An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's PhilosophyJones, W. Tudor (William Tudor)
Religion
An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy
Jones, W. Tudor (William Tudor)
Eucken, Rudolf, 1846-1926
If we turn to _Immanent Idealism_, we discover the same failure. It
emphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic and
noble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of what
is present. It also forgets that the possession of ideals as ideas is
only the initial stage of such ideals becoming a very portion [p.211] of
the deepest substance of soul itself. We may deceive ourselves even with
the contemplation of the best ideals; they can never become truly ours
until the will is set in motion and the whole nature is stirred to its
depths in order to press forward to what it perceives as having infinite
value. Something has inevitably to happen within the depth of the soul
before its real creation can advance. Eucken here, again, has perceived
this truth and presents it everywhere with great power. His Philosophy
is an _Activism_ of the most powerful type. He is aware that to _know_
and to _be_ are so far apart. But his Activism is not a mere movement of
the individual's will, brought forth by anything that has grown within
it as a private inheritance. The Activism is started and kept going on
its course by the over-personal norms and values already referred to. It
is the union of norm and will that constitutes the full action. Life's
greater meaning and value is, therefore, not a ready-made possession; it
is rather something already possessed, and a vision of something _more_
in the distance to be possessed.[73] The presence of the Divine within
the soul is not the same prior to the search and after the search. This
is [p.212] one of the most distinctive features of Eucken's teaching,
and constitutes a necessary supplement to certain presentations of
Immanent Idealism prevalent in various forms to-day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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