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
[p.96] "Such separation and union of both methods and their
corresponding realities make it possible to understand how to overcome
inwardly the old antithesis between Idealism and Realism. The
fundamental truth of Idealism is that the spiritual contents establish
an independence and self-value over against the individual, that they
train him with superior energy, and that they are not material for his
purely human welfare. In the _noological method_ this truth obtains a
full recognition. Realism, however, has its rights in the forward sweep
of the specifically human side of life with all its diversions, its
constraints, and its preponderantly natural character. Viewed from this
standpoint, the main fact is that life is raised out of the idle calm of
its initial stages, and is brought into a current; in order to bring
this about, much is urgently needful by man, which cannot originate,
prior to the appearance of the spiritual estimation of values, but which
becomes his when he is set in a strong current; then, on the one hand,
anxiety for external existence, division into parties, ambition, etc.,
and, on the other hand, the mechanism of the psychic life with its
association, reproduction, etc., are all seen in a new light. These
motive powers would certainly never produce a spiritual content out of
man's own ability; such a content is only reachable if the movement of
life raises man out of and above the initial performances and the
initial motives. No mechanism, [p.97] either of soul or of society, is
able to accomplish this; it can be accomplished alone by an inward
spirituality in man. Through such a conception, Realism and Idealism are
no longer irreconcilable opponents, but two sides of one encompassing
life; one may grow alongside the other, but not at the expense of the
other. Indeed, the more the content of the spiritual life grows, the
more becomes necessary on the side of psychic existence; the more we
submerge ourselves in this psychic existence, the greater appears the
superiority of the spiritual life."[29] This difference between noeology
and psychology is pointed out by Eucken in his delineation of spiritual
life along the whole course of its development. The insistence on the
reality of life within the region of values, brought forth through the
activity of the Will, is shown to be absolutely necessary in order that
life may not sink into the level of the mere physical object on the one
hand, and into mere subjectivity and momentary changes of consciousness
on the other hand. It is a decision at this point which constitutes the
great turn to a life of the spirit and to the granting to it of a
_self-subsistence_ as real as objects in the external world; it is a
turn which includes, further, a new beginning of a remove from the
content of the moment and from the impinging of the environment upon the
subject; it is a realisation by the mind and [p.98] soul that its own
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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