Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Philosophy -- History
We now pass on from this English Lord Chancellor, the leader of the
external, sensuous method in Philosophy, to the _philosophus teutonicus_,
as he is called—to the German cobbler of Lusatia, of whom we have no
reason to be ashamed. It was, in fact, through him that Philosophy first
appeared in Germany with a character peculiar to itself: Boehme stands in
exact antithesis to Bacon. He was also called _theosophus teutonicus_,
just as even before this _philosophia teutonica_ was the name given to
mysticism.[119] This Jacob Boehme was for long forgotten and decried as
being simply a pious visionary; the so-called period of enlightenment,
more particularly, helped to render his public extremely limited.
Leibnitz thought very highly of him, but it is in modern times that his
profundity has for the first time been recognized, and that he has been
once more restored to honour. It is certain, on the one hand, that he
did not merit the disdain accorded him; on the other, however, he did
not deserve the high honour into which he was elevated. To call him an
enthusiast signifies nothing at all. For if we will, all philosophers may
be so termed, even the Epicureans and Bacon; for they all have held that
man finds his truth in something else than eating and drinking, or in
the common-sense every-day life of wood-cutting, tailoring, trading, or
other business, private or official. But Boehme has to attribute the high
honour to which he was raised mainly to the garb of sensuous feeling and
perception which he adopted; for ordinary sensuous perception and inward
feeling, praying and yearning, and the pictorial element in thought,
allegories and such like, are in some measure held to be essential in
Philosophy. But it is only in the Notion, in thought, that Philosophy
can find its truth, and that the Absolute can be expressed and likewise
is as it is in itself. Looked at from this point of view, Boehme is a
complete barbarian, and yet he is a man who, along with his rude method
of presentation, possesses a deep, concrete heart. But because no method
or order is to be found in him, it is difficult to give an account of his
philosophy.
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