therefore it

illegal,

affirms a

most un-

and unconstitutional

to this spiritual doctor of poht-

Majesty does not owe his crown

choice of his people, he

is

no lawful

to the

king.

Now

1688 revolution of the English Parliament against James

II

as a conservative revolution aimed at

storing the traditional distribution of

re-

power which

theKinghaddisturbed.

But

I

may say of our preacher

''utinam migls tota

ilia

'

''Would that he had devoted

to trifles all the

spent in violence." Juvenal, Satires, IV,

Dr

time he

150—1.

The

Richard Price.

preacher

is

Edmund

Burke, a selection of

unmarked sections,

in

fulminating bull are not of so innoxious a tendency.

each case separated by space in the text, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (ed. J. G. A. Pocock), pp. 12-19, 25-6, 29-31, 51-2, 76-7, 216-18. India-

His doctrines affect our constitution in its vital parts.

napolis: Hackett

dedisset

tempora

saevitiae'".^

-

All things in this his

PublishingCompany Inc., 1987.

Reflections on the Revolution nolhinir can be

more

this kinjitlom

so held by his MajestN

you follow

is

iiniruc ih.ui

ih.it .

remote period,

the ctonmi oI

iloms ot liurope were,

Therefore,

with more or fewer limitations

their rule, the kiui; of (ire.it lintain,

it

who

at a

in

France

elective,

the ob)ecls of

in

But whatever kings might have been here

choice

most eertainl) does not oue

his high

ottke to anv

or elsewhere a thousand years ago, or in whatever

form of popular election,

no respect better than

nianiur the ruling dynasties of Kngland or I'rance

is in

who

the rest of the jjang of usurpers rob,

reign, or rather

over the face of this our miserable world

all

without any sort of right or

qualified,

the allegiance of

title to

The policy of this general doctrine, so

their people.

evident enough.

is

The propagators of

hopes that their abstract

this political gospel are in

principle (their jirinciple that a popular choice

is

nuiN has e

begun, the king of (ireal Britain

da\, king by a

Wwd

is, at

this

rule of succession according to

the laws of his c(»untr\; and whilst the legal conditions of the

compact

performed

of sovereignl) are

h\

him

in

contempt of the choice of the Revolution

(as the\ are

who have

el\,

performed), he holds his crown .Soci-

not a single vote for a king amongst

necessary to the legal existence of the sovereign

them, either individually or collectively, though

magistracy) would be overlooked, whilst the king

make no doubt

of Great Britain was not affected b\

In the

it.

mean-

time the ears of their congregations would be gradually habituated to

it,

as if

it

were

a first principle

admitted without dispute. For the present only operate as

compotio quue

et

this policy,

and

ments, so

Thus these is

opinion

it

common

has in

it

far as

which

is

politicians proceed

soothed with

with is

all

w hilst

examined upon the plain meaning of and

equivocations into play.

When

govern-

taken away. little

taken of their doctrines; but w hen they

and the direct tendency of

notice

come

their

to be

words

their doctrines, then

slippery

constructions

come

and

is

therefore the only

lawful sovereign in the world, they will perhaps

mean

to say

crown with the same contempt of his

tell

no more than that some of the

that his

his

Thus, by

Majesty (though he holds

people to choose; w hich right

and tenaciously adhered

ition

and are referable

this interpretation,

election differ

And how Brunswick

how does

in this

propos-

Lest the foundation of

title

should pass for

a

mere

lie

all

w hich, w ith him, com-

together in one short sen-

we have acquired

a right:

frame

a

them

for

misconduct.

government

for ourselves.

For if you

their idea of

This new and hitherto unheard-of though made

from our idea of inheritance.^

in the

name of

bill

of rights,

the whole people,

does the settlement of the crow n in the

belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only.

from James the First come

The body of the people of England have no share in it. They utterly disclaim it. They will resist the

line derived

to legalize our

monarchy

rather than that of any of

the neighboring countries? At

some time

or other,

practical assertion of it

w ith

their lives

and fortunes.

There

They are bound to do so by the law s of their country made at the time of that very Revolution w hich is

ground enough

for the opinion that

all

the king-

appealed to in favor of the fictitious rights claimed

"I concoct and

compound what soon

I

may bring

to be sure,

all

chosen by those is

directly maintained

choose our ow n governors.

to

admit

dec-

a

3

fense, since they take refuge in their folly.

is

bottom

it.

three fundamental rights,

for their of-

asylum they seek

full explicit

the Revolution, the people of England have acquired

to cashier

to the

concurrence

ceeds dogmatically to assert that, by the principles of

to

welcome

to

the king's exclusive legal

1

are

in

rant of adulatory freedom, the political divine'" pro-

2

nugatory.

in ex-

All the oblique insinu-

to.

ations concerning election

They

it

it

people, yet nothing can evade their

miserable subterfuge, they hope to render their proposition safe by rendering

to the

with the wishes) owes his crown to the choice of his

tence, namely, that

and therefore he ow es

come

plaining aw ay the gross error offuil, w hich supposes

by some

sort of choice,

will

their choice with

Majesty has succeeded to that he wears.

pose one system and

to the choice of his people.

to give

Whatever may be the success of evasion

king's predecessors have been called to the throne

crown

and order,

cessors, each in his time

w hich

were ripe

His Majesty's heirs and suc-

laration concerning the principle of a right in the

they say the king owes his crown

to the choice of his people

us they

a

has no claim, the

security,

is

into an electoral college if things effect to their claim.

by for future use.

mox depromere possim" By

favor, to

its

which

security

laid

w hilst our government

reservation in

would

theory, pickled in the preserving

a

juices of pulpit eloquence,

Con Jo

it

I

they would s(K)n erect themselves

the beginners of dynasties were

who

called

them

to govern.

by the Society which abuses

forth." Horace, Epistles,

I,

1, 12.

'"

Dr

Price.

its

name.

Edmund Burke These gentlemen of the Old Jewry, in all their reasonings on the Revolution of 1688," have a revolution which happened in England about and the

forty years before

much

so

late

French revolution,

before their eyes and in their hearts that

It is

We

must

it

was

a certainty in

which the subjects may

the succession thereof, to

have recourse for their protection." Both

safely

the three to-

these acts, in which are heard the unerring,

separate what

biguous oracles of revolution policy, instead of

recall their erring fancies

countenancing the delusive, gipsy predictions of a

Revolution which we revere, for

to the acts of the

them "to maintain

equally urgent on

all

necessary that

they confound.

and security of the realm," and that

we should

they are constantly confounding gether.

was absolutely necessary "for the peace,

First),

quiet,

unam-

demwisdom of the

"right to choose our governors," prove to a

how

the discovery of its true principles. If the principles of

onstration

the Revolution of 1688 are anywhere to be found,

nation was from turning a case of necessity into a

is

in the statute called the Declaration

that

rule of law.

most wise, sober, and considerate declaration,

drawn up by

great law yers and great statesmen, and

warm and

not by

one word

said,

is

inexperienced enthusiasts, not

nor one suggestion made, of

general right "to choose our ier

it

of Right. In

them

for misconduct,

own governors,

and

to form a

a

to cash-

government

Unquestionably, there was the person of

This Declaration of Right (the William and Mary,

at

the Revolution, in

a small

and

tempor-

a

ary deviation from the strict order of a regular

hereditary succession; but

against

it is

principles of jurisprudence to

from

a

law

made

sess. 2, ch. 2) is

draw

in a special case

all

genuine

principle

a

and regarding an

act of the 1st of

plum.^ If ever there was a time favorable for estab-

the cornerstone

lishing the principle that a king of popular choice

of our constitution as reinforced, explained, im-

was the only

proved, and in

at the

its

settled. It is called,

fundamental principles for ever

"An Act

for declaring the rights

of the subject, and for

liberties

King William,

individual person. Privilegium non transit in exem-

for ourselves.^''

and

totally adverse the

You

settling the

is

legal king,

Revolution.

Its

without

all

doubt

proof that the nation was of opinion

a

not to be done

at

it

was

not being done at that time

any time. There

is

it

ought

no person so

completely ignorant of our history as not to

know

these rights and this succession are declared in

that the majority in parliament of both parties

were

one body and bound indissolubly together.

so

succession

of the crown."

will

observe that

A few years after this period, a second opportunity

offered for asserting a right of election to the

crown.

On

the prospect of a total failure of issue

little

disposed

anything resembling that

to

principle that at first they were determined to

place the vacant crown, not on the head of the

Prince of Orange, but on that of his wife Mary,

from King William, and from the Princess,

after-

daughter of King James, the eldest born of the issue

wards Queen Anne, the consideration of the

settle-

of that king, which they acknowledged as undoubt-

ment of the crown and of a liberties

lature.

sion

further security for the

of the people again came before the legis-

Did they

for

this

legalizing

second time make any provithe

crown on the spurious

edly

his. It

recall

to

would be

your

to repeat a very trite story, to

memory

which demonstrated that

those circumstances

all

their accepting

liam was not properly a choice; but to

all

King Wilthose

who

They

did not wish, in effect, to recall King James or to

followed the principles which prevailed in the Dec-

deluge their country in blood and again to bring

revolution principles of the Old Jewry.' No.

laration of Right, indicating with

the persons

who were

more

precision

to inherit in the Protestant

line.

This act

also incorporated,

by the same

policy,

our

liberties

and an hereditary succession

in the

same

act.

Instead of a right to choose our

drawn from James the

just escaped,

strictest

it

and

liberties into the peril

was an

they

act of necessity, in the

moral sense in which necessity can be

taken.

own

governors, they declared that the succession in that line (the Protestant line

their religion, laws,

had

In the very act in which for a time, and in a single case, parliament departed

from the

strict

order of

inheritance in favor of a prince who, though not next, was, however, very near in the line of succes-

Dr district

Price's lecture

was delivered

in the

Old Jewry,

of London. In the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688,

Parliament successfully ousted Catholic James stalled

sion,

William

III.

Burke approved

II

and

it is

curious to observe

how Lord Somers, who

a

in-

this revolution as

drew the

bill

called the Declaration of Right, has

comported himself on

that delicate occasion. It

having reinstated the traditional rights of Parliament

which James had threatened.

is

curious to observe with what address this tempor-

^

"A

privilege does not

become

a

precedent."

,

Reflections on the Revolution ary solution of coiimuiiiN whilst

all

that

to

countenance the idea

is

brouiiht

kipi

is

m

could be touiul

an heredilarN succession

ot

made

torward, and fostered, and

man and

most

ol. h\

who

iollowed him. (^uitlinii the

this uieai

Commons

and declare

tall

the

the ieuislature

h\

iinperati\e

ili\,

he makes the

style ot an act ot parliament,

and

ot iKctssii\

i

1

.orils

to a pious, legislative ejaculation

that the\ consider

"as

it

mar\ellous

a

rhe\ knew that

ihc cm-,

lioin

iliis .u

iloubttui

a

title

would but loo nuuh resemble an that

in

France

of succession

and

election,

an election wouUI be ulterK destrucli\e ot

the "unitN, peace, and tranquillii\ ot this nation,"

which they thought

tore, to

tor these objects and, there-

exclude tor ever the Old Jewr\ d(Ktrine

own

"a right to choose our with

a

some

to be considerations ot

moment. To provide

ot

goNernors," thcN follow

clause containing a most solemn pledge,

proN itlence and mercitui goodness ot Ciotl to this

taken from the preceding act ot (|ueen IJi/abeth,

nation to preserxe their said Majesties' rnyal per-

as

sons most happily to reign over us on the

favor of an hereditary succession, and as solenm

thetr ariit'stors, tor

hearts,

they

praises." act

which, from the bottom of their

return

The

throrif of

humblest thanks and

their

legislature plainly

of recognition of the

had

in view the

of (^ueen I^lizabeth,

first

chap. 3rd, and of that of James the First, chap.

1st,

both acts strongly declaratory of the inheritable nature of the crown; and in

with a nearly

many

parts they follow

precision, the

literal

the form of thanksgi\ ing which

words and even

is

found

in these

The two Houses, in the act of King William, did God that they had found a fair opportunity to assert a right to choose their own governors, much less to make an election the only lawful title to the crown. I'heir having been in a condition to

avoid the very appearance of it, as

was by them considered

much as possible,

as a providential escape.

well-w rought

a politic,

veil

over every

circumstance tending to w eaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they

meant

to

this Society

a close

their ancestors, as

it

in the name of all humbly and faithfully heirs and posterities far eier\

their

will

stand to

maintain, and defend their said .Majesties, and also the limitation of the crown, herein specified and

contained, to the utmost of their powers, etc.

right

far is

from being true

it

by the Revolution to

had po.ssesscd

it

elect

before, the tLnglish nation did at

most solemnly renounce and abdicate

that time

for themselves

and

for

it,

their posterity forever.

all

These gentlemen may value themselves

much

as

they please on their whig" principles, but desire to be thought a better

I

as

never

whig than Lord Som-

understand the principles of the Revolu-

ers, or to

whom

by

tion better than those

it

was brought

about, or to read in the Declaration of Right any

unknown engraved

hearts, the

monarchy, and that they

It

those whose penetrating

to

our ordinances, and

in

words and

spirit

in

our

of that immortal law.

true that, aided with the powers derived

is

from force and opportunity, the nation was

appeared in the declaratory

time, in

Elizabeth, in

etc.

we acquired a our kings that, if we that

conformity to the practice of

Queen Mary and Queen

statutes of

a

by

them: The Lords spiritual

promise that they

faithfully

style has

might preserve

to

and do

mysteries

relax the nerves of their

imputed

of the principles

submit themselves,

perpetuate, or w hich might furnish a precedent for

might not

made

in

the people aforesaid, most

any future departure from what they had then settled forever. Accordingly, that they

eser was or can be given

and temporal, and Commons, do,

So

not thank

a pleilge as

renunciation as could be

old declaratory statutes.

They threw

solemn

some

sense, free to take

at that

what course

it

pleased for filling the throne, but only free to do

upon the same grounds on which they might

the next clause they vest, by recognition, in their

so

Majesties all the legal prerogatives of the crow n,

have wholly abolished their monarchy and every

declaring ''that in fully,

and

them they

are

most

fully, right-

entirely invested, incorporated, united,

and annexed." In the clause which follows,

for

preventing questions by reason of any pretended titles to

the crown, they declare (observing also in

this the traditionary language,

itionary policy of the nation, a rubric the

along w

ith

the trad-

and repeating

as

from

language of the preceding acts of EHza-

other part of their constitution. However, they did not think such bold changes within their sion. It

is

indeed

give limits to the

mere

supreme power, such

ment

at that

abstract

as

commis-

perhaps impossible, to

difficult,

competence of the

was exercised by parlia-

compemore indisputably

time, but the limits of a moral

tence subjecting, even in powers sovereign, occasional w

ill

to

permanent reason and

beth and James,) that on the preserving "a certainty in the

SUCCESSION

thereof, the unity, peace,

tranquillity of this nation doth,

depend."

and

under God, wholly

^'

The

of James

\\ higs II

were the party

that advocated the

from the English throne

opposed by the

lories.

in 1688.

removal

They were

Edmund Burke to the steady

maxims of

perfectly binding

upon those who

The House

state.

exercise any autitle, in

of Lords, for instance,

is

morally competent to dissolve the House of

mons, no, nor even cate, if

it

would,

its

and

intelligible

under any name or under any

thority,

and fixed

faith, justice,

fundamental poHcy, are perfectly

obedience.

nor to insult, servant, as this

portion in the legislature of the

under him and owe

The

the

Com-

other persons are individually, and

all

collectively too,

not

nor to abdi-

to dissolve itself,

other person;

the king'";

degree responsible.

goes by the

name of the

abdicate for his

which generally

society,

constitution, forbids such

The

invasion and such surrender.

have

parts,

and not the confused jargon of their Babylon-

law,

engagement and pact of

may

him, but "o«r

calls

and we, on our

learned to speak only the primitive language of the

ian pulpits.^'"

king

a

high magistrate not our

humble divine

own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy. By as strong, or by a stronger reason, the House of Commons cannot renounce its share of authority. The kingdom. Though

to him a legal w hich knows neither to flatter

,

calls this

Lord

sovereign

law

As he

not to obey us, but as

is

we are to obey the made no sort of

law in him, our constitution has

provision tow ard rendering him, as a servant, in any

Our

knows noth-

constitution

ing of a magistrate like the jfusticia of Aragon,"' nor

constituent parts

of any court legally appointed, nor of any process

of a state are obliged to hold their public faith with

legally settled, for submitting the king to the re-

each other and w ith

all

w ho derive any

those

under their engagements,

interest

as

serious

much

as the

sponsibility belonging to

all

servants. In this he

Commons and

not distinguished from the

is

the

w ith separate

Lords, who, in their several public capacities, can

communities. Otherwise competence and power

never be called to an account for their conduct,

w ould soon be confounded and no law be

although the Revolution Society chooses to assert,

w hole

state

is

bound

keep

to

its faith

On

the will of a prevailing force. the succession of the it

now

line

it

is,

left

but

this principle

crown has always been w hat

an hereditary succession by law in the old ;

was

a succession

by the

common

law; in

in direct opposition to

no more than the by

the new, by the statute law operating on the principles of the

common

law

stance, but regulating the

persons.

not changing the sub-

,

mode and

describing the

Both these descriptions of law are of

the same force and are derived from an equal au-

from the

thority emanating

and original compact of the reipuhlicae,^"

and

as

common agreement

state,

communi spomione

such are equally binding on

one of the wisest and most

beautiful parts of our constitution, that "a king

and

it,

Ill

is

servant of the public, created

first

responsible to

it.''

would our ancestors

at the

Revolution have

deserved their fame for w isdom

if

no security

in rendering their

for their

government feeble

freedom but

in its operations,

in its tenure; if they

better

remedy

they had found

and precarious

had been able

to contrive

power than

against arbitrary

confusion. Let these gentlemen state resentative public

is

to

whom

who

no

civil

that rep-

they will affirm the

king and people, too, as long as the terms are

king, as a servant, to be responsible. It will then be

observed and they continue the same body

time enough for

politic.

I

should have considered

all

this as

sort of flippant, vain discourse, in

no more than a w hich, as in an

unsavory fume, several persons suffer the liberty to evaporate, if it

were not plainly

spirit

in

of

support

of the idea and a part of the scheme of "cashiering kings for misconduct." In that light

some

it

is

worth

You

Kings, in one sense, are undoubtedly the ser-

produce

it

as

an entailed inheritance derived to us from our

forefathers, as

this

and

servants; the essence of

the

commands of some

pleasure.

at least),

w hose

anything

situation

is

to

like

kingdom, without any reference whatever

diversity

other and to be removable at

volition of the

its

parts.

We

By

this

to

means

unity in so great a

a

have an inheritable

crown, an inheritable peerage, and

""

Gommonwea 1th."

Perhaps

ceding the '^

common

of

right.

a

House of

obey

But the king of Great Britain obeys no

''Bv the

our posterity

to be transmitted to

an estate specially belonging to the people of

our constitution preserves

sense (by our constitution,

to the

of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties

other rational end than that of the general advan-

not true that they are, in the ordinary

positive

not.

Magna Charta

any other more general or prior

it is

them the is

has been the uniform policy

vants of the people because their power has no

tage; but

to

that he

observe that from

Declaration of Right

-

observation.

will

me to

w hich affirms

statute law

a

fall

reference to the confusion of tongues pre-

of the

Tower of Babel

Chief magistrate of Aragon, an

region of Spain.

in the

Hebrew

historical

Bible.

autonomous

Reflections on the Revolution

Through the same plan

Cloniinons aiul a people iiihcniin^; privileges, fran-

and

chises,

liberties

from

a

This policN appears to

long line of ancest«>rs

me

to

be the result

ot

proiounil reflection, or rather the happy effect of

which

f'ollouing nature, tion,

and above

A

it.

is

wisdom without

spirit of

innovation

is

reflec-

generallN

the result of a selfish temper and confined \ie\Ns

People w

ill

not look forward to posterity,

backward

look

to

ne\er

Hesides,

ancestors.

their

who

people of Kngland well know that the idea

the

of a

conformi(\ to nature

and b\ calling

in

our

of

her unerring ami powerful instincts

artificial institutions,

and feeble contrivances

fallible

France

in

of

Our

in the aid

foriifv the

t

of our

men

of speculation, instead of

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (ad 39-65),

a

Roman who

(1606-84), father of French classical tragic drama.

Reflections on the Revolution fioirrnmt-fil,

lli.it

oppos-

to ti-inptr to'^itlui tlic-sc

is,

aiul icsir.iiiit in

ite ck'iiicnts of lihiTiN

one lonsisi-

cni work, rtquiris iiuKh thouiiht, ikc|) ntktiion, a sagacious, |io\\crtiiI, anil conihinini!; niinil

do not

who

those

I'his

\\

hates er tluN are,

recommend

National AssenihlN. Perhaps the\ are not so niiser-

not,

abl> ck'ficient as they appear.

I

rather belie\e

it.

It

woiiki put iheni below the eoninion le\el ol luinian

Hut when the leaders choose

think, without

I

happN

ity,

their talents, in the construction of the state,

owing

will

be of no service. They of legislators,

instead

guides, oflhe people. to

propose

flatterers

instruments,

not

the

any ofthem should happen

If

scheme

a

the

become

will

of

liberty,

soberly limited

and defined with proper qualifications, he

will

be immediately outbid by his competitors

who

produce something more splendidly popular.

will

own

our

some causes

constitution but to their

owing

at

of

ami complaint, but these the\

to

theniselxes biiklers

owing

situation to the in

standing

whole

of

it,

own

ilo

of

They

owe

not

to their

think our

I

our constitution, but

to

to an\ part singly,

what we have

to

as well as to

what we have altered or superadded.

Our people

will

trul\

employment enough

find

patriotic,

and independent

free,

I

exclude alteration

changed,

it

but

neither,

should be to preserve.

my remedy

by

1

would

even

when

should be led

what

to

and compromise as the prudence of

traitors,

hopes of preserving the credit

in

until,

which may enable him

to

temper and moderate,

on some occasions, the popular leader to

become

at

aimed.

am

I

so unreasonable as to see nothing at

all

that

deserves commendation in the indefatigable labors

do not deny

I

that,

among an

number of acts of violence and folly, some good may have been done. They who destroy everything certainly will remove some grievance. They who make everything new have a chance that infinite

they

may

them

credit for

establish

something

beneficial.

what they have done

To

in virtue

give

of the

men

of France

made them in their

acquired,

it

ruling

principles

tell

us they have got so abundant

under

fallibility

thus

fallible

of mankind.

that

for

had

having

conduct attended to their nature. Let us if

we wish

to deserve their

what they have

please, but let us preserve

if

left;

and, standing on the firm ground of the British constitution, let us be satisfied to admire rather

than attempt to follow

their desperate flights

in

the aeronauts of France. I

have told you candidly

my

sentiments.

they are not likely to alter yours.

must appear

they ought.

same things could

He

rewarded them

fortune or to retain their bequests. Let us add,

we

a

a strong impression of the

crimes by w hich that authority has been that the

our

of

most decided conduct. Not

imitate their caution

authority they have usurped, or which can excuse in the

guarded circum-

being illuminated w ith the light of w hich the gentle-

share, they acted

of this Assembly.^

them

politic caution, a

were among the

ignorance and

But

A

forefathers in their

which he ultimately might have

I

would

spection, a moral rather than a complexional timidity

es-

did.

I

I

the reparation as nearly as possible in the style

of the building.

obliged

tablishing powers that will afterwards defeat any

sober purpose

a great grievance. In

and

is

active in propagating doctrines

make

in

I

guarding what they possess from violation. not

for a

spirit

should follow the example of our ancestors.

cowards,

left

our several reviews and reformations

in

Moderation

be stigmatized as the virtue of

are

apprehension

Suspicions will be raised of his fidelity to his cause. will

of the

In the former,

conduct.

ami not

measure

great

a

rather to

from them

ha\e got an iinaluable treasure.

an auction of popular-

uiulerstanilini!,.

make

impro\einent

for the

tluN

in

fiiul

men

our neighbours the example

to

hrilish consiiiulion than to lake moilels

take the k.ul in the

I

wish in\ count r\

I

France

in

You

are young;

I

I

think

do not know

that

you cannot guide but

not have been accomplished without producing

must

Most assuredly they might, because almost every one of the regulations made by them which is not very equivocal was either in the cession of the king, voluntarily made at the meeting

after they

future

ft)rm

In the

such

a revolution.

of the

states, or in the

orders.

Some

concurrent instructions to the

usages have been abolished on just

grounds, but they were such that as they

were

to all eternity, they

if

they had stood

would

little

from the happiness and prosperity of any

present

The

can hardly remain; but before

it

it

poets says, being",""' fied I

by

their errors fundamental.

in all its

varieties

of untried

transmigrations to be puri-

and blood.

little

to

long observation

'^"

its final

obliged to pass, as one of our

"through great

and

fire

have

may be

recommend my opinions but and much impartiality. They

improvements of the National Assembly are superficial,

But here-

may be of some use to you, in some which your commonwealth may take.

settlement

detract

state.

follow the fortune of your country.

.Addison, Cato, Act V, scene

i.

Edmund Burke come from one who has been no no

flatterer

of greatness; and

who

tool of

does not wish to belie the tenor of his

come from one almost

power,

in his last acts

the whole of

life.

They

whose public

exertion has been a struggle for the liberty of others;

from one

in

whose breast no anger, durable

or vehement, has ever been kindled but by what he

considered as tyranny; and

who

snatches from his

share in the endeavors which are used by good

men

to discredit opulent oppression the hours he has

employed on your

affairs;

and who

in so

doing

persuades himself he has not departed from his

usual office;

they

come from one who

desires

honors, distinctions, and emoluments but

and who expects them not

tempt

for fame,

and no

at all;

who

little,

has no con-

fear of obloquy;

who shuns

contention, though he will hazard an opinion; from

one

who

wishes to preserve consistency, but

who

would preserve consistency by varying his means

to

when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be endangered by overloading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the small weight of his reasons to that which may secure the unity of his end, and,

preserve

its

equipoise.

From Sketch

an

for

Historical Picture

Human

of the Progress of the

IVIind

Marquis de Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, the marquis de Condorcet (1743-94), was one of les philo-

who

sophes. philosophers

ghtenment.

was

He

led the French Enli-

associated

ful

companion

kind

is

seems

superstition,

and the whole

of

man-

plunged once more into darkness, which

as if

it

must

last for ever.

Yet,

little

by

little,

with

that

day breaks again; eyes long condemned to darkness

characteristic Enlightenment project, the

com-

catch a glimpse of the light and close again, then

position of the Encyclopedie of

A journalist and supporter

all

knowledge.

of the initial

phase

it

the French Revolution, he

became

member

a

Assembly during its radical phase, but his constitutional and non-violent views led him publicly to attack the 1793 Jacobin Constitution. He was forced into hiding for nine of the Legislative

months, during which he wrote quently arrested, he died suicide.

become

Condorcet

the canonical self-interpretation of the

modern European and

Subsepresumably a book what would

his Sketch.

in his cell,

distills in his

world,

spurs progress not only politics.

in

in

slowly

of

which rational inquiry

science, but

He foresaw a coming era

in

society

of "reason,

become accustomed

by the natural progress of

we have

civilization;

watched superstition seize upon

and corrupt

it

it,

and tyranny degrade and deaden the minds of men

under the burden of misery and

From

that

happy land

where freedom had only recently kindled the torch

mind of man, its

released

from the

infancy, advances with firm

steps towards the truth.'

But

this

triumph soon

encourages tyranny to return, followed by

barabarism had exiled

We

is

gaze on

it.

have already seen reason

lift

her chains,

shake herself free from some of them, and,

all

the time regaining strength, prepare for and ad-

moment

vance the

of her liberation.

for us to study the stage in

which she

It

remains

finally suc-

ceeds in breaking these chains, and when,

compelled

frees herself

still

drag their vestiges behind her, she

to

from them one by one; when

at last

she can go forward unhindered, and the only

at

every fresh ad\ance because they are

the necessary consequence of the very constitution

of our understanding - of the connection, that

is,

between our means of discovering the truth and the resistance that

it

offers to our efforts.

its

faith-

Belgian provinces to throw off the yoke of Spain

and form

presumably France.

a federal republic. Religious intolerance

alone had aroused the spirit of English liberty,

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, from "The Ninth Stage:

From Descartes to the

Foundationof the French Republic" fromSketc^foran Historical Picture of ttie Progress of the

Human Mind

June Barraclough), pp. 124-37. New York: Hyperion Press, rpt. of 1955 Noonday Press edition.

(trans.

"That happy land"

at last

Religious intolerance had forced seven of the

fear.

nation alone escapes the two-fold influence

of tyranny and superstition.

leading-strings of

and

abroad on the earth, from which fanaticism and

renewed

We have watched man's reason being slowly formed

of genius, the

it,

obstacles in her path are those that are inevitably

tolerance, humanity."

One

to

without flinching; once again genius dares to walk

Marquis de Condorcet which, exhausted by a protracted and bloody

civil

indistinguishable from those of public prosperity,

war, was finally embodied in a constitution that

or because the despot's endeavours to destroy the

was

but

vestiges of feudal or clerical

preservation merely to the superstition

the law a spirit of equality,

for long the admiration of philosophers,

owes

its

of the English nation and the hypocrisy of their

And,

politicians.

finally,

it

was

also

through priestly

have been the desire to establish equality in slavery, but whose effects were often salutary.

We

persecution that the Swedish nation found courage

However,

midst of

in the

which owed

all

these advances,

their origin to theological disputes,

France, Spain, Hungary and Bohemia saw their feeble liberties extinguished, or so at least

would be vain

It

we

it

seemed.

to look, in those countries

call free, for that liberty

which

which infringes none

of the natural rights of man; a liberty which not only allows

him is

man

to exercise

based on

system of positive rights, unequally

a

privileges according to the

the class into

grants

town

in

them

different

which they

live,

w hich they have been born, the means

of which they can dispose, and the profession that they follow.

A

comparative sketch of the curi-

ous inequalities to be found in different countries the best retort that

we can make

to those

who

is

still

uphold their virtue or necessity.

But

in these

not degraded; some

are recognized; he can

man

has

lost the title

had rendered quality of

man had

power

groaned,

of citizen, which inequality

more than

little

man was

a

name, but the

accorded greater respect; royal

despotism saved him from feudal oppression, and

him from

more painful because the awareness of his condition w as constantly kept alive in him by the number and relieved

a state

of humiliation

actual presence of his tyrants.

tended to improve, both stitution

was partly

despots:

in

those

who

and

the

The system

in those states

free,

all

of law s

whose con-

in those ruled

by

the former because the interests of

exercised the real

pow er did not

invari-

ably conflict with the interests of the people; in the latter

commerce which

industry and

and violence

through the

is

spirit

of

inimical to unrest

the natural enemies of wealth,

as

through the sense of horror inspired by the none too distant picture of the barbarism of the preceding stage,

through

wider diffusion of the philosophical

a

ideas of equality and humanity, and, finally, through

the influence, slow but sure, of the general progress

Religious intolerance remains, but

instrument of

human prudence,

popular prejudice, or as

lit,

because the interests of the despot were often

a

more

as an

as a tribute to

precaution against popu-

fury abates; the fires at the stake are

and have been replaced by if it is

often

more

form of

a

arbitrary,

is

less

barbarous; and of recent years the persecutions

have become

much

complacency or

rarer,

habit.

and the

result rather of

Everywhere, and

in every

respect, governmental practice has slowly

and

re-

gretfully followed the progress of public opinion

and even of philosophy.

have more than compensated for their

Man

less violent

through the influence of the

their savagery,

oppression that,

enjoyed by the great mass of the

that the destruction of the virtually arbitrary

loss.

Manners have become

seldom

free.

people had been confined w ithin such narrow limits

to

self-

weakening of the prejudices that had maintained

said to be a

be not truly

greater or less extent, a genuine loss of liberty, the

seems

all

wealth, industry, and education, and sometimes

no longer be

of the aristocracy under which

in earlier ages or in

even to that of liberty.

lar unrest. Its

In those nations where at this time there was, to a

political rights

no precedent

of the causes

kind of despotism

interest, has often contributed to the progress of

of his rights

to

is

a

by enlightenment, tempered by

ion, controlled

at least

though he can be said

slave

which there

Europe

but arbitrary authority, restrained by public opin-

same countries the law guarantees

not there reached a state of perfection, his natural is

for

in

of enlightenment.

individual and civil liberty, so that if

dignity

produced

other parts of the world, a despotism in which an

to possess these rights but allows

them. For the liberty we find there

among men, and

distributed

shall give a detailed exposition

that have

of their rights.

to reclaim a portion

pow er had imparted to w hose inspiration may

Indeed, there to

is

if in

the moral and political sciences

always a large interval between the point

which philosophers have carried the progress of

enlightenment and the degree of enlightenment attained by the average

the

body of

man

beliefs held in

of education (and

common by

such

that constitutes the generally accepted creed as public opinion), those

who

may hold

fate

of the

people, under whatever constitution they their powers, are very far

from

the level of public opinion; they follow

without ever overtaking years behind

manv

know n

direct public affairs

and who immediately influence the

common

it is

men

it

it

its

rising to

advance,

and are always many

and therefore always ignorant of

of the truths that

it

has learned.

Sketch rills sktlill ot

proiiliss

till-

of

ilissciiuii.itioii

lllf

pllllosoplu

t>l

cilliullliiiiiuiil,

.Hill

whose

(ll

iiitm.-

gciKial aiul iiKMc I'Mckiit ctkcls \\c h.i\c .ilrc.uh cxaniincil, bniigs us

up

lo the stage

when

the inllu-

ence of progress upon public opinion,

puhlu

ol

ceases to be a slow, imperceptible atfair, ami pro-

whole order

must one da\

human

inclutle in

its

ol scNeral

the rexolution that

nations, a certain earnest of

scope the whole

of the

race.

h\ \ague or incomplete theories, publicists ha\e

at

last

disco\ered the true rights of nian and how the\

can

all

(I

be deduced from the single truth, that man

is

sentient heme;, capable of reasonins: anil ofaa/nirinii

moral

They have was the

seen that the maintenance of these sole object of

in political societies,

men's coming together

and that the

social art

is

the art

of guaranteeing the preservation of these rights and their distribution in the

was

largest area. It

not abilicate ilecisions theN

.So, in

rules, but

means and

this choice the individual

the

to

see

contract between the people and their lawgisers,

which can be annulled onl\ b\ mutual consent or b\ the defection

ofoneof the

there disappeared the

parlies;

le.ss

absurd opinion according to which ever chained to

its

a nation

no

less

was

for

constitution once this constitu-

had been established

tion

and along with

servile but

as

though the

right to

change it w ere not the guarantee of every other right, and

as

though human

institutions,

w hich are neces-

and capable of perfection

as

men

become more enlightened, could be condemned remain

compelled to abandon that astute and which, forgetful of the truth that

to

.Man was thus

for ever in their infancy.

all

false policy,

men

possess

to

is

the only

will

commerce, and unequally

betw een men, according to profession, and

w hich then

a

man's birth, fortune, or

calls into

being confhci-

balance, measures w hich w ould have been unneces-

w ithout

it,

and

sary

mark of truth

that

impotent

to

Nor

without loss of equality. fact

ditions of its industry and

cannot follow

w ill of the majority

advance

we

the disappearance of the belief in the existence of a

ing interests and opposing forces to restore the

itself;

the

all

to all

the face of such simple prmciples,

for

the society

ow n reason without subjecting others

in

common

to the character or prosperity of a country, the con-

common

his

Each man can

ina\

those rights unequally betw een countries, according

members of

can be accepted by

it

whether the

behalf ilo or ilo not in-

its

«)!i

fringe the rights that are

lo ileciile

of the individual

rights

determine these rules could belong only to the majority of the

authoritv

take

coiisiders

that in every society the

felt

that the authority to choose these

in

its

it

iIk in to the truth, aiul

t

equal rights b\ nature, would seek to apportion

should be submitted to certain

making

loniUu

most equal fashion over the

means of assuring the

in

lo

sarily defective

ideas.

rights

ilouii the |)!i)ceilure thai

l.i\

most likeK

it

After long periods of error, after being led astray

inusi

lli.i!

opinion upon nations or their leaders, suddenK

iluces a re\olution in the

Progress of the Human Mind

for an Historical Picture of the

genuinely bind himself

of the majority which

into

this policy

to control its

did

men any

and w hich are

in

more dangerous

any event

tendencies.

longer dare to divide humanity

two races, the one fated to rule, the other to obey,

the one to deceive, the other to be deceived.

They

then becomes unanimous; but he can bind only

had to recognize that all men have an equal right to be

himself; and he cannot engage even himself towards

informed on

this majority

when

it

fails

to respect the rights

ofthe individual, after having once recognized them.

Here we

see at once the rights of the majority

over society or rights.

its

Here we

members, and the

limits of these

see the origin of that unanimity

which allows the decisions taken by the majority alone to impose an obligation tion

which ceases

change

upon

to be legitimate

all;

an obliga-

when, with

a

in the individuals constituting the majority,

the sanction of unanimity no longer exists. less there are issues

majority

is

likely to

Doubt-

all

that concerns them,

the authorities established by

all;

must decide w hich its

own

These

thority of his

and on which Locke

name, w ere

later

set the

au-

developed by Rous-

seau with greater precision," breadth and energy,

and he deserves renow n

among

the truths that

forget or to combat.

for

it is

Man

having established them

no longer permissible

to

has certain needs and also

which

to satisfv

them; from

political writers: the

English phil-

certain faculties with

be in favour of error and against but

it is still

this majority that

issues are not to be subjected to

direct decision;

more

which the noble Sydney paid

principles,

for with his blood

on w hich the decision of the

it is

reliable than its

own;

it is

it

osopher John Locke (1632-1704); Jean-Jacques Rousseau;

and presumably Algernon Sidney (1622-89),

a

Whig

must

martyr who was exiled during the Restoration of the

considers

English monarchy in 1660, eventually returned to Eng-

the majority that

appoint those persons w hose judgment to be

and that none of over themselves

has the right to hide from them one single truth.

Three republican the interests of

men

the majority

land,

and was executed.

Marquis de Condorcet

The

these faculties and from their products, modified

and distributed

in different ways, there results

an

wealth produced each year provides a por-

tion for disposal

which

is

accumulation of wealth out of which must be met the

either the labour that has

common

required to ensure

needs of mankind. But what are the laws

according to which this wealth tributed, accumulated or

dissipated?

What,

is

produced or

dis-

consumed, increased or governing that

too, are the laws

greater production of wealth.

work; he possesses

which he puts

supply and demand from which

his needs.

in wealth, life

are happier, until a point

increase

is

balance?

follows that, with

reached

with

and well-being of

to the general organization of soci-

make

Hence

out of this available portion of

it is

required for the security of the State, the preserva-

increases,

tion of peace within

its

borders, the protection of

individual rights, the exercise of those powers established for the formation or execution of the law,

and, finally, the maintenance of public prosperity.

There

the frightening complexity of conflicting

one individual

independently of the use to

his faculties in order to provide for

violating anyone's rights, can establish the funds

How, with all the astonishing multifarious-

all

of this

directly to his

any decrease

ness of labour and production, supply and demand,

interests that link the survival

it

when no further

and

in population restores the

fall

The owner

owe

the annual wealth that the public authority, without

easier

becomes harder, suffering

consequent

or the labour

men

becomes

possible; or that, again, with

in wealth, life

until the

is

it

it

it

replacement by an equal or

its

disposable portion does not

general tendency towards an equilibrium between

any increase

not required to pay for

produced

are certain undertakings

which are beneficial it

and institutions

to society in general,

and which

therefore ought to initiate, control and supervise;

dependent on every

these provide services which the wishes and interests

accident of nature and every political event, his pain

of individuals cannot provide by themselves, and

eties, that

his well-being

remotest

which advance the progress of agriculture, industry

corner of the globe, how, with all this seeming chaos,

or trade or the prevention or alleviation of inevitable

and pleasure on what

is it

by

that,

a universal

by each individual on welfare of

demand his own

all,

happening

is

in the

moral law, the efforts made

his

and that the

Up to the stage of which we speak and even for a

interests of society

long time afterwards, these various undertakings

that everyone should understand interests

lie,

and should be able

where

to follow

them without hindrance?

Men, ulties,

therefore, should be able to use their fac-

dispose of their wealth and provide for their

needs in complete freedom.

The common

interest

of any society, far from demanding that they should restrain such activity,

interference with

public order

each

man

is

it;

on the contrary, forbids any and

were

his natural rights

is at

once the whole of

duty of the

social

power, the

left to

chance, to the greed of governments,

to the skill of charlatans or to the prejudices or self-

interest of powerful sections of the

community.

A

famous and

disciple of Descartes, however, the

ill-starred

John de

omy ought

like

Witt,"' felt that political econ-

every other science to submit

to the principles

itself

of philosophy and the rigour of

calculation.

as far as this aspect of

concerned, the guaranteeing to

social utility, the sole

natural hardships or unforeseen accidents.

the

own behalf minister to

Political

economy made

little

progress until the

Peace of Utrecht" gave Europe the promise of lasting

peace.

From

then onwards one notices

an increasing intellectual interest taken in this hith-

and the new science was

only right that the general will can legitimately

erto neglected subject;

exercise over the individual.

advanced by Stewart, Smith^ and more particul-

But

it is

not enough merely that this principle

should be acknowledged by society; the public authority has specific duties to

by law recognized measures

must

it

must

common measure

at least as far as preci-

principles are involved,

one could hardly have hoped

to

a

to

reach so soon after such a long period of

that

indifference.

create a coinage to serve as a

of value and so to

facilitate

that of another, so that having a value

com-

itself, it

can

be exchanged against anything else that can be given one; for without this

must remain confined little

point

its

establish

parison between the value of one article of trade and

very

French economists,

sion and the purity of

for the determination

fulfil. It

of the weight, volume, size and length of all articles of trade;

arly the

common measure

to barter,

activity or scope.

trade

and can acquire

'"

Presumably Johan de Witt (1625-72), Dutch

states-

man. '^

Of 1713, which ended

the

War of the

Spanish Succes-

sion. '

The

Scottish

(1753-1828) and

philosophers

Dugald

Adam Smith (1723-90).

Stewart

Sketch ihis

l)ui

progress

philosopliN

cral

h\

we can

truths NNhich

tlisco\er by

operations ot the hiinian his

impatient

seemed At

to

tor a time

it

w hich reduces them

step by step to other ideas of more immediate origin

or of simpler composition,

being

is

way

the only

to avoid

and indeterminate notions which chance presents to us at

By

we unthinkingly

hazard and

this .same analysis

accept.

he proved that

minds upon

the result of the operations of our

we have

sensations

received, or, to put

more

it

exactly, that they are the combinations of these .sensations presented to us simultaneously

memory

faculty of

no more than

He

a part

show ed that

after analysing

it

we

is

thereby limited to

compound

of such

if

by the

such a w ay that our attention

in

arrested and our perception

is

w ord

attach a

and circumscribing

sensations. to each idea

we

it,

shall

succeed in remembering the idea ever afterw ards a

the motives that

uniform fashion; that

is

to say, the idea will

be formed of the same simple ideas,

it

always

w ill always

be enclosed within the same limits, and

consequence be used

in

it

out any risk of confusion.

word

is

pond

to a determinate idea,

On it

it

can

injustice, ami, finally,

contorming

lor

them,

to

ol

our

constitution.

universal instrument.

methods

to perfect the

throw

light

Men

became

on

Thus

it

ings of the

facts

and

and

was applied

human

a

order

in

it

of the physical sciences, lo

and

their principles

validity of their proofs;

examination of

\irtiiall\

learnt to use

it

examine the

to

was extended of

to the rules

to the

taste.

to all the various undertak-

understanding, and by means of

mind

the operations of the

knowledge were subjected

in

every branch of

and the

analysis,

to

nature of the truths and the kind of certainty

we

can expect to find from each of these branches of It is this

new step

philosophy that has for ever imposed

a barrier

knowledge was thereby revealed. in

between mankind and the errors of barrier that should save

infancy, a

its

from relapsing into

it

its

former errors under the influence of new prejudices, just as

it

should assure the eventual eradica-

tion of those that

should make

it

still

survive unrecognized, and

certain that any that

may

take their

place will exercise only a faint influence and enjoy

only an ephemeral existence. In

Germany, however,

found genius

laid the

a

man

of vast and pro-

foundations of a new doctri-

if a

ne." His ardent and passionate imagination could

does not corres-

not rest satisfied with a modest philosophy and

times

leave unsolved those great questions about the spir-

the other hand,

used in such a way that

ami

we ha\e

from what might be called our moral

sensibility,

can in

chain of reasoning w ith-

in a

which, resulting

moti\es which spring from the very nature

it

ideas are

all

ca|)acit> to leel

determine the necessary and im-

iiuiiable laws of justice

chaos of incomplete, incoherent

lost in that

our

ihis metajihvsical methoil phil-

osophy should be guided; he showed that an exact ideas,

tielmgs, kails to our

ol

ideas,

from the

impos-

pleasure anil pam, the origin o( our moral ideas, the

be led astra\ b\ new errors.

and precise analysis of

om

development

of those general truths

it

will hi-

.il\\.i\ s

Irom these

Locke grasped the thread by which

last,

.mil

IS

I

foundation

obserxinji the

and

it,

lo

had regained her inde-

philosophy

that

pendence onl\

baek

\i

nuisi he cle-

snatched

path that he had traced for

\\ li.ili

know

.Smularlv the .m.iKsis ol

ilu

Soon, howcNer,

niincl.

iniaj;ination

Ignore

sible to

ami e\uleni

it

pninar\

those

Iroin

.iiul l(»

liiulmg, in the

jthilosoplu

brouirht

hail

eiitirel)

u;i-ii-

i.ikc

\\i-

il

reason; for he had iimlerslooil ihai rixecl

m

progn-ss

Ik-

broaikst sense.

latter woril in its

Descartes

I

iiKtapliNsics,

.uul

an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human f\/lind

poliius .mil poliiK.il tion-

in

w.is f.uistil priin.iiils

()iii\

for

at different

human

arouse different ideas in the same person's mind,

ituality or the survival

and

man's freedom or the freedom of God, about the

this is

the most fecund source of error in

finally,

a limit to the

was the

human

first

man w ho dared

know and of the

objects

it

ics

and

to social

it

to

it

can

come

can comprehend.

This method was soon adopted by phers and, by applying

to set

understanding, or rather to

determine the nature of the truths that to

soul, about

existence of pain and evil in a universe governed by

reasoning.

Locke,

of the

all

moral science,

economy, they were able

philosoto polit-

to

make

almost as sure progress in these sciences as they had in the natural sciences.

They were

an all-powerful intelligence whose wisdom, justice

and loving-kindness ought,

it

would seem,

clude the possibility of their existence.

knot which the most

skilful analysis

I

le

to ex-

cut the

would never

have been able to untie and constructed the universe from simple, indestructible, entities equal by their very nature. entities

w ith

all

The

relations of each of these

the others,

w hich w ith

it

form part

able to admit

only proven truths, to separate these truths from

"

whatever as vet remained doubtful and uncertain.

niz (1646-1716).

German

philosopher and mathematician G.

\\

.

Leib-

I

Marquis de Condorcet of the system of the universe, determine those quahties of

whereby

it

The human

it

differs

from every other.

atom of

soul and the least

a block

prejudices of the masses which had for so long

and corrupted the human

afflicted

At

of

last

man

stone are, each of them, one of these monads, and

which

they differ only in the different place assigned to

opinions to his

them

in the universal order.

Out of all

the possible

combinations of these beings an infinite intelligence has preferred one, and could have preferred one

most perfect of

only, the

If that

all.

which

offends us by the misery and crime that is

it

still

explain

shall

adopted, or

at least

amongst them. One

it,

would

which,

system

being

progress of philosophy

entire school of English phil-

osophers enthusiastically embraced and eloquently

defended the doctrine of optimism, but they were subtle and less profound than Leibniz, for

less

whereas he based his doctrine on the belief that an all-powerful intelligence, by the very necessity of its

nature, could choose only the best of all possible

worlds, the English philosophers sought to prove their doctrine

by appealing

which we

particular world in sacrificing

all

to observation of the

and, thereby

live

to

submit

all

reason and to use in the search

instrument for

had not

sort of pride that nature

to base his beliefs

learnt with a

con-

for ever

on the opinions of

others; the superstitions of antiquity

ment of reason before

recognition

its

man

been given. Every

demned him

and the abase-

the transports of supernat-

disappeared from society as from

philosophy.

Soon there was formed

upheld, by Leibniz's compatthe

had been ignored,

own

for truth the only

ural religion

results.

this

has retarded

riots,

see in

true that any other combination

have had more painful

We

we

exists

for so long

that he has

race.

could proclaim aloud his right,

who were concerned

Europe

in

development of the truth than with

men who whilst devoting tracking down of prejudices where the all

a class

of men

with the discovery or

less

its

propagation,

themselves

the

to

in the hiding places

governments and

priests, the schools, the

long-established institutions had gathered and

protected them,

made

their life-work to destroy

it

popular errors rather than to drive back the fronof

tiers

aiding peril,

human knowledge - an

its

nor

indirect

way of

progress which was not less fraught with less useful.

the advantages possessed by this

In England Collins and Bolingbroke, in France

remains abstract and general;

Bayle, Fontenelle, Voltaire, Montesquieu and the

they lost themselves in details, which were too often

schools founded by these famous men,^'" fought on

either revolting or ridiculous.

the side of truth, using in turn

system so long as

it

In Scotland, however, other philosophers find-

ing that the analysis of the development of our actual faculties led to

no principle

that could pro-

vide a sufficiently pure or solid basis for the morality

of our actions, thought to attribute a

to the

human

new

faculty

from but associated

soul,^" distinct

with those of feeling or thinking, a faculty whose existence

they

proved

We

it.

showing

by

only

they could not do without

shall

history of these opinions and shall

that

recount the

show how,

if

all

the weapons with

which learning, philosophy, wit and can furnish reason; using every to pathos, every literary

literary talent

mood from humour

form from the vast erudite

encyclopaedia to the novel or the broadsheet of the day; covering truth with a veil that spared weaker

eyes and excited one to guess what lay beyond skilfully flattering prejudices so as to attack

it;

them

the better; seldom threatening them, and then

always either only one in partially;

its

entirety or several

sometimes conciliating the enemies of

they have retarded the progress of philosophy,

reason by seeming to wish only for a half-tolerance

they have advanced the dissemination of philo-

in religious matters, only for a half-freedom in

sophical ideas.

politics;

Up

now we have shown the progress of philosophy only in the men who have cultivated, till

deepened and perfected

show what have been

how

reason,

while

its it

against the errors into

it.

It

effects

learnt

these two scourges even

on public opinion;

against only their

to

a sure

ing truth; and

at the

same time

tilting

against

when abus-

more

when they seemed

to

be

revolting or ridiculous

safeguard itself

which the imagination and it,

at last

method of discovering and recogniz-

how

when

ing tyranny; yet always attacking the principles of

remains for us to

respect for authority had so often led

found

sparing despotism

the absurdities of religion, and religion

it

destroyed the

""

Philosopher Arthur Collins (1680-1732), statesman

Henry Bolingbroke (1678-1751),

philosopher

Pierre

Bayle (1647-1706), writer Bernard de Fontenelle (16571757), influential Enlightenment intellectual Francois de

Voltaire (1694—1778), and poHtical philosopher Charles

Presumably the faculty of "commonsense."

68~

de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755).

Sketch abuses, aiul l.wiiiu iluir .ixis to

when

these sinisiei trees

ping

ott a lew stra\

the trieiuls of hhertx cible shield

first

nouncing their its

\ci\

roots oi

to In

lop-

llial su|)eistili()ii is

the iiuiii-

behind which despotism shelters ami victim to be sacriliceil,

first

chain to be broken, and somelimes it

power,

secret

ilu-

.i|i|>e.iteil

an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human l\/lind

biaiuhes; soiiuiiines teaehiiig

should therefore be the the

tlux

for

to the ilespols as the real aiul frightening

machinations and

never ceasing to

its

demand

reason and the freedom

of"

them with

enem\

ile-

of

stories of

and the saKation

cisni

ill. It

bore the marks

cajilains, magistrates life;

ence

still

independence

fold;

and

of

the press as the right

tiilcrancc,

in

morals

name

of

matters

all

anil law,

to

show

lasing to their charge, with

spilled

respect for

\ehemence

their |>olicN or their wulilfer-

on the

battlefiekl or

on the scaf-

finally, taking for their battle crN

humantty.

.

.

of

am thing

nature to bid kings,

and priests

and seNcrit), the blood

in-

the crimes of (anati-

tNraniu. harshness or bar-

of

barism, iiuoking the

human

all

pursumg,

iNranin;

aiul

religion, administration,

bloody persecutions;

the

manknul, protesting with

of

iklatiuabli energN against

.

reasati,

G.

W.

The most first

F. Hegel

influential

German

European philosopher of the

nineteenth century

half of the

was

the

thinker Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

(1770-1831). His idealistic system saw all reality as Geist or Spirit developing through a dialectical process of self-opposition and higher incorporation, a process embodied in the actual stages and events of human history. He endorsed Enlightenment ideals - the idea of consciousness as individual freedom, and of the objects of consciousness as value-neutral objects of potential utility - as a necessary but incomplete stage through which the human spirit must pass in its journey to complete self-understanding. In this excerpt from his most beautiful work. Phenomenology of Spirit {1807), Hegel characterizes what is wrong with the Enlightened consciousness: it is one-sided and unbalanced, the freedom of a solipsistic, empty individual who sees others as

mere objects for use. Hence it led to the worst violence of the French Revolution, theTerror of 17934, during which the French ruling "Committee of Public Safety"executed about 40,000 alleged enemies of the fledgling republic. For true freedom. Spirit must await its further development, when it discovers that

achieved

in

real,

concrete freedom can only be

the context of

membership

in

ness does not find itself to possess immediately. Utility

predicate of the object, not itself a

is still a

subject or the immediate and sole actuality of the object. It

when

is

the

same thing

the substance" of the other tion

that appeared before,

being-for-self had not yet show n itself to be

moments,

which would have meant

a

demonstra-

was

that the Useful

directly nothing else but the self of consciousness

and that

this latter

w as thereby

in possession

of

it.

This withdrawal from the form of objectivity of the Useful

has,

principle

however,

and from

already

this

taken

place

in

inner revolution there

emerges the actual revolution of the actual w orld, the

new shape of consciousness,

In fact,

what we have here

absolute freedom. is

no more than

an empty show of objectivity separating consciousness

from possession. For,

self-

partly,

all

members of world and the w orld

existence and validity of the specific

the organization of the actual

of faith'" have, in general, returned into this simple

determination as into their ground and spiritual principle; partly, however, this simple determin-

ation

no longer possesses anything of

its

ow n,

it is

rather pure metaphysic, pure Notion, or a pure

knowing by self-consciousness. That

is

to say, of

a moral

community under the institutions of the State.

"

''Substance" refers to the underlying reality, the true

being, of a thing.

Consciousness has found it is

partly

reason,

still

"Notion"

still

an

object,

its

Notion

and

in Utility.'

But

partly, for that very

"'

The world beyond

the actual world, as pictured by

religious faith.

an End to be attained, which conscious-

refers to the pure,

standing of a thing. Hegel

is

comprehensive under-

claiming that the EnHghten-

ment regards the essence of reality

as

mere

utility.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, "Absolute Freedom and Terror," paras. 582-95, pp. 355-63 from Phenomenology of Spirit (trans. A. V. Miller). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

"Absolute Freedom and Terror" ihc

itst/f ol

the hcinti in jnJ-fftr

consciousness recognizes that

truth a passive

Jt-i'oiJ of st/J, is in

a self for

object,

i/Uii

hini^-m-ttselj^

is

a ht'imi/iir-tin other, beinji-in-itself, as

essentiall)

is

mIuI

L

its

or that which

self,

another sel!" Theobject, however, exists

for consciousness

whose distinctions

are in the pure

lUit ihc hi-ifiii-Jor-si-lf inlo

the

returns,

i.e.

sively to

w hat

form

this abstract

in

for consciousness

bcing-in-ilselt,

imiiiht

Notions.

of

which being-for-an-other

not a self belonging exclu-

self, is

and

called object

is

form

pure

of

pure

is

from the

distinct

"I"; for consciousness, (fua pure insight,

is

not a

which could be confronted by the object

sin^/c .self

ow n, but

as equally having a self of its

the gazing of the self into the

self,

is

pure Notion,

the absolute seeing

of /7.nv// doubled; the certainty of itself is the univerSubject, and

sal

of

all

actuality.

its

not return into

knowing

ow n

its

itself

is

is

it

itself as well as

unity,

now

it

is

and hence was

still

the

movement of universal

those abstract the

self,

self of

of the object and, as universal,

the

is

movement.

comes before us

is

as absolute freedom. It

the essence of

ness alone

resist

its

or siiuc, in truth, conscious-

1

which

sNstem

now

consciousness

W hat made its

or as being absolute!) Notion.

itself,

diremption into separate

when

becomes

the object

longer anything in

negativity has permeated

general

for

will.'

and

all

simply

it

And what

reality is solely spiritual; its

is

own w ill, and

more,

this will

is

this

is

a

not the

empty thought of w ill w hich consists in silent assent, or assent by a representative, but a real general

the will of all individuals as such. For will

is

w ill,

in itself

the consciousness of personality, or of each, and as this

genuine actual

self-conscious essence

will that

it

ought

it is

to be, as the

of each and every personality,

so that each, undivided from the

w hole,

alw ays does

everything, and w hat appears as done by the w hole

is

the direct and conscious deed of each.

all its

ascends the throne of the w orld w ithout any pow er

moments.

Out

consciousness raises

itself

no longer finds

essence and

no

is

It

comes

its

of its allotted

sphere,

work

its

this

in

particular sphere, but grasps itself as the .\olion of will,

grasps

spheres as the essence of this

all

and therefore can only is

work of the w

a

therefore,

all

realize

it.self

in a

will,

work which

hole. In this absolute

social

freedom,

groups or classes which are the

spiritual spheres into

which the whole

is

articulated

are abolished; the individual consciousness that

belonged to any such sphere, and willed and

purpose sal

law

its

,

The

it,

has put aside

the general purpose,

is

something into

its

language univer-

[moment

alien

which was the

The

itself.

were

in the object as if this

from which

it

had

first

on the contrary, the object

itself;

consciousness

have

of] dijference

utility,

being; consciousness does not

all real

movement

its

its

ful-

limitation;

its

work the universal work.

object and the

to return is

for

it

antithesis, consists, there-

fore, solely in the difference

between the mdiiidual

and the universal consciousness; but the individual consciousness

universal consciousness and will. its

ow n eyes

that

antithesis;

it is

itself is directly in its

w hich had only the semblance of an

The beyond o{ xh'ifi

actual existence hovers over the corpse of the

vanished independence of real being, or the being of

faith,

merely as the exhalation of

a stale gas,

of

the vacuous Etre supreme.^'

After

This undivided Substance of absolute freedom

.Notion, there

into existence in such a wa\ that each individual

begin

is

suhsistenl spheres, but a

with a continuing existence;

it

predicate of

spiritual reality,

has collapsed,

the Notion into an existent ohjeit was

and actuality are consciousnesses know ledge of itself.

the world

by

maintained

the individual consciousness conceives

that

supersensible world, or conversely, that essence

all

spiritual

the object as haMiig no other essence than self-

here lost the meaning of

conscious of its pure personahty and therein of

and

organized

is

into 'ma.sses' or spheres

iliNision

'masses', or spheres, of the real as well as of the

It is

which the

in

beings or |iowers ha\e their substance, their entire

the spiritual

all

it

the element

is

filled itself in

self-consciousness which grasps the fact that

certainty of itself

an

ceases to be this. For

the

self-returning unity of this Spirit thus

the essence

moments, an alternation w hich did

object for knowing,

moments,

is

then, the Useful was merely the

If,

alternation of the

conscious .Notion

being able lo

restricted

various

the life

away with,

as

spiritual

spheres

and

the

of the individual have been done well

remains, therefore,

is

as

his

the

two worlds,

all

that

immanent movement of

universal self-consciousness as a reciprocity of self-

Being "in-itself simply '

is;

being "for- another"

is

an

object for consciousness; being "in-and-for- itself" both

and

human

consciousness in the form of universality and of is

is

an object for

A

reference to Rousseau's concept of the general will

itself, as in a

self-aware

being.

personal consciousness: the universal will goes into itself dnd is a single, individual

w ill

to

w hich univer-

of a free society, which was influential during the French Revolution.

Supreme Being.

(JT)

G.

W.

sal

law and work stand opposed. But this individual

Hegel

F.

consciousness

is

as universal will;

no

less directly

it is

aware that

conscious of object

its

is

ing objectivity,

deed

and

it;

in creat-

doing nothing individual, but

it is

carrying out the laws and functions of the state.

This movement with

sciousness

is

which

in

lets

it

nothing

break loose to become a free object standing over against

It

it.

follows from this that

cannot achieve

it

must concentrate

it

self,

w hich

this

of

is

a

only an

is

One. But thereby

all

deed and have only

a limited

share in

so that

it,

the deed would not be a deed of the actual universal self-consciousness. Universal freedom, therefore,

can produce neither a positive work nor a deed; there

or of reality, either of laws and general institutions of

the fury of destruction.

and works of a

One

the

self-consciousness; for the universal will

actual will in a

anything positive, either universal w orks of language

conscious freedom, or of deeds

itself into

individuality and put at the head an individual

other individuals are excluded from the entirety of

thus the interaction of con-

itself

freedom. Before the universal can perform a

this

a law

given by that will and a work accomplished by therefore, in passing over into action

the deeds proper and individual actions of the will of

itself

for

is left

only negative action;

it

But the supreme

free-

reality

and the

merely

it is

which

reality

dom that wills them. The work which conscious freedom might accomplish would consist in that

stands in the greatest antithesis to universal free-

freedom, qua universal suhstuncc, making

that freedom,

itself into

dom,

or rather the sole object that will is

an object and into an enduring being. This otherness

actual self-consciousness itself

would be the moment of difference

ity

divided

in

whereby

it

itself into stable spiritual 'masses'

it

or spheres

which does not

tain itself in an

spheres would be partly the 'thought-things' of a

time creates

power that

is

separated into legislative, judicial, and

movement

executive powers; but partly, they would be the real

over,

we found in the real world of culture, and, looking more closely at the content of universal

itself into

essences

action, they

would be the particular spheres of

let itself

For

that universal-

advance to the

an organic articulation, and whose aim

and into the members of various powers. These

exist for

still

the freedom and individuality of

unbroken continuity, within

a distinction

itself,

is

reality

of

main-

to

the same

at

because

it is

or consciousness in general. And, more-

by virtue of

own

its

abstraction,

it

divides

extremes equally abstract, into

a simple,

and into the

discrete,

inflexible cold universality,

absolute hard rigidity and self-willed atomism of

Now

com-

labour which would be further distinguished as

actual self-consciousness.

more specific 'estates' or classes. Universal freedom, which would have separated itself in this way into its

pleted the destruction of the actual organization of

constituent parts and by the very fact of doing so

sole object, an object that

w ould have made itself into an existent Substance, would thereby be free horn particular individuality,

merely

and would apportion the plurality of individuals

pure and free individual self All that remains of

its

to

various constituent parts. This, however, would

restrict the activity

to a

and the being of the personality

branch of the whole, to one kind of activity and

being; ality

when

placed in the element of being, person-

would have the significance of a

specific per-

the world, and exists

that

has

it

now just for itself, this is its no longer has any content,

possession, existence, or outer extension, but this

knowledge of

the object by which

it

itself as

can be laid hold of is solely

abstract existence as such.

The

is

an absolutely

its

relation, then, of

these two, since each exists indivisibly and absolutely for itself,

and thus cannot dispose of a middle

term which would

link

them

together,

is

one of

self-

wholly unmediated pure negation, a negation, more-

consciousness. Neither by the mere idea of obedi-

over, of the individual as a being existing in the

ence to self-given laws which would assign to

universal.

sonality;

a part

it

would cease

to

be in truth universal

of the w hole, nor by

its

it

only

being represented in

law-making and universal action, does self-consciousness reality

of

let itself

be cheated out of

itself making

reality,

the

the law and accomplishing,

freedom

is

The

sole

work and deed of universal

therefore death, a death too which has

no inner significance or is

the

filling, for

empty point of the

what

more

For where the

or swallowing a mouthful of water.'"

is

merely represented and

present only as an idea, there

it

where

it is

it is

represented by proxy,

is

is

find itself in this universal work of absolute freedom little

does

it

It is

significance than cutting off a head of cabbage

not actual;

not.

Just as the individual self-consciousness does not

qua existent Substance, so

negated

thus the coldest and meanest of all deaths, with no

not a particular work, but the universal work itself self

is

absolutely free self

find itself in

'"

During the Terror thousands died on the

guillotine,

and thousands more on boats that were floated into the Loire river, then sunk. latter reference.

I

thank James Schmidt for the

'Absolute Freedom and Terror' In this

coiuiiionphuc monosvllablc

flat,

wisdom

the

taiiicil

iiittni;4cncc

olthc universal

I'hc jioNcrnnicnt

itscir.

con-

is

of the viovcrniiu-nt, the ahstraii will, in

is itscit

the

liillilluiii ol

noihinu;

Inn the

cist-

of pure thought or ni ah\trail matter, changes round into

The

executes

ijox

the one hand,

from

its

will,

called

anything else but

itself as

government

is

its

government makes

it,

When

[so) guilty.

is

specific

in

its

a faction. \\ hat

being

being

its

conversely, into a faction, the universal will maintains

what the government has actually done it,

is

the government, for

a

its

nothing specific and outwardly apparent

by which the

guilt

of the will opposed to

could be

it

demonstrated; for w hat stands opposed to actual universal will intention.

is

the

a faction lies

overthrow; and

crime committed against part, has

to

it

it

as the

only an unreal pure

is

will,

Being suspected, therefore, takes the place,

that

it

within

has

which

which

moments

its

can utilize

it

are realized;

has

shown

itself to

itual 'masses' or

spheres to which the plurality of

individual consciousnesses are assigned thus takes

shape once more. These individuals

submit

to negation

Out of this tumult.

would be thrown back

Spirit

to its starting-point, to the ethical

In

itself,

w hich

explicitly objective to itself,

it

is

effaces

and self-conis.

just this abstract self-consciousness, all

distinction

distinction within

it.

to itself; the terror

It is

as

and

all

continuance of

such that

of death

is

it is

objective

the vision of this

power of desire to

its

fear of the lord

universal sonality,

w ill

own Notion is

of itself was,

this latter

this self-consciousness

the

know s

w hich,

as

itself in

it

only

Here, however,

pure insight, com-

repeat

the result were only the

of self-consciousness in

w hich

self-

itself,

to

of universal Spirit,

it,

would

not as this particular

universal,

a

would be able

fore, too, reality

find

and there-

endure the objective

a reality

excluding

self-

consciousness qua particular. But in absolute freethere was no reciprocal action between a con-

existence,

or

is

immersed

that

sets

in the complexities

itself specific

of

aims and

thoughts, and a valid external world, whether of reality or

in the

thought; instead, the world was absolutely

form of consciousness

as a universal will,

equally self-consciousness was

and

drawn together out

negative nature

of the whole expanse of existence or manifested

aims and judgements, and concentrated into the

its

pure Thought and

positive

as

and

its

pure Matter -

is

confronted

with the absolute transition of the one into the other as a present reality.

The

universal will, qua abso-

this self-conscious reality

simple self

The culture

action with that essence

and the

last, is

to is,

which

it

attains in inter-

therefore, the grandest

that of seeing

its

pure, simple reality

it

immediately vanish and pass aw ay into empty noth-

heightened to the level

ingness. In the world of culture itself it does not get

lutely positive, actual self-consciousness, is

would

separates the predicateless Absolute

pletely separates

- completely

viz. that

merely the positive essence of per-

and that

positively, or as preserved therein.

as

if

but only as

individual,

sciousness that

its

and master

hearts. Spirit

universal essence acting on

know and

dom

quite different

world of

consciousness, which has experienced the negative

consciousness finds this

its reality

real

anew and continually

traverse

to

negative nature of itself But absolutely free self-

from what

and

which would have been merely refreshed

culture,

and Substance - an interpenetration

sciousness learns what absolute freedom in effect

an

to

substantial reality.

interpenetration

becomes

and return

apportioned and limited task, but thereby to their

complete

freedom

felt

and distinctions, arrange them-

selves in the various spheres,

of necessity

characteristic work, absolute

who have

the fear of death, of their absolute master, again

this cycle

its

own

its

be the negative element for the

cold, matter-of-fact annihilation of this existent self,

In this

has the matter

it

individual consciousness, the organization of spir-

have

its

univer-

determinateness; and in so far as this Substance

the simple inw ardness of intention, consists in the

can be taken away but

general,

in

accordance with

in

w hich has again entered men's

else

ihe

but

in the self-identical

and rejuvenated by the

mere being.

ol

ncgalinn,

the element of subsistence, or the Substance

the external reaction against this reality that

from which nothing

it

contains JiJ/erence

or has the significance and effect, oi being guilty; and lies in

of

develops as an actual difference.

it

pure negativity has

a

merely the viclonoits faction, of

in the very fact

that

that

l'\)r

sal will

to the universal will;

thus

.ind this again

thereby

be

to

itself

ttul in the llnnkniv,

self-ionsciousness

will

means

this

an

(tuts

Ireeilom as pure sell-ideniils

\bsi)hile

uni\ersal

it

absolutely impossible for

is

it

direct necessity of

and

other individuals

all

government

itself" a

consequently,

and

excludes

it

and so stands opposed

exhibit

same

order and action.

and on the other hand,

act,

constitutes

a specific

ami

wills

will tVoni a single point, at the

its

time wills and executes

On

eminent, which

which

that

nncu-ll, or to

sclt-cstablishcil lotus, or the imlixiilualitx, ot the

universal will.

negatise nature ami shows

Its

equall\

because

W.

G.

Hegel

F.

behold

as far as to

negation or alienation in this

its

form of pure abstraction; on the contrary, ation

filled

is

wealth, which

with it

its

neg-

content, either honour or

a

gains in place of the self that

has alienated from

itself;

it

or the language of Spirit

and insight which the disrupted consciousness acquires; or

it is

the heaven of faith, or the Utility of

an immediate

opposite faction; on the contrary, the universal will is its

will

pure knowing and willing and

much more

is

negation

is

the death that

is

without

nothing positive, nothing that

tains

content.

At the same time, however,

in its real existence

neither

the

which the

is

universal

ethical

with a

fills it

this negation

not something alien; inaccessible

dependent; on the contrary,

which

in

necessity

whim

of the

owner on which the disrupted consciousness will

is

world perishes, nor the particular

accident of private possession, nor the

itself

it

it is

sees

the universal

in this its ultimate abstraction has

noth-

ing with

is

immediately one with self-consciousness, or

the pure positive, because

it is

it

it is

the pure negative;

and the meaningless death, the unfilled negativity of the

self,

changes round

in its inner

Notion into

absolute positivity. For consciousness, the immediate unity of itself with the universal will, to

know

itself as this specific

experience.

What

point,

and

this

it

is

quently,

it

itself to

a

it

in that experience

immediacy of that insubstan-

vanished immediacy

versal will itself which far as

point in the universal

vanishes for

abstract being or the

tial

demand

changed round into the absolutely opposite

will, is

is

its

it

pure knowing or pure

knows

is

the uni-

now knows itself to be in so will.

that will to be itself,

Conse-

and knows

be essential being; but not essential being as

it

It is

itself;

than

is

It

does not

that atomic point of con-

thus the interaction of pure know-

pure knowing qua

essential being is the

universal will; but this essential being

is

abolutely

nothing else but pure knowing. Self-consciousness is,

therefore, the pure

knowing of

essential being

qua pure knowing. Further, as an individual self,

it is

only the form of the subject or of real action, a form

which

is

known by

reality, being, is for

reality

it

it

as form. Similarly, objective

simply a

would be something

selfless

that

is

form; for that

not known. This

knowing, however, knows knowing

to

be essential

being.

Absolute freedom has thus removed the antith-

ing positive and therefore can give nothing in

return for the sacrifice. But for that very reason

the universal

pure knowing and willing

lose Itself in that will, for

sciousness.

its

it is

qua this pure knowing and willing.

vanished in the loss suffered by the self in absolute

freedom;

striving to establish an-

archy, nor itself as the centre of this faction or the

the Enlightenment. All these determinations have

meaning, the sheer terror of the negative that con-

not will as revolutionary

existence,

government or anarchy

esis

The its

between the universal and the individual self-alienated Spirit, driven to the

antithesis in

will.

extreme of

which pure willing and the agent of

that pure willing are

still

tithesis to a transparent

itself Just as the

distinct,

reduces the an-

form and therein finds

realm of the

real

world passes

over into the realm of faith and insight, so does absolute freedom leave

its

self-destroying reality

and pass over into another land of self-conscious Spirit where, in this unreal world,

freedom has the

value of truth. In the thought of this truth Spirit refreshes

itself, in

and knows

this

so far as

it is

being which

is

and remains thought, enclosed within

consciousness to be essential being in

its

self-

perfection

and completeness. There has arisen the new shape of Spirit, that of the moral Spirit.

''Bourgeois and Proletarians"

Karl

Marx and

Friedrich Engels

Marxism is the most important criticism of the dominant Western form of economic modernity, capitalism. Among the various forms of socialism and anti-industrialism common in the nineteenth century, the German thinkers Karl Marx (1818-83) and his collaborator Friedrich Engels (1820-95) uniquely devised what they regarded as a "scientific" socialism. Borrowing Hegel's

Freeman and and

comprehensive theory of human history in which capitalism is a necessary but temporary stage whose industrial development would prepare the way for the eventual communist aboli-

They did not object to and secuthe restriction of ownership

tion of private property.

modern

industry, science, technology,

larism, but only to

and benefits to the capitalist or "bourgeois" class. The following excerpt from their famous pamphlet. Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), represents one of the most moving and

modern society. Capitalan ongoing economic revolution that

prescient depictions of

ism

is itself

continually builds and demolishes society,

in

The

history of

all

all

hitherto existing society

is

one another, carried on an uninterrupted,

ition to

now hidden, now open ended, either

contending

everywhere

a

we

find almost

complicated arrangement of

.society

into various orders, a manifold gradation of social

Rome we

rank. In ancient

plebeians, slaves; in the vassals,

guild-masters,

serfs; in

almost

all

have patricians, knights,

Middle Ages, feudal

lords,

journeymen, apprentices,

of these classes, again, subordin-

ate gradations.

The modern

bourgeois society that has sprouted

from the ruins of feudal society has not done aw a> with class antagonisms. classes,

new

It

has but established new

conditions of oppression, new forms of

struggle in place of the old ones.

Our epoch, .sesses,

the epoch of the bourgeoisie, pos-

however,

this distinctive feature:

has sim-

it

whole

plified the class antagonisms: Society as a

more and more

splitting

up

into

two great

is

hostile

camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie

From

and

Proletariat.

the serfs of the

Middle Ages sprang the

and ProCommunist

Karl Marx, with Friedrich Engels, "Bourgeois

In capitalism, the most important classes are the bourthe owners of

of

ruin of the

clas.ses.

In the earlier epochs of history,

letarians," section

is,

common

the

history of class struggles.'

geoisie, that

each time

fight, a fight that

in a revolutionary re-constitution

society at large, or in the

the

non-monetary forms of authority, thereby making class struggle naked and shameless. However abhorrent this capitalism is to the authors, it is hard not to hear in their words a hostile awe at the monumental changes it was working on the human condition. process demystifying

and plebeian, lord

oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant oppos-

notion of dialectical development, they formulated a

slave, patrician

guild-master and journeyman, in a word,

serf,

modern

industry, and the

proletariat, the class of industrial workers.

Party (trans. C.

Tucker

of Manifesto of the

Samuel Moore), reproduced

(ed.),

edition), pp.

1

in

Robert

The Marx-Engels Reader (second

473-83. New

York: Norton, 1978.

Karl

Marx and

Friedrich Engels

chartered burghers of the earhest towns." these burgesses the

From

elements of the bourgeoisie

first

were developed.

The

Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bour-

The

nobility,

an armed and

self-

governing association in the mediaeval commune,'^ here independent urban republic (as in Italy and

discovery of America, the rounding of the

geoisie.

sway of the feudal

East-Indian and Chinese markets, the

Germany), there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy

(as in France), afterwards, in the

period of

manufacture proper, serving either the semi-feudal

monarchy

colonisation of America, trade with the colonies,

or the absolute

means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known,

the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great

and thereby,

the

the increase in the

to the revolutionary

element in the

The

feudal system of industry, under which

was monopolised by closed

now no

guilds,

longer sufficed for the growing

wants of the new markets.

The manufacturing

The

guild-masters were

system took

its

place.

world-market, conquered for

of labour betw een the different cor-

representative

The

sway.

committee

modern

executive of the for

itself,

exclusive

State,

The

bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most

The

bourgeoisie, wherever

hand, has put an end to

has got the upper

it

feudal, patriarchal,

all

idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn

labour in each single workshop.'"

motley feudal

Meantime demand ever

between

Even manufacture no longer

rising.

Thereupon, steam and machinery revolu-

sufficed.

The place of manugiant. Modern Industry,

tionised industrial production.

facture

was taken by the

the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial

millionaires, the leaders of

modern

armies, the

Modern

whole industrial the world-

market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an

opment cation

to

by

commerce,

land.

This development

most heavenly

capital,

and pushed into

the background every class handed

down from

the

ism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.

is

itself the

ment, of

how

product of

a series

a

the

modern bourgeoisie

long course of develop-

able

in the

vance of that

up that single, unconscionfreedom - Free Trade. In one word, for

sions,

development of the bourgeoisie

class.

a

An

corresponding

political

ad-

oppressed class under the

Burghers were the residents of

it

The

by religious and

political illu-

has substituted naked, shameless, direct,

bourgeoisie has stripped of

halo every

its

occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe.

has converted the physician,

It

man

the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the into

its

ily

its

bourgeoisie has torn away from the fam-

sentimental

and has reduced the

veil,

family relation to a mere

The

of science,

paid wage-labourers.

money

relation.

bourgeoisie has disclosed

how

it

came

to

pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle

production and of exchange.

Each step

numberless indefeasible char-

in place of the

tered freedoms, has set

of revolutions in the modes of

was accompanied by

It

has resolved personal worth into exchange value,

The

see, therefore,

fervour, of

chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimental-

Middle Ages.

We

has drowned the

It

ecstasies of religious

brutal exploitation.

extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie its

than naked self-interest,

turn,

its

commerce, navigation, railways

developed, increased

remaining no other nexus

than callous "cash payment."

reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry,

left

exploitation, veiled

has, in

asunder the

to his "natural

man and man

immense develcommuni-

to navigation, to

bound man

ties that

superiors," and has

and

bourgeois.

industry has established

but a of the

revolutionary part.

porate guilds vanished in the face of division of

the markets kept ever growing, the

is

affairs

State

managing the common

the

in

political

whole bourgeoisie.

pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division

in general, the bourgeoisie has at last,

since the establishment of Modern Industry and of

modern

tottering feudal society, a rapid development.

industrial production

monarchies

as a counterpoise against

legally

independent

towns, whose lands (borough) had been freed from the control of the rural, feudal lords, ultimately by a royal

charter granting their freedoms. Later, charters

Ages, which Reactionists so fitting It

complement

has been the

bring about.

It

in the

first to

much admire, found its

most

slothful indolence.

show what man's

activity

can

has accomplished wonders far sur-

passing Egyptian pyramids,

Gothic cathedrals;

it

Roman

aqueducts, and

has conducted expeditions

would

"Commune'' was an

primarily grant trading and commercial rights.

'^

'"

town, unowned bv rural lords.

Guilds were trade associations of medieval craftsmen.

early

term

for the

independent

"Bourgeois and Proletarians" thai put

III

the sh.uli-

all

h)iiiKi

1

At)tlii.scs ol iialioiis

and crusades.

The

the most barbarian, nations into ciMlisalion

The

commodities are the heav\

ariil-

I

cannot exist without constant In

liouig^foisif

heap prices

its

(jI

with which

ler\

down

batters

it

(Chinese walls,

all

forces the barbarians' intenseK ob-

rcxolutionisni^ the instruments of iModuction, anil

with which

thereby the relations ot production, and with theni

stinate halreil ol loreigners lo ia|)i!ulaie

The whole relations of society. CofTservation of the

all

old

modes of production

the contrar\, the

unaltered form, was, on

in

condition ol existence for

first

Constant revolutionising

earlier industrial classes.

of production, uninterrupted disturbance

epoch from

tion distinguish the bourgeois

train

fast-fro/en

fixed,

.\1I

relations,

of

all

all

earlier

with their

of ancient and venerable prejudices and opin-

ions, are swcjit

away,

all

new-formed ones become

antiquated before they can ossify. All that melts into

air, all that is

compelled

at last

conditions of

holy

to face

life,

and

is

profaned, and

is

nations, on

bourgeois

i.e., il

w ith sober senses,

solid

man

is

his real

must

nestle everywhere, settle

everyw here, establish connexions everyw here.

The

the

compels ihem

it

to

colli cnilisation into their midst,

il

become bourgeois ihemseKes.

The

compels

i

iis

own

In

one wonl,

image.

bourgeoisie has subjected the countr> to the

rule ol the towns.

has created

It

enormous

cities,

com-

has greatly increased the urban population as

pared with the rural, and has thus rescued

a

con-

siderable part of the population from the idiocy of rural

life.

Just as

it

on the towns, so barbarian

has it

made the country dependent made barbarian and semi-

has

countries

dependent on the

civilised

ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois,

his relations with his kind.

The need of a constantly expanding market for its It

production;

creates a world afic

the East on the West.

The

products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.

to

It

pain of extinction, to adopt

mode of

introduce what

and agita-

social conditions, everlasting uncertainty

ones.

all

it

bourgeoisie keeps

away with the scattered the

more and more doing

state of the population, of

means of production, and of property.

has

It

exploitation of

agglomerated population, centralised means of pro-

the world-market given a cosmopolitan character to

duction, and has concentrated property in a few

bourgeoisie has through

production and consumption

its

every country.

in

the great chagrin of Reactionists,

under the on which

feet

it

it

To

has drawn from

of industry the national ground

stood. All old-established national in-

dustries have been destroyed or are daily being

destroyed.

They

are dislodged

whose introduction becomes tion

for

civilised

all

by new industries,

a life

and death ques-

itical

necessary consequence of this was pol-

centralisation.

Independent, or but loosely

connected provinces, with separate

interests, laws,

governments and systems of taxation, became

lumped together

into

one nation, with one govern-

ment, one code of law s, one national class-interest,

one frontier and one customs-tariff

The

by industries that

nations,

The

hands.

bourgeoisie, during

its

rule of scarce

hundred

raw material draw n from the remotest zones; indus-

colossal productive forces than have

tries

whose products

home, but

are

consumed, not only

in every quarter

at

of the globe. In place

of the old wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, their

we

satisfaction

new wants,

all

preceding

generations together. Subjection of Nature's forces to

man, machinery, application of chemistry

industry and agriculture, steam-navigation,

to

rail-

requiring for

ways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole contin-

the products of distant lands

ents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole

find

and climes. In place of the old seclusion and self-sufficiency, in

years, has created

one

more massive and more

no longer work up indigenous raw material, but

local

and national

we have

intercourse

every direction, universal inter-dependence of

And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National onenations.

sidedness and narrow-mindedness

become more

and more impossible, and from the numerous na-

populations conjured out of the ground - what

century had even

earlier

a

presentiment that such

productive forces slumbered

the lap of social

in

labour.'

We

see then: the

means of production and of

exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up,

At

a certain

were generated

in

feudal society.

stage in the development of these

there arises a world

means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all

exchanged, the feudal organisation of agriculture

tional

and

local

literatures,

literature.

instruments of production, by the immensely cilitated

means of communication, draws

all,

fa-

even

and manufacturing industry, feudal relations of property

in

one word, the

became no longer com-

OT)

Marx and

Karl

with

patible

forces; they

Friedrich Engels

developed

already

the

became so many

fetters.

The weapons

productive

They had

to

be burst asunder; they were burst asunder.

bourgeoisie

adapted to

political

is

going on before our

bourgeois society with

its

own

that has conjured

up such

no longer able world

whom

many

a

gigantic

is like

means of pro-

the sorcerer,

who

is

powers of the nether

to control the

he has called up by his

For

spells.

decade past the history of industry and

commerce

is

weapons

but the history of the revolt of modern

mention the com-

mercial crises that by their periodical return put on its trial,

each time more threateningly, the existence

the prole-

is

i.e.,

capital, is

the proletariat,

modern working class, developed - a class of w ho live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell labourers,

themselves piece-meal, are a commodity,

like

everj

other article of commerce, and are consequently to all the vicissitudes of competition, to

the fluctuations of the market.

Owing

the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie to

-

the

all

enough

has also called

class

In proportion as the bourgeoisie,

exposed

rule. It is

it

are to wield those

developed, in the same proportion

productive forces against modern conditions of

its

men who

tarians.

production, against the property relations that are

and of

that bring death to itself;

into existence the

relations of

production, of exchange and of property, a society

duction and of exchange,

turned against the

weapons - the modern working

class.

A similar movement Modern

political constitution

and by the economical and

it,

sway of the bourgeois

eyes.

and

a social

now

itself.

But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the

Into their place stepped free competition, ac-

companied by

with which the bourgeoisie felled

feudalism to the ground are

to the extensive use of

division of labour, the

lost all individual character,

charm

for the

machinery and

work of the

to

proletarians has

and consequently,

all

He becomes an appendage

workman.

only the most simple, most

of the entire bourgeois society. In these crises a

of the machine, and

great part not only of the existing products, but

monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is

also of the previously created productive forces, are

required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a

periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks

out an epidemic that, in

all

would

earlier epochs,

it is

workman is restricted, almost entirely,

have seemed an absurdity - the epidemic of over-

and

production. Society suddenly finds itself put back

commodity, and therefore

into a state of momentary barbarism;

its

a famine, a universal

it

appears as

w ar of devastation had cut

if

off

means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why.-* the supply of every

Because there

is

too

much

civilisation, too

much

means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the devel-

opment of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have

become too powerful

for

these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so

soon

as

they overcome these

fetters,

they bring

disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, en-

danger the existence of bourgeois property.

The

conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to

comprise the wealth created by them.

And how

does the bourgeoisie get over these crises?

one hand by enforced destruction of

a

On

the

mass of

for the propagation of his race.

the repulsiveness of the

Nay more,

decreases.

in

work

increases, the

machinery and division of labour increases,

same proportion the burden of

increased speed of the machinery, etc.

Modern

industry has converted the

of the industrial

crowded

for

more extensive and more

destructive crises,

prevented.

crises are

work-

diers.

As

Masses of labourers,

privates of the industrial

placed under the officers

capitalist.

into the factory, are organised like sol-

army they

are

command of a perfect hierarchy of

and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of

the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they

and hourly enslaved by the machine, by

are daily

the over-looker, and, above

all,

by the individual

The more openly

more

way

little

shop of the patriarchal master into the great factory

the

and by diminishing the means whereby

in the

w hether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by

despotism proclaims gain to be

by paving the

wage

toil also increases,

this

to say,

equal to

proportion as the use of

of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitis

is

cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as

bourgeois manufacturer himself.

That

means

But the price of a

also of labour,

productive forces; on the other, by the conquest

ation of the old ones.

to the

of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance,

petty, the

embittering

The plied in

more

hateful

its

end and aim,

and the more

it is.

less the skill

and exertion of strength im-

manual labour,

in other

words, the more

Bourgeois and Proletarians" nioilcni iiuliisir\ Ihioiiks ».k-\il()|Kil,

the labour ot 1

)itfcrciKcs

men

t)t

supcrstilcil

st\

aiul

ajic

ha\c-

arc instruments ot labour,

more

use, according to their age

No

sooner

is

wages

It

no longer ain

esis

and coiulilions

elass

All

or less e\pensi\e to

and se\

than he

in cash,

upon by the other

is set

tion

sum- low

the

tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen

and peasants

all

The growing competition

make

their

ever

lixelihood

collisions

unceasing improvement of ma-

more rapidly developing, makes more and more precarious; the

between individual workmen and indi-

vidual bourgeois take

more and more

cause their diminutive capital does not suffice for

workers

and

swamped

is

carried on,

is

competition with the large

in the

capitalists, partly

Industry

because their specialised

skill is

begin

cla.sses.

torm

to

the character

'['hereupon the

in

order to keep up the rate of wages; the\ tound

permanent associations

in

order to make provision

beforehand tor these occasional

Thus

there the contest breaks out into riots.

is

recruited from

classes of

all

Now

the population.

The

proletariat goes

development. With

its

w ith the bourgeoisie. At

The

not in the immediate result, but in the ever-

first

struggle

its

the contest

carried

is

bourgeois

in

who

w orkers of

against the instruments of production themselves;

all

machinery, they

form more compact bodies,

consequence of their ow n active

order to attain

compelled

and

is

to set the

moreover

its

own

political ends, is

whole proletariat

yet, for a time, able to

stage, therefore, the proletarians

of the same character, into one national struggle classes.

ical struggle.

ians,

But every

And

class struggle

is

motion,

in

do

do not

so.

At

this

fight their

thanks to railw ays, achieve

in a few years.

and consequently into ally

a political party,

being upset again by the competition between

the workers themselves. But stronger, firmer, mightier.

it

It

ever

ri.ses

compels

up again, legislative

recognition of particular interests of the workers,

by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie

Thus

it.self

the ten-hours'

Altogether collisions between the classes of the

many

the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie.

development of the

Thus

finds itself involved in a constant battle.

movement

concen-

is

hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory is

w ith the aristocracy;

ways, the course of

proletariat.

later on,

The

bourgeoisie .\t

first

w ith those portions of

a victory for the bourgeoisie.

But with the development of industry the proletariat

Eng-

bill in

land was carried.'

old society further, in

the whole historical

a class,

continu-

is

remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners,

so obtained

a polit-

which the

that union, to attain

This organisation of the proletarians into

enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the

trated in the

was

local struggles,

highways, required centuries, the modern proletar-

form an incoher-

union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in

just this contact that

numerous

burghers of the Middle Ages, w ith their miserable

broken up by their mutual competition. If anyto

to centralise the

between

ent mass scattered over the whole country, and

where they unite

was

It

that

different localities in contact

by force the

this stage the labourers still

this is not yet the

is

workman of the Middle Ages.

set factories ablaze, they seek to restore

At

lies,

modern industry and

tion that are created by

place the

with one another.

to pieces

of their battles

helped on by the improved means of communica-

needed

destroy imported wares that compete with

real fruit

expanding union of the workers. This union

against the bourgeois conditions of production, but

vanished status of the

and

and then the workers are victorious, but

directly exploits them. TheN- direct their attacks not

smash

lere

birth begins

locality, against the individual

their labour, they

1

only for a time.

of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade,

tfiev

revolts.

through various stages of

on by individual labourers, then by the workpeople one

(Trades

combinations

Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together

rendered worthless by new methods of production. the proletariat

more

the wages ot the workers e\er

The

of collisions between two

Modern

distinctions ot

all

ever> where reduces wages to

le\el.

these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly be-

the scale on which

propor-

eijualised, in

crises,

chinery, the small

within the ranks ot the

more

the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial

keeper, the pawnbroker, etc.

lower strata of the middle class

sirenglh grows,

among

tluctuating.

generally, the handicraftsmen

ot lite

anil

machinery obliterates

as

portions of the bourgeoisie, the laiulloni, the shop-

The

more

|in»letariai are

lis

more. Ihe various inlcr-

teils thai sirenglh

labour, and nearK

an end, that he recedes

tar, at

Ktucinli.Ueil ui urtater masses, .uul

the exploitation ot the labourer b\

the manufacturer, so his

is

uoimii

working

distinctive social validity tor the

in* tic

ilu-

ih.n ol

l)v

not only increases in number;

it

becomes

'

Passed in 1847, the

hours, but only for

bill

limited the

women and

children.

work day

to ten

L

Karl

Marx and

the bourgeoisie

Friedrich Engels

itself,

whose

become

interests have

antagonistic to the progress of industry; at

times,

all

with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In these battles

it

sees itself compelled to appeal to

the proletariat, to ask for it

The

political

words,

weapons

and thus,

it

to drag

bourgeoisie

supplies the proletariat with

elements of other

help,

its

into the political arena.

therefore,

all

itself,

its

own

and general education,

furnishes

the

proletariat

in

with

for fighting the bourgeoisie.

we have

Further, as

already seen, entire sections

of the ruling classes are, by the advance of industry,

In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually

proletarian

swamped. The

without property; his relation to his

and children has no longer anything

wife

common modern

with

bourgeois

the

in

family-relations;

modern

industrial labour,

subjection to

AmerGermany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois intercapital, the ica

as

same

England

in

as in France, in

in

ests.

All the preceding classes that got the

precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least

threatened in their conditions of existence. These

is

upper hand,

sought to fortify their already acquired status by

also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of

subjecting society at large to their conditions of

enlightenment and progress.

appropriation.

when

Finally, in times

the class struggle nears

the decisive hour, the process of dissolution going

on within the ruling

class, in fact

w hole

within the

The

proletarians

cannot become

masters of the productive forces of society, except

by abolishing

own

their

and thereby

priation,

previous

mode

character, that a small section of the ruling class

mode of their own

cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class,

to destroy all previous securities for,

range of society, assumes such a violent, glaring

the class that holds the future in

its

hands. Just

as,

of,

therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility

went over

to the bourgeoisie, so

now

a

portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,

and

in particular, a portion

ideologists, level

who have

raised

of the bourgeois

themselves to the

of comprehending theoretically the historical

movement

Of all

bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone

The

revolutionary class. finally

The

is its

special

lower middle

a really

and

Modern

Industry;

essential product.

class, the small

manufacturer,

the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant,

all

these

fight against the bourgeoisie, to save

from extinc-

tion their existence as fractions of the

middle

class.

They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to

of is

and insurances

individual property.

ments of minorities, or

The

proletarian

movements were move-

in the interests of minorities.

movement

the self-conscious,

is

independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the letariat,

immense

majority.

The

pro-

the lowest stratum of our present society,

stir,

cannot raise

superincumbent sprung into the

Though

other classes decay and

disappear in the face of

the proletariat

is

and

All previous historical

cannot

as a whole.

the classes that stand face to face with the

They have nothing to fortify; their mission

appropriation. to secure

of appro-

also every other previous

itself up,

without the whole

of official

strata

being

society

air.

not in substance,

yet

in

form,

the

struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie at first a national struggle.

country must, of course, with

its

own

The

first

is

proletariat of each

of

all settle

matters

bourgeoisie.

In depicting the most general phases of the de-

velopment of the less veiled civil

up

proletariat,

we

traced the

more

or

war, raging within existing society,

to the point

where

that

war breaks out into

back the wheel of history. If by chance they are

open revolution, and where the violent overthrow

revolutionary, they are so only in view of their

of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway

impending transfer into the

of the proletariat.

roll

proletariat, they thus

Hitherto, every form of society has been based,

defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their

own

standpoint to place them-

The "dangerous layers of old society,

into the

class," the social

life,

scum, that

thrown off by the lowest

may, here and there, be swept

movement by

conditions of

a proletarian revolution; its

however, prepare

we have

already seen, on the antagonism of_

oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to

selves at that of the proletariat.

passively rotting mass

as

it

far

more

the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.

for

oppress a to

it

class, certain

under which

existence.

it

The serf,

conditions must be assured

can, at least, continue

its

slavish

in the period of serfdom, raised

himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism,

managed

to develop into a bourgeois.

The

"Bourgeois and Proletarians" nioilcrii LihoiiriT,

on the comiimin,

with ihf piounss

of"

instc.ul ol

.iiul

deeper below

ihe conditions of existence ol

own

becomes

lie

class,

de\elops more

And i

s

here

it

rapiill)

a

than population anil wealth that the bourgeoisie

unfit any longer to be the ruling to impo se its conditions of

and

society as an over-riding law.

because its

it

is

It

class in society,

existence unfit

is

upon

to rule

incompetent to assure an existence

sla\e within his slavery, because

letnni: liini sink into

his

pauper, ami pauperism

becomes e\ideni,

such a

it

state, that

to

cannot help it

Ihe essintial idiulilion

risiiiv;

intluslry, sinks ikc|Ki

has to feed

lor the

capital

is

sively

on

moter ol

society.

capital;

between

bourgeoisie,

due

is

the formation

condition

the

Wage-labour

of iiulustr),

labourers,

development from under

to

whose

of

for

rests exclu-

labourers.

the

iiiNoluntarv pro-

replaces

the

competition,

isolation

h\

their 1

he

.Modern Industry, therefore, cuts

its feet

the very foundation on which

the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products.

no longer compatible with

of

competition

the

the existeiue, aiul

rcNolutionars combination, due to association.

above

is

is

the

lor

bourgeois class,

wage-labour

Ihe advance

longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, existence

ol the

augmeniaiion

aiul

him, instead of being k\\ by him. Society can no

its

swa\

What all.

the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, Is

its

own

grave-diggers.

Its

fall

and

the victory of the proletariat are equallv ine\ itable.

'Bou/^^s*^*^

c^i^foy^

^V^

^jffofy-J if-

L

PART

II

Modernity Realized

I

Introduction to Part

The

century

from

1860

1950 brought

to

the

triumph of modernity, and simultaneously greatest crises, both intellectual

period that the

in this

new

and

social.

It

is

science and the indus-

revolution actually changed the lives of most

trial

human and

beings living in Europe, North America,

much

indirectly,

bound new

of

world.

the

Peoples

were thrown,

to a local agrarian lifestyle

by choice or necessity, into the

either

and

cities

a

industrial world market. \\ aves of scientific

revolution, in cosmology, physics, geology,

chem-

and biology deeply altered our view

istry,

the world, unleashing

power.

mere

The

fact

new

conditions of

religion

of

technologies of awesome life

changed, and the

of change seemed to

wisdom and life.

its

make

relevant

less

traditional

to

everyday

became widespread, then

Liberal democracy

was challenged by fascism and communism, themselves

modernist

modernity.

Two

reactions

world

against

wars,

closed with the terrifying

first act

a cultural relife,

in

which

some

artists

fluid,

non-traditional environment, while others

and

were revolted by

the

new,

by regarding

reflected

itself as

in

transform-

this crisis.

Many

of

the most important philosophers of the period

claimed that

all earlier

some deep

flaw

thought had suffered from

requiring

break with the past. This tive;

is

radical

revision,

a

historically distinc-

philosophers in every era usually think other

philosophers

are

critique.

When

purview of

a

radicalism appears

few cranks

at

is

it

usually the

the margins, but in

the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the

most prominent philosophical schools - analytand

ical

logical philosophy,

existentialism, pragmatism,

phenomenologv and Marxism - radically

rejected the speculative, metaphysical, and quasi-

from

thought

of earlier

tendencies

theological

the Greeks through the mid-nineteenth century. Historically speaking, in twentieth-century philo-

sophy, radicalism became the norm. It is

this period that created

most of the philo-

among

sophical schools and divisions prevalent

Western (and

a large percentage of

non- Western)

philosophers to this day: pragmatism

(in the

work

of Charles Sanders Peirce, George Hebert Mead,

Paul

gaard,

wrong about something, but

Sartre,

Simone

(Edmund

Husserl,

Jean-Paul

Tillich,

de Beauvoir); phenomenology

Martin Heidegger, and .Maurice Merleau-Ponty); logic, logical positivism,

and analytic philosophy

(Gottlob Frege, G. E. .Moore, Bertrand Russell, the early

Ludwig

Wittgenstein, Rudolf Garnap,

Kurt Godel, and Alfred Tarski); ordinary language philosophy (the

it.

Western philosophy ation

embraced

thinkers

was funda-

philosophy

William James, Josiah Royce, and John Dewey),

of the atomic age.

sponse to the new conditions of

past

all

existentialism (Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierke-

Europe and much of the developed world, and

Throughout the period there was

that

of

communications and military technologies, devastated

claim

the

mentally wrong-headed was a particularly radical

new

features

employing

II

W ittgenstein,

later

J.

L. Austin);

and process philosophy (Henri Bergson and Alfred

North Whitehead). In ical

tradition these

each

other,

mented

into

their rejection of philosoph-

movements

leaving

also diverged

from

philosophy

frag-

Western

divergent

styles

or

sub-cultures,

each denying the legitimacy of the others. sure,

some remained

To

be

faithful to the older specula-

tive-metaphysical tradition, but

it

was the new

Introduction to Part

methods

II

that defined

To

the era.

degree we philosophers of the looking back

the

very large

a

new millennium of the

creativity

are

still

late

nineteenth and early twentieth century for

to

inspiration.

early twentieth-century period,

and science were being revolutionized.

was the

in question. Baudelaire

employ the term modernite

first to

new

in describing the

nineteenth-century urban aesthetic.

was

Peirce

the inventor of pragmatism, which would eventu-

form the

ally

During the same art, politics,

non-human

basis

Rorty's postmodernism

for

attempt of more moderate "non-

as well as the

foundationalists"

postmodernism.

counter

to

Modernism in painting initially took the form of a new realism that renounced the idealization of subject matter, but more prominently it was

Through

his radical critique of the idealism of the

Western

tradition,

the age of abstraction, of the liberation of artistic

postmodernism,

imagination by Impressionism, Cubism, Expres-

Deleuze, and Foucault.

sionism, Futurism, Surrealism,

Symbohsm, Dada,

and ultimately Abstract Expressionism. In other arts as well

was

it

of explosive waves

a period

tian)

both moral

and epistemic, Nietzsche crucial

(i.e.

is

Judeo-Chris-

the godfather of

especially

Derrida,

for

De

Saussure's structuralist

linguistics set the stage for

French post-structural-

ism. Marinetti and later

Le Corbusier

extolled

new

forms of literature and architecture, respectively,

Pound and

that reflect the Utopian social theories characteristic

stream of consciousness novels

of the period between the world wars. Weber, one

of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, the existential

of the most influential theorists of modernity,

of experimentation: the poetry of Ezra

T. S.

Eliot, the

of Hemingway;

realism

Albert

the

music

atonal

Schonberg and Alban Berg,

of

non-

the

presented an historically informed, yet incipiently existentialist

account of the modern age. Wittgen-

thematic dissonance of Igor Stravinsky; and the

stein's radical assertion

modernism of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and the Bauhaus school. Simultaneously new forms of social radicalism developed in response to the coming of mass,

became the most prominent form of twentieth-

industrial society: socialism, Marxist-Leninist bol-

whose psychoanalytic theory was hugely

shevism, futurism, syndicalism, fascism, Nazism,

in the

anarchism. Discontents and intellectuals sought

mounting "discontent" inherent

new

civilization.

architectural

alternatives

ization

to

the juggernaut of

and mass culture.

Charles

Scientifically,

Darwin and Sigmund Freud

human beings,

modern-

recast our picture of

while in physics the greatest revolu-

tion in our picture of the universe since the seven-

teenth century was led by Neils Bohr,

Wolfgang Erwin

Pauli,

Max

Planck,

Louis de Broglie, Albert Einstein,

Schrodinger,

Werner

and

Heisenberg,

of the limits of philosophy

century anti-foundationalism, and his later view of

language as pluralistic "language-games" inspired the postmodernism of Rorty and Lyotard. Freud, influential

humanities and social sciences, warned of the in the progress of

Husserl diagnosed the "crisis" of mod-

ernity with his

new philosophy of phenomenology,

which formed the

basis

both

for

Heidegger's

thought and the French post-structuralists' tique.

Adorno's and Horkheimer's

cri-

classic Dialectic

of Enlightenment was crucial for the debate over the fate of modernity, and, with Weber, forms the basis for

Habermas's work. Sartre's existentialism was

Paul Dirac. Particularly important for understand-

an important mid-century response to the problem

ing modernity, the field of sociology established

of

itself in this

largely

period as an independent discipline,

through providing theories of modern-

Marx and Weber, the work of Emile Durkheim, Henry Sumner Maine, Georg Besides

ization.

Simmel, Ferdinand Tonnies, Walter Benjamin, Talcott Parsons and

Arnold Gehlen,

but a few, are central for

later studies

to

name

of modern-

alienation,

following selections illustrate these

ments, and auger the

later shift to

move-

postmodernity.

of species would

Darwin's denial of the

fixity

become

the

paradigm

sciences,

and put the distinction of human and

dominant

for

the

life

and

a

prime target

for

Hei-

The final four selections, which follow World War II, represent the transition to postmodernism. Heidegger's attack on Western humanism and the technological domination of nature by the "subject," a project

with which he believed Western

philosophy to have been complicit,

postmodernism,

ization.

The

modern

degger.

is

crucial to

as well as his willingness to

bend

philosophical language in an attempt to say the

unsayable. Lacan's structuralist version of psychoanalysis

had

a

structuralists.

of scientific

major impact on the French post-

Thomas Kuhn's famous progress

analysis

through revolutions and

Introduction to Part noii-rationaiiltLiMDns, lathci than aiul ciniuilan\i- process,

a

puttiN rahoiial

was crucial

lor KortN aiul

wtll-kiutw n

inosi

\aiHccl.

other anti-r(Hiiulatit)nalists, as well as tor the wule-

were passing out

spread uncertaint\ ahoui the limits

mio

and realism

in science.

I

)aiuel

Hell

ot rationalism

authored the

a

\trsi

life,

howcNtr

\ariatii)ii,

cvcr cause proceeding, able to an

iiuli\ iiliial

if

»)t

liom

slight, aiul

he

it

wh.ii-

anN ilegree pnitit-

in

an> species, in

iis

inlinileK

conii>le\ relations to other orgatuc heinijs aiul to

nature, will leml lo ihe preseivaiion ol

cxleiii.il

ami

that iiuliNuhial,

hetter chance ot sur\ uals of an\ species

thus ha\e

also, will

ing, tor, ot the nian> inili\

i\

sur\i\e.

ha\e

I

itl-

called

We

tion.

tainly

its

relation to

this

produce great

results,

in

man's power of selec-

man by

have seen that

a

slight \ariation, if useful,

preserved, by the term of Natural Selection,

order to mark

a

horn, hut

liich are periotlicalh

which each

principle, h\ is

w

number can

small

he inheriieil In

will iienerall\

The ottspring,

otlsprinu;.

its

selection can cer-

and can adapt organic

beings to his ow n uses, through the accumulation of

him by

slight but useful variations, given to

hand of Nature. But Natural Selection, hereafter see,

and

efforts, as the

We

a

power incessantly ready

immeasurably superior

as

is

is

works of Nature are

now

will

be treated, as

greater length.

the

shall

for action,

man's feeble

The

more detail the my future work this subwell deserves, at

it

much

elder de Candolle and Lyell

have largely and philosophically shown that

all

organic beings are exposed to severe competition.' In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject

w ith more

spirit

and

ability

W.

than

Herbert,

to

Dean

life,

easier than

in

- than constantly Yet unless

am

is

words the truth of the universal struggle or more difficult - at least I have found it so

admit

for

Nothing

it

to bear this conclusion in

be thoroughly engrained

in the

I

convinced that the whole economy of nature,

with every fact on distribution, extinction,

and variation,

will

rarity,

We behold

bright w ith gladness,

we

of food;

we do not

which are

life;

or

we

the face of nature

often see superabundance

see, or

idly singing

insects or seeds,

abundance,

be dimly seen or

quite misunderstood.

we

ing ik|HiuliiHe of one being on another, and in-

how

Two

food and

il

the moisture.

.\

at all

.^ugustin

life

on the edge of a desert

lo be cUpeiuleiit

a

which on an average only one

of

may

be more truly said to

same and other

The

kinds which already clothe the ground.

dependent (m the apple and

is

on

which annualls produces

struggle with the plants of the

toe

is

though

against the drought,

plant

maturity,

to

may be

o( dearth,

each other which shall get

ith

should be saul

thousand seeds,

comes

lime

in a

w

li\e. IJut a |ilan!

struggle for

more propcrK

life

mistle-

few other trees,

a

but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, (or parasites grow

on the same

many

too

if

tree,

it

of these

w ill languish and

Hut several seedling mistletoes, growing close

die.

disseminated by birds, birds;

and

may more truly be said

with each other.

to struggle

it

may

the mistletoe

.\s

is

existence depends on

its

metaphorically be said to struggle

with other fruit-bearing plants,

order to tempt

in

birds to devour and thus disseminate

its

seeds rather

than those of other plants. In these several senses,

which pass into each other,

use for convenience'

I

sake the general term of struggle for existence.

A

struggle for existence inevitably follows from

the high rate at which

all

organic beings tend to

Every being, which during

increase.

lifetime produces several eggs or seeds,

destruction during

some period of

natural

its

must

suffer

and

life,

its

during some season or occasional year, otherwise,

on

the

principle

of

geometrical

numbers would quickly become

increase,

its

so inordinately

great that no country could support the product.

Hence,

as

more

individuals are produced than can

possibly survive, there

must

in

every case be a

another of the same species, or with the individuals

live

largely these songsters, or

by birds in

mind,

though food may be now superabundant,

not so

canine animals

truiN said to struggle

saiil to

not onls the

bui suicess in leaving progeny.

on

round us mostly

and beasts of prey; we do not always bear that

more important)

is

ol ihe iiuli\ uhi.il.

struggle for existence, either one individual with

and are thus constantly destroying

forget

use the term .Struggle tor

I

and metaphorical sense, includ-

forget that the birds

their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed

'

mind.

mind,

|>renns«.- thai

in a large

chidinu (which

of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge."

should

MsiciKc-

together on the same branch,

of Art.

to those

discu.ss in a little

struggle for existence. In ject shall

to

we

as

I

I

it is

seasons of each recurring year.

de Candolle (1778-1841), botanist, and

of distinct species, or w of

life.

It is

conditions

manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable

kingdoms;

for in this case there can

be no

artificial

increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage.'" Although

'"

some

Thomas Robert Malthus

Charles Lyell (1797-1875), whose Principles of Geology

economist,

(1833) influenced Darwin.

human

"

exceed natural resources.

William Herbert (1778-1847), botanist.

ith the physical

the doctrine of Malthus applied with

argued

population

that will

species

may be now

(1766-18.34),

uncontrolled

proceed

a

political

growth

exponentially,

of the

hence

Charles Darwin

more or

increasing,

cannot do

There

all

world would not hold them.

no exception

is

numbers,

less rapidly, in

so, for the

to the rule that every

organic being naturally increases at so high a rate,

would soon be

that if not destroyed, the earth

covered by the progeny of a single

slow-breeding

and

years,

man

Even

pair.

has doubled in twenty-five

at this rate, in a

and

room

progeny. Linnaeus has calculated that plant produced only two seeds

if

- and

- and

all

must

laws; but

trees!

fall

how

Throw up a handful of feathers, ground according

to the

simple

to definite

problem compared

this

is

and animals which have determined,

in the course

of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of

now growing on the old Indian The dependency of one organic

trees

ruins!

being on an-

for his

other, as of a parasite

on

an annual

between beings remote

in the scale of nature.

there

no

is

to

the action and reaction of the innumerable plants

few thousand years,

there would literally not be standing

plant so unproductive as this

growth of the

is

its

prey,

often the case with those which

generally

lies

may

This be

strictly

their seedlings

said to struggle with each other for existence, as in

next year produced two, and so on, then in twenty

the case of locusts and grass-feeding quadrupeds.

would be

years there

phant

is

reckoned the slowest breeder

animals, and

probable

I

The eleof all known

a million plants.'^

have taken some pains to estimate

minimum

rate of natural increase:

be under the mark to assume that

it

breeds

and goes on breeding

it

its

will

when

But the struggle almost invariably

be most

will

severe between the individuals of the same species, for they frequent the

same food, and

same

districts, require the

same dangers.

are exposed to the

In the case of varieties of the

same

species, the

ninety

struggle will generally be almost equally severe,

years old, bringing forth three pair of young in this

and we sometimes see the contest soon decided:

thirty years old,

interval; if this

be

end of the

so, at the

till

fifth

century

there would be alive fifteen million elephants, des-

cended from the

first pair.

.

many

different

checks, acting at different periods of life, and during different seasons or years, probably

come

some one check or some few being all

concur

together,

wheat be sown

and the mixed seed be resown, some of

the varieties which best suit the soil or climate, or

.

In the case of every species,

most potent, but

for instance, if several varieties of

in

into play;

generally the

determining the

are naturally the

most

fertile, will

beat the others

and so yield more seed, and consequently years quite supplant the other varieties. a

mixed stock of even such extremely

in a

few

To keep up

close varieties

as the variously coloured sweet-peas, they

must be

number or even the existence of the species. In some cases it can be shown that widely-different

each year harvested separately, and the seed then

checks act on the same species in different

kinds will steadily decrease in numbers and disap-

average

When we

districts.

look at the plants and bushes clothing an

we are tempted to attribute their proportional numbers and kinds to what we call chance. But how false a view is this! Every one has heard that when an American forest is cut down, a entangled bank,

very different vegetation springs up; but

it

has been

observed that ancient Indian ruins in the Southern

United States, which must formerly have been

diversity

now

display the

same beautiful

and proportion of kinds

as in the sur-

cleared of trees,

rounding virgin

forests.

What

the several kinds of trees

a struggle

between

must here have gone on

during long centuries, each annually scattering

its

seeds by the thousand; what war between insect and insect

- between

insects, snails,

with birds and beasts of prey -

and

crease,

all

and other animals all

striving to in-

feeding on each other or on the trees

mixed pear.

in

due proportion, otherwise the weaker

So again with the

varieties of sheep:

it

been asserted that certain mountain-varieties

has will

starve out other mountain-varieties, so that they

cannot be kept together.

The same

result

has

followed from keeping together different varieties

may even be doubted

of the medicinal leech.

It

whether the

any one of our domestic

varieties of

plants or animals have so exactly the habits,

same

strength,

and constitution, that the original propor-

tions of a

mixed stock could be kept up

dozen generations,

if

for half-a-

they were allowed to struggle

together, like beings in a state of nature, and if the

seed or young were not annually sorted.

As

species

of the same genus have usually,

though by no means invariably, some similarity

in

habits and constitution, and always in structure, the

struggle will generally be

more severe between

same genus, when they come

or their seeds and seedlings, or on the other plants

species of the

which

competition with each other, than between species

first

clothed the ground and thus checked the

of distinct genera. Linnaeus (Carl von Linne, 1708-79), the

modern 'taxonomy',

C90^

who produced

or classification of living things.

We

into

see this in the recent exten-

sion over parts of the United States of one species of

swallow having caused the decrease of another

The Origin of Species ush

TIk' tfciiil iiKitasf ot ilu- iiussclilii

species.

parts ol Scoilaiul has causcil ihc ilitrcase ol soiiijlhrush.

Io\n trci|UcnllN nm'

I

iii

ilu-

hear ol oiu- spceus

another species uiuler the

ot rat takiiiii the place ot

Ms ui(»ui.ipliual range,

(.oiiliius ot

siituiion w

l.ir,

clim.iie aloiK

One

conjiener.

^reai

species ot charlock will supplant

another, and so in other cases.

We

can dinily see

w hy the competition should be most severe between

which

allied forms,

till

nearly the

same place

in the

economy of nature; but probably in no one case could we precisel> sa\ why one species has been victorious over another in the great battle ot corollary ot the highest importance

.\

of c(»n-

we ha\e reason

of

are destroyed bs

ilu\

ih.ii

lines ol

to

lite.

Not

the rigour of the

we reach

until

the extreme con-

the Arctic regions or

111

an utter desert,

will

may be extremely

on the borders

competition cease. The land

cold or dry, \et there will be

competition between some few species, or between the individuals of the or

lite.

dampest I

may be

change

belie\e that only a few plants or animals range so

niost ditterent climates! In Russia the small Asiatic its

a

climate would clearly be an

lo

I

ad\ antage to our plant; but

cockroach has eNer\ where driven betore

it

lespei

III)

we can

lence, also,

animal

is

same

warmest

species, for the

spots.

when

see that

plant or

a

placed in a new countr\ amongst new

deduced trom the foregoing remarks, namely, that

competitors, though the climate ma\ be exaclK the

the structure ot every organic being

same

most

essential yet otten

hidden manner,

other organic beings, w ith w hich petition for tbod or residence, or to escape, or

related, in the

is

on w hich

it

preys.

it

comes

com-

into

from w hich This

of all

to that

it

has

obvious

is

in

the structure of the teeth and talons of the tiger; and

of the legs and claws of the parasite w hich

in that

on the

clings to the hair

and fringed

flattened

seems

at first

If

in the

legs of the water-beetle, the

confined to the elements of air

former home, yet the conditions

changed

generall) be

we wished

to increase

way

to

in

to

modify

we should have

to give

in

tage over a different set of competitors or enemies. It

is

good thus

to

try

in

our imagination to

some advantage over another. Probno single instance should we know what

give any form

ably in

to do, so as to succeed.

It

w ill convince us of our

ignorance on the mutual relations of

doubt stands

beings; a conviction as necessary, as

being

already thickly clothed by other plants; so that the

seeds

may be w idely

distributed and

fall

on unoccu-

pied ground. In the water-beetle, the structure of its

w ell adapted

legs, so

for diving, allow s

with other aquatic insects, to hunt for

and

it

to

its

compete

own

prey,

to escape serving as prey to other animals.

relation to other plants.

But from the strong growth

keep steadily

at

to

to

is

that each organic being

is

some period of its

life,

during some season of the

year, during each generation or at intervals, has to

When we

and

life,

on

reflect

ourselves with the is

to suffer great destruction.

full belief, that

healthy, and the

prompt,

we may console

this struggle,

not incessant, that no fear

and beans), w hen sown

midst of long grass,

organic

seems

striving to increase at a geometrical ratio; that each

generally

in the

mind

in

of young plants produced from such seeds (as peas

I

all it

be difficult to acquire. All that we can do,

struggle for

The store of nutriment laid up w ithin the seeds of many plants seems at first sight to have no sort of

native

its

some advan-

it

and water. Yet the advantage of plumed seeds no in the closest relation to the land

in its

in a different

it

what we should ha\e done

country; for

ot its

an essential manner.

average numbers

its

new home, we should have

body. But in the

plumed seed of the dandelion, and

beautifully

relation

tiger's

as in its

life will

and

that

is

the war of nature that death

felt,

the

vigorous,

is

the

happy survive and multiply.

suspect that the chief use of the nutriment in the

seed

is

to favour the

grow th of the young seedling,

whilst struggling with other plants growing vigor-

ously

Look does

at a plant in the

midst of

its

not double or quadruple

it

We know

that

it

or cold,

where

ranges

it

plant the

range, w hy

numbers?

dampness or dryness,

into

slightly

hotter

or drier districts. In this case

see that if

its

can perfectly well withstand a

more heat

damper

Natural Selection

around.

all

little

for else-

or colder,

we can

clearly

it

low w

ill

the struggle for existence, discussed too

Can is

the principle of selection,

w hich we have seen

so potent in the hands of man, apply in nature.'

think

we

Let

be borne

it

shall see that in

mind

it

in

I

can act most effectually.

what an endless number

in imagination to give the

of strange peculiarities our domestic productions,

in number, we should some advantage over its competitors,

and, in a lesser degree, those under nature, vary;

we wished

power of increasing

have to give

I

briefly in the last section, act in regard to variation.-

or over the animals which preyed on

it.

On

the

and how strong the hereditary tendency domestication,

it

may be

is.

truly said that the

Under whole

Charles Darwin organisation becomes in

be borne in mind the

are

fitting

some degree

Let

plastic.

how infinitely complex and mutual relations of

it

close-

life.

Can

it,

then, be thought improbable, seeing

man

that variations useful to

have undoubtedly

occurred, that other variations useful in to each life,

some way

being in the great and complex battle of

should sometimes occur

in the

course of thou-

sands of generations.'' If such do occur, can

we

We

have reason to believe, as stated in the

chapter, that a change in the conditions of

the conditions of

gone

a

able to natural selection,

would have the best chance of surviving

others,

and of procreating

we may

their

kind.''

On

the other hand,

sure that any variation in the least

feel

by giving

Not

of variability

I

any extreme amount

believe,

necessary; as

is

man

produce great results by adding up

mere individual

direction

Nature, but

far

more

that

any great physical change,

be affected by natural selection, and would be

places for natural selection to

we

see

left a

in

the

species called polymorphic.

We shall best understand

Nor do

I

believe

as of climate, or

any

fill

up by modifying

of each country are strugghng

together with nicely balanced forces, extremely

natural selection by taking the case of a country

slight modifications in the structure or habits

undergoing some physical change, for instance, of

one inhabitant would often give

climate.

ants

The

proportional numbers of

its

would almost immediately undergo

and some species might become

we have

conclude, from what

and complex manner

in

inhabit-

a change,

extinct.

We may

seen of the intimate

which the inhabitants of

each country are bound together, that any change in the numerical proportions of ants,

some of the

inhabit-

independently of the change of climate

would seriously

affect

country were open on certainly immigrate,

many

its

and

itself,

of the others. If the

borders,

new forms would

this also

would seriously

disturb the relations of some of the former inhabitants.

Let

it

ence of a single

been shown of

a

how powerful the influintroduced tree or mammal has

be remembered

to be.

But

in the case

of an island, or

country partly surrounded by barriers, into

which new and better adapted forms could not freely enter,

we should then have

places in the

economy of nature which would assuredly be better filled up, if some of the original inhabitants were in some manner modified; for, had the area been open to immigration, these same places would have been seized

on by intruders. In such

case, every slight

modification, which in the course of ages chanced to arise,

and which

in

any way favoured the indi-

over others; and

still

No

further increase the

still

country can be named in which

the native inhabitants are to

now

each other and to the physical conditions under

which they

live, that

improved; for in

all

so far conquered

none of them could anyhow be countries, the native have been

by naturalised productions, that

they have allowed foreigners to take firm possession

And as foreigners have thus everywhere we may safely conclude

of the land.

beaten some of the natives, that the natives

might have been modified with

advantage, so as to have better resisted such intruders.

As man can produce and a great result

means of

by

selection,

certainly has

what may not Nature

effect.''

Man can act only on external and visible characters: Nature cares nothing far as

they

may be

for appearances, except in so

useful to any being.

She can

act

on every internal organ, on every shade of constitutional difference,

Man

on the whole machinery of life.

selects only for his

that of the being

character

is

own

good; Nature only for

which she tends. Every selected

fully exercised

by her; and the being

many

is

life.

Man

climates in the

same

keeps the natives of

be

produced

methodical and unconscious

his

them

to

all

so perfectly adapted

placed under well-suited conditions of

would tend

of

an advantage

further modifications of the

same kind would often advantage.

it

viduals of any of the species, by better adapting to their altered conditions,

is

and improving some of the varying inhabitants. For as all the inhabitants

the probable course of

could

so

produce new and unoccupied

actually necessary to

element, as perhaps

any given

unusual degree of isolation to check immigration,

Variations neither useful nor injurious would not

fluctuating

in

from having incompar-

easily,

ably longer time at her disposal.

Natural Selection.

can certainly

differences,

preservation of favourable variations and the rejecI call

chance

do occur, natural selection can do

that, as

degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This

tion of injurious variations,

a better

of profitable variations occurring; and unless prof-

nothing.

over

are supposed to have under-

life

change, and this would manifestly be favour-

itable variations

slight,

by

or increases variability; and in the foregoing case

doubt (remembering that many more individuals

however

first

life,

on the reproductive system, causes

specially acting

are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage,

work of improvement.

free scope for the

organic

all

beings to each other and to their physical conditions

of

preserved; and natural selection would thus have

The Origin of Species countrN,

scklom t\fn.iscs each sckcltil

Ik-

ttr in soiiK' peculiar aiul

long and

tittiiii;

quadruped

feeds a

l(H)

much

so, that

on parts of the Cxjntineni ixrsons arc warned not to keep white pigean we wonder, then,

whereas

a

beetle, a curculio,

a

certain disease than yellow

another

disease

attacks

than

plums;

yellow -fleshed

more than those with other coloured

that Nature's productions should be far 'truer' in

peaches

character than man's productions; that they should

flesh.' If,

be infinitely better adapted to the most complex

ences

conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp

several varieties, assuredly, in a state of nature,

of

may

It

metaphorically be said that natural selec-

and hourly scrutinising, throughout

daily

tion

is

the

world,

every

up

that

all

is

even the

variation,

w hich

rejecting that

is

bad, preserving and adding

improvement of each organic being nothing of these slow changes

offers, at the

in relation to its

organic and inorganic conditions of

life.

We

see

in progress, until

hand of time has marked the long lapse of and then so imperfect

ages,

past geological ages, that

of

slightest;

good; silently and insensibly working,

whenever and wherever opportunity

the

life

are

now

different

is

our view into long

we only

see that the forms

from w hat they formerly

Although natural selection can for the

structures, trifling

see

make

trees

trees

and w ith

would

all

the aids of art, these slight differ-

a great difference in cultivating the

would have

which

effectually settle

smooth or downy,

to struggle with other

of enemies, such differences

a host

a yellow or

variety,

act only

through

good of each being, yet characters and

which we are apt

importance,

leaf-eating

to consider as of very

may thus be acted on. When we

insects

green,

and bark-feeders

whether

purple fleshed

In looking at

many

small points of difference

between species, which,

as far as

our ignorance

permits us to judge, seem quite unimportant,

must not

produce .some

slight

and direct

effect. It

is,

tied

through variation, and the modifications are

good of the

for the

being, will cause other modifications, often of the

most unexpected nature.

As we

see that those variations

domestication appear life,

at

which under

any particular period of

tend to reappear in the offspring

at

the

the red-grouse the colour of heather, and the black-

varieties of

believe that

these tints are of service to these birds and insects

them from danger. Grouse, if not some period of their lives, would in-

in preserving

destroyed at

crease in countless numbers; they are suffer largely

known

to

from birds of prey; and hawks are

how-

more necessary to bear in mind that there are many unknown laws of correlation of grow th, w hich, when one part of the organisation is modi-

ever, far

period; - for instance, in the seeds of the

we must

we

forget that climate, food, etc., probably

mottled-grey; the alpine ptarmigan w hite in w inter,

grouse that of peaty earth,

a

fruit,

should succeed.

accumulated by natural selection

were.

and

with

where the

higher w orkmanship.'

far

far

same

many

our culinary and agricultural plants;

in

the caterpillar and cocoon stages of the varieties of the silkworm; in the eggs of poultry, and in the

colour of the

.\ndre\v fruit trees.

down

of their chickens; in the horns of

Downing (1815

52),

.\merican botanist of

L

Charles Darwin our sheep and

cattle

when

nearly adult; - so in a

state of nature, natural selection will

act

on and modify organic beings

at

be enabled to

any age, by the

accumulation of variations profitable

and by it

their inheritance at a

profit a plant to

have

its

at that age,

with weak beaks would inevitably

beaks, for

all

perish: or,

more

shells

might be

being

known

and more

delicate

broken

easily

selected, the thickness of the shell

to vary like every other structure.

.

.

corresponding age. If

more and more

seeds

widely disseminated by the wind,

can see no

I

Recapitulation and Conclusion

greater difficulty in this being effected through

natural selection, than in the cotton-planter in-

down in Natural selection may

As

this

whole volume

is

one long argument,

may

it

creasing and improving by selection the

be convenient to the reader to have the leading facts

the pods on his cotton-trees.

and inferences

modify and adapt the larva of an insect

contingencies, wholly different from those which

concern the mature

no doubt

will

affect,

insect.

These modifications

through the laws of correl-

ation, the structure of the adult;

and probably in the

briefly recapitulated.

That many and

to a score of

serious objections

may be

ad-

vanced against the theory of descent with modification through natural selection,

do not deny.

I

endeavoured to give to them their ing at

full force.

I

have

Noth-

can appear more difficult to believe

first

case of those insects which live only for a few hours,

than that the more complex organs and instincts

and which never

should have been perfected, not by means superior

is

feed, a large part of their structure

merely the correlated result of successive changes

to,

though analogous with, human reason, but by

So, conversely,

the accumulation of innumerable slight variations,

modifications in the adult will probably often affect

each good for the individual possessor. Neverthe-

in the structure of their larvae.

the structure of the larva; but in

all

cases natural

selection will ensure that modifications consequent

on other modifications shall not

became

be in the

least

at a different

period of

degree injurious: for

life,

they

if

they would cause the extinction of the

so,

real if we

-

Natural selection will modify the structure of the in relation to the parent,

and of the parent

in

to

our im-

admit the following propositions, namely,

that gradations in the perfection of any organ or

instinct

which we may consider, either do now

or could have existed, each good of

species.

young

though appearing

less, this difficulty,

agination insuperably great, cannot be considered

all

its

kind,

exist

-

that

organs and instincts are, in ever so slight a

degree,

variable,

- and,

that

lastly,

there

a

is

adapt

struggle for existence leading to the preservation

the structure of each individual for the benefit of the

of each profitable deviation of structure or instinct.

community;

The

relation to the young. In social animals

if

do,

is

species;

found case

What

natural selection cannot

modify the structure of one

to

it

in

to this effect

works of natural history, will bear investigation.

only once in an animal's whole

importance to

by natural

species,

I

cannot find one

might be modified

it,

may be

A structure life,

to

if

truth of these propositions cannot,

disputed.

.

.

I

think, be

.

w ith-

any advantage, for the good of another

and though statements

which

will

each in consequence profits by

the selected change.

out giving

it

used

of high

any extent

selection; for instance, the great jaws

Although

I

am

convinced of the truth of the

fully

view s given in this volume under the form of an abstract,

I

by no means expect

convince experi-

to

enced naturalists whose minds are stocked w ith multitude of facts of years, from mine.

It is

a

all

a

viewed, during a long course

point of view directly opposite to

so easy to hide our ignorance under such

possessed by certain insects, used exclusively for opening the cocoon - or the hard tip to the beak of

expressions as the 'plan of creation', 'unity of

nestling birds, used for breaking the egg.

ation

been

asserted,

that

of the

best

It

has

short-beaked

design', etc.,

and

disposition leads

we

give an explan-

restate a fact.

Any one whose

to think that

when we only

him

to attach

more weight

to

tumbler-pigeons more perish in the egg than are

unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of

able to get out of it; so that fanciers assist in the act

a certain

of hatching. a full-grown

Now,

if

nature had to

make

the beak of

pigeon very short for the bird's

own

theory.

number of

A

flexibility

facts will certainly reject

few naturalists, endowed with of mind, and

who have

already begun to

advantage, the process of modification would be

doubt on the immutability of species, may be

very slow, and there would be simultaneously the

enced by

this

volume; but

I

my

much influ-

look with confidence to

who w ill

most rigorous selection of the young birds within

the future, to

the egg, which had the most powerful and hardest

be able to view both sides of the question with

young and

rising naturalists,

The Origin of Species inipartialiiN

\\hoc\cr

.

arc mutable

\n ill

kvl to

is

do muKl

lHlu\f

that spcciis

scr\ jcc In loiiscicniiouslN

cvprcssini; his conviction; tor onl\ thus can the loail

of prejudice b> which this subject

be removed.

.

.

o\er\\

is

helmed

.

Autht)rs of the highest eminence

seem

to be fullx

.1

secure future

progress towards perfec-

will tenil to

To mv mind it accords we know of the laws impressed

bank, clothed with

production and

It

IS

interesting to contemplate an entangled

many

insects flitting about,

world should have been due

through the

those determining

like

the individual. \\ hen

view

I

birth

the all

and death of

beings not as special

creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few

beings which lived long before the

bed of

first

the Silurian system was deposited, they

seem

to

me

to become ennobled." Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will

transmit

its

unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.

.\nd of the species

now

progeny of any kind the

manner

in

w hich

tinct.

can so

kinds,

claborateK

damp

and with worms crawling

earth,

and

to reflect that these

constructed forms, so different from

each other, and dependent on each other

complex

a

manner, ha\e

laws acting around

us.

all

in

so

been produced by

These laws, taken

in

the

largest sense, being

(irowth with Reproduction;

Inheritance, which

almost implied by reproduc-

tion; \ ariability,

is

from the indirect and direct action

of the external conditions of

life,

and from use and

disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a

to a far distant futurity; for

Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural

organic beings are grouped,

Selection, entailing Divergence of (Character and

all

that the greater

We

many

living very few will transmit

number of species of each genus, and all the species of many genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly exshow s

plants of

with birds singing on the bushes, with various

extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the to .secondary causes,

In ami for

ciulownunis

independent l>

that the

solel\

corporeal and mental

all

tion.

on matter by the Creator,

works

the gocKl of each being,

view that each species has been

created.

whole

some confidence

inappreciable length.

ec]uall\

«>f

the

desolatcil

look with

\iul as natural selection

satisfied with the

better with what

has

lUiue we ma\

worKI lo

cataiKsm

no

ihai

far take a

futurity as to foretell that

it

prophetic glance into

w ill be the common and

the

Extinction

of less-improved

forms.

Thus,

from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which

we

are capable of

conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows.

There

is

grandeur

in this

widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and

view of

dominant groups, w hich w ill ultimately prevail and

originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms

procreate living

new and dominant

forms of

life

As

life,

with

or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone

are the lineal descendants of

cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity,

all

from so simple

we may

beautiful and

feel certain that

the ordinary succession

by generation has never once been broken, and

The

several powers, having been

the

species.

those which lived long before the Silurian epoch,

Silurian system

fossil-containing rocks.

its

is

an early Palaeozoic stratum of

a

beginning endless forms most

most wonderful have been, and are

being, evolved.

I

Charles Baudelaire Charles

Baudelaire

(1821-67),

controversial

Parisian poet and critic of the arts,

was the first to

use the term "modernity" (modernite), in the essay "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863). For Baudelaire modernity is the attitude or sensibility of the urban flaneur or idler, the non-productive aesthete who embodies the sensibility of the outdoor cafe, that vantage point from which the passingcarnival of city life can be observed. Most famous for the collection of poems, r/7e Flowers of Evil, for which he was legally charged with offending public morality,

Baudelaire revolutionized

French poetry

with his realistic attention to the disorder and depravity of urban

life, in

which he nevertheless saw

Artist,

Man of the World, Man

M.

draws the

all

is

art,

M. G.

in a

is

and who

own novels, one day London review, much to the who regarded the matter as an

irritation

of the

latter

outrage to his modesty.

when he heard

that

I

And

again quite recently,

was proposing

to

make an

assessment of his mind and talent, he begged me, in a

most peremptory manner,

to suppress his

and

to discuss his

the

works of some anonymous person.

humbly obey proceed

works only

odd

this as

request.

will discuss his

for

which he professes

name,

though they were

The

I

will

reader and

though M. G. did not

we

as

as

exist,

I

and

drawings and his water-colours,

would

a

a patrician's disdain, in the

group of scholars faced with

the task of assessing the importance of a

Crowds, and Child

known,

well

things to do with

illustrations for his

spoke of

same way

of

Thackeray, who, as

very interested in

will

a characteristically modern beauty.

An

incognito, and carries his originality to the point of

modesty.

number of

precious historical documents which chance has

Today I want to talk to my readers about a singular man, whose originality is so powerful and clear-cut that

it is

self-sufficing,

and does not bother

to look

None of his drawings is signed, if by we mean the few letters, which can be so

for approval.

signature

easily forged, that

many

compose

a

name, and that so

other artists grandly inscribe at the bottom

of their most carefree sketches. But

all

his

works are

signed with his dazzling soul, and art-lovers

have seen and liked them

from the description

I

will recognize

them

brought

conscience completely, all

the things

nalist.

my

to reassure

my

readers assume that

have to say about the

artist's

nature,

so strangely and mysteriously dazzling, have been

more

or less accurately suggested by the works in

question; pure poetic hypothesis, conjecture, or

imaginative reconstructions.

who

propose to give of them.

M. Charles Baudelaire, from "The Painter of Modern Life" (trans.

Guys

I

And even let

easily

C. G.' loves mixing with the crowds, loves being Constantin

and the author of which must for

to light,

ever remain unknown.

(1802-92), Parisian painter and jour-

P.

E.

Writings on Art

Charvet)

and

1992, sections 3-4,

in

Baudelaire: Selected

Literature,

pp.

395-406.

London: Penguin,

"The Painter Ci

\1.

an

IS

man.

t)kl

|can-|ati|ius"

l>ci;an

uriting. so thc\ sa\,ai ihcagcot torl\-i\\(> Perhaps

was

it

about that

at

world

M.

aijc that

of iiiiaiics that

obstsscil h\ the

(i.,

up

his niiiul, pluckcil

f'llltil

what goes on \\

uh two

laubourg

the

lage pub-talkers with the

paper. To be honest, he drew like a barbarian, like a

kins

clumsy fmgers and

disobedient

tool.

haNe seen

1

these early scribblings, and

who know what

people

who

claim

number

large

a

admit that most

1

his of

could, without shame, have failed to

to,

dw elt in these obscure M. G., who has discovered

unaided

i'oday,

the

all

little

of the trade, and w ho

tricks

has taught himself, without help or advice, has

become

pow erful master

a

in his

ow n way; of

his

mmds

Thus

that curiosity

this:

is

Do a

\ou remember

this age

and entitled

Mtin

7 he

he happens upon one of these efforts of

manner, he

tears

up or burns

it

w ith

it,

a

most amusing show of shame and indignation. For ten whole years quaintance of

convalescent

is

for a long time

illustrated

in

I

as

ting everything, he

w ants

knew

that he

out into

I

it

had appeared en-

have thus been able to 'read'

and

and daily

a detailed

also

lished (without signature, as before) a large

of compositions by this

tity

ballets

and operas.

saw

once that

I

artist

at

\\ I

hen

artist

at last

I

ran

pub-

quan-

Now

man

context, pray interpret the

'artist' in a

very

narrow sense, and the expression 'man of the world' in a very

broad one. By 'man of the world',

man

of the whole world, a

the

world

and

reasons behind specialist, a soil.

M. G.

man who

the

mysterious

all its

customs; by

man

I

mean

a

understands

and

legitimate

'artist',

I

mean

a

tied to his palette like a serf to the

does not Hke being called an

not justified to a small extent? in everything the

He

artist. Is

he

takes an interest

world over, he wants

to

know,

understand, assess everything that happens on the surface of our spheroid.

even not he "

The

at all, in intellectual

lives in the

artist

and

moves

little,

or

political circles. If

perpetually in the spiritual

artist

key to the character of

But convalescence

The

M. G. return to childhood.

like a

is

convalescent, like the child, enjoys to the

highest degree the faculty of taking a lively interest

us hark back,

of the world. In this

word

imagine an

in things,

w as not dealing exactly w ith an

but rather with a

had

condition of the convalescent, and you will have the

him

ground

sight of,

him. Curiosity had become a

compelling, irresistible passion.

from the new to

the spores and

which he had caught

face,

in a flash fascinated

account, infinitely preferable to any other, of the

Crimean campaign. The same paper had

all

remembers and passionately remember everything. In the end he rushes the crow d in search of a man unknow n to

him whose

have seen a considerable life,

to

all

he has been on the point of forget-

the ac-

mass of these on-the-spot drawings from I

odours of life;

thought with

the shades of death

with delight

a great

gravings from his travel sketches (Spain, Turkey, the Crimea). Since then

in

in

mo\ing around him. He has

come back from

and breathes

make

to

been working for an English

paper and that

only recently

a

enjoying the sight of the passing

is

by nature

wanted

I

who

G.,

and very cosmopolitan.

traveller

had

M.

is

it

»/ the C.rawjy^ Sitting

the thoughts that are

When

first

and looking through the shop window,

in a cafe,

crowd, and identifying himself

his early

the

most powerful pen of

abundant

gift.

(j.,

ma> be con-

picture (for indeed

a

picture!) written by the

what was

to his

man

sidered the starting point of his genius.

needed

add an unexpected spice

vil-

bum|v

bore to the

a

understand W.

to begin to

early artlessness he has retained only to

country

of

becomes

limits, quickly

thing to note

discern the latent genius that

beginnings,

unneccs-

the world, to the spiritual citi/en of the universe.

of the

they are talking about, or

is

Iheir talk, ineMtably enclosed within \ery

narrow ot

it

are, let us face

mere manual labourers,

Ner> skilleil brutes,

couravic t«)cast ink ami colours on to a sheet of white

child, angrily chiding his

Life"

.Sauit-Ciermain.'"

which

or three exceptions,

name, the majorit\ of artists

sar> to it,

in

Modern

of

even the most if

we

trivial in

appearance. Let

can, by a retrospective effort of

our imaginations, to our youngest, our morning impressions, and

we

shall recognize that they

w ere

remarkably akin to the vividly coloured impressions that illness, ties

we

received later on after a physical

provided that

illness left

pure and unimpaired.

thing as a novelty; the child

Nothing

is

more

like

our spiritual facul-

The

w hat we

child sees every-

is

call

always 'drunk'. inspiration than

the joy the child feels in drinking in shape and colour.

I

w ill venture

that inspiration has tion, that

a

more

go even further and declare

to

some connection with conges-

every sublime thought

is

accompanied by

or less vigorous nervous impulse that rever-

berates in the cerebral cortex.

The man

of genius

has strong nerves; those of the child are weak. In

Breda quarter he knows nothing of

Rousseau.

"

A less, and a more, posh quarter of Paris, respectively.

into

By Edgar Allan Poe,

in his

French bv Baudelaire.

Tales (1845), translated

Charles Baudelaire

assumed an important

the one, reason has the

in

whole being. But genius recaptured

mind

sum

the

that

it

to bring order into

animal-like in

its

must be attributed ecstasy, which all

when confronted with something may be, face or landscape, light,

children have

new, whatever

it

watered

colours,

silk,

enchantment of

A

beauty, enhanced by the arts of dress.

mine was

amassed.

involuntarily

joyful curiosity

telling

friend of

me one day how, as a small boy,

he

used to be present when his father was dressing,

and how he had always been ment, mixed with delight,

with astonish-

filled

he looked

as

with a certain dislike of those things that go to

make up

at

the

arm

kingdom of the metaphys-

the intangible

Let us therefore reduce him to the status of

ician.

La

the pure pictorial moralist, like

The crowd

and with the

to express itself,

of experience,

stare,

gilding,

no more than childhood

is

that enables

To this deep and

the

childhood equipped now with

at will,

man's physical means analytical

role;

almost

occupies

sensibiUty

other,

domain,

his

is

and water that of the

bird's,

his profession

is

Bruyere.'

just as the air fish.

is

the

His passion and

merge with the crowd. For the

to

perfect idler, for the passionate observer

it

becomes

an immense source of enjoyment to establish his dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting

and the

from home and yet

to feel at

To

infinite.

be away

home anywhere;

to

see the world, to be at the very centre of the world,

and yet

be unseen of the world, such are some of

to

the minor pleasures of those independent, intense

and impartial

spirits,

who do

not lend themselves

The

easily to linguistic definitions.

observer

is

a

muscle, the colour tones of the skin tinged with rose

prince enjoying his incognito wherever he goes.

and yellow, and the bluish network of the

The

The

beginning to possession

him with

fill

fate

was showing the

was

settled.

famous

Need

tip

and

respect,

to take

Already the shape of

of his brain.

things obsessed and possessed him.

I

veins.

picture of the external world was already

A

precocious

of its nose. His damnation

say that, today, the child

I

is

a

was asking you

just

now

to think of M.

G.

as an

man possessing

think of him also as a man-child, as a

moment

every

words I

the genius of childhood, in other

a genius for

told

you that

whom no edge of life is blunted.

I

was unwilling

to call

and that he himself rejected

artist,

modesty tinged with

him

this title,

aristocratic restraint.

I

a

pure

all

would have

of character and a subtle understand-

the moral

mechanisms of this world;

from another aspect, the dandy aspires

way

M.

but,

to cold de-

who

tachment, and

it is

dominated,

ever anyone was, by an insatiable

if

in this

that

G.,

passion, that of seeing and feeling, parts

trenchantly with dandyism.

Augustine.

'I

Amabam

to be, as a matter of policy

and

art

me when

amare, said St

I

is

M. G.

blase, or affects

class attitude.

hates blase people. Sophisticated

stand

minds

will

M. G. under-

say that he possesses that difficult

of being sincere without being ridiculous.

would

the lover of universal

willingly confer

on him the

pher, to which he has a right for

title

I

of philoso-

more than one

who

are

life

moves

into the

He, the lover of

may

life,

most

plastic form, inspires

him

com-

also be

pared to a mirror as vast as this crowd; to a kaleidoscope endowed with consciousness, which with every one of life,

all

in

its

movements presents compose

the elements that go to

in energies

a pattern of

and the flowing grace of

multiplicity,

all its

more

vivid than

it

one of those

said, in

talks

every

at

life

always inconstant and fleeting. 'Any man',

once

an ego

life. It is

and reflecting

he rendered

itself,

M. G.

mem-

orable by the intensity of his gaze, and by his

eloquence of gesture, 'any

down with

a

faculties,

and who

crowd,

a fool!

is

When,

as

man who

sorrow so searching

A

is

is

as to

not weighed

touch

his

all

bored in the midst of the

fool!

and

he wakes up,

I

despise him!'

M. G. opens

sees the sun beating vibrantly at his

his eyes

and

window-panes,

he says to himself with remorse and regret: 'What an imperative

command! What a fanfare of light! Light

everywhere in sleep!

light that

for several

hours past! Light

I

have

I

off he goes!

in

And And he watches the flow of life move by,

could have seen and have failed

majestic and

dazzling.

He

to!'

admires the eternal

beauty and the astonishing harmony of

'

lost

and endless numbers of things bathed

life

reason; but his excessive love of visible, tangible things, in their

im-

though into an enormous reservoir of

as

electricity.

company

love passion, passionately,'

might willingly echo. The dandy

is

he has found, from

enchanted world of dreams painted on canvas.

Thus

moment

for that

into his

possible to find, just as the picture-lover lives in an

would

word 'dandy' implies

ing of

women

the lovely

all

those that could be found, and those

athirst for the non-ego,

w illingly call him a dandy, and

I

makes the whole world

life

with a

a sheaf of good reasons; for the a quintessence

from

his

crowd

painter.

eternal convalescent; to complete your idea of him,

at

lover of

family, just as the lover of the fair sex creates

Jean La Bruyere (1645-96), French moralist.

in the

"The Painter capital Litiis, a harmoiiN

taiiud in ihc tumult

the landscape ot the

power

the

to

express lIuniseKes

others are sleeping, this

j;rcat cit\,

lanJscapcs of stone,

table, his stead\ ga/e

in the mist,

the sun.

enjoys

le

main-

i

full lace

proud

equipa^;es,

same ga/e

the

un

man a

Modern

of

Life'

now, whilst

\ih1

leaning over his

is

sheet of paper, exactly

as he directed just

now

at

the things

about him, branilishing his pencil, his pen, his

horses, the spit a\u\ polish of the jirooms, the skilful

brush, splashing water from the glass up to the

handling h\ the paire hoNs, the smooth rhythmical

ceiling, wi|)ing his

gait

of the women, the heaut\ of the children,

the joy of

life

and proud

clothes; in short,

peacocks

as

universal.

life

full

of their prett>

If in

if

dethroned by

rosettes,

and chignons have come down of the neck,

become

have been raised and

if waist-lines

fuller,

you may be sure that from

off his eagle's eye will have detected

marches by, maybe on

way

its

and

lively as

it.

skirts

w ay

a long

A

regiment

ends of the

to the

w ith

earth, filling the air of the boulevard airs, as light

born again on the paper, natural and more than

on the nape

a little

its

might escape him, quarrelsome though alone, and

modi-

bonnets have widened

if

shirt, hurried, vig-

driving himself relentlessly on. .\nd things seen arc

and curls have been

clusters of ribbons

pen on his

orous, active, as though he was afraid the images

of

shift

a

fashion, the cut of a dress has been slightly fled,

of

martial

hope; and sure enough

M.

natural, beautiful

and better than beautiful, strange

and endowed with an enthusiastic of

their

The weird

creator.

from nature.

distilled

higgledypiggledy

the

.All

are

been

has

stored

materials,

memory,

by

the soul

life, like

pageant

classified,

ordered, harmonized, and undergo that deliberate

which

idealization,

is

the product of a childlike

perceptiveness, in other words a percepti\eness that

is

acute and magical by

its

very ingenuousness.

G. has already seen, inspected and analysed the

weapons and the bearing of troops.

Harness,

highlights,

whole body of

this

mien, heavy and grim mustachios, flood chaotically into him; and

determined

bands,

Modernity

these details

all

w ithin a few minutes

.And so, walking or quickening his pace, he goes his

poem that comes with it all is virtually composed. And then his soul w ill vibrate w ith the soul of

way, for ever

the regiment, marching as though

him,

the

creature,

proud image of joy and

it

were one living

when

the sky draws

the city lights go on.

The

its

curtains and

gaslight stands out

on the

men

purple background of the setting sun. Honest or crooked customers, w ise or irresponsible,

saying to themselves: 'The day

Good men and bad and each hurries

done

is

all

are

at last!'

turn their thoughts to pleasure,

to his favourite

cup of oblivion. M. G.

will

haunt

be the

to drink the

last to

this solitary

leave any

men, has a

a nobler

for

want of

question.

a better

The aim

his eye

music sounds;

human passion offers a subject to where natural man and conventional man

reveal themselves in strange beauty,

w here the rays

for

We may

have described

the fleeting pleasure for that indefinable

to call 'modernity',

term to express the idea

him

the poetry that resides in

is

its

to extract

in

from fashion

historical envelope, to

we

cast

our

eye over our exhibitions of modern pictures,

we

distil

the eternal from the transitory. If

be struck by the general tendency of our

to clothe all

pulsates,

1

that of the pure idler,

He is looking something we may be allowed

where poetry echoes, a

aim than

of circumstance.

shall

life

of what?

mortal endowed with an active

more general aim, other than

place where the departing glories of daylight linger,

any place w here

in search. In search

assured that this man, such as

imagination, always roaming the great desert of

discipline!

But evening comes. The witching hour, the uncertain light,

rest

manner of subjects in all of them use the

the past. Almost

artists

the dress of

fashions and

the furnishings of the Renaissance, as David used

Roman

fashions and furnishings, but there

is

this

of the dying sun play on the fleeting pleasure of the

difference, that David, having chosen subjects pe-

'depraved animal!'"

culiarly

murmurs

well-known

to

enough genius few

men

all

there, to be sure,

'\\ ell,

well filled,'

a

day

of us; 'each one of us has surely

to

have the

fill

gift

it

in

depraved animal" {Discourse on

Among Men^

the

same way.' No!

of seeing; fewer

Rousseau's phrase: ''The

of Inequality

is

to himself a type of reader

man who the Origin

Part One).

still

meditates

have

is

Greek or Roman, could not do otherwise

than present them in the style of antiquity, whereas the painters of today, choosing, as they do, subjects

of a general nature, applicable to

on dressing them up

all

ages,

will

in the fashion

of the

Middle Ages, of the Renaissance, or of the

East.'"

insist

a

and Foundations

'"

Jacques

Louis

classical painter.

David

(1748-1825),

French

neo-

Charles Baudelaire This

evidently sheer laziness; for

is

much more

it is

convenient to state roundly that everything

hope-

is

ugly in the dress of a period than to apply

lessly

oneself to the task of extracting the mysterious

may be hidden there, however small may be. Modernity is the transient, the

But

Versailles, for example).

extended. In a unity

we

can be yet further

it

call a

nation, the profes-

sions, the social classes, the successive centuries,

introduce variety not only in gestures and manners,

beauty that

but also in the general outlines of

or light

such

it

contingent;

the

fleeting,

one half of

is

it

art,

a nose,

mouth, forehead,

Such and

faces.

be standard for a

will

given interval of time, the length of which

the other being the eternal and the immovable.

not claim to determine here, but which

There was

tainly

form of modernity

a

for every painter

of the past; the majority of the fine portraits that

remain

from former times are clothed

to us

in the

own day. They are perfectly harmoni-

dress of their

shall

I

may

cer-

be a matter of calculation. Such ideas are not

familiar

enough

to portrait painters;

weakness of M. Ingres,

and the great

in particular, is the desire to

impose on every type that

him

sits for

a

more or

less

ous works because the dress, the hairstyle, and even

complete process of improvement, in other words

the gesture, the expression and the smile (each age

despotic perfecting process, borrowed from the

has

and

carriage, its expression

its

its

smile) form a

You have no

right to despise

this transitory fleeting element, the

metamorphoses

whole,

full

of

vitality.

of w hich are so frequent, nor to dispense w ith

you do, you inevitably

fall

and indefinable beauty,

abstract

and only

woman

of the one

like that

nonsense that only

necessarily right, you

is

you are guilty of

substitute another,

can

If

of the time before the Fall. If for

the dress of the day, which

fashion

it.

into the emptiness of an

Thus

excuse.

a piece of

imposed by

a fancy-dress ball

the

goddesses,

the

a

store of classical ideas.

In a matter such as this, a priori reasoning

The

be easy and even legitimate.

between what

ation

called the

body

is

is

a quite satisfactory explanation of

how what is material

or emanates from the spiritual

and w ill alw ays

reflects

and what

called the soul

is

w ould

perpetual correl-

reflect the spiritual force

it

derives from. If a painter, patient and scrupulous

but with only inferior imaginative power, were

commissioned

to paint a courtesan of today, and,

for this purpose,

were

to get his inspiration (to use

nymphs, and sultanas of the eighteenth century

the hallowed term) from a courtesan by Titian or

are portraits in the spirit of their day.

Raphael, the odds are that his work would be

No doubt it is an excellent discipline to study the old masters, in order to learn how^ to paint, but

can be no more than

aim

fraudulent, ambiguous, and difficult to understand.

The

study of a masterpiece of that date and of that

your

kind will not teach him the carriage, the gaze, the

understand the beauty of the present day.

come-hitherishness, or the living representation of

draperies of Rubens or Veronese will not teach

one of these creatures that the dictionary of fashion

is

The

it

to

you how la retne

superfluous exercise

if

to paint watered silk a /'antique, or satin a

or any other fabric produced by our mills,

supported by

a

swaying crinoline, or petticoats of

starched muslin.

same

a

The

texture and grain are not the

as in the fabrics of old Venice, or those

at the

court of Catherine.'"'

cut of the skirt and bodice

We may

is

today give her dress

add that the

absolutely different,

that the pleats are arranged into a finally that the gesture

new

pattern,

and carriage of the

a vitality

worn

and

and

woman of

a character that

woman of former ages. In short, any form of modernity may be worthy

under the

has, in rapid succession, pigeonholed

coarse or light-hearted rubric of unchaste, kept

women,

Lorettes.""

The same remark

applies precisely to the study

of the soldier, the dandy, and even animals, dogs or

and of

horses,

external

life

all

things that go to

of an age.

Woe

make up

betide the

the

man who

goes to antiquity for the study of anything other

than ideal

art, logic

and general method! By im-

mersing himself too deeply

in

it,

he will no longer

are not those of the

have the present in his mind's eye; he throws away

in order that

the value and the privileges afforded by circum-

of becoming antiquity, the mysterious beauty that

stance; for nearly

human

stamp

life

unintentionally puts into

been extracted from

it.

It is this

it

must have

task that

M. G.

particularly addresses himself to. I

have said that every age has

expression,

its

gestures.

its

own

carriage,

its

This proposition may be one

at

Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (168-4—1727).

verify

my

objects other than for

our originality comes from the

upon our

assertions

from

w ho, having to represent

Women

I

could

innumerable

women. What would you

example, of a marine painter

case)

sensibility.

reader will readily understand that

easily

easily verified in a large portrait gallery (the

(l05)

The

all

that time impresses

of suspect "virtue"

(I

say,

take an extreme

the sober and elegant

"The Painter Ih'.iuin of a

m

nioikrii \tsstl, were

itt iin.-

monununial complex

slcrn, ot ships ot hxiioiu- aucs, aiul the

sails aiul riiiiiinu: ol

the sixteenth ceimiiN-

Ancl what woiiUI >oii think ot an

commissioned

to

do the

he were to

were

thorough-

portrait ot a

restrict his studies to

to content

\ou had

at list

bred, celebrated in the solemn annals if

his c\ts

oiii

the sIikIn ot ihc oNcrliMiltil, iwisiiil sli.ipts, the

the

»>t

museums,

himselt with looking

at

turf",

he

it

equine

studies of the past in the picture galleries, in \ an

Dyck, Bourguignon, or

M.

Ci.,

\

an der Meulen.^

a

quite different

\ an der

began b\ looking

been of

a striking

how

at

of

and onl\

life,

onginahtN,

still

remain take on the

an additional pnMilOf obedience to

the impression, of a flatters of truth us,

he

result has

which whatever traces

in

may

Life"

later diil

The

to express life

untutored simplicitN

appearance

Modern

especiall\

for

businessmen,

nature iloes not exist, unless

it

be in

in

I'or

most of

whose eyes

its strict utility

relationship with their business interests, the fantastic reality

are full of

of it

life

becomes strangely blunted. M.

constantly; his

memory and

his eyc-s

it.

|iath.

Seventeenth-century Flemish painters Anthony

Dyck and Adam

le

(i. registers

guided b\ nature, t\ranni/ed o\er b\

circumstance, has followed

I

contri\e to learn

of

\

an

Meulen, with French contem-

porary Jacques Courtois (nicknamed // Bourguignon).

(l0|)

Charles S. Peirce most

America's

philosophic

original

genius,

thought of

grade than the "distinct-

a far higher

ness" of the logicians.

We have there found that^he

pragmatism, America's most famous contribu-

action of thought

excited by the irritation of

was marked

doubt, and ceases

Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914)

is

the inventor of

tion to world philosophy. His career

by brilliance

in

a variety of mathematical, scien-

and by thetragedy

tificand philosophical pursuits,

He was fired from Johns Hopkins University at the age of forty-five, never held another regular academic appointment, and

of unfulfilled promise.

lived his later life in abject poverty. In its critique

of

metaphysics pragmatism

much

of

is consonant with twentieth-century philosophy - like

and phenomenology - but it has more recently served the radical purposes of antifoundationalism and postmodernism. Peirce, however, regarded pragmatism as perfectly compatible with metaphysics and cosmology; his was logical positivism

a truly systematic philosophy.

In

"How

to

Make

my

for

purpose.

1898. In fact, in order from those that James and others were promoting as pragmatism, it

in

how

great,

hand

my

had described the

I

no matter how small or

pull out

I

my

is

I

decide, while

going to the purse, in which way

fare.

To

such

call is

a

as

my

words very

dis-

To

speak of such a

a

temper which

it

must be admitted

the least hesitation as to whether

coppers or the nickel

be, unless

word, yet

I

act

I

as

I

may be

am

Charles S. a clearness

of

pay the

be sure to

from some previously contracted too strong a

is

excited to such small mental activity

necessary to deciding Peirce,

section IV (pp.

that, if there

shall

(as there will

how

principles set forth in the first of these papers'

method of reaching

uncomfort-

is

habit in the matter), though irritation

lead, at once, to a

my pay

causing an irritation which needs to be

matter minutely,

five

The

will

able to the verge of insanity. Yet, looking at the

was "ugly enough

II

I

question Doubt, and

certainly to use

appeased, suggests

"pragmaticism," which, he said,

Section

for instance,

If,

purse and find a five-

proportionate to the occasion.

is

be safe from kidnappers."

as if

cent nickel and five coppers,

of his doctrine to

to

is

and the resolution of it.

in a horse-car,

name

Peirce later changed the

It

starting of any question,

doubt

liam James introduced

attained; so that

phenomena as they appear under a mental microscope. Doubt and Belief, as the words are commonly employed, relate to religious or other grave discussions. But here I use them to designate the

the term, which would not appear to distinguish his views

is

the sole function of

is

thought. All these words, however, are too strong

decision Belief,

Wil-

belief

the production of belief

Our Ideas Clear" (1878) Peirce explains pragmatism for the first time, although he does not use in print until

is

when

section

II

(pp.

297-302) from "How

I

shall act.

289-93) and to

Make Our

Ideas Clear,"second paper of the series 'Illustrations

"The Fixation of November 1877. '

(10|)

Behef,

Popular Science Monthly.

of the Logic of Science," Popular Science Monthly, vol. XII,

January 1878.

New

York: D. Appleton

and Co.

How Most

doubts

Irctiuciitls

hoNNCMT mcmu'iitary,

Inmi sonic

arise

iiulccision,

our action. Sometimes

in

it

is

have, tor example, to wait in a railway-

not so.

I

station,

and

to pass the lime

mcnts on the

walls,

1

and different routes which

ditterent trains

never

I

expect to lake, merely fancying myself to he state of hesitancN, because

am

I

of

in a

bored with haMiiii

nothini; to trouble me. I'eiijned hesiianc), whether

mere amusement or with

feiirned for

a lofty

jnir-

pose, plays a great part in the production of scien-

However the doubt may originate, it the mind to an activity which may be

inquiry.

tific

stimulates

calm or turbulent. Images pass

slight or energetic,

rapidly

through

consciousness,

melting into another, until

-

it

may be

past

Thought

or future.

is

ma\ add

of «)ur sensations.

that just as a piece

«)1

written in parts, each part having

second,

over

an hour, or

in

act

together between the same sensations.

Thought

motives, ideas, or functions.

such sNstem, for is

to

that

produce

sole motiNe, idea,

its

may

it

some other s>stem of relamay incidentally base

to

of thinking

tions. 'The action

other results;

serve to

ure that

dilettanti

it

seems

it is

amuse

them

to vex

w hich takes

a favorite subject out

literary

belief.

sorts of elements

of consciousness, the distinction between which

by means of an

illustration.

In a piece of music there are the separate notes, and is

the air."

A

single tone it

second of that time as

in the

so that, as long as to a sense

it is

may be prolonged

for

exists as perfectly in each

whole taken together;

sounding,

it

from which everything

in the past

was

as

debate

the very debauchery of thought.

is

be

may be

it

made

rest;

and whatever does not refer

of the thought

an orderliness

in the succession

of sounds which

and to perceive it must be some continuity of consciousness which makes the events of a lapse of time present

aware

to belief

at

no part

is

belief? It

is

is

the dcmi-cadence

musical phrase in the symphony of

a

We

three properties: First,

consists in

its

itself.

then,

our intellectual

It

has for

in action

only possible motive the attainment of thought

which only portions of

are played.

toward anything but the

Thought

belief.

occupies a certain time, during the portions of it

it,

voluntarily thwarted, can never

to direct itself

production of

which closes

it

of the arena of

ill-concealed dislike.

from the other elements which accompany though

performance of which

But

it

discovery

a positive

But the soul and meaning of thought, abstracted

And w hat,

itself.

and

met with

is

This disposition

is

completely absent as the future different with the air, the

might be present

w ho

to think that the

words, we have attained

there

example,

questions upon which they delight to exercise

those which occasioned our hesitation. In other

an hour or a day, and

us, for

not rare to find those

finally settled;

under such circumstances

clear

onl) one

is

and function,

and w hatever does not concern

belief,

purpose belongs

may ever get

made

These dif-

ferent systems are distinguished h\ ha\ ing different

as

best be

so

air,

have so perverted thought to the purposes of pleas-

all is

how we should

may

own

various systems of relationship of succession subsist

when

- we find ourselves decided as to

we obser\e two

music may be

its

and among

after long years

In this process

|>orlion of the

thread of melody

a

running through the successuin

We

Clear'

one incessantly

at last,

in a fraction of a

some

present to us, but must cover

read the adNcrtise-

compare the advantages

1

Make Our Ideas

to

life.

of; .second,

it

have seen that

it

is

something

it

has just

that

we

are

appea.ses the irritation of doubt;

involves the establishment in our

strike the ear at different times;

and, third,

there

nature of a rule of action, or, say for short, a habit.

to us.

We certainly only

the separate notes; yet

hear

it,

for

we

perceive the air by hearing

we cannot be

hear only what

is

As

it

appeases the irritation of doubt, which

motive

for thinking,

said to directly

rest for a

present

belief

at

the

it

moment w hen

the

belief is reached. But, since

of which

a rule for action, the application

is

is

thought relaxes, and comes to

instant,

and an orderliness of succession cannot

involves further doubt and further thought, at the

exist in

an instant. These two sorts of objects,

same time

that

it is

a stopping-place,

what we are immediately conscious of and what we

starting-place for thought.

are mediately conscious of, are found in

mitted myself to

sciousness.

Some

completely present last,

all

con-

elements (the sensations) are at

every instant so long as they

while others (like thought) are actions having

thought thinking

is

call

it

That

thought

essentially an action.

is

it is

why

also a

new

I

have per-

at rest,

although

is

The final upshot of

the exercise of volition, and of this

thought no longer forms

a part;

but belief

is

only a

upon our nature

beginning, middle, and end, and consist in a con-

stadium of mental action, an

gruence

due to thought, w hich will influence future thinking.

in the succession

of sensations w hich flow

through the mind. They cannot be immediately

The habit,

"

Melody.

essence of beUef

and different

different

is

effect

the establishment of a

beliefs are distinguished

modes of action

to

which they give

by the rise. If

cm)

Charles S. Peirce

the

do not

differ in this respect, if they

appease

same doubt by producing the same

rule of

beliefs

manner of consciousness of them can make them different action, then

beliefs,

ent keys

no mere differences

any more than playing

in the

a

tune in differ-

playing different tunes. Imaginary dis-

is

tinctions are often differ only in their

drawn between

mode

gling which ensues

is

beliefs

which

of expression; - the wran-

enough, however.

real

To

believe that any objects are arranged as in figure 12.1,

and

to believe that they are arranged as in

figure 12.2, are

one and the same

conceivable that a

ent,

and are among the

One singular deception of this is

to mistake the sensation

produced by our own unclearness of thought character of the object

we

perceiving that the obscurity

fancy that

for a

are thinking. Instead of

we contemplate

is

purely subjective,

a quality

of the object

if

our concep-

form we

same, owing to the absence

of the feeling of unintelligibility. So long as this

deception

lasts, it

obviously puts an impassable bar-

way of perspicuous

rier in the

thinking; so that

it

equally interests the opponents of rational thought to perpetuate

and

it,

adherents to guard against it.

its

Another such deception

to

is

mistake a mere

difference in the grammatical construction of two

words

for a distinction

between the ideas they ex-

when the general mob of much more to words than to is common enough. When I just

press. In this pedantic age,

writers attend so

said that thought

we ought when we are upon

of which

as the

it

things, this error

pitfalls

which often occurs,

do not recognize

as

constantly to beware, especially

we

do

and

essentially mysterious;

is

of beliefs really differ-

false distinctions

as the confusion

metaphysical ground. sort,

it is

man should assert one proposition

and deny the other. Such

much harm

belief; yet

which

tion be afterward presented to us in a clear

an action, and that

is

although

a relation.,

it

consists in

person performs an action but

a

not a relation, which can only be the result of an action, yet there

was no inconsistency

in

what I

said,

but only a grammatical vagueness.

From all these sophisms we shall be perfectly safe we reflect that the whole function of

so long as

thought

produce habits of action; and that

to

is

whatever there

is

irrelevant to

purpose,

its

connected with is

but

a thought,

an accretion to

but

it,

among our sensations which has no reference to how we shall act on a given occasion, as when we listen to a piece of music, why we do not call that thinking. To develop its meaning, we have, therefore, simply to deterno part of

it.

If there be a unity

mine what habits

means

it

produces, for what

simply what habits

is

identity of a habit to act, not

it

involves.

depends on how

it

thing

a

Now,

merely under such circumstances

likely to arise,

the

might lead us as are

but under such as might possibly

how improbable they may be. What the habit is depends on when and how it causes occur, no matter

us to Figure 12.1

As

act.

for the when, every stimulus to action

is

derived from perception; as for the how, every pur-

pose of action

is

to

produce some sensible

Thus, we come down tical, as

to

what

is

result.

tangible and prac-

the root of every real distinction of thought,

no matter how distinction of

subtile

it

meaning so

may

be;

and there

is

no

fine as to consist in any-

thing but a possible difference of practice.

To

see

what

this principle leads to, consider in

the light of it such a doctrine as that of transubstantiation.

The

Protestant churches generally hold

that the elements of the sacrament are flesh

and

blood only in a tropical sense; they nourish our souls as

meat and the

juice of

But the Catholics maintain just that;

Figure 12.2

it

would our bodies.

that they are literally

although they possess

qualities of wafer-cakes

all

the sensible

and diluted wine. But we

How can ha\c no conception of wine except uh.ii

ni.i\

seconti graile, howeser.

mind,

Thai

Nve

beliefs are nolhinii hut selt-notitications that

should, upon occasion, act in regard to such

we

things as

belie\e

be wine according to

to

the qualities which

we

The occasion ofsuch

action

belie\e wine to possess.

perception, the moti\e of

what

would be some sensible produce some sens-

to

Thus our action has exclusive reference

ible result.

to

it

affects the senses,

our habit has the same

bearing as our action, our belief the same as our habit,

our conception the same as our

belief;

and

we can consequently mean nothing by wine but what has certain

upon

effects, direct or indirect,

our senses; and to

of something as having

talk

all

the sensible characters of w ine, yet being in reality

blood,

senseless jargon.

is

Now

it is

,

my object to

not

pursue the theological question; and having used as a logical

example

drop

I

it,

point out

how impossible

it is

it

without caring to

anticipate the theologian's reply.

only desire to

I

that

we should have

anything

we

our idea of

is

its

Our

idea of

sensible effects;

and

if

we have any other we deceive ourand mistake a mere sensation accompanying

fancy that

selves,

the thought for a part of the thought

It is

itself.

absurd to say that thought has any meaning unrelated to

its

only function.

and Protestants

to fancy

It is

foolish for Catholics

themselves in disagreement

about the elements of the sacrament, regard to

all

if

they agree in

their sensible effects, here or hereafter.

appears, then, that the rule for attaining the

It

third

grade of clearness of apprehension

follows:

Consider what

effects,

object of our conception to have.

ception of these effects

is

is

as

which might con-

ceivably have practical bearings,

we conceive

the

Then, our con-

the w hole of our concep-

opposite, fiction.

its

There

reality.

product of

a

is

has such characters as his

That whose characters

it.

how you or

think

I

an external

is

however, phenomena within our

are,

ow n minds, dependent upon our thought, w hich same time

the

at

sense that

real in the

we

are

think

reall\

them. But though their characters depend on how

we think, they do not depend on w hat we think those characters to be. Thus, a a

dream has a real existence as

mental phenomenon,

dreamt

it;

that he

completely subject. fact

so,

was

thinks

independent

On

somebody has

if

dreamt so and

what anybody

on

of

all

peculiarities

really

does not depend dreamt,

but

is

on

opinion

the

the other hand, considering, not the

of dreaming, but the thing dreamt,

by virtue of no other

fact

it

retains

than that

its

was

it

dreamt to possess them. Thus we may define the real

w hose characters are independent of w hat

as that

anybody may think them

to be.

But, however satisfactory such a definition

be found, that

it

them,

would be

makes the

it

Here, then,

a great

of

reality, like

produce.

it

have

is

to

may

mistake to suppose

idea of reality perfectly clear.

us apply our rules, .\ccording to

let

every other quality, consists in

the peculiar sensible effects

The

w hich things partaking

only effect which real things

cause belief,

for

the

all

sensations

which they excite emerge into consciousness

The

the form of beliefs. is

question therefore

is,

in

how

true belief (or belief in the real) distinguished

from

Now

false belief (or belief in fiction).

have seen

,

as

we

former paper, the ideas of truth

in the

in their full

development, appertain

exclusively to the scientific

method of settling opin-

and falsehood,

ion.

A

itions

person

who

which he

method of

Section IV

reason

is

literature

Let us now approach the subject of

logic,

and con-

which particularly concerns

Taking clearness

arbitrarily chooses the

will

propos-

adopt can use the word truth

Of

course, the

tenacity never prevailed

exclusively;

As

men

of the dark ages it.

When

a poetical

for that.

But

we

some fine comment-

find

Scotus Erigena

is

in the

passage in which hellebore

is

does not hesitate to inform the inquiring reader

w ith perfect confidence, never dreaming it.

upon

choice.

Every child

no idea could be clearer than

he does not understand

too natural to

examples of ing

his

spoken of as having caused the death of Socrates, he

uses

this.

it,

to

of famil-

in the sense

iarity, it

figment

\ it

thought impresses upon are independent of

ation to hold on

that oi reality.

h\

only to emphasize the expression of his determin-

tion of the object.

sider a conception

Vet

may perhaps be reached

definition

a

somebodN \ imagination;

an idea in our minds w hich relates to anything but conceived sensible effects of things.

pu/./le

turn ol

considering the points of difference between reality

and

Such

pr«»bablN

of a rellecti\e

to g!\e an abstract defiiution of the real

such

this, thai, or the other, is wiiic; or,

That wine possesses certain j^roperties.

2

wouUI

ii

most men, e\en among those

enter into a beliet, en her

1

Make Our Ideas Clear"

to

that

for clearness in its

that Helleborus

and Scorates were two eminent

Greek philosophers, and

that the

latter

having

(@)

L

Charles S. Peirce been overcome

argument by the former took the

to retract

matter to heart and died of it!'"

disputation

is

of truth could a

What sort of an idea man have who could adopt and

the opinion

w hich is natural

in

teach, without the qualification of a perhaps, an

opinion taken so entirely

who

of Socrates, to

I

at

random? The

real spirit

hope would have been delighted

have been "overcome

in

argument," because he

would have learned something by

in curious

it, is

whom

discussion would seem to have been simply

its

When

philosophy began to awake from

long slumber, and before theology completely

dominated

the practice seems to have been for

it,

each professor to seize upon any philosophical po-

he found unoccupied and which seemed

sition

strong one, to intrench himself in

from time

forth

it,

and

a

to sally

to time to give battle to the others.

Thus, even the scanty records we possess of those disputes enable us to

make out

dozen or more

a

opinions held by different teachers

one time

at

concerning the question of nominalism and realism.

Read the opening part of the "Historia Cala-

mitatum"

of

Abelard,

who was

certainly

as

philosophical as any of his contemporaries, and

For

see the spirit of

combat which

him, the truth

simply his particular stronghold.

When meant

is

method of authority

the

little

more than

breathes.'^

it

one man is not so for

contenting themselves with fixing their

settled. In

own

opinions by a method which would lead an-

man

other

to a different result, they betray their

feeble hold of the conception of what truth

persuaded that the processes of investigation,

fully if

only pushed far enough, will give one certain

which they can be

solution to every question to

One man may

applied.

by studying the

light

investigate the velocity of

Venus and the

transits of

aberration of the stars; another by the oppositions

of Mars and the eclipses of Jupiter's

by the method of Fizeau;

third

and

their faith

their

ponderous

faith in Aristotle

through without finding an argument which

Lissajoux; a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, and a ninth,

may

follow the different methods of comparing the

measures of

They may

statical

and dynamical

each perfects his method and his processes, the results will

move

tined centre.

ent minds

may

toward

steadily together

So with

all scientific

set out

with the most antagonistic

noticeable that where differ-

foreordained goal,

No

is

like the

operation of destiny.

modification of the point of view taken, no

selection of other facts for study,

no natural bent

man

predestinate opinion. This great law

belief

to escape the

they adopt; so completely has the idea of loyalty

in the

conception of truth and reahty.

replaced that of truth-seeking. Since the time of

which

is

Descartes, the defect in the conception of truth has

investigate,

intent

apparent.

on finding out what the

It is

an opinion he laid

strike a

been

facts are,

less

is

defending

down

facts; is

is

their

but show him that

inconsistent with what

elsewhere, and he will be very apt

way

the

But

is

what we mean by the

I

would explain

may be

it

opposed

is

is

said that this view

given of reality, inasmuch as

it

of the real to depend on what

real.

'"

"Hellebore" refers to a plant of the

Socrates actually died from drinking a potion

hemlock; John Scotus Erigena (born

ad

lily

who

That

directly

is

which we have

ultimately thought is

that,

on the

independent, not necessarily of

thought in general, but only of what you or finite

all

and the

makes the characters is

about them. But the answer to this reality is

truth,

the

opinion

by

reality.

to the abstract definition

one hand,

embodied

The

fated ^ to be ultimately agreed to

object represented in this opinion

than on

harmony with

hard to convince a follower of the a

prion method by adducing

he has

sometimes

Still, it will

that the philosophers have

inquiring what belief is most in

system.

des-

a

research. Differ-

upon with contempt even by the party whose

man

electricity.^

obtain different results, but, as

at first

of mind even, can enable a

less

by that of

Foucault; a fifth by the motions of the curves of

ent faiths flourish side by side, renegades are looked

scientific

satellites; a

a fourth

them by a force outside of themselves to one and the same conclusion. This activity of thought by which we are carried, not where we wish, but to a

toward

folios

been

is.

On the other hand, all the followers of science are

the Catholic faith. All the

Church, and one may search

It is

for

views, but the progress of investigation carries

in the

goes any further.

ever to cease; they seem to think that

prevailed, the truth

efforts of the scholastic doctors are directed

harmonizing their

These minds do not seem to believe that

another, and that belief will, consequently, never be

contrast with the naive idea of the glossist, for

a struggle.

it.

number of men may

think about

it;

I

or any

and

that,

family;

made from a me-

810) was

'

Armand-Hippol yte Louis Fizeau

(181 9-96) and Jean-

dieval philosopher.

Bernard-Leon Foucault (1819-68) were French physi-

'"

cists;

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), medieval theologian and

logician.

(Jog)

Jules-Antoine Lissajoux (1822-80) was a French

mathematician.

"How on the other hand, though the object

of the fmal

opinion tlepends on what that opinion

is,

that

opinion

anv

man

does not depend on what you or

is

Our

thinks.

per\ersit\

and

I

oj)!!!-

siKiue the

human

race should

last.

change the nature of the

lonj:;

as the

even that would not

\ et

belief,

which alone could

be the result of investigation carried sufficiently

of our race, another

after the extinction

if,

far;

should arise with faculties and disposition for in-

must be the one

true opinion

that

vestigation,

which they would ultimately come crushed to earth

result

from investigation does

not depend on how anybody

But the

of that which

reality

is

the real fact that investigation last, if

But

I

may be

asked w hat

I

may

actually think.

real

does depend on

is

continued long enough,

minute

"Truth

and the opinion

shall rise again,"

which would fmally

to.

destined to lead, at

to a belief in

please, h«»w

have to say to

the

is

a

meaning.'"

\\ ell,

or not

liant

that

then, after the universe

is

dead (according to the

prediction of some scientists), and forever,

has ceased

not the shock of atoms continue

will

though there I

all life

will

be no mind to know

it.^

To

reply that, though in no possible state of

this

know-

number be great enough to express amount of what rests unthe amount of the known, yet it is

much of

so

when

in

it

is

have

makes very

it

say that a stone on the

complete darkness,

to say, that

is

bril-

makes no

pniluthly

it

that that stone

may at

the bottom of the sea, flowers in the untraveled desert,

about

which,

propositions

are

etc.,

diamond being hard w hen

a

much more

concern

seems

that

the arrangement of our lan-

me, however,

to

like

not pressed,

it is

guage than they do the meaning of our

we

that

ideas.

have, by the

application of our rule, reached so clear an appre-

hension of what we mean by

ical

reality,

rests on, that

making

and of the

we should

fact

not, per-

pretension so presumptuous as

a

singular,

if

we were

to offer a

it

metaphys-

theory of existence for universal acceptance

among

those

fixing belief

much more

who employ

the scientific

However,

metaphysics

as

method of is

a subject

curious than useful, the know ledge of

of a sunken reef, serves chiefly to

like that

it, I w ill not trouble the more Ontology at this moment.

enable us to keep clear of reader with any I

have already been led

path than

much

further into that

should have desired; and

I

I

have given

the reader such a dose of mathematics, psychology,

and

that

all

is

already have

ledge can any

writing

the relation between the

clusively.

known

There

to

is

that

any

is

sol Ned.'

be fished up to-morrow. But that there are gems

w hich,

And

we

remembering always

difference,

would be

hopelessly beyond the reach of our knowledge?

must confess

bottom of the ocean,

haps, be

these things not really exist because they are

1

difference whether

little

buried secrets.

Do

make

h\

a

years you

that only practical distinctions

which the idea

many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

go on for

to

number of

may be objected, "\S

it

covered, to the lost books of the ancients, to the

Full

were

it

possible to saN that there

it

your principle

It

all

if

these remote considerations, especially

it.

of history, forgotten never to be re-

facts

hundred' .\nd

question which nnghl not uliimateh be

But

Clear'

ten thousand \ears, with the acti\it\ ol

l((i

last

million, or a billion, or any

might e\en coiKei\ahl\ cause an arbitrary

it

proposition to be uni\ersally accepted as

and

or

that ol others

niav indetlnileJN postpone the settlenieni ol ion;

what

\v\

Make Our Ideas

to

is

is

most abstruse,

for the I

me, and

left

that

that

I

fear

what

I

he

may

am

now-

compositor and proof-reader ex-

trusted to the importance of the subject.

no royal road

to logic,

and

really valuable

unphilosophical to suppose that, with regard to

ideas can only be had at the price of close attention.

any given question (w hich has any clear meaning),

But

w ould not bring

investigation if it

a

were carried

far

enough.

forth a solution of

it,

Who would have said,

few years ago, that we could ever know of what

substances stars are

been longer has existed.'

know

in a few

would be the

hundred

II,

years.^

I

am

going to return to the easily

not wander from

it

Who can

way can be applied

(1716-71), Elegy Written

53-6.

that in the matter of ideas the public

at the pains

light

guess w hat

result of continuing the pursuit of

Thomas Grey Churchyard,

can be sure

know

may have human race of what we shall not

made whose

in reaching us than the

Who

I

in a

Country

my

prefer the cheap and nasty; and in

shall

The

reader

who

and

has been

of wading through this month's paper,

be rewarded

beautifully

again.

next paper

intelligible,

in the next

one by seeing how

w hat has been developed

in this tedious

to the ascertainment of the rules

of scientific reasoning."'

^" "The Doctrine of Chances," Popular Science Monthy March 1878.

(toT)

L

Charles S. Peirce

We

have, hitherto, not crossed the threshold

of scientific

logic.

know how

make our

to

It

is

certainly

ideas clear, but they

be ever so clear without being

make them

so,

we have

important to

may

How to How to give

true.

next to study.

birth to those vital and procreative ideas

multiply into a thousand forms and diffuse themselves

everywhere,

advancing

making the dignity of man, to rules,

is

an

civilization art

and

not yet reduced

but of the secret of which the history of

science affords

some

hints.

which

Author's Note 1

Fate means merely that which

and can nohow be avoided. suppose that

(@)

a certain sort

It

is

sure to

is

come

true,

a superstition to

of events are ever fated.

and

it

is

another to suppose that the word fate can

never be freed from fated to die.

its

superstitious taint.

We

are

all

and Lies

''On Truth

in

a Nonmoral

Sense"

Madman"

"The

''How the 'True World' Finally a Fable"

Became

The Dionysian World* Friedrich Nietzsche A student

of ancient

"On Truth and

languages by trade and a

sity

in

ill

in

relative

becoming insane eleven years later. Nietzsche's concern was nothing less than the conditions of health, greatness, and sickness in human cultures. He was deeply critical of Judeo-Christian civilization, which he saw as destroying the health of Western humanity by undermining

until

human

nihilistic belief in

through

instincts

a

slavish,

the unreality of this world and

the promise of happiness

in

the next. Nietzsche

was one of the first to foresee the waning of Christianity in

a

health from his only univer-

post aged 34, he wrote feverishly

isolation

in

Nonmoral Sense'"

philosopher by predilection, Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844-1900) was a unique and misunderstood genius. Retiring

Lies

an increasingly secular Europe, and fam-

Once upon

a time, in

that universe '

which

The German term

some out of the way corner of is

dispersed into numberless

in the title translated here as

"non-

moral," aussermoralischen, could be, and has been, also translated as "super-" or "extra-" moral.

Friedrich Nietzsche: [A] "OnTruth

and Lies

in

a Non-

moral Sense." pp. 79-91 from Philosophy and Truth (ed. Daniel Brazeale). New York: Humanities Press,

1979; B] "The Madman" from 7^76 Gay Sc/ence (trans, and ed. Walter Kaufmann), Part Three, section [

ously coined the phrase"God

is

dead."

He pressed

remarkable denial of the very concept of truth - "truthfulness" being a prime

this critique to a

Christian value. Nietzsche's notion of a future

125, pp. 181-2. New York: Vintage. 1974; [C] "How theTrue World Finally Became a Fable." from Twilight of the Idols, reproduced in The Portable Nietzsche

Nietzsche's radical critique of metaphysics, the

and ed. Walter Kaufmann). pp. 485-6. New 1968; [D] The Dionysian World.* para. 1067, pp. 449-50 from The Will to Power (trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. edited with commentary by Walter Kaufmann). New York: Ran-

and of truth, make him the godfather of postmodernism.

fourthsectionisthisvolumeeditor'snot Nietzsche's.

"overman," the authentic individual of the post-

was later embraced by the Nazis (alnothing could be more foreign to

Christian era,

though

Nietzsche than a mass, collectivist movement). unity of the self,

(trans,

York: Viking.

dom

House. 1967.

*

Note that the

title

given to this

L

Friedrich Nietzsche

twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon

beasts of prey. This art of dissimulation reaches

which clever beasts invented knowing. That was

peak in man. Deception,

most arrogant and mendacious minute of

the

"world history," but nevertheless,

was only

it

a

minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the

and congealed, and the clever beasts had

star cooled

- One might invent such

to die.

miserable,

how shadowy and

and arbitrary the human nature.

not

a fable,

would not have adequately

still

There were

intellect, tellect

nothing

transient, intellect

looks within it

did

among men

and pure drive them.

They

- is

are deeply

honest

immersed

in illusions

and

in

this in-

surface of things and see "forms." Their senses

human, and only it so solemnly -

it is

it

its

as

it. But if we we would learn air w ith the same

axis turned within

nowhere lead

merely glide over the

their eyes

on the contrary, they are

to truth;

content to receive stimuli and, as in a groping

man

game on

universe w ithin himself. There

is

nothing so repre-

hensible and unimportant in nature that

not immediately swell up

would

it

a balloon

at

the

power of knowing. And

just

to

like

have an admirer, so even

were, to engage

permits himself to be deceived in his dreams

even make an attempt to prevent

solemnity, that he feels the flying center of the

it

the backs of things. Moreover,

that he likew ise flies through the

wants

how an

have arisen among

for truth could

every night of his

as every porter

almost nothing

is

could communicate with the gnat,

slightest puff of this

for

much the rule and

so

that there

comprehensible than

is less

and

have happened. For

possessor and begetter takes

though the world's

the solitary flame of vanity

which

a role for others

continuous fluttering around

in short, a

dream images;

Rather,

life.

-

the law

a false front,

human

has no additional mission which would lead

beyond human

behind convention, playing oneself

up

borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding

over with the

it is all

will

how

how aimless

during which

eternities

And when

exist.

and yet he

illustrated

talking behind the back, putting living in

its

flattering, lying, deluding,

life.

through sheer

this,

whereas there

men who have stopped snoring power. What does man actually

are supposed to be

know about

His moral sentiment does not

will

himself? Is he, indeed, ever able to

perceive himself completely, as

out in

if laid

a

Does nature not conceal most things from him - even concerning his ow n body lighted display case.^

and lock him within

the proudest of men, the philosopher, supposes that

in order to confine

he sees on

deceptive consciousness, aloof from the coils of the

ically

all

sides the eyes of the universe telescop-

bow els,

focused upon his action and thought.

It is

remarkable that this was brought about by

the intellect, which was certainly allotted to these

most unfortunate, merely

delicate,

and ephemeral beings

as a device for detaining

them

a

minute

the rapid flow of the blood stream, and the

intricate quivering of the fibers!

crack in the chamber of consciousness and then

man

suspect that

would have every reason

his ignorance

quickly as Lessing's son."

knowing and sensing

The pride connected w ith

lies like a

blinding fog over

the eyes and senses of men, thus deceiving

concerning the value of existence. For

them

She threw away the

And woe to that fatal curiosity which might one day have the power to peer out and down through a key.

within existence. For without this addition they to flee this existence as

a proud,

satiable,

is

sustained in the indifference of

by that which

and murderous - as

the back of a tiger.

is pitiless,

greedy, in-

if hanging in

dreams on

Given this situation, w here in the

world could the drive for truth have come from.' Insofar as the individual wants to maintain

this pride

him-

he w ill under natural

contains within itself the most flattering estimation

self against other individuals,

of the value of knowing. Deception

circumstances employ the intellect mainly for dis-

is

general effect of such pride, but even

the most its

particular effects contain within themselves

most

some-

thing of the same deceitful character.

As

a

means which

its

principal

and necessity,

man

same time, from boredom

wishes to exist socially and with

the herd; therefore, he needs to

for the preserving of the individual,

the intellect unfolds

simulation. But at the

pow ers in dissimu-

means by which weaker,

strives accordingly to banish

from

make peace and his

world

at least

the most flagrant helium omni contra omnes.^^^ This

wake something which

peace treaty brings in

its

robust individuals preserve themselves - since they

appears to be the

step toward acquiring that

have been denied the chance to w age the battle for

puzzling truth drive: to wit, that which shall count

existence with horns or with the sharp teeth of

as "truth"

lation,

is

the

less

say, a "

Gotthold

Ephraim

Lessing

(1729-81),

German

first

from now on

(ji5)

That

is

to is

is

invented for things, and this legislation of language

dramatist and philosopher, whose son died the day he

was born.

established.

uniformly valid and binding designation

'"

War

of each against

all.

"On Truth and Lies likewise cstahlislus the

time.

first

I'he liar

.uul lie arises

who

person

a

is

is

example, "I

am

unreal appear to be

when

rich,"

I

le says, lor

misuses

lie

arbitrarx substitu-

What one-sided

(.lillereniialions!

twist itself

worm What

a

lit

this ilesignation

lo

abiltiN

its

couki therelore also

tor this, then

"snake"

ot a

Narious languages placed side h\

with words

is

ii

ne\er

a

him and

being defrauded as

they hale

thereby exclude him.

will

is

is

not so

being harmed by

is

it

Thus, even

fraud.

liar

what

this stage,

at

basically not deception itself, but rather

the unpleasant, hated consequences of certain sorts

of deception.

It is

man now wants

in a similarly restricted sense that

nothing but truth: he desires the

pleasant, life-preserving consequences of truth.

indifferent toward pure

He

know ledge which has no

consequences; toward those truths which arc pos-

harmful and destructive he

And

inclined.

besides,

even hostilely

is

what about these

linguistic

question of truth, neser

Is

lan-

man

only by means of forgetfulness that

can

the least

men, and

tions of things to

To

with truth in the form of tautology, that

he

will not

is

be content w ith empty husks,

image,

time there

ent one.

complete overleaping of one sphere,

is a

right into the

One

middle of an entirely new and

man who

can imagine a

and has never had

a sensation

person will gaze w

a

ith

by "sound."

must know w hat men mean way with all of us concerning

that he

It is this

we believe

we know something about when we speak of trees, snow and flowers; and yet we possess noth-

colors,

that

,

ing but metaphors for things - metaphors which

same w ay

It is

the copy in sound of a nerve

entities. In the

that the

sound appears

as a sand figure, so

X

of the thing in

itself first

stimulus. But the further inference from the nerve

the mysterious

stimulus to a cause outside of us

is

as a nerve stimulus, then as an image,

of a false and

application

unjustifiable

already the result

of the

a

sound.

Thus

any case, and

proceed logically

been the deciding factor

within and with which the

and

if

of language,

the standpoint of certainty had been decisive

for designations, then

"the stone

is

how could we

hard," as

if

still

dare to say

"hard" were something

.stimulation!

We

separate

things

according to gender, designating the tree as mascu-

Hne and the plant assignments!

How

as feminine.' far this

What

arbitrary

oversteps the canons of

"principle of sufficient reason," formulated by

appears

finally as

later

all

the material

of truth, the scien-

work and

build,

is at least

if

not

not de-

rived from the essence of things.

In particular,

let

tion of concepts.

us further consider the forma-

Every word instantly becomes a

concept precisely insofar as

it

is

not supposed to

serve as a reminder of the unique and entirely individual original experience to which origin; but rather, a

The

man

derived from never-never land,

otherwise familiar to us, and not merely a totally subjective

in

and the philosopher

tist,

and

the genesis of language does not

principle of sufficient reason.'^ If truth alone had in the genesis

astonishment

cover their causes in the vibrations of the string and

correspond in no way to the original

word?

deaf

Chladni's sound figures:" perhaps he will dis-

then he will always exchange truths for illusions. a

differ-

totally

is

of sound and music.

What

is

in turn, is

imitated in a sound; second metaphor. .And each

the things themselves

to say, if

transferred into

is

The

metaphor.

first

language:

satisfied

worth

for expressing these

begin with, a nerve stimulus

an image:

"truth" of the grade just indicated. If he

not be

in

relations he lays hold of the boldest metaphors.

ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a will

likewise

is

This creator only designates the rela-

w ill now swear

realities?

in

language and something not striving tor.

Perhaps such

guage the adequate expression of all

The "thing

to the creator of

at

Are designations congruent with things?

a

precisely what the pure truth, apart

is

from any of its consequences, would be)

ucts of knowledge, that

of the sense of truth?

that

something quite incomprehensible

conventions themselves? Are they perhaps prodis,

The

show

ipiestion of adequate expression; otherwise, there

wouUl not be so many languages.

avoid by excluding the

first

thing!

side

itself (which

It

a

and

arbitrary

preferences,

property of

lor that

in a

means of

It is

speak

onK upon

will

W hat men

sibly

louches

he does this

cease to trust

is

We

ieilaiiil\'

and moreover harmful manner, society

tions or even reversals of names.

much

make some-

the pro|ier ilesignation

means of

fixed conventions b\

selfish

real.

woukl he "poor."

tor his condition

here lor ihe

uses the \alul

designations, the words, in oriler to

thing which

lor ihc

l.ius ol liulh

(itsi

miih

contrast between

Sense"

a Nonmoral

in

as

it

w ord becomes

simultaneously has to

fit

a

it

owes

its

concept insofar

countless

more

or less

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), held that every factual truth

must be supported by

Nietzsche

is

referring to the

der assignment of nouns.

a sufficient reason.

German

language's gen-

"

Ernst Chladni,

German

physicist

speed of sound with vibrating rods

who

studied the

in the late eighteenth

centurv.

(lii)

Friedrich Nietzsche similar cases

- which means, purely and simply,

which are never equal and thus altogether

cases

unequal. Every concept arises from the equation

of unequal things. Just as

it is

certain that

never totally the same as another, so the concept "leaf

is

formed by

it is

one

leaf is

certain that

arbitrarily discard-

ing these individual differences and by forgetting the distinguishing aspects. This awakens the idea that, in addition to the leaves, there exists in

the "leaf: the original all

model according

to

to

phors. Thus, to express

man

a

unconsciously and in accordance with habits which

which

this unconsciousness

centuries'

Our

We call a person "honest,"

"why

and

has he behaved so honestly

and

usual answer

"on account of

with the

liar,

excludes.

As

the cause of the leaves.

is

We

know nothing what-

soever about an essential quality called "honesty";

at

the sense that one

is

a third as

"mute," there

The

of truth

utility

arises a

venerability,

something which a

is

person demonstrates for himself from the contrast

his

is,

From

in regard to truth.

and

reliability,

honesty." Honesty! This in turn means that the leaf

today.'*"

and forgetfulness he arrives

obliged to designate one thing as "red," another

moral impulse

ask

and precisely by means of

old;

his sense of truth.

as "cold,"

we

the duty

of course forgets that this

petent hands, so that no specimen has turned out to

then

is

manner binding upon everyone. Now is the way things stand for him. Thus he lies in the manner indicated,

herd and in

be a correct, trustworthy, and faithful likeness of the original model.

morally, this

it

to lie according to a fixed convention, to lie with the

are

- but by incom-

exist:

be truthful means to employ the usual meta-

nature

the leaves were perhaps woven, sketched, meas-

ured, colored, curled, and painted

of the duty which society imposes in order to

whom

no one

and everyone

trusts

a ''''rationar being,

now

he

places his

behavior under the control of abstractions.

no longer

tolerate being carried

He

will

away by sudden

but we do know of countless individualized and

impressions, by intuitions. First he universalizes

consequently unequal actions which we equate by

all

omitting the aspects in which they are unequal and

cepts, so that he can entrust the guidance of his life

which we now designate

and conduct

as

"honest" actions.

we formulate from them a qualitas occulta'^^ which has the name "honesty." We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what Finally

individual and actual; whereas nature

is

ac-

is

quainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an

X

remains inaccessible and undefmable for

which

For

us.

even our contrast between individual and species is

something anthropomorphic and does not origin-

ate in the essence of things; although

presume

pond

we should not

to claim that this contrast does not corres-

to the essence of things: that

dogmatic assertion and,

be

a

as

indemonstrable as

What then

its

truth.''

is

would of course

as such,

would be

just

sum

poetically

of

human

illusions;

relations

which have been

intensified, transferred, after long usage,

seem

which we have forgotten are

they are metaphors that have become

w orn out and have been drained of sensuous

force,

coins which have lost their embossing and are

now

considered as metal and no longer as coins.

We truth

still

do not yet know where the drive

comes from. For so

Occult quality.

112:

to

the animals depends

far

schema, and thus to dissovle an image into cept.

For something

is

for

this

in a

a

con-

possible in the realm of these

schemata which could never be achieved with the vivid

first

impressions: the construction of a

pyramidal order according to castes and degrees, the creation of a

new world of

laws, privileges,

subordinations, and clearly marked boundaries

new

-

a

now confronts that other vivid world of first impressions as more solid, more universal, better known, and more human world, one which

than the immediately perceived world, and thus as

equals and

regularity of a

Whereas each

individual and without all

classifica-

of concepts displays the rigid

Roman

in logic that strength teristic

is

therefore able to elude

is

tion, the great edifice

columbarium^'" and exhales

and coolness which

of mathematics. Anyone

who

is

has

characfelt this

cool breath will hardly believe that even the concept

- which

is

as a die

-

bony, foursquare, and transposable

as is

nevertheless merely the residue of a

metaphor, and that the illusion which in

we have heard only

upon

perceptual metaphors

volatilize

perceptual metaphor

movable host of meta-

be fixed, canonical, and binding.

illusions

ability

the regulative and imperative world.

and rhetorically

Truths are

man from

A

and embellished, and which, to a people to

them. Everything which distin-

to

guishes

opposite.

phors, metonymies, and anthropomorphisms: in short, a

these impressions into less colorful, cooler con-

is

involved

the artistic transference of a nerve stimulus

into images

is,

if

mother of every

Roman

not the mother, then the grand-

single concept.

vault for funeral urns.

But

in this

concep-

"On game

crap

tiuil

"iruiir"

imans using c\ti\

the designated manner, counting

fashioning the right categories, ami ne\er

atel>,

vi»)Ialing the

order of caste and class rank,

Romans and

the

in

ilu-

spots accur-

its

just as

up the heavens

l.truscans cut

with rigid mathematical lines and confineil \Mthin each ot the spaces therel\\ within

hmplum,^^ so e\er\ people has

a

a goil

delimiteil, as a similarl)

uni\ersf as original

man

and

demands within

henceforth

thinks

that each conceptual

Ins

own sphere.

admire man

1

truth

that

who succeeds in piling up an dome of concepts upon an

and takes them

Of

phor can one

ally

si

imagination that

faith

himself

be

spiders' webs: delicate

raises

himself

far

enough

to

enough not

b> the waves, strong

by every wind. As

one constructed

like

be carried along

to

be blow n apart

man

genius of construction

a

above the bee

of

following

in the

way: whereas the bee builds with wax that he

man

gathers from nature,

more

builds with the far

delicate conceptual material

which he

manufacture from himself. In

this

he

is

first

has to

greatly to be

admired, but not on account of his drive for truth or for

pure knowledge of things.

something behind

a

in

hen someone hides

bush and looks

the same place and finds

much to praise is how matters

V\

it

for

is

such seeking and finding. Yet

the definition of a

mammal, and

ing a camel, declare "look, a

indeed brought

is

way, but

to say,

it

it

is

a

and universally vahd apart from man. At

bottom, what the investigator of such truths

into

is

man.

is

only the metamorphosis of the world

He

strives to

something analogous

to

understand the world as

man, and

at

best

he

achieves by his struggles the feeling of assimilation.

Similar to the w ay in

w hich

astrologers considered

a

man

does

but for an instant he could escape from the

would be immediately destroyed.

him

cult thing for

admit

to

to

even

It is

a diffi-

himself that the

insect or the bird perceives an entirely different

world from the one that

man

does, and that the

question of which of these perceptions of the world is

the

this

more

correct one

would have

to

quite meaningless, for

is

have been decided previously

in

accordance w ith the criterion of the correct perception,

which means, is

accordance with a criterion

in

not available.

But

in

any case

it

seems

"the adequate expression of an object ject"

-

is

a

two

to

me

w hich would mean sub-

in the

contradictory impossibility. For be-

tween

That

is

prison walls of this faith, his "self consciousness"

between subject and object, there

have

human

table

ilus

artistically creating subject,

that "the correct perception" -

thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains

seeking

an

window,

l/iis

mammal,"

I

hich origin-

short, only by forgetting that he

this

not a single point which would be "true in itself or really

sun,

l/iis

which

make up

petrification \n

faculty of

then, after inspect-

a truth to light in this

a truth of limited value.

I

mass of images

a

like a fier\ liquid, onls in the invincible

itself, in is

meta-

with any repose, security, and consistency.

live

If

means of the

b\

onl>

not

stand regarding seeking and finding

"truth" within the realm of reason. If

is

again in

it

there as well, there

lie lorgets that

wiih an\ repose, security, and

li\e

reamed from the primal

order to be supported by such a foundation, his

must

he has

ihemseKes.

to be the things

and coagulation of

unstable foundation,

mg thai

measure] imme-

to

mere objects

as

«ine

treat

doing so he

ot all things but in

()nl\ b\ lorgetling this primiti\e world ot

consistencv:

were, on running water.

construction

him

«)1

tu

is

the original perceptual metaphors are metaphors

one may certainly

infmitelv complicated

method

Ills

which he intends

|

dialelx before

truth in

it

measure

ihese things

course, in

and, as

man

god be sought only

lere

might) genius of construction,

as a

as the

muliiphed cop\

mlinitil\

ilie

piiiiire

Sense"

a Nonmoral

in

again proceeils Irom the error ol belicN

mathematicall) divided conceptual heaven above

themselves

Truth and Lies

absolutely

spheres,

different is

no

no correctness, and no expression; there an aesthetic relation:

I

mean,

as

causality,

is,

at

most,

a suggestive transfer-

ence, a stammering translation into a completely

foreign tongue - for which there

is

required, in any

case, a freely inventive intermediate sphere

mediating force. "Apearance"

is

a

word

and

that con-

many temptations, which is why I avoid it as much as possible. For it is not true that the essence tains

of things "appears" in the empirical world. painter without hands

who wished

.\

to express in

song the picture before his mind would, by means

more

the stars to be in man's service and connected

of this substitution of spheres,

with his happiness and sorrow such an investigator

about the essence of things than does the empirical

,

still

reveal

considers the entire universe in connection with

world. Even the relationship of a nerve stimulus to

man: the

the generated image

entire universe as the infinitely fractured

echo of one original sound - man; the entire

A

religiously distinct, e.g. holy, space.

when

is

not a necessary one. But

same image has been generated millions of times and has been handed down for many generations and finally appears on the same occathe

Friedrich Nietzsche sion every time for last

all

mankind, then

same meaning

the

were the

men

for

sole necessary

acquires at

it

would have

it

image and

if

if it

the relation-

ship of the original nerve stimulus to the generated

image were manner,

strictly

causal one.

eternally

repeated

a

an

certainly be felt

and judged

same

In the

dream

would

to be reality.

But the

hardening and congealing of a metaphor guarantees absolutely nothing concerning

necessity and

its

ations has

no doubt

ism of this

is

he has quite clearly

we can

from the telescopic heights is

to

secure, complete, infinite,

How

not contradict each other.

will

some

little

if one

much

chemical processes, coincides properties which

who impress this,

which impresses

movement of

in the

we bring

the stars and in

bottom with those

at

Thus

to things.

it is

we

ourselves in this way. In conjunction

of course follows that the

it

in

artistic

process

if

all

w ithin them. The only way in which the new con-

thus occurs

possibility of subsequently constructing a

ceptual edifice from metaphors themselves can be

explained

is

forms. That

by the firm persistence of these original to say, this conceptual edifice

is

is

an

imitation of temporal, spatial, and numerical rela-

tionships in the

domain of metaphor.

the

does this reif it

were

place where the illusion

and unreality can be divined. Against kind of sense perception -

be able

and

semble a product of the imagination, for

or

things. All that conformity to law,

us so

is

it

most astonishing

is

w ill harmonize with and

things that are discovered

now as a bird,

-

the microscopic

and without any gaps. Science

following must be said:

He

penetrate here

to dig successfully in this shaft forever,

things

number which

begins in us already presupposes these forms and

has concluded that so far as

such, there should be

precisely

bear

deep mistrust of all ideal-

felt a

presence, and infallibility of the laws of nature.

regular,

all

within themselves the laws of number, and

of metaphor formation with which every sensation

sort: just as often as

- everything

comprehend

actually

familiar with such consider-

convinced himself of the eternal consistency, omni-

depths

we

in all things

nothing but these forms. For they must

with

exclusive justification.

Every person who

amazing that

this,

the

each of us had a different

we could only perceive now as a worm, now as a plant, if

of us saw a stimulus as red, another as blue,

We

have seen

how

originally language

it is

works on the construction of concepts, over in later ages by taneously

science.

constructs

Just as the bee simul-

and

cells

which

a labor taken

them with

fills

honey, so science works unceasingly on this great

columbarium of concepts, the graveyard of percepalways building new

higher stories and

while a third even heard the same stimulus as a

tions. It is

sound - then no one would speak of such a regularity

shoring up, cleaning, and renovating the old

of nature, rather, nature would be grasped only as a

above

creation which

towering framework and to arrange therein the

After

all,

what

is is a

subjective in the highest degree.

law of nature as such for us?

are not acquainted with effects,

which means

it

We

in itself, but only with its

in its relation to other laws

of

all, it

takes pains to

entire empirical world,

fill

w hich

,

up

this

cells;

monstrously

to say, the anthro-

is

pomorphic world. Whereas the man of action binds his life to reason

and

its

concepts so that he will not

nature - which, in turn, are known to us only as sums

be swept away and

of relations. Therefore

builds his hut right next to the tower of science so

refer again to others

all

these relations always

and are thoroughly incompre-

we actually know about these laws of nature is what we ourselves bring to them - time and space, and therefore relahensible to us in their essence. All that

tionships of succession and number.

But everything

marvelous about the laws of nature, everything that quite astonishes us therein and seems to

demand our

explanation, everything that might lead us to distrust idealism:

all this is

within

tained

inviolability of

space.

the

completely and solely con-

mathematical

strictness

and

our representations of time and

But we produce these representations

in

and

that he will be able to

exist.

powers which oppose

(TIJ)

ceases to be

scientific

to find shelter

their shields the

The

most varied

in

upon him,

"truth" with com-

pletely different kinds of "truths"

which bear on

sorts of

emblems.

drive toward the formation of metaphors

the fundamental

human

drive

a single instant dispense

w hich one cannot

is

for

with in thought, for one

would thereby dispense with man himself. This drive is not truly vanquished and scarcely subdued constructed as

it

and

And he requires shelter, for there are frightful

by the

things only under these forms, then

it

bulwarks which presently

powers which continuously break

the spider spins. If we are forced to

all

work on

for himself beneath those

from ourselves with the same necessity with which

comprehend

the scientific investigator

lost,

fact that a regular its

and

prison from

products, the concepts.

It

new world is own ephemeral new realm and

rigid its

seeks a

On another

(.haiiiul lor its atiiMiN. .uul

myth Am\

in ttri gcncTalI>

tiiuls this in

it

his ihi\c continually

I

.

and Lies

Truth

metaphors

a Nonmoral Sense'

in

confuses the conceptual catet^ones and cells h\

ilesignates the stream as "the

bringing forwanl new

carries

and metonymies.

It

metaphors,

transferences,

coniinuall\ manifests an ardent

desire to refashion the world which presents to

waking man, so

lar,

that

it

he as colorful, irregu-

will

lacking in results and coherence, charming, and

new

eternally

world ofclreams. Indeed,

as the

man

concepts that the waking

awake; and

clearly sees that he

precisely because of this that

is

it

is

it

web of

only by means of the rigid and regular

is

itself

he sometimes thinks that he must be dreaming

when

this

web of concepts

torn by

is

right in maintaining that if the

we would be

us every night

Pascal

is

same dream came

to

art.

occupied with

just as

it

itself.

is

dreamt

takes

fact,

''I

w ho a

because of the way that myth

granted

for

it

as a king

hours every night that he was

for twelve

workman.''^ In

happy

miracles

that

happening, the waking

life

always

are

of a mythically inspired

people - the ancient Greeks, for instance - more closely resembles a

world

When when

of a

dream than

does the waking

it

disenchanted

scientifically

god

in the

shape of

a bull

in the

team of

- and

horses'"

this

is

moment, and

possible at each

is

a beautiful

what the honest

is

all

it

when

fables as if they

were

theater acts as

it is

more

were, enchanted

it

the rhapsodist true, or

when

him

tells

w ithout

deception, the intellect,

Injuring, that

is free; it is

former slavery and celebrates

its

epic

the actor in the

So long

royally than any real king.

able to deceive

master of

released from Saturnalia.

to

previous conduct,

mark

the

of dis-

clings his

himself

is

whole

it

life

nothing but

most audacious w hen

feats

smashes

into confusion,

this

it.

it is

but

life,

immense frame-

That to

which the needy

long in order to preserve

and toy

a scaffolding

of the liberated

framework

and puts

fashion, pairing the

the closest,

human

be something good and seems

be quite satisfied with

most

in

it

an ironic

and separating

alien things

demonstrating that

.And

throws

to pieces,

back together

it

for the

intellect.

it

has no need of

these makeshifts of indigence and that

it

will

now be

no regular path w hich leads from these

its

It is

stractions.

sees

for these intuitions;

them he grows dumb, or

else

he

speaks only in forbidden metaphors and in un-

heard-of combinations of concepts.

He

does this so

by shattering and mocking the old conceptual

may

at least

correspond creatively to the

impression of the powerful present intuition.

There intuitive

are ages in

man

w hich the

rational

man and

latter is just as irrational as the

former

They both

life:

desire to rule over

know ing how

the

stand side by side, the one in fear of

intuition, the other with scorn for abstraction.

to

meet

his principal

is

The

inartistic.

the former, by

needs by means

of foresight, prudence, and regularity; the

latter,

by

disregarding these needs and, as an "overjoyed hero," counting as real only that

been disguised

tive

throws

There exists no w ord

when man

as

it

intuitions

into the land of ghostly schemata, the land of ab-

never more luxuriant, richer, prouder, more clever pleasure

life

work and planking of concepts

and more daring.

\\ ith creative

its

now does bears

free intellect copies

considers this

barriers he

who w ere merely amusing themselves by men in all these shapes. But man has an invincible inclination to allow

with happiness

The

distortion.

of nature sw arms

deceiving

as

become the master and

simulation, just as that previous conduct did of

the gods,

is,

it

it

face the expression of

its

indigence. In comparison with e\er\ thing that

that

around man as if it w ere nothing but a masquerade of

himself to be deceived and

who covets existence;

search of booty and prey

has

it

dares to wipe from

dream, anything

as in a

in

is

company of Peisistratus driving

Athenian believed - then,

Hut now

for his master. it

w ho goes

nymph,

can drag away

through the market place of Athens w ith

bondage from

guided by intuitions rather than by concepts. There

maidens, w hen even the goddess Athena herself

suddenly seen

of

endeavors, with gl(M>my

it

thinker.

every tree can suddenly speak as a a

At other times

like a servant

man

just as

he would otherwise walk." I'he

now thrown the token

the tools to a poor indi\iilual

hours every night that he was king," said Pascal,

would be

it

moving path which

offkiousness, to show the way and to demonstrate

to

believe that he

man where

intellect has

we are w ith the things that we see every day. "If a workman were sure to dream for twelve straight

as

bound-

into contusion aiul ihsplaces the

ary stones of abstractions, so that, for example,

as illusion

w as perhaps the case

man

life

which has

and beauty. Whenever,

in ancient

Greece, the intui-

handles his weapons more authoritatively

and victoriously than his opponent, then, under " ^'

Blaise Pascal

According

( 1

to

favorable circumstances, a culture can take shape

623 62), Pensees, number 386.

Herodotus,

the

tyrant

Peisistratus

(600-527 Bc) entered Athens accompanied by dressed as the goddess Athena.

a

woman

and

art's

mastery over

life

manifestations of such a this dissimulation, this

can be established. All the

life will

be accompanied by

disavowal of indigence, this

cm)

Friedrich Nietzsche

of metaphorical intuitions, and, in general,

glitter

this

immediacy of deception: neither the house, nor

How

we drink up

the gait, nor the clothes, nor the clay jugs give

this?

the sponge to wipe

seems

It

as if they

were

intended to

all

express an exalted happiness, an Olympian cloudlessness, and, as

The man who

were, a playing with seriousness.

it

is

guided by concepts and abstrac-

tions only succeeds

by such means

in

warding off

misfortune, without ever gaining any happiness for

And

himself from these abstractions. for the greatest possible

intuitive

man, standing

while he aims

freedom from pain, the

in the

midst of

a culture,

already reaps from his intuition a harvest of continually inflowing illumination, cheer,

tion

-

and redemp-

in addition to obtaining a defense against

To

misfortune.

when he

be sure, he suffers more intensely,

suffers;

he even suffers more frequently,

since he does not understand

how

same

into the

sorrow as he

ditch.

is

not be consoled.

who

learns

concepts

is

He

is

then just as irrational in

in happiness:

How

he cries aloud and

differently the stoical

will

man

from experience and governs himself by affected

by the same misfortunes! This

man, who at other times seeks nothing but sincerity, freedom from deception, and protection

truth,

against ensnaring surprise attacks,

now

executes a

him - you and But how did we do

killed

could

away the

Who

the sea?

gave us

What

entire horizon?

were we doing when we unchained

from

this earth

moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging its

sun? Whither

is it

continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in directions? Is there

not

Do we

empty space? Has

the breath of

feel

all

any up or down? Are we

still

not straying as through an infinite nothing?

not

it

become

colder? Is not night continually closing in

on us?

Do we not need to light Do we hear nothing as

morning?

of the gravediggers

who

lanterns in the yet of the noise

God? Do we

are burying

smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?

Gods, dead.

too,

God

decompose.

And we have

killed

God

dead.

is

remains

him.

"How shall we comfort ourselves,

from

to learn

experience and keeps falling over and over again

have

All of us are his murderers.

I.

evidence of having been invented because of a pressing need.

We

cried; "I will tell you.

the murderers

What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we of all murderers?

have to invent? great for us?

not the greatness of this deed too

Is

Must we

become gods

ourselves not

simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater

deed; and whoever

born

is

-

after us

for

masterpiece of deception: he executes his master-

the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher

piece of deception in misfortune, as the other type of

history than

man executes his in times of happiness. He wears no quivering and changeable human face, but, as it were, a

mask with

He does not When a real

cry;

dignified, symmetrical features.

he does not even

alter his voice.

storm cloud thunders above him, he

wraps himself

in his cloak,

walks from beneath

and with slow steps he

at his listeners; at

him

out. "I is

fell silent

and they,

in astonishment.

on the ground, and

it

At

and looked again

were

too,

last

silent

and stared

he threw his lantern

broke into pieces and went

have come too early," he said then;

not yet. This tremendous event

wandering;

still

it.

history hitherto."

all

Here the madman

it

is still

"my time

on

its

way,

has not yet reached the ears of

men. Lightning and thunder require time; the

light

of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, i

i

The Madman"

require time to be seen and heard. This deed

more distant from them than the most - and yet they have done it themselves.''

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright

place,

morning hours, ran

and cried incessantly:

''I

to the

seek God!

God!" - As many of those who did not

market I

seek

believe in

God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost.^ asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding.^ Is

has been related further that on the same day

madman

forced his

and there struck up out to

distant stars

and called

to

way

into several churches

his requiem aeternam deo.^

account,

have replied nothing but:

now if of God?"

these churches

sepulchers

he

is

"What

said

Led

always

after all are

they are not the tombs and

he afraid of us.' Has he gone on a voyage?

emigrated? -

Thus they yelled and laughed. The madman jumped into their midst and

pierced them with his eyes. "Whither

(n^

It

the

still

is still

is

God?" he

'

A

"requiem"

is

a

Latin prayer for the dead, in which

eternal rest {requiem aeternam)

Here

it is

being asked for

God

is

asked for the deceased.

{deo).

How

"How

The Dionysian World

the 'True World' Finally Became a

do

\iul

Fable" lu

I

lisii»r\

ol

.m

i

end,

i»tr

I

know what "the world"

\d

of the circle

unless a ring feels good-will

for all its riddles.-

and nothing

apparent one.

the

a

or there, but rather as

luptuous delight,

it!

(Bright day; breakfast; return of bun sens'" and cheerfulness;

not

out, as a play of torces

eternally," as a

cockcrow of positivism.) 5.

and

torce,

a

torms toward the hottest, most turbulent, most

Nordic, Konigsbergian.)" 4.

definite

something end-

detimte space

in

recurrence, with an ebb and a

a consolation, an obligation, an imperative.

unattained.

wasieil, not

extentled, but set

lessh

the

unpromisable; but the very thought

slrablc,

it

Christian.)'

The true world

whole, of

but likewise without increase or income;

losses,

"empty" here

the sinner xsho repents") it

as a

itself,

i\i*c\

not exfx-nd

enclosed h\ "nothingness" as by a boundary, not

something blurr\ or

the pious, the \irtuous

(Progress ot the idea:

transtorms

but onl>

itselt

iIu(

that

unalterable si/e, a household without expcn.scs or

unattainahle tor now,

insidious, incomprehensible

.V

the

truth ")

tin-

The true \NorUI

pronuseil tor the (*'for

llic sum--,

il, /k* is it

oldest torni ot the idea, relativeh sensible,

simple, ami persiiasi\e

2.

Iincs in

ShjII

THih world, a

magnitude of force

not grow bigger or smaller, that

pious, the \irluoiis

mc'

to

is

mirror^

energv, without hc{(mning,

ot

firm, iron

a

my

is

you,

t(Kj,

you

most power -

intrepid,

the will to

.\nd you yourselves are also this

power - and nothing

besides!

humanity;

INCIPIT ZAR.\TI lUSTRA.)" The

Nict/schc rogarded NNonun as fundamcntalh menda-

"

Kant

Good

title

The DionNsian World

mine, not

Nietzsche's.

cious.

"

lived in Konigsbcrg, Prussia.

''Zarathustra begins," referring to Nietzsche's

book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

.\

reference to Nietzsche's idea of the "eternal recur-

rence," that in our finite material universe

sense.

own

all

events must

be endlessh repeated. "l)ion>sian" below refers to Dion>sus, the Greek god of intoxication and sexuality.

(S>

14

^

'The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism"

Tommaso

Filippo

Marinetti

The cosmopolitan writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) founded the movement of Futurism

in

Futurism"

ism

1909 in

a prime

is

movements

by publishing "The Manifesto of

a Paris newspaper. Marinetti's Futur-

example

of the artistic

that exploded

in

and social

the period between

the world wars. Utopian, modern, intense, Mari-

wants an

netti

can re-make the world by

art that

recognizing the novel possibilities of industrial,

mass nor

is

society. This it

Italian

benign

not a purely aesthetic view,

is

implications. Marinetti urged

in its

involvement

in

World War

I

and

Suddenly we jumped, hearing the mighty noise of the huge double-decker trams that rumbled by outside, ablaze with colored lights, like villages

suddenly struck and uprooted by the

flooding

Po and dragged over

Futurism. Like Mussolini, Marinetti regarded war

Then

the silence deepened.

tened to the old canal muttering

and the creaking bones of

damp

their

We had stayed up all night, my friends and

I,

hanging mosque lamps with domes of

filigreed

under

domes starred like our spirits, shining like them with the prisoned radiance of electric hearts. For hours we had trampled our atavistic ennui into rich oriental rugs, arguing up to the last confines of brass,

and blackening many reams of paper with our

felt

pride was buoying us up, because

ourselves alone at that hour, alone, awake, feet,

like

proud beacons or forward

sentries against an

army of

down

their

at

us

from

hostile stars glaring

celestial

Alone with stokers feeding the

down

in the

hellish

fires

of

who

red-hot bellies of locomotives launched

their crazy courses, alone with

reeling like

wounded

lis-

above

"Let's go!"

I

said.

"Friends, away! Let's go!

Mythology and the Mystic last.

We're about

after, the first flight

Let's go!

Look

Ideal are defeated at

to see the Centaur's birth and,

of Angels!

life, test

there,

dawn! There's nothing

on the to

.

.

.

We

must

the bolts and hinges. earth, the very first

match the splendor of the

sun's red sword, slashing for the

first

time through

our millennial gloom!"

We

went up

to the three snorting beasts, to lay

amorous hands on out on

their torrid breasts.

that threatened

The

I

stretched

my car like a corpse on its bier, but revived at

raging

my

a guillotine blade

stomach.

broom of madness swept us out of

ourselves and drove us through streets as rough and

deep

as the

beds of torrents. Here and there, sick

encampments.

great ships, alone with the black specters

grope

sickly palaces

once under the steering wheel,

frenzied scribbling.

we

we

feeble prayers

under the windows

green beards,

shake the gates of

and on our

But, as its

we suddenly heard the famished roar of automobiles.

soon

as an heroic intensification of life.

An immense

and through

falls

gorges to the sea.

later

became an enthusiastic supporter of Benito Mussolini, arguing that fascism was an expression of

logic

on

holiday

drunkards

birds along the city walls.

Filippo

Tommaso

Marinetti,

"The

Manifesto of Futurism" (trans. R.W.

Founding and Flint

and Arthur

W. Coppotelli) from Marinetti: Selected Writings (ed. R.W. Flint), pp. 39-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1972.

1

"The Founding and Manifesto of Futuntm" lamplight ihc

irusi

glasN Uii^lit

(hll>ll^tl wiiiiloxs

Muthcnuiics

iiciciitiil

u> liis-

iis

our |H-nshin|{

ot

eyes I

w

crictl.

" Ihf siiiu.

ihi-

Mini

.ilmu-

^t^nt

were

mi!

luuicrNtanii'

|)crha(>%'

1(

uho urr^' Wc don't want to Woe to anvonr nho %a\% th\\n

is

or - w hat

based, in principle, on

c«

>lkci

i\

db^hivior

on convention.

amounts to the same thing

though often imbued

involved here were designated by three names, each

Polite formulas, tor instance,

suggesting and opposing the others.

with a certain natural expressiveness as in the case ot

retain the

word

sign to designate the

I

propose to

whole and

replace concept and sounJ-imagc respect ively by

mfteJ and signijur;* the

last

to

.nlN

priscmtJ

MKccssmn,

in

tlu\

ckimnis

I'luir

lt»rin a

chain

This

I

where

facts arc l\pical in this re-

ake the countless instancc\ where aitcralMin

JiincnsuinN, aiuiitor\ signit'icrs ha\c

their coni-

the dislinc-

is

hnguisiu insiiiuiion

ertain iliachronii

(

)

spect

arc

\\[k of fatlh thai

s4ilc

lasses of diffrrcnecs

i

ii\e tuiution of the

\shich can oltcr sinuiitaiu-ous groupings in sc\crjl at

c\en the

IS

It

language has. tor maintaining the piaraikii%ni hc-

obMous

is

it

occasions a comepiual change and that the

guished corresponds

sum

of the ideas distin-

sum

in principle to the

When two words

the

of

feature bcctniH's rcaililx

apparent when they are

distmctise signs

represented

ami the

through phonetic alteration (eg. French Jrcreptt

writing

in

graphic marks

Sometimes

siihstituteil lor

is

the linear nature

When am seems that obxious

accent a

I

I

spatial

the sigmtier

t>t

s\ liable, lor

is

not

instance,

it

concentrating more than one sig-

element on the same point

nificant

of

line

succession in time

Hut this

an

is

illusion, the sNilahle aiul its accent constitute onl\

There

»>ne ph(»national act

no

is

within the

clualitN

act but onl\ ilillerent opposiiionv. tn uli.it

auil

precedes

what follows.

from

and

Jtcrepitui

if

onl\

ha\e s«»mething

the\

wonl mas ha\e and

succeeding

mind

significant but without alwa\s

and two ideas

mind tend

When we compare to this: in

language there are onl\ dilferences.

Kven mt)re important: plies positive

difference generally im-

terms between w hich the difference

is

but in janguai^c there are (ml vdirtjcrcnccs

set up;

without positive

tcrtiis.

\\

hether

we

take the signifieti

language has neither ideas nor

or the signifler,

sounds thaiexisted but

a

bt;^fore

the linguistic system

onK concep tual, and phonic differences that The idea or phonic

have^issued from the system.

substance that a sign contains

is

of

than the other signs that surround

its

because

meaning or

a

its

sound being

affected, solely

is

true only

if

e\ cry thing in

the expression

father and

same with

fitting, for

it

applies

or

tw«)

ideas,

e.g.

the

idea

having

and

a signified

but only

distinct.

(ippositinn.

The

signifler, are not different

Between them there

entire

with which we shall be concerned

on oppositions of

this

is

only

mechanism of language, later, is

based

kind and on the phonic and

conceptual differences that they imply.

A

W hat

is

unit

a

is

ponds

true of value

is

true also of the unit.

segment of the spoken chain

that corres-

both are by nature

to a certain concept;

purely differential.

language

is

.\pp hed to units, the principle of differentiati on

the signified and the signifler

can be stated in this wav: the characteristics o f

when we consider the we have something that is posi-

theun it blend

class.

positive terms

signs

would not be

mother,

as

own

no longer

into the

"father" and the idea "mother"; two signs, each

sign in

tive in its

that are

merge

to

only to the comparing of two sound-images, eg.

are considered separately; its totality,

trial

each other, we can no longer speak of difference;

is

neighboring term has been modified.

Hut the siaiemeni that iie^ative

importance

Proof of this

term may be modified w ithout

that the value of a

either

less

it.

first

conceptual difference perceived

signifier.

F.Nerything that has been said up to this point boils

down

()r a 'chair*

seeks to find expression through a

distinct in the

in Its I'otality

chatu

(cf.

being successful on the

«)r

confused

common.

\n\ nascent difTerence will lend

become

(.on\ersely, any the

in

forms

different

iliuirc 'desk')

invariably to

h\

he Siprn ClonsidcrccJ

from irnpui), the ideas

dturcpi

that the> express will also tend to Ix-come

distinct signifier,

I

arc confu)»cd

A

linguistic

system

is

a series

in

with the unit

itself

any semiological system

,

guishes one sign from the others constitutes

of differences of sound combined with a series of

Differenc e makes character just as

differences of ideas; but the pairing of a certain

and the

same principle

of values; and this system serves as the effective link

commonly

it.

v alue

is this:

in the last analysis

what

referred to as a "grammatical fact"

the definition of the unit, for

within each sign, .\lthough both the signified and

an opposition of terms;

the signifler arc purely differential and negative

the opposition

when considered

formation of

a

makes

.Another rather paradoxical consequence of the

between the phonic and psychological elements

is

it

unit.

number of acoustical signs with as mauN cuts made from the mass of thought engenders a system

separately, their combination

In language,^

whatever distin-

is

it

particular))

German

it

is

fits

always expresses

differs

only in that

significant (e.g. the

plurals of the type Sacht:

(m>

>^

Ferdinand de Saussure Nachte)."^

Each term present

in the

without umlaut or

fact (the singular

position to the plural with umlaut and

When

e)

is

the

Nacht nor Ncichte

is

opposition. Putting

it

isolated, neither

anything: thus everything

op-

consists of

number of oppositions within

the interplay of a

system.

grammatical final e in

Nacht: Nachte, we might ask what are the units involved in

whole lars

it.

Are they only the two words, the

series of similar

and

plurals,

words, a and

a,

or

all

singu-

etc..''

Units and grammatical facts would not be confused

if linguistic

signs were

made up of something

another way, the Nacht: Ndchte relation can be

besides differences. But language being what

expressed by an algebraic formula a/ h in which a

we

and

h are not simple terms but result

relations.

Language,

in a

from

a set

manner of speaking,

is

of a

shall find

nothing simple

tion each other. Putting

Some

form and n ot a

its

oppositions are

the

names

significant than

and grammatical

others; but units

different

more

facts are only

for designating diverse aspects of

same general

fact:

the functioning of linguistic

oppositions. This statement

is

so true that

we might

very well approach the problem of units by starting

from grammatical

Nacht means

facts.

night.

Taking an opposition

like

it

overstressed, for ology,

all

it

substance.

it is,

regardless of our

approach; everywhere and always there

complex equilibrium of terms

type of algebra consisting solely of complex terms. of

in

is

the

same

that mutually condi-

another way, langu age

is

a

This truth could not be

alMhe mist akes

in

our termin -

our incorrect ways of naming th ings tha t

pertain to language, stem from the involuntary

supposition that the linguistic

have substance.

phenomenon must

.

From "Science as a Vocation"

Max

\\ cbcr

Max Weber (1864-1920). giant German sociology, stands

of

Marx as one

of the great

with

age

Freud and

of the quintessential theorists of

modernity. A supporter of liberal republicanism in

imperialist,

arguing ity,

for the

Germany. Weber

quasi-feudal

famously opposed the

need

politicization of science,

for

dispassionate objectiv-

a stance directly connected to his view of

his most and the Spirit of Capitalism, he described Euro-American modernization as an expanding "rationalism." by

modernity.

the

In

Introduction

famous book. The Protestant

of

life

rationalitat).

lation of

order to serve worldly

which nowadays

and by

Does one

mean

it

the conditions ot

American

Lnless he

is

streetcar has

into motion.

belief that sanctified the character traits re-

even

liberty, rational

price:

it

buys

mod-

individual

thought, and material progress

exchange for a "disenchantment of the world." a permanent state of dissatisfaction, and an "iron cage" of bureaucratic alienation. There is no way around this bargain. Weber argued in his marvelous 1918 lecture "Science as a Vocation." He concludes that one must either bear the fate of the times like a man.'or sacrifice rational intelligence and "return [to] the arms of the old churches in

.

There

is

no third option.

and

created

this

science

b\

means

technology,

that we, todax, tor instance, everv-

sitting in this hall,

streetcar,

a

ears

what

first clarify

scientifically oriented

satisfied that

capitalism. For Weber,

\

practically.

The development of Protestantism, he was an example: unlike Catholicism, it announced an individualistic, calculative form of salvation through disciplined work, an innerweltliche Askese or "this-worldly asceticism." Christianity thereby evolved a form of

modern comes at

of

usually judged in such an ex-

rationalization,

intellect ualist

then theorized,

ernity

is

tremely negative way. Let us

goals.

quired by

imj-Mirtant

lite

ha\e

a

greater knowledge ot

under which we

Indian

or

a

exist

Hottentot?'

than has

Hardly.

of

to instrumental rationality {Zweck-

in

most

ha\c been undergoing lor thousands

\vc

an

the analysis, planning, and manipu-

phenomena

Iracrion. the

is a

Iraclion, of the process ol intilltctuali/ation Nshich

to

Ethic

which he meant an increasing subjection

spheres

.ScitntifK progress

a

physicist,

no idea how the car happened to get And he does not need to know He is he may 'count' on the behasiour ot the

and he orients

this expectation; but it

one who rides on the

his

conduct according

takes to produce such a car so that

tools.

When we it

spend money today

does

money

hall,

it

happen

in

bet

that

readiness to the question;

that

one

c-an

daily food

buy something

sometimes more and sometimes

The savage knows what he does

\

I

economy almost every one of them will

hold a different answer

'

can move.

there are colleagues of political

here in the

for

it

sa\age knows incomparably more about his

I'he

How

to

he knows nothing about what

in

less.'

order to get his

and which institutions serve him

in this

southern Xfrican pcdplc

Max Weber, from "Science as

a Vocation." pp.

138-40. 143-9. 155-6 in From Max Weber Essays in Sociology (trans, and ed. H. H. Gerth and C.Wright Mills). New York: Oxford University Press. 1946.

.

Max Weber The

pursuit.

increasing inteilectualization and ra-

do

tionalization

««/, therefore, indicate

an increased

and general knowledge of the conditions under

which one It

or belief that

if

What namely, the knowledge

else,

one but wished one could learn

any time. Hence,

means

it

one can,

play, but rather that

is

things by calculation. This

disenchanted.

in

at

that

come

in principle,

means

service.

all is

means to its devoted disciples. To raise this question

inteilec-

is

and,

in

general,

which science belongs

this

''progress,"

and motive

as a link

do they have any meanings

You

to

force,

beyond the

that go

purely practical and technical.^

will find this

question raised in the most principled form in the works of

to ask for the vocation

life

Leo

Tolstoi."

He came

to raise the

What

of humanity.

Today one

from presuppositions."

It

for

into an infinite "progress," according

own imminent meaning should

its

an end; for there

is

always

never come to

a further step

ahead of

And no

It

founda-

w orld; and,

at least

our special question, these presuppositions are

the least problematic aspect of science. Science further presupposes that what tific

work

this,

our problems. For

we must

is

yielded by scien-

important in the sense that

is

being known." In

it is

"worth

obviously, are contained

this

all

presupposition cannot be

means.

scientific

its

can only be

It

inter-

ultimate meaning, which

reject or accept according to

position tow ards

has none because the individual hfe of civilized

man, placed to

And his man death has no meaning.

meaningful phenomenon.

.

that the rules of logic

tions of our orientation in the

proved by

is a

.

thing.''

valid; these are the general

preted w ith reference to

for civilized

there such a

Is

work presupposes

and method are

question in a peculiar way. All his broodings in-

answ er w as:

total

the value of science.'

usually speaks of science as "free

creasingly revolved around the problem of whether

or not death

of science within the

is

depends upon what one understands thereby. All scientific

process of disenchantment, which

has continued to exist in Occidental culture for millennia,

no longer

is

hence, the problem of what science as a vocation

tualization means. this

meaningful vocation.'

question must be raised. But this

world

calculations

what

a

it is

that goes

master

that the

means and

Has "progress" as beyond the

take.^

meaning

a recognizable

his

thought as the key-

art.

stand should one

technical, so that to serve

The

this

merely the question of man's calling for science,

longer have recourse

This above

w ith

into

order to master or implore the

existed. Technical

perform the

Now,

such

did the savage, for w hom such mysterious

spirits, as

powers

One need no

means

to magical

it

that principally there are

no mysterious incalculable forces

all

novels one meets

note of the Tolstoyan

lives.

means something

Throughout

the imprint of meaninglessness. late

our ultimate

life.

Furthermore, the nature of the relationship of

work and

scientific

presuppositions

its

varies

The

natural

sciences, for instance, physics, chemistry,

and as-

widely according to their structure.

one who stands

in the

man w ho comes

w hile

lies in infinity.

upon the peak which Abraham, or some peasant of the

past, died "old

and

he

not only because with such knowledge one can

in

attain technical results but for its

march of

progress.

to die stands

satiated with life" because

stood in the organic cycle of life; because his

life,

terms of its meaning and on the eve of his days, had

him what

given to

life

had

to offer; because for

him

tronomy, presuppose to

as self-evident that

it is

w orth

know the ultimate law s of cosmic events

far as science

can construe them. This

quest for such knowledge this presupposition

is

to

ow n

is

as

the case

sake, if the

be a "vocation." Yet

can by no means be proved.

there remained no puzzles he might wish to solve;

And

and therefore he could have had "enough" of

the world which these sciences describe

is

worth

has any "meaning," or that

it

makes

Whereas

civilized

man, placed

in the

life.

midst of the

continuous enrichment of culture by ideas, knowledge,

and problems, may become "tired of hfe" but

not "satiated with

life."

minute part of what the ever anew

,

He

life

and what he

seizes

is

always something

provisional and not definitive, and therefore death for

him

death

is

ingless;

is

a

meaningless occurrence.

meaningless, civilized

by

its

life as

very "progressiveness"

And such it

because is

mean-

gives death

less

while, that

it

for the

A

great Russian writer (1828-1910).

12^

it

be proved that the existence of

answers to such questions.

Consider modern medicine,

ogy which

is

a practical

technol-

highly developed scientifically.

The

general "presupposition" of the medical enterprise is

stated trivially in the assertion that medical sci-

ence has the task of maintaining

life as

such and of

diminishing suffering as such to the greatest possible degree.

the medical "

can

sense to live in such a world. Science does not ask

catches only the most

of the spirit brings forth

still

man, even

Yet

this is problematical.

By his means

man preserves the life of the mortally ill

if

the patient implores us to relieve

him

"Science at a Vocation" cM-n

lite,

III

hiN rrlaiixis,

it

worihlcNs jiul

whom

III

IN

Ins

grow imlHaruhic. gram

hiN worthliNs lilc

Irom suttrring

ilcinpiion

wlxun

ii>

Perhaps

4 |XM»r

liiiutu

or noi, wish jiuI iiuisI wish lor his iKaih

prcMip|x>sitions ol niciiicinc,

prcM'iu the plnsicufi Iroin

Whfihir

pculK ctlorts

Njtiir.il

icchnicallN

it

l«)

worth while

is

ilo

ue wish

il

Iea\es i|uite asule.

Icchnicalh

sense

l\\v

iiNing

not jskeil h\ ineiiuine

is

ih)

wlutlur

aiul

master hie

to

assumes

«»r

whether we shouUI ami do w

pur|vises, life

\v\

|H*nal khIi*,

science gises ns an answer to the ijuestion

what we must

tit

ilu

.iiul

i(

ri-liiu|iiishing his tlura-

lite

this question

is

his rr-

rcbtnis, wluilur thi\ .ulmn

inxolxcil. whiisc

jml when

litr

ihc cosIh oI nuinuining

ish to

uliiin.iteK

it

lor its

gnen

is

The

tail

tor aesthetics

to Ciod

and, in

man. Hence, aesthetics shotiU be works of

is

partly

ot

whether there

dcK's not ask

should deplore

it

establishes what

It

to the rules ot

bound by

Mews

in

11

belongs there

To take ami

juristic

logically

is

thought,

compelling and

tions

IS

another

\\

hen speaking

recogni/ed as bind-

helher there should be law ant! uhelher one

legal

such questions

just these rules

jurisprudence does not answer.

our

this result,

It

can only

state:

It

according to the norms ot

thought, this legal rule

means of attaining

is

the appropriate

a

one uses

in

stand

is

such

a

Consider the historical and cultural sciences.

in

literary,

and

phenomena

social

terms of their origins. But they give us no answer

to the question,

cultural

.\nd

whether

whether the existence of these

phenomena has been and

they it

is

worth whi/c.

do not answer the turlher question, is

worth the

etfort

is

an interest

partaking, through this procedure, of the

this interest

is

commu-

the case; and that they

by no means proves that

goes without saying. In fact evident.

in

men." But they cannot prove

"scientifically" that this

presuppose

meet-

one's

come

out clearly

dut\.

The words

damned

meeting are not means of scien-

of contemplatne thought; they

to loosen the soil

swords

are

against

are weapons.

analyzes them

what results

it

is

not

at all

it

self-

words

such

enemies:

the

would be an outrage, however,

It

in

"democracy"

instance,

for

If,

lo

lecture or in the

a

under discussion, one considers

its

is

sarious forms,

the wa\ the\ function, determines

tor the conditions

of

life

has as compared with the other.

the one form

Then one con-

fronts the forms of democracN with non-democratic

forms of

which,

political

order and endeavors to

w here the student may

in

terms of his ultimate

stand. But the true teacher will

from the platform any student, whether let

it is

ideals,

he can take

political position

a

upon the

expressed or suggested. is

political

a

to a

from

beware of im|>osing

the facts speak tor themselves"

way of putting oNcr

come

find the point

"To

the most unfair

position

the

to

student.

W

required to know

them. They presuppose that there

nity of "civilized

one thing,

means of canvassing votes and The) are not plow-shares

analysis but

positi(m

it.

rhe> teach us how to understand and interpret political, artistic,

is

and part) posi-

in a political

personal standpoint; indeed, to

and take

tific

p

for him.

whiih

ilarilv

rather lacilitates this dut>

aiul

new ami genuine

a

tlnall\, will create

sionately for him. After

integrilx.

the

return silenil\, without the usual pubiicit\ build-

up

leitual

lourage to

con-

the person w ho cannot bear the fate of the like

quite « JifTcrmi

matter than the evasion of the plain dut\ of inlcl-

an inner sense, something simi-

result, but

will

man\ monuments ni tries intellectualK to

religions without

prophecN, then,

f>ncii

to torce anil to "in\ent"' a

st>le in art,

are prmluceil as the

ities last

is

like a rirebraiul. weliling tluin

we attempt

It

m«)numental

an unconiliiMinjl

cthiailly

higher than the academic prophecx, which docit not

former times swept through the

in

in la\or ol if

clearb reali/e that in the leciure-riMims ot the uni-

is

pulsating that corres|>onds to the prophetic Wii,*'

ilc\oiion

reliKiouh

intimate ami not

art

within the smallest ami intimate circles,

human

not acci-

It is

Mcnficc

intellectual

acculental that l(Kla\ oiiK

our greatest

that

ilenlal

mitt

i-iihcr

lilc

\N«irlil

b>

ill.

siiMinu- \ahii-s luxe rciri-utcil

4iul iiiDsi

public

Iroin

raimii-

l»\

Ami, aKivr

ali/iition Ani\ inicllci.lU4li/4lion

Kdom

12 "Seir"

is

f sau.

Jacobs

In the t'oilox^ing

another name for

Le Corbusier Charles-Edouard Jeanneret,

a.k.a.

Le Corbusier

(1887-1965), was a Swiss architect whose 1923 collection of magazine articles Vers une Architecture (translated as Towards a

New Architecture)

is

perhaps the most important architectural book of the twentieth-century. Le Corbusier took it as his generation's task fundamentally to rethink architecture's meaning for a new technological and socially egalitarian age.

De-ornamentation and

geometrical simplicity are not only functional

and egalitarian, but they reveal the truth of a building, naked and essential. When his innovative design for the first League of Nations center in Geneva in 1927 was disqualified (because it had not been drawn using India ink!), the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) was formed, largely to defend his kind of avant-garde work. His architectural style was based on a vision of a future society that

would be true to

its

own

by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes

in us,

an order which we

he gives us the measure of

feel to

be in accordance with

that of our world, he determines the various

move-

ments of our heart and of our understanding; then that

we experience

Three Reminders

it is

the sense of beauty.

to Architects

MASS Our

eyes are constructed to enable us to see forms

in light.

Primary forms are beautiful forms because they can be clearly appreciated. Architects to-day no longer achieve these simple

forms.

Working

Industrial nature.

by

engineers

calculation,

employ

geometrical forms, satisfying our eyes by their geo-

The

metry and our understanding by

Engineer's ^Esthetic and

their

work

is

on the direct

line

their mathematics;

of good

art.

Architecture

The

Engineer's ^Esthetic, and Architecture, are

two things that march together and follow one from the other: the one being now the other in an

The

unhappy

at its full height,

state of retrogression.

Engineer, inspired by the law of

Economy

SURFACE A

mass

is

divided up according to the directing and gener-

is

enveloped

in its surface, a surface

ating lines of the mass; and this gives the

which

mass

its

individuality.

and governed by mathematical calculation, puts us in accord with uni\ ersal law.

The realizes spirit;

He achieves harmony.

Architect, by his arrangement of forms,

an order which

is

a

pure creation of his

by forms and shapes he

to an acute degree

affects

and provokes

our senses

plastic emotions;

Le Corbusier, from "Argument," pp. 1-8; inder:

Mass," pp.

Mass," pp.

47-64

in

Towards a

(trans. Frederick Etchells). tions,

1986.

"First

Rem-

29-31; and "Third Reminder:

New

New

Architecture

York: Dover Publica-

Towards a Nt^w ArcNtucturo \rthuccls ciMiNdiucnls

Mv

itHtljN

The grtai

'l"

"'

all Jill

•...ii..iii.

J

surfjcrs

(il

//A7'/

pruhlcins ol

The airplane

inusi huM- J groiiulrKul soluiion I'lircrd

ncciis

cxactU

iif

nuke use

actonljiKc with the slncl

in

cnmnccrs

ilcicrmiiifil coruiitions,

generating ami accusing lines in rela-

(it

forms

to

tion

>%i»rk

III

IheN

/\/s

nuKkiii iunsiiiutiun

create

liinpui

of the airplane lies in the toKic vthich

governed the sialement

the

of

problnn and Us

realization

The problem

ino\ing

.iiui

the prtnlucl o( lUrsc Mrlrttiim

is

The lesson

of

ilu

house has not

liccn

\cl

slated plastic tacts

Nesertheless there

exist

ilo

siandanls fur the

dwelling house

l\

/'/

Ihc

.Machinery contains

Wiihoui

\ou ha\e lack

plan.

a

^m^\,

generator

IM.ui IS the

onUr,

iil

aiul

which makes

The house

machine

a

is

in itself the factor ot

ccun-

for selection for living in.

wilJulness

The IMan hokis

in itself the

pn>hlems

i'he great

collectiNe necessities, put a

essence of sensatitm.

to-morrow,

of

"plan"

tlu- i|iRsti(>ii ot

in

new form. Minlern

\ll()\]()lilLi:S

In

ilictaleil

We

must aim

face the

ilemaiuls. aiul

life

is

waiting

new

tor. a

kind of plan, boih tor the house aiui lor the

the fixing of standards in order to

at

problem

of perfection.

The Parthenon

is a

proiluct of selection applied

to a stanilani

cit\

Architecture operates in accordance with standards. Rc'iiiilaliiii;

,incs

I

Standards are

mailer of Ujgic, analvsis and

a

minute stud>; ihe\ are based on

An

ine\itable element ot ArchiiecUire.

The necessitN

tor ortler.

has been well "stated."

The regulating

guarantee against wilfulness.

line

is a

.\

a

problem which

standard

is

definiteU

established by experiment.

brings satisfaction

It

to the understanding.

The

regulating line

a recipe. Its

given to

is

a

means

are an integral

it

to

an end;

it

is

not

Architecture

choice and the modalities of expression part of

architectural

THE LliSSOX

Ol ROMl.

creation.

The

business of Architecture

tional relationships

Eyes

W hich Do

Not Sec

.Vrchitecture goes

-Architecture

The The

LIXERS' A

epoch has begun.

great

There

exists a

There

exists a

spirit;

it

is

to

new

stifled

in the

of intention

in industrial

The

own

result

animating

ot"

a state

all

the

of mind

special character.

Our own epoch is determining, day by day, its own style. Our eyes, unhappily, are unable yet to discern it. liners.

Plan prtK'eeds from within to without; the

exterior

is

the result of an interior.

The elements

of architecture are light and shade,

walls and space.

Arrangement

is

the gradation of aims, the classi-

fication of intentions.

-Man looks eyes,

Ocean

a unit\

sense of relationships; architecture deals

by custom.

a unity of principle

its

of order,

utilitarian needs.

thing

new

lie.

work of an epoch, the which has

beyond

a plastic

Tin: liJA si()\ Ol' PL \\s is

"styles" are a is

emo-

Passion can create drama out ol inert stone.

mass of work conceived

be met with particularly

-Architecture

Style

to establish

with quantities.

spirit.

production.

The

spirit

is

is

by means of raw materials.

at

w hich arc

the creation of architecture w ith his 5 feet

6 inches from the ground-

One

can only deal with aims w hich the eye can appreciate.

Le Corbusier and intentions which take into account architectural

come

elements. If there

into play intentions

do not speak the language of architecture, you

Beautiful also with

which

artist's sensibility

arrive

tioning elements.

the animation that the

all

can add to severe and pure func-

of plans, you transgress the rules of the

at the illusion

Plan through an error in conception, or through leaning towards

a

Architecture or Revolution

empty show.

PURE CREATION OF THE MIND

new problems have prenew tools have been created them. If this new fact be set

In every field of industry,

sented themselves and

Contour and

profile

arc

the touchstone of the

architect.

capable of resolving

against the past, then you have revolution.

Here he reveals himself as artist or mere engineer. Contour

is

There

here no longer any question of custom,

is

free of

all

constraint.

nor of tradition, nor of construction nor of adaptation to utilitarian needs.

Contour and mind; they

the plastic

pure creation of the artist.

Mass-production Houses

new economic

needs, mass-production units have been created

both

mass and

in

detail;

have been achieved both

profile are a

call for

In building and construction, mass-production

has already been begun; in face of

this fact

be

and definite

in detail

set against the past,

and

results

in mass. If

then you have

revolution, both in the

method employed and

the large scale on w hich

it

The

in

has been carried out.

history of Architecture unfolds itself slowly

across the centuries as a modification of structure

A

great epoch has begun.

and ornament, but

There

concrete have brought

exists a

new

spirit.

Industry, overwhelming us like a flood which

on towards

rolls

us with

new

its

destined ends, has furnished

new epoch,

tools adapted to this

mated by the new

Economic law

ani-

inevitably governs our acts and

The problem of the house is a problem of the The equilibrium of society to-day depends

epoch.

Architecture has for

it.

its first

duty, in this

period of renewal, that of bringing about a revision

of values,

a revision

of the constituent elements of

the house.

the index of a greater capacity for construction, and

overturned. If we challenge the past,

no longer

belonging to our

own

is

based on analysis and experi-

period has

Our minds have

Industry on the grand scale must occupy

about; and

The machinery

of Society, profoundly out of between an amelioration, of histor-

gear, oscillates

importance, and a catastrophe.

The

primordial instinct of every

itself

house on

intellectual.

mass-production

basis.

create the mass-production spirit.

of constructing

It is a

mass-production

houses.

The

human

being

is

various classes of

workers in society to-day no longer have dwellings adapted

spirit

come

arisen, consciously or unconsciously.

with building and establish the elements of the

We must

shall learn

consciously or unconsciously

to assure himself of a shelter.

ment.

The

we

exist for us, that a style

apprehended these events and new needs have

ical

Mass-production

a

and

conquests, which are

there has been a Revolution.

our thoughts.

upon

new

of an architecture in which the old codes have been

that "styles"

spirit.

in the last fifty years steel

to their needs;

neither the artizan nor the

question of building which

is at

the root of

the social unrest of to-day: architecture or revolution.

The spirit of living in mass-production houses. The spirit of conceiving mass-production houses. we

If

eliminate from our hearts and minds

dead concepts

in regard to the house,

and look

all

the question from a critical and objective point of

view

,

we

shall arrive at the

"House-Machine," the

mass-production house, healthy (and morally so too)

and beautiful

tools

in the

same w ay

that the

working

and instruments which accompany our

ence are beautiful.

(51$)

First

Reminder: Mass

at

exist-

Architecture

is

the masterly, correct and magnifi-

cent play of masses brought together in light. eyes are

made

to see

forms

in light; light

Our

and shade

reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders

or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the

image of these

is

.

Towards a New Architecture disltiKt

guil\.

and IS

ll

tangihlt- wiihiii u\ Jiul

Hiihout

Jiiibi-

itui reason ihai (hcM: arc hrautiful

liir

formi. ihf mn\t hfiiutiful fo'fti

l.\cr\lxKl>

is ujjrcril

js Id that, the thiUI, the sjNugc aiul (lu- incijplus-

liun

ll

Roman

(irccL or

l.g\|>iian.

arihitccturc

and

kus iPT hate the .imentan grant elrvalon

afe

magmfumt I'lRM -rtl

IT» of ikr ntw

A\«»RI(.AS I.N(il\I.I.R% (IVIRHMII.M

lll>

IIIMK

\\MII SK( III!

ihc \cr\ luiurc ot ihc pbstic arts

IS (it

J

failonei. ike

>

01 R IXHIRISCi

AI.(.tJl.Afl()N.H

(

K»

11

I

An

is

architecture ot prisnis, ciilx-s ami c\lnulers, p\ra-

muls or spheres I. uxor,

\

einple

I

(

not.

Iiiiui.iiiii iil.ilU

i»Iis«.

uiii.

«>t

I

I

.III liitiv till

(.

IN

spheres, cones aiul iNJiiulers

tui

I

expression ol

gcometr>

of

we search

in

it

for

kind tmtside plastic

ol a sub)ecti\e

complex

a

tor that reason that a cathedral

is

an

is

second order (intersectinii arches)

hcautitui and that

not \er\

is

compensations

art.

A

cathedral

interests us as the ingenious solution ot a difficult

problem, but

a

problem

which the

ot

Ki iniiulci

I

i^ostulales

he plan

is

site

impact

gravity, which

The

is

a

drama; a j'l^ht against

is

not a

their

Pyramids, the Towers

ot

Babylon, the Ciates

Samarkand, the Parthenon, the Coliseum, the

t)t

Pantheon,

Mosques

the

Pont

the ot

«.lu

Santa

Ciard,

Stamboul, the Tower

Sophia,

ot Pisa, the

to space

du

do

(^uai d'Orsay, the Cirand Palais

architects

of to-day,

the sterile back-

waters of their plans, their tbiiage, their pilasters

and

their lead r(K)ts,

ha\e ncNcr acquired the

ct)n-

eye trans-

in a large interior, the

multiple

surfaces of walls and vaults; the cupolas detenninc the large spaces; the vaults display their

accordance

comprehensible

with

w hole structure

trom

rises

accordance with

a rule

harmony: is at its

this

its

reasons.

base and

which

is

is

in

The

developed

written on the

is

.\

pr()t«)und pro-

architecture.

basis. V\ ithout plan there c-an

of aim

grandeur

neither

sur-

noble torms, variety of tbrm,

in the plan:

jection of

own

and the walls adjust themselves

taces; the pillars

The plan

lost in

relationship of

the

unity of the geometric principle.

not belong to .\rchiiecture."

The

rhvthm and not an

architecture.

is

The eye observes,

ground

I'he Ciare

if

the dispfjsition of

if

clean

in just pro|>ortion, the

is

If

it

kind and ha\e not been

derives trom these satistactions of a high

the Pont-Royal, the In\alidcs Architecture.

receives the

It

up around

mits to the brain co-ordinated sensations and the

in

these belong to

a

incoherent agglomeratHin,

Cupolas of Brunclleschi and of Michael Angelo, all

a titrmal

the rKcc»-

le\el, the

rcaMin ol their height the same accomnKnlation that has

wum

jiui

ionsiani repairs toexeiulr,

them

(a

labour of Sisyphus) the gas

The Circck mythological character Sisyphus was condemned h\ the gods rcpcaicdb to mil a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down, tor etcmit> "Tubes" refers .

to

subwavs.

(m>

Le Corbusier city.

Here again the plan

is

the generator; without

it

accent running not from top to bottom, but horizontally from

poverty, disorder, wilfulness reign supreme.

Instead of our towns being laid out in massive

This

left to right.

a modification of the first

is

importance

in

quadrangles, with the streets in narrow trenches

the aesthetic of the plan;

walled in by seven-storeyed buildings set perpen-

but we shall be wise to bear this in our minds,

dicular on the

courtyards,

pavement and enclosing unhealthy

airless

and sunless

wells,

our new

has not yet been realized;

it

in considering projects for the extension

of our

towns. *

*

*

layout, employing the same area and housing the same number of people, would show great blocks of

We are living in a period of reconstruction and of

houses with successive set-backs, stretching along

adaptation to new social and economic conditions.

No more

avenues.

arterial

opening on every side not on the

puny

to air

trees of

courtyards, but

and

light,

flats

and looking,

our boulevards of to-day,

In rounding this

Cape Horn the new horizons

before us will only recover the grand line of tradition

by a complete revision of the methods

in

but upon green sward, sports grounds and abun-

vogue and by the fixing of a new basis of construc-

dant plantations of trees.

tion established in logic.

The

jutting

prows of these great blocks would

break up the long avenues

at regular intervals.

The

In architecture the old bases of construction are

dead.

We

shall not rediscover the truths of archi-

various set-backs would promote the play of light

tecture until

and shade, so necessary

ground

to architectural expression.

Reinforced concrete has brought about a revolution in the aesthetics of construction.

By suppress-

ing the roof and replacing

it

concrete

is

new

hitherto

unknown. These set-backs and recessions

leading us to a

are quite possible

and

by

will, in

terraces, reinforced aesthetic of the plan,

the future, lead to a

play of half-lights and of heavy shade with the

A

for

new

bases have established a logical

every

architectural

period of 20 years

manifestation.

beginning which

is

occupied in creating these bases.

A

will

be

period of great

problems, a period of analysis, of experiment,

a

period also of great aesthetic confusion, a period in

which

We tion.

a

new

aesthetic will

must study the

be elaborated.

plan, the key of this evolu-

"Lecture on Ethics" From Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwiu;

\\ ittgcnstcin

philosopher

Austrian

Ludwig

Wittgenstein

(1889-1953) was perhaps the most

influential

Western philosopher of the twentieth century. Brilliant and unhappy. Wittgenstein struggled all his life against the bewitchment" of his mind by philosophical questions. Having studied with

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), his early work on

fundamental issues in the philosophy of mathematics, logic, and the nature of philosophy gave major impetus to logical positivism. Wittgenstein then declared that he had put all philosophical questions to rest and left academia. Years later, after a major change in outlook, he returned and gave rise to "ordinary language" philosophy, presented in his posthumous but hugely influential Philosophical Investigations that

meaning

is

(1953).

Its

notion

determined by social contexts

of

practical activity, or "language-games." later play

Most

an important role

in

would postmodernism.

of the following excerpt is his lesser

"Lecture on Ethics" (1929).

in

known

which he explains

diminished by mentioning them to

The

first

one, N\hich almost

that l.nglish

not

is

m>

>(»u

nati\e tongue and

and

one

talks

to a.sk

you

I

to

stantly be

mar. that

I

you right

in this point

\\

first

to read a

announced the end

of traditional philosoph-

to

I

have

me my and my

thought was that

I

paper to your society,

would

certainly

was

do

it

second thought was that

if

tunity to speak to you

should speak about some-

thing which

I

am

I

I

to

have the oppor-

keen on communicating to you

give you a lecture about, say, logic.

ical reflection.

lecture

And

hen Nour former secretary honoured

me

by asking

is this,

few words

will say a

I

about the reason for choosing the subject chosen:

con-

committing against the Knglish gram-

and

stein

will

1

of mine with slightly wrong expectations. set

my

get at

The second difficulty will mention probably many of you come up to this

to his first book. Tractatus

which Wittgen-

if

can do is make my task easier by tr\ing to meaning in spite of the faults which about a difficult subject. All

inquiry. Following this is the

in

is

ex-

which would be desirable

human

Logico-Philosophicus (1921).

my

jircssion therefore often lacks that prcci.sion

subtle!)

famous conclusion

the limits of

beforehand

need not mention,

I

that

I

should not misuse this opportunity to I

c^ll this

misuse, for to explain a scientific matter to \ou

would need paper.

a

a it

course of lectures and not an hour's

Another alternative would have been

to

give you what's called a popular-scientific lecture, that i i

Lecture on Ethics"

Before

I

begin to speak about

me make have

a

great

my

subject proper

few introductory remarks. difficulties

thoughts to vou and

I

in

think

I

feci

I

communicating

is

a lecture intended to

you understand

let

shall

my

some of them mav be

a

make you

believe that

thing which actualK you don't

Ludwig Wittgenstein: [A] "Lecture on Ethics." The Philosophical Review 74. no. 1 (January 1965). pp. 3-12: [B] from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (trans. D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness). paras. 6.53-6.57. pp. 73-4. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1961.

(@)

Ludwig Wittgenstein understand, and to gratify what

believe to be one

I

about

superficial curiosity about the latest discoveries of

actually used in

science.

rejected these alternatives

I

you about

talk to

of general importance, hoping that

up your thoughts about

clear

it

may

My

it).

and

third

is

it

the hearer

this, that

is

led

That

stand

he says, but what on earth

or else he thinks "I see

on earth

incapable of

w hat

it

he driving at"

is

he's driving

but how

at,

he going to get there." All

is

lec-

he either thinks: "I under-

to say:

is

is

if

will say

and the goal w hich

leads to. all

them

and the

one which,

last difficulty is

seeing both the road he

to

(even

I

most lengthy philosophical

in fact, adheres to

tures and

to

help to

this subject

you should entirely disagree with what about

me

to

can do

I

is

these expressions

all

be

and decided

w hich seems

a subject

Now the first thing that strikes one

concerned with.

of the lowest desires of modern people, namely the

senses.

instance

say that this

I

purpose has been previously fixed upon. In

the

word good

coming up

in the relative sense

now

will

into

what

He says:

"Ethics

is

in his

book Prin-

the general enquiry

Now I am going to use the term

good."

is

is

adopt the explanation of that term

which Professor Moore has given cipia Ethica.^

know,

begin. IVly subject, as you

will

I

predetermined standard.

to a certain

similarly if

I

say that

catch cold

I

mean

it

is

important for

say that this

right road relative to a certain

deep problems. But

this

them. Supposing that

me

of you saw

I

part of what

make you

to

is

generally called Aesthetics.

see as clearly as possible

number of more

or less

And

take to

I

a

"You're behaving

want

I

to

preposterous

to say "I to

answered "I know, I'm

could say would be

said

and by enumerating them

I

But suppose

that's all right."

you

each of which could be substituted for the above definition,

man

the other

all

know I behave badly, but then I

you ought

on the same photographic

plate in order to get

the picture of the typical features they

common. And ive

photo

I

as

by showing

could make you see what

say - Chinese face; so

synonyms which I

I

if you

will

is

had

all

you such

to

in

a collect-

the typical

look through the

-

row of

put before you, you

will,

hope, be able to see the characteristic features they

all

have

common and

in

features of Ethics.

Now instead of saying "Ethics is

the enquiry into what

Ethics

what is

is

these are the characteristic

is

good"

the enquiry into what

is

really important, or

I

I

is

life

living.

I

w ill

worth

as to

all

what

to

to

he would say "Well,

J

behave better." Here you have

i

instance was one of a relative judgment.

Every judgment of

ment of

facts

form that

loses

it

relative value

all

is

the right

mere

a

in

es-

this:

state-

such

a

the appearance of a judgment

of value: Instead of saying "This

Granchester,"

is

and can therefore be put

first

The

sence of this difference seems to be obviously

is

the right

way

to

could equally well have said, "This

I

way you have

to

go

if

you want

to get to

valuable, or, into

good runner" simply means that he runs

a certain

way of

these phrases you it is

that Ethics

is

number of etc.

G. E. Moore (1873-1958), English philosopher who,

Now

miles in a certain

what

judgments of

I

w ish

to

a

number of minutes,

contend

relative value

is

is

that,

although

all

can be shown to be

mere statements of facts, no statement of fact can ever be, or imply, a judgment of absolute value. Let explain this: Suppose one of you were an

niscient person

with Bertrand Russell, invented twentieth-century "ana-

ments of

lytic" philosophy.

and that he

(l4g)

want

an absolute judgment of value, whereas the

me '

w ant

man

living, or into the right

rough idea

don't

Granchester in the shortest time"; "This

could have said Ethics

believe if you look at

get a

were

could have said

the enquiry into the meaning of life, or into what

makes

and

I

behave any better," could he then say "Ah, then

that's all right".^ Certainly not;

faces

then

me

to

beast" and then

like a

duced when he took

number of photos of different

"Ah

had told one of

I

and he came up

lie

produce the same sort of effect w hich Galton proa

Ethics uses

don't want to play any better,"

I

put before you

will

I

if

playing and said "Well, you play

synonymous expressions

be the subject matter of Ethics a

w hat

how

not

is

playing badly but

tial

and

life

could play tennis and one

which includes w hat

most essen-

my

I

these expressions don't present any difficult or

pretty badly" and suppose

believe to be the

not to

mean that it's the goal. Used in this way

the right road

is

me

that catching a cold produces

Ethics in a slightly wider sense, in a sense in fact I

fact

simply means

Thus when we say that this man is a good pianist we mean that he can play pieces of a certain degree of difficulty with a certain degree of dexterity. And

I

I

far as

this

certain describable disturbances in

Ethics and

\

that

the chair serves a certain predetermined purpose

and the word good here has only meaning so

end you may see both the way and where

leads to.

If for

means

a good chair this

is

hand

on the other.

ethical or absolute sense

is

will call

I

the trivial or relative sense on the one

again to ask you to be patient and to hope that in the it

them

that each of

is

two very different

all

and therefore knew

all

the

om-

move-

the bodies in the w orld dead or alive also

knew

all

the states of

mind of

all

"Lecture on Elhic*" luiiiuu iH-ings tlui cM-r IimhI, jiuI \up|x»sc this iiuii \Nroic

he knew

all

Uwik, ihcn this UmiL

in j big

woiiUI oiniJin the uholc ilt-Mriplion ol ihc

whji

iiul

want

I

ionitiin ni>thin^

sj\

(i>

woiilil

road

nicnt or jn\ihin^ thai uoiiUI logujllv inipK suth j iiuiutncni

ami

iiions

ami

all

NiamI on

same

the

which,

prop«»sitn)ns

in

the

same was

same

le\el

Ihere are

aiul

you

of

Now

Hamlet's

"\othinvj

w«»rils:

makes

but thinkinu; to a

agree to that aiul

will

vtcmkI

either

\\ hat

I

would

t«)r n«)t

bringing about. .And

leail

a state ot atfairs is a

of the that

is

l^e

the

i«

sense,

absolute

an\

in

are sublime, important, or iri\ial

some

such

absoluteU

were,

it

quite clear to us

i>

illu«irair lhi%

The rnjhi road

an arbiirariK prrdctcrnimcd

leails to

it

go on,

I

sense in talking alxiut the right road apart frtim

lan hv

iUmtiIhiI \souUI, as

level

end and

we louUI

pri>|'M>sitions siaiul «>n the

til

IK)

rcljliM*

.ill

whuh

iruc scuniilu pro|x>s-

in fail all iruc pn»|>oMti(»Ms thai

lUii all the tails

rnailc

lonijin

uoiilil ot «.i>urNc

It

lUiliinH-iUs ol \4lnc

mr. briorr

let

b\ a rather obxions exam|>le

xmuiUI uII jn tlhual luilg-

ih.il \m-

onl\ rrlalivr value ind rrUli%r gtMMi.

is

cU Anil

riKht,

v\orlil,

(his IxMik

ihal

i\,

teiiuil there

common ground

describe this

make you recall so that we may

our investigation.

for

I

believe the best

way of describing

w hen

I

wonder at the existence of the world.

.\nd

am

I

ha\ c

it

/

that

"how extraordinary will

is

to say that

then inclined to use such phrases as

extraordinary

I

it

anything that the

should

"how

exist"

or

world should exist."

mention another experience straight away

(®)

Ludwig Wittgenstein which

know and w hich

also

I

acquainted with:

others of you might be

what one might

is,

it

experience of feeling absolutely state

of mind in which one

safe,

nothing can injure

Now

me

let

I

these expressions seem,

mean

the

similes.

am

whatever happens." experiences,

these

for,

we

believe, they exhibit the very characteristics

I

And

try to get clear about.

have to say

I

there the

give to these experiences

"I

wonder

me

explain this:

something being the

case,

it

means

w onder

to say that

is

I

bigger than anyone

w hich,

or at any thing

word,

say

I

am

has a

to say that I w onder we all understand what

at

at

It

I

good and clear sense

perfectly

is

which

nonsense! If

is

the existence of the world"

at

misusing language. Let

w hich

thing

first

that the verbal expression

is,

we

of a dog

at the size

I

w onder

namely the ordinary wonder.

I

To

say "I

wonder if I

visited

it

for a long time

had been pulled down nonsense to say that world, because

I

of this dog

should not

I

such and such being

at

can imagine

not to be

it

could of course wonder

being as

and has not

meantime. But

at the existence

I

But

wondering

this experience

at is a tautology,

But then

wondering

what

to say that

namely

it's

just

w hat

at the

at a tautology.

I

I

am

safe if

I

therefore get that

it is

I

am

me

a

One

am w ondering

same applies

I

want

seem

in this sense to

ically.

be used as similes or allegor-

For w hen we speak of

when we

God and

that he sees

him

kneel and pray to

etc., etc.

But

ence which

them

is, I

ring to

is

to

I

know what

am

safe in

it's

it

my

nonsense

Again

as the other

to impress

this

example

"existence"

on you

him as a human we try to w in,

to. For the first of w hat people were refer-

have just referred

believe, exactly

when they

God had

said that

created the

world; and the experience of absolute safety has

been described by saying that we

A third

hands of God. is

that of feeling guilty

by the phrase that

Thus

feel safe in the

experience of the same kind

and again

God

this

was described

disapproves of our conduct.

and religious language we seem

in ethical

or that

misuse of our language runs

must

constantly to be using similes. But a simile

And

be the simile for something. fact

by means of a simile

must

I

if I

can describe a

also be able to

the simile and to describe the facts w ithout

drop

Now

it.

our case as soon as we try to drop the simile and

no such

find that there are first

appeared to be

nonsense.

Now

mentioned

seem

to

And

so,

we

it,

what

at

now seems to be mere experiences w hich I have

the three

you (and

I

could have added others)

who have

to those

facts.

a simile

absolute value. But

all

all

this allegory also describes the experi-

I

We

safe whatever happens.

Now

some similarity. And when we say "This man's life was valuable" we don't mean it in the same sense in which we would speak of some valuable jew elry but there seems to be some sort of analogy. Now all religious terms

instance to me, to have in

misuse of the word

"wondering."

it

football

player" there seems to be

have mentioned, the

and therefore

a certain characteristic

good

simply to state the facts which stand behind

be safe essentially means

misuse of the word "safe"

was of

a

is

in

physically impossible that certain things

to say that a

To

again.

"This

in the sentence

it's

have had w hooping cough and cannot it

good fellow,"

am

cannot be run over by an omnibus.

should happen to

is

the

in ordinary life to be safe. I

is.

at

sky being blue or not

Now

experience of absolute safety.

room, when

I

it

I

nonsense to say that one

the other experience w hich

means

when

mean.

I

the sky being whatever

at

might be tempted

blue.

not

that's

I

me

could wonder

the sky being blue as opposed to the case

clouded.

of the

not existing.

it

had

I

while looking into the blue sky,

it

it is

world round

at the

If for instance

it is.

it

and has imagined that

in the

wonder

means

being of great power whose grace

which

cannot imagine

I

something

it's

although the word good here doesn't mean what

elaborate allegory which represents

house w hen one sees

of, say, a

is a

w onder

I

the case. In this sense one can w onder at the exist-

ence

sense,

could conceive

at the size

size, at

the case" has only sense

its trivial

and when we say "This

similar,

our terms and actions seem to be parts of a great and

sense of the

could conceive of a dog of another,

I

not right in

common

extraordinary. In every such case

not to be the case.

is

be just

to

facie,

an ethical sense, although, what we

right in

mean,

prima

seems that when we are using the

it

everything and

something being the case which

because

word

Thus

have ever seen before

I

in the

and religious expressions. All

all ethical

the

inclined to say "I

is

me

consider

safe.

through

call,

experienced them, for

some sense an

w hen I say they

intrinsic,

are experiences,

surely, they are facts; they have taken place then

and there, lasted

a certain definite

quently are describable. said

some minutes ago

so

time and conse-

from what

must admit

it is

have absolute value.

to say that they

make my point

I

And

still

I

have

nonsense

And

more acute by saying

I

will

"It

is

the paradox that an experience, a fact, should

seem

way

to in

have supernatural value."

which

paradox. Let

I

Now

would be tempted

me

first

to

there

meet

consider, again, our

experience of wondering

at the existence

is a

this first

of the

| '

nBetatmLogfco-PNkmophtcM wurlil Jiul

wr

\%j>,

It

(>h\i(iusl\

which wc hj\c ncxcr

t»l

such an c\cnt

\ou sudilenix grew

is

\inipl\ jn c%cni ihr

as cxtraordinar> a thing as

Now wheneNer we

should ha>e re-

c«»^ered trtini t>ur surprise, what

would

m\esligated and

him

would ha\e him

I

at

Tor

group

s\siem.

I

his

is

it

b> this term

is

has not Net Ix-en explained b\

a tact

science which again tailed to

lor hurting

And where would clear that when we

we mean

disap|K-ared, unless what

fnereK that

were not

it

wa> e\er\thing miraculous has

in this

It

it

vivisected.

ihe nuracle have got to? liKik

w«iuUI suggest

I

and ha>e the case scien-

to fetch a doitor

Ih"

nt'ically

\tiw siipfxtNC

\cl seen

Imn's head ami began to roar

j

houUI be

can imagine

wmilil he

litr

lake the case ihjt one ol

Iu|>|h-iu-iI

(xrtiiinly that I

in a >lighll\ ililtctciil

i(

kno\« v^hji in orilmjr\

nurjilc

cdiicil J

like

iiir licsiri^H'

III

all

means

with others

this tact

shows

we ha\e

that

that

in a scientific

absurd to sa\ "Science

is

it

hitherto

has proved that there are no miracles." Ihe truth that the scientific

way tact

to l

he correct method

really

is

what can be

to

in

philosophy would

be the following: to say nothing except

science

be

said,

i.e.

propositions of natural

something

i.e.

do with philosophy

someone

else

wanted

something meta-

Now

6.54

what we mean by our

and religious expressions.

me

I

comes

at

once see

Now when

clearly, as

it

this

were

of light, not only that no description that

I

is

would not be

sat-

he would not

this

method would be

the onlv

.My propositions serve as elucidations

eventually recogni/es

when he

in

who understands them

as

nonsens-

has used them - as steps - to

is

climb up beyond them. (He must, so to

to is

speak, throw away the ladder after he has

climbed up

not yet succeeded in finding the cor-

rect logical analysis of

against

all it

it

the following way: anyone

w hat we mean

by saying that an experience has absolute value that

had

strictly correct one.

certain experi-

ical,

all

that he

have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy

me

that after

him

to certain signs in his

isfying to the other person

perfectly clear to if

meaning

has nothing

that

and then, whenever

to say

propositions. Although

we dnn V mean nonsense,

we have

and

it

to

importance, this simply shows that by these words

that

is

Philosophicus

we cannot express all we say about

Well,

and

it

human mind which

in the

help respecting deepiv

life

says

Tractatus Logico

absolute or ethical value and

just a fact like other facts

it

an\ sense Hut

in

ences constantly tempt us to attribute a quality to

them which we

good, the

What

absolute valuable, can be no science

a

is

as

far

springs fr«)m the desire to say something about

the ultimate

that

seem

this will

of

Religion was to run against the boundaries of lan-

other

at

the absolute miraculous remains nonsense. the answer to

.\1>

tendency

guage. This running against the walls of our cage

failed to give a

I

wanted

ever tried to write or talk Kthics or

language to the expression hy the existence of lanall

I

language

the

physical, to demonstrate to

what we want

had not yet

I

hrynnJ the world and

beN«>nd sigmfiiant

sa\

men who

)ust ///?»/

of the miraculous from an expression hy means of

guage,

hat

I

nonM-nsKal expres-

nonsensical because

whole tendencN

have said by shifting the expression

I

of

that these

do with them was

that

the exist-

some limes and not

at

now

nttt

was

sensicalitN

the existence of

But what then does

aware of this miracle

ftignificainl

found the correct cxprawumft, hut that ihar nun-

now

will

the existence of the world, though

itself.

b> ahMilulr

rvrr>

the experience of

is

not any proposition in language,

language

mean

1

rc)ctl

now

see

say that the right expression in language for the

miracle

see

I

sions were

the w(»rd "miracle" in a I

Hould

1

on the ground

initio,

to sa\

IS

I

and an absolute sense. .\nd

relatiNe

.iA

I

the absolute sense of that term. I'or

nluf

to dciM.ribc

that

description that an\bod> could p(i%%ihl\ %uftKC»(.

not the

is

would do

value, hut

imagine whate\er

of"lcM)king at a fact

as a miracle. l"or

it

is

ol

it.)

ethical

He must

urged

and then he

in a flash

can think

7

transcend these propositions, will see the

world aright.

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Moravian-born

a

Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoana-

other way.

lysis,

isthe most influential psychological theorist

able

of the twentieth century, despite the continuing

He saw unconscious and aggression behind

from

possible

reaction against his work.

in-

stincts of sexuality

all

facts,

culture, including the behavior of

know

human

life

and

its

human

instinctual nature

must always

feel in the

confines of a civilized society. Freud concluded

more well organized society becomes, more discomfort or guilt its members must

that the

the

even

they obey

however, no Utopian; he does not want to unshackle human instincts. Human beings are innately aggressive, and this aggression must be controlled. His account is poignant in its historical context, written as it was during the rise of Nazism, and preceding a period of violence that perhaps even he could not have imagined. Forced as a Jew into feel,

if

emigration by

its strictures.

Hitler's

Freud

which we

for

how we

stand

pretation of life.

(The

annexation of Austria

in

of the existence of an instinct of

death or destruction has met with resistance even in

aware that there

is

a frequent

inclination rather to ascribe whatever

is

dangerous

is

own that

nature. I

To

an original bipolarity in

begin with

put forward the views

it

I

due place

in

our inter-

when

it

ber

my own

tinged with erotism.)

it is

instinct of destruction first

analytic literature, I

became receptive

shown, and surprises

still

to

is

talk

it

in

psycho-

took before

That others should have

it.

iittle

children do not like

of the inborn

own

how hard

quotation from

a

human

made them

in

nobody wants

to

has

perfection; it is

it"

inclination

and destructiveness,

God

to cruelty as well.

able existence of evil

A

remem-

show, the same attitude of rejection

to 'badness', to aggressiveness

be reminded

I

the idea of an

emerged

and how long

me less. For

there

when

defensive attitude

to reconcile the

undeni-

- despite the protestations

poem

of Goethe's.

its

was only tentatively have developed here,

but in the course of time they have gained such

(l45)

it its

desire for destruction

directed inwards mostly eludes our perception, of

course, unless

'

in love to

can no longer under-

I

is,

the image of His

and hostile

I

can have overlooked the ubiquity

can have failed to give

and so

am

work.

scientific

of non-erotic aggressivity and destructiveness and

science."

I

in

and inwards), strongly

instinct (directed outw^ards

alloyed with erotism; but

when

analytic circles;

strive

and masochism we have always

that in sadism

1938, he died in London in exile.The Nazis burned his books as a prime representative of "Jewish

The assumption

standpoint than any other

they provide that simplification,

seen before us manifestations of the destructive

Discontents (1930), he used psychoana-

theory to explore the inherent discomfort

lytic

a theoretical

ones;

without either ignoring or doing violence to the

infants. In a later speculative work, Civilization

and

me that I can no longer think in any To my mind, they are far more service-

hold upon

Sigmund

Freud, chapters

Civilization

and

its

6 and

7,

Discontents

Strachey). NewYork: Norton,

1961.

pp.

64-80 from James

(trans.

CMbation and Its OtoooncanCt ot

(ihnslun Science

Ills

with

The

4ll-mMKlnc\s

Hould be the

m

out js an excuse tor (mhI,

4ll-|M)\*crlulnc\>

li>

I

l>cvil

bciki

ol the

and the

dcMth instinct.'

much

must be c«»nlessed

It

we have uistinct; we

that

greater ditficuliN in grasping that

can onls suspect

as

it,

background behind unless

presence

its

with Kros.

It

in

is

twists the erotic

same time succeed

were, as something

it

and

K.ros,

escapes detection

it

betra>ed h\

is

the

in

being alloxed

its

sadism, where the death instinct

aim

own

sense and yet

at

the

tully satisfies the erotic urge, that

we

in its

obtaining the clearest insight into

in

nature and

its

emerges without an> sexual purpose,

we cannot

tury of destructiveness,

that the satisfaction of the instinct

fail is

to recognize

work

of each against

the hostilits

This aggressive instinct

mam

which we

meaning

the

found alongside of Kros and which

And now,

it

the e\olution

ol

no longer obscure

to us.

and the

out in the life

instinct

human

destruction, as

narcissistic a

moderated and tamed, aim, must, w hen

its

it

is

directed towards objects, pro\ide the ego with the satisfaction of

needs and with control over

its vital

nature. Since the assumption of the existence of the instinct

must

is

mainly based on theoretical grounds, we

also admit that

is

it

not entirely proof against

theoretical objections. Hut this to us

now,

future

in the present state

research

and

may

the struggle for

all

that follows

I

ill

human

of the

this battle of the giants that

my

return to

ciNili/ation

impediment

it

no

will

doubt

I

was

.At

become acquainted w ith

species. .\nd

m

is

an original,

man, and

one point

in

the

led to the idea that

ual instinct

"Eros".

refers

more simply and narrowh

which Freud

is

to the sex-

here interpreting broadh as

What

order U) inhibit to

it,

We

perhaps.'

make

it

ha\e already

few of these methods, but

a

important. This

we can

stud\ in the histor> of the

dexelopment of the indnidual. What hap|x-ns

him

to

in

render his desire for aggression inncKUOus.'

Something Nery remarkable, which we should never

in point

it is,

is

is, il is

is

is

nexertheless quite obviintrojected, internalized;

of fact, sent back to w here directed tow ards his

taken o\ er by

a

ow n

it

came from There il

ego.

portion of the ego, w hich sets itself

over against the rest of the ego as super-ego, which

now

,

in the

form of 'conscience',

action against the ego the that the

ego would ha\e liked to

extraneous individuals.

is

is

called

a

need

satisfy

upon

other,

The tension between the

by us the sense of guilt; for

ready to put into

same harsh aggressiveness

harsh super-ego and the ego that "Libido"

it is

not yet with the one that appears to be the most

- that

decide the matter.

constitutes the greatest

to civilization.

course of this enquiry

all

our nurse-maids try to

emplo>

it,

have guessed and which

adopt the standpoint, there-

view that

itself

what

.Another ipiesiion concerns us more nearl\

means does

ous. His aggressiveness

self-subsisting instinctual disposition in I

is

appease with their lullab\ about llea\en

of our know ledge;

fore, that the inclination to aggression

instinct of

works

therefore be simply descTibed as life

how things appear

retlection

bring further light w hich w In

is

it

This struggle

species.

the aggressiveness which opposes

were, inhibited in

is

must present the struggle

It

consists of, and the evolution of

essentially

civilization

(»f

think,

I

of ci\ilization

between Kros and Death, between the life

civi-

representative of the death instinct

h.i\e

world-domimon with

shares

and uf

all

the deri\ativc

is

harmless, to gel rid of

it

will nut

programme of

fulfilment of the hitter's old wishes for omnipotence.

and, as

arc lo

Necessity

common,

in

The

instinct of destruction,

men

ol

one another

to

accompanied

presenting the ego with

its

it

in the blindest

by an extraordinarily high degree of enjo\ment, owing to

its

e\en where

relation to l.ros. Ikit

Ixuind

against each, op|>oses this

all

the fxiwer ol Kros

ol

ihtf

hold them together. Hut man's natural agfcrevkivc instinct,

it

can once more be

libuU)'"

denote the nunitestations in

moral nature

to the ileepU

Ixiw will

Why

not know, the work of Kro*

nuke

it

i%

itier

and nations, into

These colleitions

preiiseK this

IS

d«»

be hbidinallx

low

and

iiuliMiluaU.

that lamihes, then races, |>eoplcs

has to hap|H-n,

pro-

a

i%

pur|Mnc

whitM:

one grrai unity, the unity of mankind.

t«»

a

that ci\ili/jiion

Lnn..

ol

will Ik- well ailMseil. »>n stmie suitable occasion.

nuinLiml.

under the inllucrmc at

ill

nu\ now add

the

in

nunkiml

a H|H:cial protrHft «khith

undergiicN, and

it

is

subjected to

it,

expresses itself as

punishment. Civilization, therefore,

obtains masterv over the individual's dangerous

(gB>

.

Sigmund Freud desire for aggression by

weakening and disarming

and by setting up an agency within him over

it,

conquered

like a garrison in a

Thus we know of two guilt:

one arising from

to

city.

.

it

watch

The

first insists

origins of the sense of

and

fear of an authority,

upon

renunciation of in-

a

stinctual satisfactions; the second, as well as doing

presses for punishment, since the continuance

this,

of the forbidden wishes cannot be concealed from

is

out; but

was the same

it

suppression in the child

is

At

act of aggression

whose

supposed to be the source

of his sense of

guilt.

surprised

reader were to exclaim angrily: 'So

if the

this point

makes no difference w hether one not - one gets a feeling of guilt

may

should not be

I

it

one's father or

kills

We

in either case!

take leave to raise a few doubts here. Either

it is

not true that the sense of guilt comes from sup-

of the super-ego - the demands of conscience -

pressed aggressiveness, or else the whole story of

be understood.

to

simply

It is

continuation of

a

the severity of the external authority, to which

has succeeded and which

now

see in

it

has in part replaced.

it

We

what relationship the renunciation of

the killing of the father

of primaeval

man

is a

did not

fiction

but a plausible piece of history,

of something

renunciation of instinct was the result of fear of an

expects to happen

guilty because he really has

its

love. If

as

is,

one has carried

were, quits with

it

the authority and no sense of guilt should remain.

But with

fear

of the super-ego the case

Here, instinctual renunciation

w ish

persists

is

all

and cannot be concealed from the

justified.

if it is

not

would be

a

- namely, of

And

a

person feeling

done something which

of this event, which

is

after

an everyday occurrence, psycho-analysis has not

yet given any explanation.'

That

different.

not enough, for

is

cannot be

it

any more

happening which everyone

external authority: one renounced one's satisfactions in order not to lose

and the children

their fathers

often than children do nowadays. Besides,

case

out this renunciation, one

fiction

kill

instinct stands to the sense of guilt. Originally,

the

On that occasion

the sever-

the super-ego. ity

We have also learned how

the kilHng of the father

at

by the brothers banded together.'"

an act of aggression was not suppressed but carried

.

the other, later on, arising from fear of the superego.

complex and was acquired

sion.

true,

is

Nor

is

When one

and we must make good the omis-

there any great secret about the matter.

has a sense of guilt after having commit-

super-ego. Thus, in spite of the renunciation that

ted a misdeed, and because of it, the feeling should

has been made, a sense of guilt comes about. This

more properly be

constitutes a great

economic disadvantage

in the

we may put

erection of a super-ego, or, as

in

it,

the formation of a conscience. Instinctual renunciation

now no longer has

effect; virtuous

continence

with the assurance of love.

unhappiness -

loss

completely liberating

a

is

no longer rewarded

A

threatened external

of love and punishment on the

part of the external authority

- has been exchanged

permanent internal unhappiness,

for a

for the ten-

it presupposes that a conscience - the readiness to feel guilty -

was already

in existence before the

Remorse of this

deed took place.

sort can, therefore, never help us to

discover the origin of conscience and of the sense of guilt in general.

cases

is

What happens

in these

everyday

usually this: an instinctual need acquires the

strength to achieve satisfaction in spite of the conscience,

which

is,

after

all,

limited in

its

strength;

and with the natural weakening of the need owing

sion of the sense of guilt

can also be asserted that

It

called remorse. It relates only to a

deed that has been done, and, of course,

when

a child reacts

to his first great instinctual frustrations with ex-

cessively strong aggressiveness

and with

pondingly severe super-ego, he phylogenetic model and

is

is

a corres-

following

a

going beyond the re-

sponse that would be currently

justified; for the

to

its

having been

power in

is

satisfied, the

former balance of

restored. Psycho-analysis

is

thus justified

excluding from the present discussion the case of

a sense

of guilt due to remorse, how ever frequently

such cases occur and however great their practical importance.

father of prehistoric times was undoubtedly terrible,

and an extreme amount of aggressiveness

may be

attributed to him.

from individual

Thus,

to phylogenetic

if

one

shifts

over

development, the

'"

In the Oedipus complex, cornerstone of Freud's the-

ory of child development, the normal child develops a sexual attachment to the opposite-gender parent, and

competitive anger and fear toward the same-gender par-

differences between the

two theories of the genesis ent.

of conscience are

still

further diminished.

On

the

other hand, a new and important difference makes its

appearance between these two developmental

processes. that

We cannot get away from the assumption

man's sense of guilt springs from the Oedipus

(14§)

The

conflict

is

normally resolved through renunci-

ation of the desire and an identification with the same-

gender parent.

Strictly, the

Oedipal complex refers only to

the development of boys, the analogous phase (and the

analog}

is

complex.

notoriously tortured) for girls being the Electra

.

:

OvmaUon andlts Dtscoments Hill

(it

ihc luiiiun sense ul guill gins bail

it

Lillini;

tit

I

he primal father that v%as aftrr ,

Are

'remorse'

constieiue ami presup|M>setl.

where,

There secret

our

m

no doubt

is

we huxe II

not.

remorse come from? shouUi explain the

that this case

the sense o( «uill to us aiul put an enil lo \nil

ililficullies

was the

I

luiieve

His

lowunls the father him, loo

loNcti

iKcn

satisfied In their act

came

to the fore in their

up the supcr-cgo by

s«>ns

him,

hateil

\lier their hatreil

hail

aggression, their lo\e

«>t

remorse

for the ileeii

It

set

identification uith the t.iilur,

agencx the father's power, as hough as

it

iia\e that

a

punishment

t

tor the

deed

which were intended

And

had

of aggressitin the\

carried out against him. and

the deed.

This remorse

ii«Ks

it

the primonlial ambisalence of

ol

result

hut the>

tions

case

that (al thai lime| j

existence In-fore the ileeiP

in this case. Jul the

«>l

feelinjj

assume

N«e lo

sense ol guilt were not, us

a

ilu

it*

all a

it

results (if

in

whuh

impulsion a

further

a

iniensilicalion

through

What

completed

is

hcinK^ to unite in

can onl\ achiexe ihis aim

il

reinfonrment

e\er-iiu reasing

Jkt\

the sense of guilt

ciNili/ation

human

lauses

ilosel\-kml group,

father

mthmt

the

ot

Since avili/jfion obeyi an micnul crock

guili.

group

lo the

relation

in

If

neiessarx course of development

a

is

of

tn-gan in relation lo the

from the famiK

humanit> as

to

whole, then

a

as

inborn conflitt arising from ambiva-

a result of the

lence, of the eternal struggle In-tween the trends

inextncabK bound up

of lose aiul

death

with

increase of the sense

.u\

It

there

perhaps reach

will

is

heights

One

finds haril

to

great |>oet's

moving arraignment

tolerate.

«if

that is

which

guilt,

the

indixidual

reminded of the of the

'HeaNenly

Powers'

created the restricIhr tuhrt ins

to prevent a repetition of

since the inclination to aggressive-

.chcn uns hinein

I

\rnien schuldig werden,

Ihr lasst ilen

ness against the father was repeated in the following

Dann

generations, the sense of guilt, too, persisted, and

Deiin jede .Schuld racht sich auf Krden."

it

uhcrlasst Ihr ihn

den IVin,

was reinforced once more by every piece of aggressiveness that was suppressed and carried oxer to the

Now,

super-ego.

we can

think,

I

at last

grasp two

.\nd

we ma\

thought that

well is

it

heave

things perfectly clearly: the part pla\ed b\ love in

to salvage without effort

the origin of conscience and the fatal incN itabilii) of

own

the sense of guilt. \\ hether one has killed one's

rest

from doing so

father or has abstained

One

the decisive thing.

bound

is

either case, for the sense of guilt

is

is

not really

is

set

going as soon as

So

long as the community assumes no other form than

itself in the

science VV

Oedipus complex,

and

to

create

hen an attempt

the

same

conflict

dependent on the

is is

the

made

to

and

lo express

to establish the

first

con-

sense of guilt.

w iden the community,

continued

past;

bound

is

it

in is

which the

an expression of

are faced with the task of living together.

that of the family, the conflict

from the whirlp

New

riu- l.iilui'c ot ilu-

Initial

|(i\"

uiih paintul icclings ihui hc

IS (>nl\

Si unci- \tlir

Us

luLiiiluil \1mIi\i-

The ilu-

LnivcrKul Philosufihy Ai\t\ its fniHT Dissnlutmn

nt

lili.il

Pnu

CSS of

tor this r.iilurii

\t)\>

IKW luim.imiN,

tile

It

with suih an ixaiiid

must hjM-

ol the It

biTii Ihi.uisi-

it

dui not hold

its

own,

it

the inspinnu hiliil in

lost

uniMTsal philos«»ph\ mu\

ideal ot a

lis

spirit,

.uiim.iliil aiul I>IinmiI

the scope

in

new methtKl And such, indeed, was the

case.

turned out that this method could hrinv: unques-

tionable successes onl\ in the positive sciences Hut it

was t>therwise

in

metaph\sics,

problems

in

i.e.

he ncccs-sary consequence was a peculiar change in

the whole

problem form

wav of thinking Phili>M»ph\ became [problem

ol the

ol the| (x»ssibilit> ol a

we

ph>sics, anil, tollowing what

concerned implicitly the meaning and possibility of the whole problematics of reason. jxjsitive sciences, at

first

.As

Vet the problem of a jvissible metaphysics also en-

though

sciences, since these had their relational

were not in

lackinir

esen here. I ni\ersal philosophy,

which these problems were related

lo the tactual sciences, UM)k the

unclearlv

tbmi

ot

system-

ipso that

clear in

the eighteenth centur>

at a critically una.ssailable edifice

eticalh

from generation

undisputedly the case

The

tor long.

generation,

to

in the

could not survive

movements

all

beginning of the modern

era,

happened not merely contrast

was

as

universalK admired

belief in the ideal of philo.sophy

method, the guideline of

the

ot arriving

which grew theor-

this conviction

positive sciences

held the

still

proceeding toward unit),

»)t

began

to waver; this

tor the external

became

monstrous

and

since the

motive that

between

the

a

isr

advance

to make w hole historic-al process has

remarkable form, one which becomes \isible only

through an interpretation motivation.

Its

from

is

ot its

hidden, innermost

not that of a smooth develop-

ment, not that of a continual grow th of lasting

concepts,

configurations

in

its

ettect

were

sciences,

as well as scientists,

becoming

fast

experts. But even tilled

on outsiders

the specialized business of the positive

among

those theorists

with the philosophical

interested

unphilosophical

spirit,

precisely in the highest

who were

and thus were metaphysical

questions, a growing feeling of failure set in - and in their case

unclanfied,

against

reigning

the

because the most profound, yet quite

motives protested ever more loudly deeply

ideal.

extending from

rooted

There

Hume

assumptions of the

begins

and Kant

of passionate struggle tor

a

to

long

our

period,

own

a clear, retlective

time,

under-

standing of the true reasons for this centuries-rjr that gc. with I

hi

iU-\N(mIiI

I

\K.inmu-l

mill.

.is ilii

nm

iMileni

nimiitiii

I

\\huh o|Kralrs with

uiu

o| N.iim.il Si

III

.ibsolute truth

Hul now

something

inusi n»»fc

NM-

the highcsi

»>l

iir

is

actualK gixcn through

|H-r-

hlc-worUI

This siihsiitution

passcil

physicists

the siKctciling centuries

all

on

to

his

The

manner

oj

ct»nstructing,

conceptualizing.

proNing.

which operates with

way,

in its

imme-

truly

thinking,

derived

ities

was preceded h\ the

its

which knew nothing

a

has

at

practical art of sur\e\ing,

of idealities. ^ et

geometrical achicNement was

geometry,

idealities,

meaning. The geometry of ideal-

first

for

Thus

the occasional (even "philosophical")

all

which go from technical

reflect u ins

ized nature; they

intuitive

fundament

of idealization; the

latter

a

Immc-

the ensuing peniKl

intuited nature.

of

ami originallx

A\\i\

geo-

remained

this

substitution of idealizeil nature for prescieniil*ic*ally

pure

sources from which the so-called geometrical intuthat

for (ialileo

sources:

ihc

in

diatcK with (ialileo. then, Ix-gins the surreptitious

was already empty

it

removed from the sources of

i.e.

huUlen

ourvUn

for

of the application of

complicated

work back

diate intuition

ition,

has

in

meaning. Kven ancient geonietr> was, zr/vtf"'

meamng

e\en the

nutrv

was no longer original geometrN:

this sort ot"**iniuiti\eness"

ihmLmg

general terms.

that

geonutrv, the inherited

inheritetl

**intuiti\e"

the

siicicssors,

Cialileo N\as hinisell an heir in respect to

geometry

wc have |M>mlcd out above

as

course of our e\|>osiiion of dalileo's ihoughtk

was pronipiU t>f

ness was an diusion

could

Thai lhi\ otY%iouft-

rt-al

ilu-

cmt cxfKricnccil and cxpcncnir-

i\cr\ilaN

ado

applieil without further

a «cH-«uif'M.Mmt,

"(>h\iouHl\"

«»iil\

uUMlitits lor

is

w huh, JH suih

m

subNtriuiiil \sorlil of uorlil

proiluco

il.

iinmcciMici)

and ihc thinking

jIIn

ihc siirrtptilimis subsiiiuliiin ol ihc inallu-inalu

ccption. that

Ih-

ohd

ii>

"inluiiitin"

pntiri

a

such

a

pre-

meaning-fundament

for the great invention

encompassed the inven-

do not

going

radical!),

(

scientific)

meaning alwaxs slop

to its true

back

at ideal-

carr\ crn Utsi

a trjililion .iiul

a ^t/tti, insiitar as this iniircsi

plaxcit a ilctcrinining role at

pnnul

all in its

cstal>-

hshnu'iit K\cr> aitciupt to IcaJ the scientist to such reflections, if

comes

it

non-scientific

scholars,

ol

circle

*inetaph\sical "

Ironi a nonnutheniaiical,

calcil his life to these sciences

seems so obMous

must, after

know

him

to

as

reietleil

is

The professional who has

iUhIi-

all

what he

best

attemptini; ami accomphshini; in his work

Tor

reteni times

readers),

up

iieing caught

Hut the

ii

schtMil'

meaning

that the ititii

)>.

whole dimension which must be inquireil

Mdt seen

at all

ami thus not

with

at all ileali

at least

felt

\ui\ clearK the\ influence, ililfuult, the aii.iKsis of the

(of sciencej

ourseKes

find

in a

unilersianiling of the beginning

son is

ol iirtle

form, lvi»

jii.ijwv

The absorption of

v»\.iii

faclualiiy,

whether into legendars prehistor> or into math-

be iirasped, but on the contrary to conceive

mediated conceptual

as the supcrtlcies, as

to tulfillmeni only

de\elopmeni

ot their stKial, historical,

sijjmificance.

The

the

in

and human

task ot cognition dcK's not consist

mere apprehension,

tion, but in the

huncd unc

ihc riteidificalion of

ematical tormalism, the s>mbolical relation of ihc

moments which come

in

the dving of

auiumn. and c\cn

re|H-aied ilscll c\cr)

W ith

if

gud-

oil o( ihc

s\non>mous with

dire«.ll\

It

laitaahly,

to Icyilimi/c

higiiulU the carr\in|(

i;i\en as

temporal relations oi the tacts which allow them just to

was

nature

ihc mythic

ol

determine the abstract spatio-

approach otkiKJwIediie: toc«»mprehend the such; not

the

suh|ecti\e ratn>nalii\. the subjection ot

p\en. What

(

kuifupping

«kiih ihc

but the same e\er\ time

to loi^ical tormalism.

realiiN

all

which tcnd%

priKcss,

ileiepiion iless

autumn

The uniqucncM

the rc|Kiiiion wa.s noi ihc result uf the

subsirati- ol

Ih* j

riu- i-i|UJiioii ot spirit Jiul worlil

own

'"

Prrscphonr

i|iuhi\ llun lo

enutical apparatus conceals the sanction ol

triumph

the c\clcot npring and i>t

bin ihc ahstnict nuicrul which

arises c\cimull\. Inii onl\ wiih

ollniih sides

him

ol

Ictt

ihink ihut nuisi Jicoinpjnx

/

jhsirjtl

riu-

rccorii-iiukiiig

|H»vscvscs

u

Sul>)c».i aiul tibiixi arc

iu\ iilcjN

all

lulurr lurn> agjinsi the

ii\cr

himscll, noihing

(hinlintc Nubicvt

coniem|>orary to the mythic process in ihc the abstract category in science,

appear as the predetermined, which

«)t

each im-

is

or lo

accordmgU

the old. .Not existence but knowledge

without

is

hope, tor in the pictorial or mathematical symbol

it

appropriates and perpetuates existence as a schema.

and calcula-

classitlcation,

determinate negation

rile

makes ihe new

nnthology has entered

In the enlightened world,

into the protane. In

its

blank purit\, the reality

mediacy. Mathematical tormalism, however, whose

w hich has been cleansed of demons and their con-

medium

ceptual descendants a.ssumes the

is

number, the most abstract tbrm

ot the

immediate, instead holds thinking tlrmly to mere

immediacN.

I'actuality

restricted lo

mere

its

wins the day; cognition

repetition;

tautology.

and thought becomes

more

I'he

thought subjects existence lo its

machiner}

the iiselt",

Hence en-

lightenment returns to myiholog}, which

how

ot

more blind

the

resignation in reproducing existence.

realh knew

is

never

it

to elude. I'or in its figures

myth-

L nder

the

title

of brute

trom which the\ proceed a

is

preserve as the medicine

now

domination

is

demons.

as a.ssuredl) sacred

man was

reason of the protection of his gods. that

to

tacts, the sed by Hades, god of the under-

spirits

economic apparatus, even before

on the individual and

rational ones.

defines himself only as a thing, as a static elem-

.

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno His yardstick

ent, as success or failure.

models established

for

self-pre-

of his function and the

to the objectivity

tion

is

approxima-

servation, successful or unsuccessful

it.

Everything

else, idea

and

crime, suffers the force of the collective, which

monitors

it

from the classroom

But even the threatening

to the trade union.

collective belongs only to

postulated axioms, innate ideas, or higher abstrac-

Logical

tions.

produce the most general

laws

within

relations

them. Unity resides of contradiction

is

and

arrangement,

the

The

agreement.

in

define

resolution

Knowledge

the system in nuce.^

Any

of subsumption under principles.

consists

other than systematically directed thinking

is

unor-

the deceptive surface, beneath which are concealed

iented or authoritarian. Reason contributes only the

the powers which manipulate

idea of systematic unity, the formal elements of

power.

it

as the

instrument of

w hich keeps the individual up

Its brutality,

of

to scratch, represents the true quality as value represents the things

little

sumes. things

men

as

which he con-

The demonically distorted form which and men have assumed in the light of unpre-

judiced

cognition,

domination,

indicates

the

principle which effected the specification of mcina in spirits

and gods" and occurred

magicians and medicine men.

in the jugglery

The

of

by means

fatality

of which prehistory sanctioned the incomprehensibility

of death

is

comprehen-

transferred to wholly

The noontide

sible real existence.

panic fear in

which men suddenly became aware of nature totality has

adays

is

found

ready to break out

at

expect that the world, which

w ill be set on are

fire

by a

totality

every moment: is

as

which now-

in the panic

its like

men

without any issue,

which they themselves

and over which they have no control.

Enlightenment, according to Kant,

is

.

.

"man's emer-

gence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to

use one's understanding w ithout

fixed conceptual coherence.

Every substantial goal

which men might adduce

as an alleged rational

insight

Enlightenment sense, delu-

in the strict

is,

sion, lies or "rationalization,"

even though individ-

ual philosophers try to advance

from

this conclusion

toward the postulate of philanthropic emotion.

Reason

is

the "faculty

.

.

.

of deducing the particular

from the general. "^^ According

to Kant, the

geneity of the general and the particular

is

homo-

guaran-

teed by the "schematism of pure understanding," or the unconscious operation of the intellectual

anism which structures perception with

subjective

The

understanding.

the

impresses the

in

understanding

of the matter (which

intelligibility

judgment discovers there) on

objective quality, before

it

enters into the ego.

it

mech-

accordance

an

as

With-

schematism -

tual perception

in short, w ithout intellec- no impression would harmonize

w ith

and no category with an example;

out such

a

a concept,

and the unity of thought (let alone of system) tow ard

which everything produce

is

directed would not prevail.

this unity is the conscious task

To

of science. If

the guidance of another person.""* "Understanding

"all empirical

w ithout the guidance of another person"

ations of the pure laws of the understanding,"

is

under-

standing guided by reason. This means no more than

by virtue of its own consistency,

must

research

laws

...

are only special determin-

alw ays ensure that the principles are

organizes the

always properly linked with factual judgments.

individual data of cognition into a system. "Reason

"This concurrence of nature with our cognitive

that,

has

... for its

it

object only the understanding and

purposive employment."^ lective unity the

It

makes "a

its

certain col-

aim of the operations of the under-

standing."' and this unity

is

the system. Its rules are

faculty It is

is

an a priori assumption

the "guideline"

"'

.

.

.

of judgment."'"

for organized experience.

The system must be

kept in harmony with

nature; just as the facts are predicted

from the

the indications for a hierarchical construction of

system, so they must confirm

concepts. For Kant, as for Leibniz and Descartes,

belong to practice; they always characterize the

rationality consists of

"completing the systematical

connection, both in ascending to higher genera, and in

descending to lower species."^

ing" of knowledge principle."

thinking

is

is

"its

The

"systematiz-

coherence according to one

In the Enlightenment's interpretation, the creation of unified, scientific order

and the derivation of factual knowledge from principles,

w hether the latter are elucidated

as arbitrarily

".VlflMfl,"

is

alw ays real action

physics, of course, perception

theory

may be proved -

is

and suffering. In

-by means of w hich a

usually reduced to the

electric sparks visible in the experimental apparatus. Its

absence

quence, for

it

is

as a rule

destroys no

w ithout

practical conse-

more than

a theory

-

or

possibly the career of the assistant responsible for

up the experiment. But laboratory condi-

divine or magical force believed to permeate

the world in animistic relicion.

Facts, however,

individual's contact with nature as a social object:

experience

setting '^

it.

In a nut shell.

OMecfic of Em^htenmem (itiiiN

c«>nNliiu(v the rxcrplion

hinking thai vIikn

I

nuke syMcni and perception accord cunllictH \M(h more than iMibicd Msual unpressions, il con-

mil

\«ith

lliiis

prattuf

he i\|Hctcil cxcni

I

M>. bin the unc\(>cilcd e\cni

«K.i.ur.

the drutj

«»r

The spark Nxhich most surely indicates the

ot Wslciiulu ihinkitii;, tlu* \ioljiioti

trunsient |HT«.cpi, Init

muUUd dciih

m

KniighieniDeni has

mind

jogu,

tit

luck

is lui

hcs\su-m the

I

kntm-

the («»rm ot

is

i«>

tn-tur

iI«k-s

ihe hrulgc oillapses. ihe trops wither, kills

IjiIn

Icdgc which ctijKs most pniticicntK with the facts

and sup|xirts the indiMdual must nusterN of nature

its

seit-preserNation Immaturity survive.

The burgher,

i

s

the higical subject ot the

Ihe ihtticuhies b> the tact that

in the

I

pruu

tlie

then the mabihix^ to ot

And administrator,

concept

reason caused

ot

subjects, the possessors ot that

its

very reast)n, contradict one another, are ctinceaied b\

the apparent clarity ot the iudijments ot the

Western l.nliiihtenment. In the

(>//;

(if

other

what he has

ili.in

ti\es

I

Logic

MH..iii-

Reason

knowledge and planning, which impressed the

empirically

i


ses

and makes himself; and, on the other, impossible tor

nothing else but what he makes of himself. first

nothing

Because by the word "will" we generally mean

man

to transcend

The second of these

ity.

Man

is

have planned to be. Not what he

will

a world without guidance

or nature. This heroic subjectivism is

rather than a patch of moss, a piece of gar-

existentialism.

own

self,

wise; but

man

that

it

is

subjectiv-

the essential

meaning of

man

chooses his

sa\ that

we mean that e\er\ one of us does likewe also mean by that that in making this

choice he also ch(M)ses the

is

When we

human

that

we want

all

men. In

to be, there

of our acts w hich does not an image of

man

as

we

at the

is

fact, in

creating

not a single one

same lime

create

think he ought to he.

To

Jean-Paul Sartre, from •Existentialism" (trans. Ber-

nard Frechtman) tions, pp.

in

Existentialism

and Human EmoCitadel 1985.

15-24 and 46-51. New York:

Jean-Paul Sartre choose to be

is to affirm at the same time we choose, because we can never

this or that

the value of what

choose

evil.

We always choose

If,

at

we

we exist and fashion our image same time, the image is valid for

grant that

one and the

everybody and sponsibility

our whole age. Thus, our re-

for

much

is

supposed, because

greater than

involves

it

workingman and choose union rather than be

all

we might have

mankind.

communist, and

a

If

I

am

a

to join a (christian trade-

by being

if

want

to

be resigned for everyone. As a

to

action has involved

dren; even

humanity.

all

individual matter, if

w ant

I

to

To

result,

take a

more

marry, to have chil-

marriage depends solely on

if this

my

my

w ish, I am involvmonogamy and not merely myself. Therefore, I am responsible for myself and for everyone else. I am creating a certain image of man of my ow n choosing. In choosing

ow n circumstances ing

humanity

all

myself,

is

I

or passion or

in

choose man.

conferred upon the

is

evident even w hen

is

You know the story: an Abraham to sacrifice his son; if an angel w ho has come and said, "You

it

w ere

really

Abraham, you shall sacrifice your son," everything would be all right. But everyone might first

are

wonder, "Is

it

really an

someone used

Her doctor asked

give her orders.

who

talks to you.'"

that

an

it's

angel.'

there that they

As you

will see, it's all quite

The existenanguish. What that

anguish.''

man is man who involves

tialists

say at once that

means

is this:

he

mankind

all

as

who

Of

course, there are

we claim

are not anxious; but

who

w ell

can not help escape the feehng of his responsibility.

himself and

not only the person he

is

chooses to be, but also a lawmaker

same time, choosing

is,

at the

as himself,

total

and deep

many

people

many people

believe that

it.

w hen they do

something, they themselves are the only ones involved, and

And

when someone

What

to

impose

my

humanity?

I'll

a pathological

proves that they are addressed to that

have been appointed

I

my

choice and

conception of man on

never find any proof or sign to con-

me of that. If a voice addresses me, it is always me to decide that this is the angel's voice; if I

will

choose to say that

and yet

exemplary as if all

says to them,

"What

if

good one,

acts.

moment I'm

obliged to perform

mankind had

its

eyes fixed on

way.^"

There

is

if

everybody looked

no escaping

this disturbing

except by a kind of double-dealing.

and makes excuses

for

everybody does that,"

is

at things that

thought

A man who

lies

himself by saying "not someone with an uneasy

to say to himself,

way

that

actions?"

And

has the right to act in such a

might guide

itself

by

my

not say that to himself, he

There

is

is

masking

is

here discussing the famous existentialist

theme of anxiety or dread

cm)

(in

German,

Angst).

humanity if

he does

his anguish.

no question here of the kind of anguish

which would lead

to quietism, to inaction. It

matter of a simple sort of anguish that anybody has had responsibihties ple,

w hen

familiar

is

is

a

who

w ith. For exam-

a military officer takes the responsibilit\'

and sends

makes the

a certain

number of men

to

main he alone

choice. Doubtless, orders

come from

above, but they are too broad; he interprets them,

and on

this interpretation

depend the

lives

often or

fourteen or tw enty men. In making a decision he can

"

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55)

discussed the Biblical story of Sartre

him and were

And every man ought "Am I really the kind of man who

guiding itself by w hat he does.

death, he chooses to do so, and in the

one should always ask himself, "What

who

For every man, everything happens

for an attack

really,

it is I

good rather than bad.

not being singled out as an Abraham,

every

at

is a

it is

ders and answer, ''Everyone doesn't act that way."

would happen

it's

hear voices, what proof is

if I

everyone acted that way.'" they shrug their shoul-

But

is it

come from heaven and not from

me? What proof is there

that they are

hiding their anxiety, that they are fleeing from Certainly,

"Who

her,

She answered, "He says

from the subconscious, or

hell, or

condition.-*

Now, I'm

the

hallucinations;

vince

meant by

realizes that

really

God." What proof did she really have that it was God.' If an angel comes to me, w hat proof is there

simple.

who

I

on the telephone and

to speak to her

for

is

am

and

angel,

What proof do I have.'" There was a madw oman w ho had

Abraham.'

consider that such an act

what

itself.

angel has ordered

This helps us understand w hat the actual content

First,

lie.

conceals

the anguish that Kierkegaard called the

is

of such rather grandiloquent w ords as anguish,

forlornness, despair.

it

anguish of Abraham."

a

show that the best thing for man is resignation, that the kingdom of man is not of this world, I am not only involving my own case - I

member I want

Anguish This

all.

on the other hand, existence precedes essence,

if

universal value

the good, and noth-

ing can be good for us without being good for

and

conscience, because the act of lying implies that a

commanding him bling {\S-\3).

to kill his

God

testing

Abraham (by

son Isaac) in Fear and Trem-

'Exittentialiftm'

iKii

lulp (uMiig

the mnirarx.

tin

lor

actUM)

ioiuhimn

the \cr\

is

Icailrrs kixiM

(hriii troni acting,

ol

ihrir

it

it

Kxause

has \ahie onl\

which

shall see that this Linil ot anguish,

Liiul that existentialism ilesirilns.

is

the

explaiiuil, in

is

II

anil

W hen

we

ger was lond ol, exist anil that

The

ot this.

term

we mean onU

we hase

to lace

existentialist

is

that (itnl

all

leuleg-

I

es

certain kind or secular ethics

not

which would

i

a

like to

aUtlish Ciod with the least p«»ssible expense MxKit

some

ISHO,

up

I'rench teachers tried to set

which went something

ethics

a secular

(lod

like this:

is

and costK h>pothesis; we are discarding

useless

a it;

but, meanwhile, in order lor there to be an ethics, a siKiely. a cisili/ation,

is

it

and

values be taken sern)UslN

sidered as having an

essential

thc\

that

prutri existence.

ecause,

free;

is

I

(Condemned,

to be free.

because he did not create himsc-lf,

is

a

jxiwer of

in the

sweeping passion

man

fatally leads a

to

therefore an excuse, lie thinks

responsible tor his passion.

is

man

'Fhe existentialist d

to turn to

scribed in a heaven of ideas, though otherwise

does not

is

to a fixed

excuse iK-hind us, nor )Ustilication Ixhire us

must be

lie,

(mkI d(»es not

il

commands

the consequences

stn>nj;l\ t>pposeil

uan making

lan't

human nature In other words, there \s no man is free, man is Ireeilon) On the

gixen

duct So,

part of action itsell

is

s|H-ak ol lorlornness,'" a

UttVtm,

ileterminism,

or

Irtim actum, hut

w

TX\tx\

exiHirncc rcalK d(ic« precede cMrncc, there

other hand,

not a curtain scpai^ting us

is

Il

He

find an\ thing to cling to

whom

involves.

ii%uli

x.^., ji.vi -^ a

»

e^lusc^ lor himscit

aiKlition, h) a direct res|Hinsibiht> to the other luen It

...

no explaining things awa> b> reference

chosen

is

it

(hkI diK-.

Ikcjusc neither within him nor Hithoui diic^ he

ami when they chiMisc one, lhe\

ol fxivsihihlies,

We

keep

iiuphes that the\ eiiMsjge j luinilH-r

It

reah/e that

ilcjr u|Hin

()uihcr

hunun

i

in the

4 cDnstituent

not in the scnsi* that (mkI

sense ol pavsing iKxontl

the sense that

nun

al\\a\s present in a

is

evistentulisni hununisin

remiml nun

is

clement

tranM.entlent.

and

Ih*-

that there

is

universe,

o(

tuit

siib|ecti\it>, in

imt viosetl in on hinisrlf hul

hunun

is

iini\ersc. the uni-

This connccliun

suh|cili\il\

twccn irjnNct'iuicfKN, as

nun

hunun

ilu

is Ji

There

hijrt, at the center olthis pav%ing-he> onil

is

what ue

is

call

liununisni, because \m

no lau-nuker other than

himself, and that in his lorlornness he will decule h\ himself, because

himself as nun,

we

nt>t in

in seeking outside

jHiint

out that

nun

\mII luiril!

turning low an! himself, but

ofhimsclf a goal which

is

|usi ihis

liberation, iust this particular fulfillment

I'rom these few n«)ihinv:

is

reflections

more uniust than

ii

is

c\Hicnt

ha\e l>een raised

irNing to plunge

c>er\

calls

the obiections that

nun

ilra«»

Christians, then the lis

all

nulh>

ihc cimir-

|M»siiion

into despair at

all

un'l

If

liui

if

one

unbelief des|>air. like the

of

aitituile

n

u% h.xi%tmiuh%m

i{uences of a coherent aiheisiii

word

not (King uurd in

is

original sense

I'Aisieniiahsm isn't mi aiheislic

wears

out showing that (mhJ doesn't

that

It

Rather,

exist

itself it

declares that e\en

if

(lod did exist,

would change nothing. There you've gof our |>oint of view Not that we believe that (iod exists,

that

but

we think

not the issue istic, a

tor

(

their that

a^^ainsi

ing el»c than an jiienipi to

that the

problem

doctrine of action, and

Jinsiiaiis

own

despairing.

of

Mis existence

in this sense existentialism

to

ilespair

make no

it

is

is

is

optim-

plain dishonesty

distinction

ami ours and then

between t«)

call

us

Martin Heidegger Heidegger (1889-1976), Husserl's replacement at the University of Freiburg, took phenomenology in an existentialist direction in his great early work, Being and Time (1927). In it he sought to investigate nothing less than the meaning of Being itself (crucially distinct from Martin

beings or things) through an analysis of the of Being characteristic of

as he called

human being

mode

{Dasein,

an analysis marked by the theme

us),

of resoluteness

in

the face of Being-towards-

death and historical destiny. His philosophy subsequently moved inanincreasinglyanti-humanist direction, for

meant a

which the task of thinking Being

rejection of the subjectivism

and anthro-

pocentrism characteristic of modern thought and

an

The

effect.

according to

actuality of the effect

To

accomplishment.

what already what

can really be accomplished. But

is

above

"is''

all

Being.'

is

Thinking accom-

plishes the relation of Being to the essence of

man.

does not make or cause the relation. Think-

It

ing brings this relation to Being solely as something

handed over

to

it

from Being. Such offering con-

comes

to

the house of Being. In

its

the fact that in thinking Being

sists in

language: Language

home man

dwells.

w ith w ords

is

Those who think and those who are the guardians of this home.

rectorship of the university, and by publicly identi-

cause some effect issues from

fying Hitler and the Nazi Party with Germany's

applied.

Thinking

special destiny. Even after the war Heidegger

action

presumably the simplest and

never recanted these views, but merely ceased to

time the highest, because

written

in

His "Letter on

response to a

philosopher,

is

letter

Humanism

"(1947),

from a young French

is

something into the fulness of its essence, to lead it forth into this fullness - producere. Therefore only

create

speak of them.

valued

accomplish means to unfold

modern technological domination of the world. In 1933 these philosophical themes took embodied form when Heidegger agreed to give his loyalty to the new National Socialist regime by becoming a party member in order to assume the the

is

But the essence of action

its utility.

Their guardianship accomplishes the manifestation of Being insofar as they bring the manifestation to

language and maintain

in

it

speech. Thinking does not

Being

is

to

language through their

become it

acts insofar as

man. But

all

it

action only be-

or because it

thinks. at the

it

is

Such same

concerns the relation of

working or effecting

lies

Being and

is

directed toward beings. Thinking,

Being [Sein)

is

to be contrasted with beings {seiende) or

in

a direct repudiation of Sartre's ex'

humanwhen we abandon

istentialism. Heidegger insists that a true

ism, which can arise only

traditional philosophical thinking,

would under-

entities.

Heidegger's aim, since his early work Being and

Time (Sein und

1927),

Zeit,

to think the

is

Being without reducing Being

meaning of

to beings.

stand man's essence as his "proximity" to Being,

would than

make man

its

the ""shepherd of Being rather

Martin

Heidegger.

engineer or overseer.

on

Humanism" from

Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (trans. Frank A. Capuzzi. with

We are still far from pondering the essence of action decisively enough. We view action only as causing

(JB)

"Letter

"

ed.

David

J.

Glenn Gray and David

Farrell

Krell),

Harper& Row. 1977.

pp.

Farrell Krell,

193-242. New

York:

:

on Humanism"

"Letter in

contrul,

uy

can

Icti

itiMrll

thi» Icltmg I'f-jrt"

Ihinliii);

Ik-ing mi iIui

t>>

ii

rcnuutfmtnt pur ifitf pour

ritre"' Here the

hnguistKulK

is

it

these V'pur" jiui "pour")

(i(

}m\

this

in

is

mil Lnii\« whether

ilo

I

ptivsihlc to vi\ \MiiU

uncc,

^k cbirunl

the iruih of Itcing. Iliinking Mrciimplishrs

pcriciKr

js

saul i»nl\

\k-

I

to ihc dcNiinv ol ck-sisicncc. Thcrclorc ck-sisiciui-

Ihou^ht

ol as a sih-hIk

can also nc\cr

tn*

lixing creature

ainonc tnhcrs

LiiuI ot

man

ijrantiil that

drslincil Ui thiuL the essence

his

«»1

is

Being and not

mcrcl) 10 giNc accounts ot the nature and hislor\ ot his cunsiituiion

and

nun

attribute to

Thus even what we

activities.

afumahtas on the hasis

as

cumparis«>n with "biast"

iirouiuled

itseil

is

The hunun lM>dy

essence ol ck-sistcnce.

IS

bmlogism o\erct»me by

the ern)r ot

human boih,

a soul to the

the existentiell

a

mind

ail

lite

joining

and

on In

to

let

The

distorts existence.

intlexible concepts

its

and

thought

that

Iking

physiolog\

that

tact

ot

and

physiological chemistry can scientifically investi-

man

gate

as an

organism

"organic" thing, that

is,

explained, the essence ot little

no proot

is

in the

man

body

that in this scientillcall>

consists. That has as

validity as the notion that the essence ot'nature

has been discovered in atomic energy.

It

could even

be that nature, in the tace she turns toward man's technical mastery,

Just as

little

is

simply concealing her essence.

as the essence of

man

scnieiKc va>s

n the confrar>. ihc

wa\

thai he

oicum

iVkAn

is

cvM:niull>

the "there", that

Being "" The "licing"

ol the

is.

«uih

in

Da, and onl>

it,

the tundamental character of ck-«i»icncc, ihat

an ecslatie inherence in the truth of licing

which

nun

essence ot

ecstatic

lonsists

ha*

it,

of

'l*hc

ek-sistencc,

in

trom the metaph\sicali> con-

dittereni

IS

j

ihr lighting ot

ceived txulcnlia. Medie\al phih»soph> conceives

Kant represents

the latter as actualilas

exttlentta

ence

the

e\er\ thing relapse into "lite-expencnce," with a

warning that thinking b\

"ol))ctt,

lor

m

some-

is

to the soul,

mind

before singing the praises ot the

disrupts the tlow ot

name

a

AS aclualitN in the sense ot the «)b)ecti\it\ ot exfxrri-

the mind, and then louder than

tt>

a%

ot the

thing essentially other than an animal organism

Nor

icnlur\

intending to exprr%% the rnetaphv»iail ctmcrpi iA the actualiiv ot the actual

vourtr that ilcicrnuncs hin» F.k-M>iciKc

righlrcnih

consists in being

Hegel detines

the sclt-knowing

txislftitui as

Nietzsche grasps cxts-

lilea ot abs«)lute subjectivity.

as the eternal recurrence of the same.

iititia

Here

it

renuins an o|Hn question whether through existrnexplanations ot

liii

in these

first

seem quite

e\cn

as

lite

it

as actuality,

which

at

dilterent

the lk-ing of a stone

«ir

the Being ot

plants and animals

is

adequately thought. In any case li\ing creatures they

as

are

Being

with«)Ut

are

standing outside their

such and within the truth of Iking, pre-

as

serving in such standing the evsential nature of their Being.

Of all

the beings that are, presumably

the most difficult to think about are living creatures, because

way most the

at

on the one hand they are

closely related to us,

same time separated from our

essence by an abyss. However, as

though the essence of divinit)

what

in a certain

and on the other are

is

namely,

it

ek-sistent

might also seem

is

closer to us than

foreign in other living creatures, closer,

an essential distance which however

in

nonetheless more familiar to our ck-

an animal organism can this insuftlcienl definition

distant

of man's essence be overcome or ottset h\ outfitting

sistent essence than

man

conceivable bodily kinship with the beast. Such

with an immortal soul, the power of reason, or

the character of a person. In each instance essence

is

is

reflections cast a strange light

passed over, and passed over on the basis of the

and therefore always

same metaphysical projection.

ot

man

\\ hat

is

or, as

it is

called in the traditional

language of metaphysics, the "essence" of lies in his

this

way

is

ek-sistence.

meaning

Time

this

Dasein

But ek-sisience thought

-

in

not identical w ith the traditional concept

ot exiswniiii,

the

man

which means

sentence

lies

aclualit)

in contrast to

ot essffitiu as possibility. In Bt'im; is italicized:

in its existence."

"The

and

'essence' of

is

not

under consideration, because neither of these metaphysical determinations of Being,

sentence

is

let

alone their

yet in question. Still less does the

contain

a

man

as

still

animitl rationale.

animals are lodged

upon the current

premature designation Because plants and

in their respecti\e

en\ ironments

but are never placed treely in the lighting of Ik-ing

which alone

is

"world," they lack language. But

in

being denied language they are not thereby sus-

pended worldlessly this

in their

environment.

word "environment" converges

puzzling about

living

creatures

In

all its

Still, in

that

is

essence

However, here the

opposition between existcnlia and essentta

relationship,

our appalling and scarcely

is

universal

statement

Dasem^ since the word came into fashion

about in

the

*'"

for

Diiscin, literally

human

being.

It

Heidegger's term are always there,

to the world.

He also describes

indicates that

thrown into and vulnerable this

is

we

"thcrc-hcing,"

"there-ness" (or Da) as Luhiun^,

a

word meaning

both light and a tbresi clearing. Dasein's thcre-ncss

is

a

place where things are lighted or revealed.

(m>

Martin Heidegger language is

it

is

not the utterance of an organism; nor

Nor can correct way

the expression of a Hving thing.

ever be thought in an essentially

it

in

terms

of

even

terms of the character of signification. Lan-

in

guage

symbolic

its

perhaps

character,

not

the lighting-concealing advent of Being

is

think

Ek-sistence, thought in terms of ec stasis, does not

coincide with existentia in either form or content. In

the

means

Existentia

{existence)

adequate execution and completion of thinking that abandons subjectivity

Being and Time the third division of the

"Time and Being," was Here everything

the

is

as

is

question of whether

man

name

it

is

in the destiny

of

in

is.

For

Idea.

man actually is or not; rather,

in the

it

to

posing this question

Who?

we

man is U hat'f we are

ask what

or the

already on the lookout for something like a person

and misconstrues the

essential

unfolding of ek-sistence in the history of Being.

why

the sentence cited from Being and

careful to enclose the

word "essence"

in

quotation marks. This indicates that "essence"

now being

defined from neither

esse existentiae^^^

acter of Dasein.

is

nor

esse essentiae

but rather from the ek-static char-

As

ek-sisting,

in that he takes the

"On

lecture

the Essence of Truth,"

man sustains Da-sein

Da, the lighting of Being, into

Time"

ing of the turning from "Being and

"Time and Being." This

turning

not

is

thinking that was sought

to

change

a

of standpoint from Being and Time, but in

it

the

arrives at the location

first

of that dimension out of which Being and Time experienced, that

By way of

contrast, Sartre expresses the basic

tenet of existentialism in this way: Existence pre-

cedes essence. In this statement he tentia

and

is

taking exis-

according to their metaphysical

essentia

meaning, which from Plato's time on has said that precedes

essentia

Sartre

existentia.

reverses

this

statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical state-

ment remains

a

metaphysical statement.

\\ ith

it

Being. For even

if

philosophy wishes to determine

the relation of essentia and existentia in the sense

"thrown."

had

Being

unfolds essentially in the throw of

as the fateful sending.

But

to explain the sentence

sence as

human

if it

if

one wished

about man's ek-sistent es-

were the secularized transference

to

beings of a thought that Christian theology

is

that this

suiim

esse);"^"^

w hat

es-

is

we understand what Being and Time calls "projection" as a representational positing, we take be an achievement of subjectivity and do not

it still

as esse essentiae

and

Rather than think of the mind

as

knowing or not

knowing Being, Heidegger thinks of Being and concealing

itself

not a passive object for the """ ''''

as revealing

Being grants unconceaiment;

human

it

subject.

essentia

it

is

and

how

it

is

existentia

ness of Being.'

We

ing, let alone

not

the

differentiation

existentia (actuality)

Or

at all a sign

must presume

upon

comes

to

is

the fact

a lesser capacity its

of forgetful-

that this destiny

human

think-

of early West-

essential provenance,

of essentia

(essentiality)

and

completely dominates the des-

is '^'^'

Heidegger

is

describing a major change ("turn") in

"On Time and Being"

God

essay of Heidegger's.

(isg)

of

with the differentiation of

does not rest upon a mere failure of

his thinking.

His being.

esse existentiae

could never be thought.

Essential being and existing being, respectively. is

first

this differentiation

We have yet to consider why the

ern thinking. Concealed in ^'""

remains to ask

question about the destiny of Being w as never asked

and why

est

sential. If

to

Being

appear to thinking!

not the realization of an essence, nor does

{Deus

ek-sistence itself even effect and posit

it

in

some other way,

from what destiny of Being

all

it

medieval controversies, in Leibniz's sense,

for ek-

expresses about sistence

God

in

or in

would be the ultimate error

it

he

stays with metaphysics in oblivion of the truth of

"care." But Da-sein itself occurs essentially as It

is

from the

to say, experienced

is

fundamental experience of the oblivion of Being.

or an object. But the personal no less than the objective misses

The

until 1943, provides a certain insight into the think-

with equal impropriety whether

who he

sics.'''"

The

its

not an answer to the

is

We are accustomed

is

section

thought out and dehvered in 1930 but not printed

responds to the question concerning man's "es-

Time

The

question was held back because thinking failed in

for the realization of

appears in

sentence ''Man ek-sists''

is

held back. reversed.

the adequate saying of this turning and did not

something that

That

is

of

first part,

succeed with the help of the language of metaphy-

the determination of what

or

made

surely

is

fact that in the publication

opposed

truth. Existentia

sence."

by the

difficult

The

this other

possibility as Idea. Ek-sistence identifies

in contrast actualitas, actuality as

mere

to

of Being.

truth

of the "existential analysis"

as the ecstatic relation to the lighting of Being.

terms of content ek-sistence means standing out into

way the "understanding of

the only

in the context

of "being-in-the-world" can be thought - namely

more

itself.^""

in

it

Being"

(below) was

a late

Humanism"

"Letter on tun

Wcilcrn

ol

IusIoin

jiuI nl

IhsIuin

all

ilrlcr-

nuncil b) Kuropc

jUuit

pr«>|HiMiioi)

Sdrlrr*H Lc\

lumc "cxistcntuliMu"

about the rclatH)n ol

and fxisUntta can is

it

As

|ust saul. that

enough What

imla) remains

still

ot nian to the |>oint

that

dimensuin

honor

to the

onl\

Hut e\en

it

happens clunisih ia.scin

man

not,

the

thai

IS

man

the cimcncc ot

reali/e the

profXT

hiichr^i

dctmninaliom fttill do mA

hunianiun

in

man w

di|cnit\ of

o that e%trni

I

humanmean that such thinking aligns itvell against the humane and advocates the mhuman, that ii promotc« the inhumane and

the thinking in Heinf

ism

imr

I

against

Bui this opiMiMiion diH's not

man Humanism

Aiu\ ileprecates the dignilv ol

op|>oseil Iniause

nun high enough Ol man does not consist

course the essential v*orth in his

beings, as the "Subject"

being the substance ol

among them,

may deign

tvrant ol Being he

\\

humanitai ot

d«K*s not set the

it

ol

ness ot Ix-ings into an

tct

question ol

a

still

Irom what we ha\e

become an im|H-tus

apart

tmt no staicnu-ni

I

preparing s«>nKthing precursor\

|H-rhaps

limt

•iw*/

and

f JiCfi/u

be exprcvsetl since there

common

at all in

//r" Mirl

lor a

ol "cxistcniijiisin"

piiontN

tlu

Imwcxcr.

c'lit/cn/iu t»\cr cwtntiti iIiicn.

ihc

implicjiion ol

"thrown" from

rather

is

lieing itsell into

iIk truth ot Being, so that ek-sisting

m

this fashion

he might guarti the truth ol Being, in order that

beings might appear

Man

beings thev are

the light of ik-ing as the

in

decide whether and

iloes not

how beings appear, whether and how (iod and

the

and culture through man's doings might be vindi-

gods or historv and nature come torvsard

the

cated.

lighting ot Being,

however, lor the sake

But

It,

ot the truth ot

we should

tlrst

ot

essential experience

that

man

is

to say this in the

mav

Being

in

make

attain to the

order to ponder

clear

how

to us

when

he ek-sists.

man

dawns

it

we now

\\ ere

language ot the tradition,

run: the ek-sistence ot

Ik'ing

claims him. Such an

it

happens

in that

so that civilization

todav

all

man and how

concerns

on us

we

order thai

in

dimension

(»t

his substance.

in the

sisting has to

man

is

as ek-

guard the truth of Being. .Man

shepherd of Being. Being and Time is

when

thinking

is

is

the

in this direction alone that

It is

ecstatic existence

experienced as "care. ^et Being

thinking that

oiiiiii,

is

a

word

present and

at

is

that

the

same lime, with puzzling ambiguity, usually means itself. If

destinv; tor in accord with this destinv

existence." But "sub-

designates the presence otvvhat

present

the destinv of tking.

essence which corresj^onds to such

would

stance," thought in terms ot the historv ot Being,

is

lies in

and depart

ever a question of finding what

is

it

fitting in his

sentence otten recurs,

already a blanket translation oi

tcim "substance"

man

to presence

"

is

why in ^t'/z/j,' and linic the "The 'substance' ot man is

what

The advent of beings But tor

I'hat is

it

come

int(i

we think

the metaphysical

sense already suggested in

that a

and

what is

to sav

to

it.

Being-

is

"Being

"

cosmic ground. Being

and

itself

It

is

work of art,

or Ciod. Being

is

a

The

not Ciod and not

her than

tart

all

beings

than every being, be

rock, a beast, a

farthest

is

learn to experience

that

is

man

yet nearer to

is

It

come must

machine, be

it

it

a

an angel

the nearest. Vet the near remains

from man. .Man

at first

clings alwavs

when thinking

and

accordance with the "phenomenological destruc-

only

tion" carried out in Being and Time, then the state-

beings as beings

ment "The 'substance' of man

ek-sislcnce" says

In truth, however,

man

such; precisely not, and never. Being as such. The

is

nothing else but that the way that

essence becomes present to Being

herence

in

the truth of Being. '^"

is

in his

proper

ecstatic in-

Through

this

determination of the essence of man the humanistic interpretations of

man

as iinitfuil rationale, as

"per-

to

But

beings. it

no doubt it

relates itself to Iking.

always thinks only of beings as

"question of Iking" always remains about beings.

name

It

indicates:

is

represents

still

not

at

all

a

what

question

its

elusive

the question in the direction of

Being. Philosophy, even

when

it

becomes

"critical"

son," as spiritual-ensoukd-bodily being, are not

through Descartes and Kant, always follows the

declared talse and thrust aside. Rather, the sole

course of metaphysical representation.

from beings back "Truth" (the literal

aUtheia).

for

Heidegger means "unconccalmcnt"

meaning otthc ancient Greek word

tor truth,

It

thinks

to beings with a glance in passing

toward Being. For every departure from beings and every return to them stands already

in

the light of

Being.

V

Martin Heidegger

But

metaphysics

Being either solely in ''outward is

the

recognizes

appearance"

lighting

view of what

as the

of

present

is

(iJea) or critically as

what

seen as a result of categorial representation on the

part of subjectivity. This

Being

means

as the lighting itself

that the truth of

remains concealed for

metaphysics. However, this concealment

yet held before

the treasure of

it,

But the lighting

wealth.

its

own proper

Being. Within

itself is

the destiny of Being in metaphysics the lighting affords

first

comes

view by which what

a

man

so that

touch upon Being

10).

This view

yields

is

present to

it,

himself can in apprehending (noein)

first

It

man, who

into touch with

present

is

such

to

{thigein, Aristotle,

Met. IX,

gathers the aspect to itself

first

when apprehending

aspects

has become a setting-forth-before-itself in the percept

w

of the

taken as the suhiectiim of

res cogitans

But how - provided we really ought to ask such a all - how does Being relate to ek-

question at sistence.^

of Being. But this relation

Being

itself is

the relation to the extent

time, an

is

as

it is

not by reason

of ek-sistence; on the contrary, the essence of eksistence derives existentially-ecstatically from the

essence of the truth of Being.

The one

thing thinking would like to attain and

for the first time tries to articulate in Being

Time

and

something simple. As such, Being remains

is

mysterious, the simple nearness of an unobtrusive

governance.

The

guage

But language

itself

nearness occurs essentially as lanis

not mere speech, inso-

we represent the latter at best as the unity of phoneme (or written character), melody, rhythm, and meaning (or sense). We think of the phoneme far as

and written character

as a verbal

of melody and rhythm as to

do with meaning

as its

its

body

for language,

and whatever has

soul,

We usually think of

mind.

language as corresponding to the essence of represented as animal rationale, that

certttudo.^'''''

first

"ecstatic" relation of the essence of man to the truth

not a

is

defect of metaph\ sics but a treasure withheld from it

sophy, has yet to be thought for the

is,

man

as the unity

of body-soul-mind. But just as ek-sistence - and

through

the relation of the truth of Being to

it

- remains

man

veiled in the humanitas of homo animalis,

Being amid

so does the metaphysical-animal explanation of

beings, gathers to itself and embraces ek-sistence in

language cover up the essence of language in the

Because

history of Being. According to this essence lan-

that

It,

as the location of the truth of

existential,

its

man

as the

that

is,

one who

relation that

ek-sists

comes

Being destines

ecstatically sustains

himself, he at

ecstatic, essence.

it,

that

first fails to

is,

to stand in this

for itself, in that in care takes

that this

is

at the

the nearest.

same time

than the farthest

is

upon

recognize the nearest and

attaches himself to the next nearest.

and

it

he

He

even thinks

But nearer than the nearest

for ordinary thinking farther

nearness itself the truth of

Forgetting the truth of Being in favor of the pressing throng of beings unthought in their esis

what ensnarement means

in

Being and

This word does not signify the Fall of

Time.^^^''

iMan understood at the

the house of Being which

is

from Being and is

in a

"moral-philosophical" and

same time secularized way;

rather,

nates an essential relationship of

man

is

But man

is

sists

is

Being, guarding

So the point not

man

in that

^^"'

something

In the perception of the thinking substance taken as the

subject "'"^

also

of certainty.

Verfallen,

here translated as "ensnarement," has

been translated

as "fallenness.'"

man

what

is

ek-

essential

but Being - as the dimension of the

of ek-sistence.

has been hitherto concealed from philo-

pos-

that in the determination of the

in the all

is

not

familiar sense. Rather,

space-time occur essen-

the dimensionality which Being itself

Thinking attends

is

ecstasis

However, the dimension

spatial

tially in

it

who

he belongs to the truth of

as ek-sistence

everything spatial and

because

this

of man's

it.

is

humanity of man

Being

logical" distinction but rather a relation which,

home

the

the house of Being in which

by dwelling,

desig-

not imply a moral-existentiell or an "anthropo-

as

is,

not only a living creature

it

do

it

sesses language along with other capacities. Rather,

to

in a provisional fashion,

so

essence.

within Being's relation to the essence of man. Ac-

which are used

to pass

And

correspondence to Being and indeed as

its

correspondence, that

cordingly, the terms "authenticity" and "inauthenticity,"

comes

pervaded by Being.

proper to think the essence of language from

language

Being.

sence

guage

is.

to these simple relationships.

them within the grammar of metaphysics. But does such thinking - granted that there is something in a name - still allow itself to It tries

to find the right

word

for

long traditional language and

be described as humanism.' Certainly not so

humanism humanism

far as

thinks metaphysically. Certainly not is

existentialism and

is

if

represented by

what Sartre expresses: precisement nous sommes sur

LAtter

wif

plan

u ituUmfitt Jf\

I'M j/ y

trtmi //finr

hummfs

'rhtiughi

mv

should

/im of

11

sj\.

and iJutiou.sK

gi\cs Ik-ing

itscll

vumc

arc the

/>/«i«

imprinsiK

jiixo"

here "jsncs"

/

coiKruicii

i\

heralded

in

p(Klr\, ^ilhiuil \c« l>cti>iumg nunilcsi as ihc history ol

The world-hisinru al thinking

ilcin){

lloldcrlin thai sjKaks «uii in ihc |XK-m

brjiKc" jiul

more priniordul

ihcrctorc cvscniulK

IS

ot

•Rcincin-

thus more signitkjni lor the tuiurc than thc

mcrc

cosino|xiliianisiu ol (iinthc

the sunic

l"or

rcJMin lloUlcrlin's relation to (ireek ci\ili/ation MMiK-thing eNsi-ntulK other than huinanisin

with

conlronieil

Cicrnuns who knew

held U» I

al>out

Ix"

the t\pual (lernun

lonielcvsncss

wtjrid

I

terms

»»t

lloldcrlin

lenee

it

coming

is

is

to

at

i

Ix-

\S

ilu-

hen

Noiing

and

li\e«.l

what

than

soineihinu other

thttuuht

those

therchire.

ileath.

is

piihlu

homelcssncss

in the

man

This homelcssncss

spccitkalh e\oked trom the

is

melaph>sKs and

dcstin\ ot lieing in the torm ot

through mclaphssics

and covered up

modern man.

ot

simulianeoush entrenched

is

Because Marx by experi-

as such.

non

to

communism and

the dtKlnncs o( tion.

world-historKal s|x-aks out in

"iommumsm" schauung"

who

IS

h\ the term

i

presumablv once

ot a

more than

above

in the tact

tailing

is

dawning

have seen

now

till

Sartre

of

less in the basic traits

attempts to explicate destinN yet, and that

For such dialogue free oneself as well as

it is

product-

a

becomes

possible.

certainly also necessary to

trom naive notions about materialism,

from the cheap refutations

posed to counter docs not consist

it.

that are

sup-

The essence of materialism

in the assertion that

everything

is

expanded

rather

to hunuinitiii

The modern meiaphxsical

Phenom-

metaphysicalK an anthropolarticular lite-

worlil ilestin\

Being now

I

|usi

l.uro|x-

remains Furopean by definition.

whether

i%

takc^

ever more clearly forced consiMs

is

glors

Its

course

that of other histt>rical accounts. Ikit since neither

so far as

shallowK,

The danger into which

\le

Whoever

it

"Americanism" mean, and mean

ilcrogalorilv, nothing

in

of IkinK

only as a "party" or a "Weltan-

thinking

ofhislor), the Marxist \ie\v ot"histor\

Husscrl nor

to their lounda-

pcnencc ot nhal

IS

It

irom the

and gather together what

superior to

a

.No mailer vthuh o(

ot the hisiorv ot Ik-ing

encing estrangement attains an essential dimension is

hmtH

pcnrplihlc

ihr onlv

the \arious |>osiiions one ch«M>scs to ailopi itmard

hiihcrtj) existed

deriNcd from Hegel, as the estrangement ol Its riKits

phase

the destiiu of ilu

nized in an essential and signitkant sense, though

has

and up

disiiiutive

st

What Marx recog-

u

the hiMur> ol mciaphvftic», which

in

mule

necessarN to think that destiin in

the histtirs ot Iking.

A%«tormol iruihirchnoki^v u grounded

maniiokl

man

more than mereh human, "being

a rational

represented as

if this is

creature." ".More" must not be

understood here additively as definition of

rationale.

consists in his being

man were

if

the

traditional

indeed to remain basic,

only elaborated by means of an cxistentiell postscript.

The "more" means: more originally and

therefore

more

essentially in

terms of his essence.

But here something enicrnatic manifests is

in

throvsness.

This

means

that

itself

man,

as

man the

cjH)

Martin Heidegger ek-sisting counter-throw of Being,

more than

is

animal rationale precisely to the extent that he less

bound up with man conceived from

ity.

Man

Man

not the lord of beings.

is

Man

pherd of Being.

is

subjectiv-

the she-

is

truth of Being,

stands safely beyond any danger

it

of shattering against the hardness of that matter.

Thus

to "philosophize" about being shattered

separated by a chasm from a thinking that tered. If

such thinking were to go fortunately for

rather, he gains in that he attains the truth of Being.

man no

misfortune would befall him.

He

receive the only gift that can

loses nothing in this "less";

gains the essential poverty of the shepherd,

whose dignity consists

comes

as the

throw from which the thrownness

of Da-sein derives. In his essential unfolding within the history of Being,

man

is

the being

whose Being

as ek-sistence consists in his dwelling in the near-

ness of Being.

But -

Man

is

the neighbor of Being.

to thinking

But is

also the case that the matter of thinking

it is

not achieved in the fact that talk about the "truth

of Being" and the "history of Being"

is

set in

motion. Everything depends upon this alone, that

come

the truth of Being

to language

and that think-

ing attain to this language. Perhaps, then, language

you no doubt have been wanting to now - does not such think-

as

come

a

He would

from Being.

The

the preservation of Being's truth.

itself into call

being called by Being

in

is

shat-

is

much

requires

precipitous expression than

less

who

rejoin for quite a while

proper silence. But

ing think precisely the hiimanitas oi homo humanusr

imagine that his attempts to think are

Does

the path of silence.' At best, thinking could perhaps

not think humanitas in a decisive sense, as

it

no metaphysics has thought

or can think

it

it.'

Is this

"humanism" in the extreme sense.' Certainly. It a humanism that thinks the humanity of man

what

it

is

easily

from nearness

humanism

essence

in

same time

at the

which not man but man's

stake in

is at

But

to Being.

its

fall

in this

In Being and Time

it

is

the actuality of subjects

other and so in

fundamental contrast

istence^'"

Being.

ecstatic

is

it

man

Neither

is

"Ek-sistence,"

to every existentia

and

''ex-

dwelling in the nearness of

Being. Because there

the care for

is,

something simple

is

this thinking

it

seems quite

to be

difficult to

rare handicraft of

all eternity, even when they come very come at the right time. Whether the realm of the truth of Being is a blind

defined for late still

does.

with and for each

are.

the guardianship, that

It is

thought in

who act

become who they

w riting.

really matter, although they are not

said that every question of

cogito.

now

to the

Things that

game of stakes? So

not the actuality of the ego

would thus be more

and directed

philosophy "recoils upon existence." But existence here

to be thought. It

is

weaned from mere supposing and opining

it is

provenance from the truth

it is

as

historical

of Being. But then doesn't the ek-sistence of also stand or

home on

at

point toward the truth of Being, and indeed toward

not

a

of us today would want to

alley or

dom

whether

conserves

may judge

it is

its

after

the free space in which free-

essence

is

something each one

he himself has tried to go the

designated w ay, or even better, after he has gone a better way, that

is,

a

way

befitting the question.

On

the penultimate page of Being and Time stand the

"The

sentences:

with respect to the inter-

conflict

pretation of Being (that

is,

therefore, not the in-

terpretation of beings or of the Being of

cannot be

settled, because

it

man)

has not yet been kindled.

the representational thought that has been trans-

And

mitted as philosophy. But the difficult

quarrel,' since the kindling of the conflict does

is

not a

in the

end

it is

not a question of 'picking a

matter of indulging in a special sort of profundity

demand some

and of building complicated concepts; rather,

foregoing investigation

concealed in the step back that

lets

into a questioning that experiences

habitual opining of philosophy It is

fall

it is

comment any

further

upon

- and

the days ahead remain as

the

lets

aw ay.

thinking that hazards a few

The

steps in Being

and

Time has even today not advanced beyond that publication.

But perhaps

in the

one respect come farther into

its

meantime

it

has in

ow n matter. How-

end alone the

still

after

hold. Let us also in

The

into

question you pose

helps to clarify the way.

You

Let us not

opinion.

this

w anderers on the w ay

the neighborhood of Being. in

To

under way." Today

tw o decades these sentences

alley.

that

is

thinking enter

everywhere supposed that the attempt

Being and Time ended in a blind

preparation.

Comment redonner un

ask,

sens

au mot

"Humanisme"? ''How can some sense be restored to the

word 'humanism'.'" Your question not only

presupposes a desire to retain the word "human-

ism" but has lost

ever, as long as philosophy merely busies itself with

It

also contains an

its

admission that

this

word

meaning.

has lost

it

humanism

through the insight that the essence metaphysical, which

now means

continually obstructing the possibility of admit-

of

tance into the matter for thinking,

that metaphysics not only does not pose the ques-

i.e.

into the

is

'

on Humanism'

"Latter lion coiKrrniiig ihr truth

«•!

structN thr question. inMiUr

its

into the i|ut-siioiuhU-

UN to thiN insight

Icii

ob-

jl

thlnkln^ itut

liut the sjnic

in the ohli\ ion oi Item); ha.H

lUing but

mrtHii'?i |)cr%iHtH

csMCiKT ol hununisni has hkcN\isc cofU|Kllcil us to

nun more prunonhjIK

think thr rvsctuc ot

arises the possihilitN ol restoring to

humanui there

won! "humanism"

the

meaning

oldest

chronologicailv

not to

is

is

unilersHMKl

Ik-

though the wonl "humanism" were wholK with-

meaning

out

aiul

word

man

is

meant

To restore

|>oints to humaniltis, the

thai the es-

experience the essence of It

demands

also

evscnce in

sence

we show

that

to

is,

from Being

insofar as Being appropriates

first

primordially;

what evient

That

itself

man

we

that

tateful.

ek-sislence.

lies in

that

essentially

man more

own wa> becomes

its

man

ol"

as such.

can only mean to redetme

it

meaning of the word. That requires

but

This

to he taken esseniialU

sense to

a

The

imis^^^'"

word "humanism" has

the sense that the

the

flulus

man. the "-ism" imluates

«»l

sence of

mere

a

'*humunttttr in the

essence

IS

historical si-nse that

a

The restoration

rccktuuvl as

Us

than

oUler

\\ iih

humantuis ol homo

to this nion- csscntui

rr)r>iril

The es-

"Humanism" now means,

itself.

the word, that for

essential

such

a

simpK

the

lui'us

a

we decide

man

the essence of

way that the word does not pertain as such.

So we

we "humanism"

still

.\nd keep

it

it

to

in

man

name

presious

human-

no way adviKates the inhuman.' by sharing

in the

in the

use of the

predominant

in oblivion

of Being.'

Or should

think-

by means of open resistance to "humanism,"

shock that could for the

tirst

time cause

perplexitN concerning the hiimunttaa ol

honm hiimu-

risk a

nus

and

its

rellection

In this

basis.' if

way

it

could awaken

the world-historical

moment

not itself already compel such a rellection thinks not only

about

man

a

did that

but also about

the

"nature" of man, not only about his nature but even more primordially about the dimension

in

which the essence of man, determined by Being

all

than

"logical"

inhuman and

barbaric brutalit\

fication ol

I-

humanism nothing remains

a glori-

or what

more

is

who

somelxHh

for

that

negates

but the alfirinaiion of

inluimamiN

Because we are speaking against belie\e

we

logu

[xople

are ilemanding that the rigor of thinking

be renounced and in

its

drnes and

installed

feelings

Ix-

place the arbitrariness of

and thus

that "irra-

tionalism" be pr teaches an irresponsible

and destrucii\e "nihilism." For what

more

is

"logical" than that whoeNcr roundlx denies what truly in being puts himself

is

on the side of nonbeing

and thus professes the pure nothing as the meaning of realit\

r

\\ hat is

going on

"humanism,"

here.'

"logic,"

People hear

"values,"

talk

about

"world,"

and

They hear something about opposition They recognize and accept these things

"(iod."

But with hearsay

Enipt\ sound.

positive.

A

strictiv deliberate

grove that no light reaches.

name

hetra\ the

Because we are speaking againM "hununinm" pe«»ple lear a defense of the

these.

""

Ihex

same loundation

struiture ami the

liness of

just so that

l

what one believer he kniiH%

ol

Ixlore he reails

alreailN

denies the bevond, and renounces

currents, stilled in metaphysical subjeciiMsm and

ing,

simpK mirrorings

a

that

"'""^^

all

>t

^

are natural reinterpretation% ot what vkas read, or

keep the name "humanism" for

in

li

t

hc*c miMnirrpretation%

more

name we might perhaps swim submerged

I

a

results in a

that contradicts

ism - although

slowlx dissipate'

is

mm ImenJo.

.Should

is

are thinking a curious kind of

"humanism." The word

thinking in

of

ime has hitherto Ixen

are horrified at a philosophy that ostensibly dares to

of Being, specificallN

truth

them

I

issue here,

as ck-sisting for

in case

whiih the path

aiions to

ol |{cing anil let

not rather %ullrr a

Because we are speaking against "values" people

what

guardianship o\er the truth ot Being into this truth

to retain

home Should Me

at

IS

uhile longer ih

Martin Heidegger

what speaks against something negation and that this

And somewhere

destructive.

there

its

Being and Time

in

phenomenological de-

explicit talk of "the

is

automatically

is

"negative" in the sense of

is

With the assistance of logic and ratio - people come to believe that

struction."

so often invoked

whatever it

not positive

is

negative and thus that

is

seeks to degrade reason - and therefore deserves

to be

branded

as depravity.

We

they recoil before the task of simply inquiring into

we wished

the essence of logos} If

which

objections,

of course

is

bandy about

to

fruitless,

we could

with more right: irrationalism, as a denial of rules unnoticed

ground

To

in the defense

of

can eschew meditation on

it

and on the essence of

logos

are so filled with

and uncontested

which believes

"logic,"

say

ratio^

which has

ratio

its

in logos.

think against "values"

is

not to maintain that

"logic" that anything that disturbs the habitual

everything interpreted as "a value" - "culture,"

somnolence of prevailing opinion

"art," "science,"

is

automatically

registered as a despicable contradiction.

We

pitch

"God" -

"human

everything that does not stay close to the familiar

to realize that precisely

and beloved positive into the previously excavated

tion of

of pure negation which negates everything,

pit

ends

nothing, and so consummates nihilism.

in

Following

everything

let

we invented

expire in a nihilism

with the aid of

we

course

logical

this

ourselves

for

logic.

a thinking ad-

But what

let

and conclusively, that

is,

anything else - only

when one

what

without a clear prospect of posits in advance

meant by the "positive" and on

is

This

negative.-^

this basis

makes an absolute and absolutely negative decision about the range of possible opposition to cealed in such a procedure to reflection this

Con-

it.

the refusal to subject

is

presupposed "positive"

in

one believes himself saved, together with

which

its

posi-

and opposition. By continually appealing to the

tion

logical

one conjures up the

illusion

he has disavowed

fact It

he

is

when

in

that

entering straightforwardly into thinking

a thing

Being

in its

tion of

its

in

values

When

To

mean

does not

and

lessness

thinking,

mere

and

ent."

This

"logic."

To

and

illogical

thought the logos and the

dawn of thinking,

the

first

its

mean

to

but simply to trace in

essence w hich appeared in

that

is,

to exert ourselves for

time in preparing for such reflection.

what value if,

founder of

think against "logic" does not

break a lance for the

us

in Aristotle, the

Of

are even far-reaching systems of logic to

without really know ing w hat they are doing.

a

degrada-

for the value-

means

rather to

as

subjectivizing

against

into

reference to "being-in-the-world" as the

The is

of the first

beings

objects.

man

is

merely

a

homo humanus does "worldly" creature

in a Christian sense, thus a creature

turned away from

with meditation on Being

lost in Plato

drum

basic trait of the humanitas of

with the thinking that thinks the truth

of logos w hich w as already obfuscated

is

bring the lighting of the truth of Being before

God and

word could be more

dial essence

-

bizarre ef-

as elsewhere thinking

nullity of beings. It

tation proposes to itself in the generality of the

of Being.? This thinking alone reaches the primor-

The

think against values therefore

"Transcendence." What

is it

where

does not

one proclaims "God"

to beat the

sentation of beings in their Being, which represen-

how

objectivity

the greatest blasphemy imaginable

is

against Being.

understood

is,

when

doing.

God's essence. Here

other vistas.

that

is

not exhausted by

a subjectivizing. It

is

doing.

it is

of the

itself,

is

the altogether "highest value," this

not assert that

concept. But

valued

is

prove the objectivity of values does not

fort to

know what

implies a defense

to be the repre-

what

is

assess-

beings: be. Rather, valuing lets beings: be valid

sition to

"Logic" understands thinking

is

values positively,

The

"humanism" in no way inhuman but rather opens

so valued

is

by the

to say,

is

as a value

solely as the objects of

it.

ought to be somew hat clearer now that oppo-

finally

takes the form of value. Every valuing, even

toward pure negation and the

be sure, happens inevitably

important

"a value" what

worth. That

being an object, particularly

it

to

as

it is

through the characteriza-

admitted only as an object for man's estimation.

vances against ordinary opinion necessarily point

happens - and then,

its

ment of something

its

But does the "against" which

something

robbed of

dignity," "world," and

valueless. Rather,

is

is

so cut loose from

really

meant by

this

clearly called "the transcend-

transcendent

supersensible being.

is

considered the highest being in the sense

first

cause of all beings.

cause.

However,

God is thought as this name

in the

"being-in-the-

world," "world" does not in any way imply earthly as

opposed

to heavenly being,

opposed

to the "spiritual."

not at

signify beings or

all

the openness of Being. as

he

is

any realm of beings but

Man

the ek-sisting one.

openness of Being. Being

nor the "worldly" as

For us "world" does

is,

He

itself,

has projected the essence of

and

is

man,

insofar

stands out into the

which

man

as the

throw

into "care,"

is

as

Humantsm"

"Letter on ihiN

ol ilispaich-

such dispatching

()nl\

is

remains merel> s«)nu-lhing fabricated by

law

human rules

More

reason

man

that

is

wax

This abode

truth of Ik-ing.

than

essential

find the

first

yields the experi-

ence of something we can hold on Ik'ing offers a hold for

instituting

to his aboiie in the

The truth

to.

conduct. "Hold"

all

language means protectne heed. Iking

heed that holds

tecti\e

to the truth of

that

once the house

IS at

human

language.

in

of

guage," which

human

man

what

beings not be

at

home

of

them language becomes

tor their

sundr> preoccupations.

exceeds light in

contemplation because

all

which

it

cares for the

can

a seeing, as tlworta,

first live

it

puts

its

saying of Being into language as the

home of ek-sistence. Thus

thinking

deed that also surpasses

praxis.

all

above action and production,

grandeur of

quence of of

its

its

The

deed. But a

Thinking towers not

through

the

as a conse-

but through the humbleness

its effect,

in

its

sa>ing merel\

to

brings the

be taken quite

itself, to

language.

literally. It is

Such arriving

thought to language in itself is raised into

form

perpeluall\ under

in its

of the unusual,

initiates. .At the

light-

way

to

from

it

which

is

is

its

I'or

we

w«)rld-historical

its

the

in

accessible only to

and

scientific kn»)w ledge

We

search projects.

re-

its

nuasure deeds b\ the impres-

and successful achievements ai praxis. But the

sise

is

beha\

it

is

neither theoretical nor practical,

the conjunction of these

two forms of

ior.

Through

makes

itself

its

simple essence the thinking of Iking

unrecognizable with

acquainted

the

t»)

us.

unusual

simple, then another plight

But

if

Being

falls

of the

immediatelx

befalls

prey to arbitrariness; for

to beings. \\

W hat

thinking of

it

hence does thinking take

law governs

its

cannot cling its

measure.'

deed?

Here the third question of \our entertained:

we become

character

'The suspicion arises that such

ijiic

we

unfolding

same time we conceive of thinking

on the model of

letter

must be

(litmment sauicr /'element Jaicriture

iiimporte toutc recherche sans /aire de la philoso-

phic unc simple aientunercy^'^^'^

poetry now only in passing. the

same question, and

in

It

the

I

is

shall

mention

confronted b\

same manner,

as

thinking. But .Aristotle's words in the Poetics, al-

though they have scarcely been pondered, are that poetic

composition

is

still

truer than explor-

ation of beings.

But thinking

Being comes,

we

to Ix- thought,

ol the essential

name "philosoph)"

to language. is

contmualK has

which has

\alid

usage "bring to language" employed here

language.

IS

a

inconsequential accomplishment.

For thinking

ing

is

achievement and not

unspoken w ord of Being

now

in

lan-

t«»

the extent that

t«)

look tor thinking

and

move. Thinking attends to the lighting of Being that

It

to the extent

prestige uiuler the

us.

what relation does the thinking of

in

inconspicuous

|-'or

simplicity. FreciseU this keeps us

home

Being stand to theoretical and practical behavior.'

of ihe

strange in the thinking of Iking

nor

the

happm% through

language

Itself to

lan-

mere container

a

Iking

\\ hat is

Thus

language, so

in their

that for

But now

is

in the future

base brought something

deed of thinking

can historical mankind and

Kk-

Ikring

retain this thought in the heedfulness of laying is

way of

i»i

the usage "bring

and nothing further,

that

htv-

granted to language, think onl\

vsas

a

Iking and the home

beings. ()nl> because language

of the essence of

essence

such

in

of

our

the pro-

in his ek-sistent

such protectne heed

houses ek-sistence

it

guage

man

is

in

now an example

JUKI

we expressh think

that

capable ol sup|-H»rting and obligating. Otherwise all

at all

ileed of thinking manifested itself

the assignnu'nt e«tntaiiu-il in the ilis|H-nsaiion ol Ik'ing. ()nl\ the assignnu-nt

nothing

if

ul

o( tlujsc tlircctions that nuist

man

as

IS

It

house

in ihr

thoughtful va\mg

Iking can then- come from Iking

not onl\

this

all

c«Mmcc u

rnollrctMin

to

(*»

But

imih

tlu-

rniru%ird

is

which

thai Un|(U4|(c

luli\ inlu il»

sislrmr ihoughttulK dwclU

nuligiuncx

to

Iking

lorual.

In

nun. ck-sisting into

bcctimc law and rule lor

nrman. \omos

I

lliinls lUing,

it

To ihr rxicnl

H4V

l>cr\4Ai\c

has thus liccn brought

grants jsccnt into uran-.

lirst

assignment

Uscll tlu-

\ciltil

nothing

oimpulsion

lis

Onh

is

the cnsciuc ol wlui

is

llciuc Ihcjiisc

ihr noihii)^

iiinc

iIimuwciI hcrv

Jk"

I'hr nihibting in licing (.all

sjim

ihis ilulctiic l»ui ji chc

ihrmigh

is

an aienture not only as

a search

and an inquiry into the unthought. Thinking, essence as thinking of Being,

Thinking

is

related

to

is

Being

in its

claimed by Being. as

what

arrives

turn brings ek-sisting

a saying.

Thus language

the lighting of Being.

Language

onlv in this mvsterious and vet for us alwavs

^^^" I

all

low can

\sc

prcscr\c the cicmcni of adventure that

research contains without making philosoph> into a

mere

adventuress.-

Martin Heidegger {Favcnant). Thinking as such

bound

be said - to what extent,

advent

thought

is

of Being, to Being as advent, Being has already been

moment

of the history of Being, in what sort of

is

dispatched to thinking. Being thinking.

But destiny

tory has already

come

ts

to the

as the destiny of

in itself historical. Its his-

is

to

language in the saying of

bring to language ever and again this advent

of Being which remains, and

man,

for

ought

it

mentioned

in

to

be

said.

an earlier

The

letter is

threefold thing

determined

in its

remaining waits

ness in saying, frugality with words.

the sole matter of thinking. For this

is

It

time to break the habit of overestimating

is

mean the identical. Of course they say it only to him who undertakes to think back on them. Whenever thinking, in historical recollec-

What

that does not

tion, attends to the destiny itself to

destiny.

ous.

To

To

what

is

of Being,

fitting for

it,

it

in accord with

flee into the identical is

not danger-

order to say the

risk discord in

the danger. Ambiguity threatens, and

Same

is

mere quar-

is

needed

philosophy, but literature,

The

has already

in the present

more

fittingness of the saying of Being, as of the

destiny of truth,

is

the

first

the rules of logic which can

- not

law of thinking

thinking that

sophy, because physics - a

it

name

the thinking that

demanded,

become

the basis of the law of Being.

To

rules only

on

attend to the

of thoughtful saying does not only

fittingness

its

much

is

it.

letter.

come is no longer philomore originally than meta-

to

thinks

identical to philosophy. is

of

crisis is less

attentiveness in thinking; less

to

set aside

knowledge. Thinking erty of

world

but more cultivation of the

and become wisdom

reling.

The

in its

the history of Being: rigor of meditation, careful-

philosophy and of thereby asking too

its

what

dialogue with this history, and on the basis of what claim,

reason essential thinkers always say the Same. But

bound

at

cohesion by the law of the fittingness of thought on

thinkers.

To

to

However,

come can no longer, as Hegel the name "love of wisdom" itself in is

the form of absolute

on the descent

to the

pov-

provisional essence. Thinking gathers

language into simple saying. In this way language is

the language of Being, as clouds are the clouds of

the sky.

With

its

saying, thinking lays inconspicu-

imply, however, that

ous furrows in language. They are

what

spicuous than the furrows that the farmer, slow of

is

to be said

is

we contemplate at every turn of Being and how it is to be said. It

equally essential to ponder whether what

is

to be

step,

draws through the

still

more incon-

field.

Author's Notes Cf.

Martin Heidegger, Vom VVesen

des

Grundes (1929)

{The Essence ofReasons^ trans. Terrence Malick (Evanston,

II:

Norweston University

Kant and chill

the

Press, 1969)], p. 8;

Problem of Metaphysics, trans.

J.

Chur-

(Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press,

1962), p. 243; and Being

and Time, section 44,

p.

230.

See the lecture on Holderlin's hymn, "Wie wenn

am

Feiertage ..." in Martin Heidegger, Erlduterungen zu Holderlins Dichtung, fourth,

am Main:

(:@)

expanded edn (Frankfurt

V. Klostermann, 1971), p. 76.

Cf "The

Ister"

third stanza

and "The Journey'" [Die IVanderung],

and ff [In the translations by Michael

Hamburger (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966), pp. 492ff

Cf

Holderlin's

and 392ff ]

poem "Remembrance" [Andenken]

in

the Tubingen Memorial (1943), p. 322. [Hamburger, pp. 488ff ]

Martin Heidegger, Vom Wesen

des Grundes, p.

28

n. 1.

*The Mirror Stage as Formative as Revealed Psychoanalytic Experience"

of the Function of the in

Jacques

I

I

.acan

By applying structural linguistics to psychoana-

cspcciallN

Jacques Lacan (190180) became the most important innovator in French psychoanalysis. Although he was ex-

tion of the /as

theory, psychiatrist

lytic

is

method of the "short session which could be ended by the analyst at any moment - he greatly '

influenced French intellectual heavily

attended

public

life

lectures

through his

1953

from

through 1980. Claiming that the unconscious

in

part

by

of biological

determinism -

making unquenchable

desire,

(or the light

sheds on the forma-

it

it

in psychoanalysis.

It

an experience that leads us to oppose ans phiKv-

Some

you may

(»f

recall that this

conception ori-

ginated in a feature of human behaviour illuminated

by

a fact

of comparative psychology

age

when he

the

chimpanzee

is

for a time,

.

The child, at an

however short, outdone by

instrumental intelligence, can

in

ncNertheless already

recogni/e as such his

own

is

structured like a language, he resisted, on the

one hand, any form

.

we experience

sophy directly issuing from the Cogito.

pelled from the International Psychoanalytic As-

sociation - especially for adopting the clinical

toil.iN

not

image

in a mirror.

the illuminative

This recognition

indicated in

is

mimicry of the. -l/ra-fr/fAnw,' which

Kohler sees as the expression of situational apper-

homeostatic need, the root of psychic phenomena - and on the other, any attempt to strengthen the ego. encouraging the patient to

ception, an essential stage of the act of intelligence

"adapt" to social convention - as practiced by

and found empty, immediately rebounds

"ego psychology."

In his later

work Lacan

distin-

guished three orders of psychic relevance: the imaginary, a projected

image

of self-integration;

This act, far from exhausting

itself,

as in the case

of the monkey, once the image has been mastered

of the child

in

experiences

a

series of gestures in

in play the relation

ments assumed

in the

in the case

which he

between the mo\e-

image and the reflected en-

the symbolic, or the realm of cultural signifiers.

vironment, and between this virtual complex and

governed by a dominant sign, the name of the Father: and the real, which is the presupposed

and the persons and things, around him

unknown resistance to the imaginary and symbolic, most relevant in the form of trauma. In the following essay, a 1949 version of his famous 1936 lecture. Lacan sketches an in-

the reality

it

reduplicates

the child's

own body,

but

the

terpretation of the earliest stage of the imaginative

construction of the

The conception duced

at

our

last

ot the

Ihc " \ha!-t\pcricncf. " rctcrrtd

ti>

b\ \\ olfgang K.(»h-

Icr

(1887 1%7), one of the creators of Gcstalt Psxcholofry.

"

Janus

M

Hakiuin

(1S1

H^.U).

XnuriLan Ps\cholt>-

self.

mirror stage that

I

intro-

congress, thirteen years ago, has

Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the as Revealed in Psychoanalytic I

since tice

become more or

less established in the

of the French group. However,

worthwhile to bring

it

I

prac-

think

it

again to your attention.

Experience.' idan.

in Ecrits:

A

Selection, trans. byAlan Sher-

NewYork:W.W. Norton

& Company.

1977. chap-

ter one. pp. 1-7.

(5?D

Jacques Lacan This event can take

place, as

we have known

since Baldwin," from the age of six months, and its

repetition has often

made me

startling spectacle of the

upon the

reflect

front of the

infant in

mirror. Unable as yet to walk, or even to stand up, tightly as

artificial

(what, in France,

he

is

human

by some support,

and held

we

call a 'trotte-behe''*^^),

order to hold

given

this activity retains the

up

it

meaning

back an

meaning

I

have

months. This

dynamism, which has

hitherto remained problematic, as well as an onto-

with

my

We an

that accords

identification, in the full sense that analysis gives

namely, the transformation that takes

when he assumes an image -

place in the subject

whose predestination

to this phase-effect is suffi-

by the use,

ciently indicated

the ancient term imago.

in analytic theory,

of

^^

the child at the infans stage,

still

sunk

incapacity and nursHng dependence,

in his

motor

would seem

to

exhibit in an exemplary situation the symbolic

form, before tification

stores to

it is

is

precipitated in a primordial

objectified in the dialectic of iden-

with the other, and before language reit,

in the universal, its function as subject.

This form would have

we wished

it

will also

it

be called the Ideal-I,

to

to incorporate

in the sense that

if

into our usual register,

be the source of second-

ary identifications, under which term

I

would place

the functions of libidinal normalization. But the

important point

is

that this

of the ego, before fictional direction,

its

form

situates the

agency

social determination, in a

which

will

always remain irre-

ducible for the individual alone, or rather, which will only rejoin the

coming-into-being

{le

devenir)

of the subject asymptotically, whatever the success of the dialectical syntheses

by which he must

resolve as / his discordance with his

The

movements

form

is

it,

it

and

in a

sym-

with the turbulent

in contrast

that the subject feels are animating

motor

its

style

remains scarcely recognizable - by

these two aspects of

prefigures

its

fact is that the total

which the subject anticipates

own

reaUty.

form of the body by in a

its

appearance, symbolizes the

mirage the mat-

the

/, at

alienating destination;

same time it is still

as

it

preg-

nant with the correspondences that unite the / with

man

the statue in which

phantoms

that

projects himself, with the

dominate him, or with the automa-

ton in which, in an ambiguous relation, the world of

own making

tends to find completion.

Indeed, for the imagos -whose veiled faces

it is

our

privilege to see in outline in our daily experience

and

in the

penumbra of symbolic efficacity' - the mirror-

image would seem world,

if

to be the threshold of the visible

we go by

the mirror disposition that the

imago of one 's own body presents in hallucinations or

dreams, w hether

This jubilant assumption of his specular image by

matrix in which the /

metry that inverts

his

have only to understand the mirror stage as

to the term:

--ry

human world

on paranoiac knowledge.

reflections

it

size {un relief de stature) that fixes

mental permanence of the

to the age of eighteen

discloses a libidinal

logical structure of the

this

be regarded as bound up with the species, though

instantaneous aspect of the image.

For me,

given to him only as Gestalt,

of his support and, fixing

in his gaze, brings

it

is

an exteriority in which

more constituent than constituted, but in appears to him above all in a contrasting

certainly

which

power

to say, in

him. Thus, this Gestalt - whose pregnancy should

in a flutter

his attitude in a slightly leaning-forward position, in

is

of jubilant

he nevertheless overcomes, activity, the obstructions

or

uration of his that

or even

its

it

concerns

individual features,

its

infirmities, or its object-projections; or if

we observe

the role of the mirror apparatus in

w hich psychical

the appearances of the double, in realities,

That

however heterogeneous,

are manifested.

a Gestalt should be capable of formative

effects in the

organism

is

attested

biological experimentation that

the idea of psychical causality that itself to

formulate

its

it is

tion for the maturation of the it

it

a piece

of

so alien to

cannot bring

results in these terms.

nevertheless recognizes that

pigeon that

by

is itself

It

necessary condi-

a

gonad of the female

should see another

member

species, of either sex; so sufficient in itself

condition that the desired effect

may be

of is

its

this

obtained

merely by placing the individual within reach of the field

of reflection of a mirror. Similarly, in the case

of the migratory locust, the transition within generation

from the

solitary

to

the

a

gregarious

form can be obtained by exposing the individual, at a certain stage, to

a similar

ments of a istic

the exclusively visual action of

image, provided

it

is

animated by move-

style sufficiently close to that character-

of the species. Such facts are inscribed in an

order of homeomorphic identification that would '" '^

itself fall

"Baby- walker." "Image", primarily visual but including

feelings.

Lacan imagos are dissimulative. Hence the ego meconnaisiatue (misunderstanding).

is

For

based on

within the larger question of the meaning

of beauty as both formative and erogenic.

But the tive

facts

of mimicry are no less instruc-

when conceived

as

cases of heteromorphic

"The Mirror Stag9" It. ..I.

n|,-,,iit,.

ot

.ti

inn.

.^

Ii

ihc\ raise ihr i>fMl»UiM

1..

ihc li\in^ Mrv;.ir>ism

>r

I

|>s\«.h.

pruic

lingual cLniipls haiilK sccin less

ruliiuioiis jiu-iupts

suprenu'

IXKscill)

to rctjil

\oung,

still

MKioiogKjl

(Uillois

to the

We

oI aiiaptjtion

how Roger

aiui

them

rciliuc

to

Ij\%

whuh

illu-

human

the

has

aiitononn

greater

These

e\en

stage,

win than

ptu de

is

deter-

realitf),

which

the Surrealists, in their restless way, saw reflections lead

me

i«)

as

its

bett)re the social dialectic, the effect in

man of an organic

insuttlciency in his natural reality

any meaning can be gi\en to the word

in so far as

am

1

led, therefore, lu

regard the function of the

niirryr-bta^' a^iji particuldr wase of the function of

of

that

tolaiitN

its

the assum|>tion of the

subject's

/

ttiwilt

L

mwelt.^^^

this relation to nature

dehiscence

a certain

at

is

altered

the heart of the organism,

Discord betra\ed b\

primordial

usually manifests itself in

ment of the

months. The ob)ecti\e notion

the

signs of

of the

anatom-

incompleteness of the pyramidal system and

likewise the presence of certain

humoral residues

of the maternal organism confirm the view

formulated as the hirth in It is

of the Innenwrlt

base

I

dreams when the move-

analysis encounters a certain level of

in the

in

exoscopy, grow ing w ings and

fixed, for

fact

of a

real ipfcijii

I

have

prematunty

»/

all

the very

liosch

has

lime, in painting, in their ascent from

of

to il\c iniJIginar) -.^tnilh this

form

is

even tangiblv

the organic level, in the lines of 'fragi-

at

anatctmy of phantasv, as

lization' that define the

exhibited in the schizoid and spasmodic

svmptoms

of hysteria. Corrclatively, the formation of the / ized in

dreams by

a fortress, or a

is

stadium

symbolits

inner

arena and enclosure, surrounded by marshes and rubbish-tips, dividing

it

into

two opposed

fields

worth noting, incidentally, that

this

is

a fact

recognized as such by embryologisis, by the term

which determines the pre\alence of

foetalization,

the so-called superior apparatus of the neurax, and

of the cortex,

which psycho-surgical

of

contest where the subject flounders in quest of the lofty,

remote inner

castle

whose form (sometimes

juxtaposed in the same scenario) svmboli/es the

man.

especiallv

Hieronvmus

the visionary

that

then

It

form of disjointed limbs, or of those

organs represented

same

alsii

references

of theoretical

aggressive disintegration in the individual.

appears

uneasiness and motor unco-ordination of the neo-

ical

rigid struc-

de\elopmcnt

which term

This fragmented \mk\\

introduced into our system

revealed

natal

its

and.

an alien-

ot

rature of the ego's \erifications

tween the hitunivcll and the

a

armour

generates the inexhaustible quad-

the fifteenth ccnturv

man, howe\er,

form

a

orthopaedic

mental

entire

modern man.'^ Hut

i

a

phantasies that

ol

llius. to break oiM of the circle

into the

t%

in the lure ot spatial

mark with

ating identitN. which will

the

tiage

prccipilalcd friim

and u huh manufac-

up

shall call

I

the organ SOL iind ib reality - or, as the\ sa\, be-

by

ih

fragmented body-image lo

a

the tmagg^ wjiich iiio ct>tablish a relation between

In

Ihr mirmr

taking up arms for intestinal persecutions

'nature*.

±tttVAt\u

\|Hricii» cil as a liiiUH.ral

the suciession

extends from

ture

\t\\t

(111

pro|e(.ls the toriiulion o|

internal thrust

ulentiliiation,

recogni/e

captation manifested in the mirror-

in the spatial

t

the indixidual into hisior>

drama whosi-

lastly, to

in relation to (lu- tielcl ot force

in that 'little reality' (ic

limitation.^'

as

s|>ri>

on these mancrs ilun

\\^\u

shi-iiilin^

l«»i

U

olHrratlotts

in a quite startling

plane,

we

id

way. Similarly, on the mental

find realized the structures of fortified

works, the metaphor of which arises spontaneously, as if issuing

from the symptoms themselves,

to

designate the mechanisms of obsessional neurosis inversion, isolation, reduplication, cancellation

and displacement C^illois gical

was

writer,

a twcntieth-tcnturx

author of

Man

and

Ircnch anthropolin tlu-

Sacrfd (1^3V). ""

"Psychasthcnia" refers to neurosis.

Lacan had

who sought

a

to

strong interest in the surrealist painters

capture

"subjective"

reality.

Inner world and surrounding world.

or

'*imaginar\"

"Foetaiization"

is

retention of infantile features in

adulth(M)d. '^

tic

Hieronvmous Hosch

(

145(>

l.^lfi).

painter of fantas-

scenes of religious symbi)In

tor tiu nu|(>r

lhrt

phciuiinciinn. hkc

ot

uvygcn or X-riys." Scientific revolutions, as wc noicti |jt the cnil of Section \\, nccil

seem reNoJu-

whose puralh^fns

lionjr> oiiK to those

twentieth centur>, seem

rc%oluiions ol the earl\

nomul

juris

t)mcrs.

ti»r

s as a mere

eoiilil

were

adilition to Lnowleilue, tor their paraihi;ms

ununcctcil h\ the existence ot the new railiation

men

But lor

keiMn, CnMikes, and

like

RiKiitjien,

panim

ditterrniT, the

to a rrvolu!tonar\ conflict

ma%» pcr-

liiuJU resiiri to the lnhnii|ur% ol

n)iisl

sujMon, ulten iiuiiidin^ lone have had

a \ital role in

IhouKh re\oluiion%

the c\oluiion ol poliltial

mslituiions. that role depends

upon

ihcir bring

parliall\ extra|>olilicjl or cxlrainsiilutionaj

The renuimler

are jdecleii

To outsulers the\ max, hie the HalLm

h\ ihrni

of SclenUfIc Revolutions"

ol this essax

that the historical stud\ ol

e\mt%

aims to ilcmonsirate

paradigm change rexeaU

\er\ similar characteristics in the exolulion of the sciences. Like the choice cal institutions, that

proses to

Ih-

a

of commumtx choice

between competing

modes

choice between incompatible life.

Ik-cause

it

has that character, the

mereh by

not and cannot be determined

is

politi-

In-tween com|H'ting paradigms

ri'search dealt with radiation theor> or with

the e\aluati\e procedures characteristic of normal

CJlh(Kie ra\ tuln-s, the emervience ot \-raNs neces-

science, for these ilepenti in part ujion a particular

whose

sanl> \i(»lated one parailiirm as 'I'hai

created an«»ther

it

whN these rays could be disco\ered onl\

IS

lhn)U»;h somethinii's

tlrst

eoini: wroni; with nornial

research

and

open

scientific

to doubt.

ot the |iarallel

between

cance ot the

change

tlrst

parallel has,

however, a second signifi-

depends. Political rexoluiions aim

ways

political institutions in

themselves

institutions

politi-

that those

Their success

prohibit.

therefore necessitates the partial relinquishment ol"

in

one

of another, and

set ot" institutions in favor

the interim, society

institutions at

nor tully governed by

is

Initially

all.

is

it

crisis

alone that

attenuates the role of political institutions as

haNe already seen In increasing

it

numbers individuals become

ingly estranged

from

political lite

and more eccentrically within

many of

deepens, selves to

new

institutional

and behave more

is

group uses

commit them-

its

role

is

a

When

issue

debate ab!

pluiumuna

imluateil h\ existing |urailigins

is

ile\elo|>cd

abo\e cannot be maintained

preN alenl

ontem|>«»rarN interpretation ol the nature

whose

and fuiution

\

These are the phenomena to

fhet)n articulation

scientists ilirect their research

imu', but that research aims

ncH ones.

do

OnK when

ot the

the nnention

at

these attempts

encounter

scientists

much

the articulation ot

at

existing paradigms rather than

fail

(nit

the

til

articulation

at

t\pe

third

of

phen«»mena. the recognized anomalies whose charactcnsfic feature

is

their

stubborn refusal to be as-

similated to existing paradigms. gives nse lo

new

phent)mena

except

determined place

But

anomalies

anomalies

with

all

theory-

a

in the scientist's field of vision.

new theories

it

This type alone

Paradigms provide

theories.

are called forth to resolve

an existing theory to

in the relatit)n of

nature, then the successful

new theory must some-

where permit predictions

that are ditfcrenl

from

those deri\ed from

its

could not occur

the two were logically compat-

it

predecessor. That difference

In the process of being assimilated, the second

ible

must displace the

first.

K\en

a

theory like energy

v

theor>

of scientifii

is

the m«i^t

it

accepted Thai

interpretation, closely as-sociated with early Idgieal

positivism and not categoricallv rejected b>

wouUI

cessors,

restrict the

accepteil theors so that

with anN

some

later theor>

coulil not

made

that

possibK conflict

predictions about

same natural phenomena. l*he

the

of

known and

it

conception of

a scientific

theory emerges in discus-

sions ofthe relation between contem|>orary Kinstei-

nian dynamics and the older dvnamical equations

descend from Newton's Primipui.^

that

l-'rom the

viewpoint of this essav these two theories are fundamentallv incompatible

m

the sense illustrated by

the relation ofCUjpernican to Ptolemaic astronomy: F-instein's theory

can be accepted only with the

recognition

Newton's

this

that

remains

a

was

must therefore

examine the most prevalent objections The

gist

Today

wrong.

We

minoritv view."

to

it.

of these objections can be developed as

follows. Relativistic

dynamics cannot have shown

Newtonian dynamics

to

be wrong, for Newtonian

structure that relates to nature only through inde-

engineers and, in selected applications, by

pendently established theories, did not develop

physicists.

without paradigm destruction. Instead,

emerged from

a crisis in

which an

dient was the incompatibility

essential ingre-

between Newtonian

dynamics and some recently formulated consequences

of the caloric theory of heat.

Only

after

the caloric theory had been rejected could energy

become

conservation after

it

could type,

it

part of science.

.\nd only

best-

the strongest case lor this restricted

dynamics

il

suc-

its

range and meaning of an

conservation, which today seems a logical super-

historically

that

the %ubfctl

ol

whose

can Ik umlersiiMKl onlv through further

details

which

c«»nMsis ol those

rr%olulMm%

unfonunairU,

iiKla>,

ihttincN that result are seUioni uccepteil. Invause

seconii class

irtinri.

a hiMorical implau^ibilr

IH

It

is still

used with great success by most

Furthermore, the propriety of

many

this use

of the older theory can be proved from the very theory that has, in other applications, replaced

it.

Einstein's theory can be used to show that predictions

from Newton's equations

our measuring instruments satisfy a small

example,

if

will

be as good as

in all applications that

number of restrictive

.Newtonian theory

is

conditions. For

to provide a gcKni

had been part of science for some time

approximate solution, the

come

bodies considered must be small compared with the

one not

to

seem

a

in conflict

theory of

with

its

a logically

higher

predecessors.

It is

hard to see how new theories could arise without

relative velocities

velocilv of light. Subject to this condition

others,

Newtonian theorv seems

these destructive changes in beliefs about nature.

from Einsteinian, of which

Though

case.

logical inclusiveness

remains a permissible

Hut,

The three anticipations were: the heliocentric cosniol-

the

objection

it

is

and

a

few

be derivable

therefore a special

continues,

possibly conflict with one of

lo

of the

its

no theory can special cases. If

ogA ofthe ancient Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos

(310 2M) B( tion;

and the

ton's

eritics.

);

se\enteenth-century the»)ries of combus-

relativistic

These

historical crises that

view of space adopted by

early

"discoveries"

would only

New-

preceded the

later legitimate

them.

Isaac

Nev^ton's .Mathematual PnttitpUi of Salural

Philosophy (Latin orig., 1687). Hclovv, the sccond-centurv Bc Alexandrian Ptolemy formulated the ge betrayed the standards of science

But the

itions are logically unexceptionable.

of accepting them would be the end of the research

to extraordin-

ary science. If positivistic restrictions on the range

of a theory's legitimate applicability are taken the

ally,

mechanism

munity what problems may lead change must cease occurs, the

dition in

which ence

function.

to

community

something much

which

it

pre-paradigm

members

that

state, a

con-

practice science but in

product scarcely resembles

their gross

at all. Is

fundamental

to

And when

inevitably return to

will

like its

all

liter-

com-

that tells the scientific

really

sci-

any wonder that the price of

significant scientific advance

is

a

commitment

that

runs the risk of being w rong.^

More

important, there

a

is

revealing logical

which acids were formed by the combustion of

lacuna in the positivist's argument, one that will

substances like carbon and sulphur. Also,

reintroduce us immediately to the nature of revolu-

plained the decrease of volume

it

ex-

when combustion

tionary change.

Can Newtonian dynamics really be What would

occurs in a confined volume of air - the phlogiston

derived from relativistic dynamics.^

released by combustion "spoils" the elasticity of

such

the air that absorbed

ments, E\,Ei

elasticity

just as fire "spoils" the

it,

of a steel spring.^ If these were the only

phenomena

that

phlogiston

the

theorists

had

claimed for their theory, that theory could never

have been challenged. fice for

A

applied to any range of

But

argument

phenomena

to save theories in this

application

and

similar

will suf-

any theory that has ever been successfully

must be

restricted to those

to that precision

experimental Carried just

evidence

hand already

in

a step further

be avoided once the

phenomena

of observation with which the "^

deals.

(and the step can scarcely

first is

taken), such a limitation

prohibits the scientist from claiming to speak "scientifically" about

served.

Even

any phenomenon not already ob-

in its present

forbids the scientist to rely

ow n research w henever

form the

upon

restriction

a theory in his

that research enters an area

...

,

Imagine

like.^

a set

of state-

embody

£„, vvhich together

variables

and parameters representing

sition, time, rest

mass,

spatial

From them,

etc.

with the apparatus of logic and mathematics,

is

deducible a whole set of further statements includ-

some

that can be checked

special case,

we must add

statements, like {v/c)^

by observation.

New tonian dynamics

prove the adequacy of

«

To as a

to the ^i's additional 1,

restricting the range

of the parameters and variables. This enlarged set of statements

is

then manipulated to yield a new

iVi,iV2, ...,A^m

which

is

identical in

Newton's laws of motion, the law of so on. Apparently

set,

form with

gravity,

and

Newtonian dynamics has been

derived from Einsteinian, subject to a few limiting conditions.

Yet the derivation

Though

is

AVs

spurious, at least to this

point.

w ith the theory

law s of relativistic mechanics, they are not

no precedent. These prohib-

po-

together

or seeks a degree of precision for which past practice offers

the

laws of relativity theory. These statements contain

ing

at all.

way, their range of

a derivation look

the

are a special case of the

New-

J

"The Nature and Necessity I^WN Or

tun's

Uw»

arc noi unless lh«»sc

IcjNi ihc\

ii

way

arc rcinicrprrtcU in a

would have

ihai

been un|x»vsihlc until alter Kinstem's uorl \ariahlcs

|>jrjnu'(er\ that

ihc l.insicinian

in

reprcNcnicil spatial |xisitiun, tunc, nuss, cti

A.,'s

Mill

jml

the

iKVur

and tho there

in the \,'s.

tlinMrinun space, time, and ma.vs

still

represent

liui the

phwical

no

referents ot these l.insteinian toncepts are h\

means idcntual with those conser\ed, K.insteiman

ol the

in

the

same wax.

be ctuueixed to

same

I niess

)

we change

the

definitions ot the xarublcs in the .\,\, the staic-

mcnis

xve

haxe derixed are

change them, we cann«n

JrnirJ Newton's Laws,

Nexx toman.

n«»i

work

In doing so

automobile drixer

not

it

m

haxe

in acting as

done

to surveyors. XX

hat

it

undertaken onl\

lurthermorc, even

were

a legitimate

that iranslormalion

it

dexicc to emplox in interpreting

the older theory, the result ol

Ik XX

a

theorx so restricted that

it%

application would

it

could onl\ resale

was alreadx known liecause

hat

that restatement xxould

suffice for the

haxe

utility,

ot its

economy,

but

could not

it

guidance of research

Lei us, therefore, now lake

it

for

granted that the

between successixe paradigms are both

tlitferences

necessarx and irreconcilable explicitly

ihai

more rccmi

hindsight, the cxpliiii guidance ol the theorx

unc

t»

the adxanlJKe% ul

x^ilh

(

jn we then

sax

what sorts of differences these

most apparent type has alreadx been Successive paradigms

repeatedlx

more Lhe

are.'

illustrated

us different

tell

things about the population of the umxerse and

Our argument

about th