The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. I, Nos. 1-4, 1867Various
Philosophy
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. I, Nos. 1-4, 1867
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
2. Moreover, the objects of the transcendental philosopher have no
existence, except in so far as they are freely produced. Nothing can
compel to this production, any more than the external describing of a
figure can compel one to regard it internally. Just as the existence of
a mathematical figure rests on the outer sense, so the whole reality of
a philosophical idea rests upon the inner sense. The whole object of
this philosophy is no other than the action of Intelligence according to
fixed laws. This action can be conceived only by means of a peculiar,
direct, inner intuition, and this again is possible only by production.
But this is not enough. In philosophizing, one is not only the object
considered, but always at the same time the subject considering. To the
understanding of philosophy, therefore, there are two conditions
indispensable: first, that the philosopher shall be engaged in a
continuous internal activity, in a continuous production of those primal
actions of the intelligence; second, that he shall be engaged in
continuous reflection upon the productive action;—in a word, that he
shall be at once the contemplated (producing) and the contemplating.
3. By this continuous duplicity of production and intuition, that
must become an object which is otherwise reflected by nothing. It
cannot be shown here, but will be shown in the sequel, that this
becoming-reflected on the part of the absolutely unconscious and
non-objective, is possible only by an æsthetic act of the
imagination. Meanwhile, so much is plain from what has already been
proved, that all philosophy is productive. Philosophy, therefore, no
less than art, rests upon the productive faculty, and the difference
between the two, upon the different direction of the productive
power. For whereas production in art is directed outward, in order
to reflect the unconscious by products, philosophical production is
directed immediately inward, in order to reflect it in intellectual
intuition. The real sense by which this kind of philosophy must be
grasped, is therefore the æsthetic sense, and hence it is that the
philosophy of art is the true organum of philosophy (III.)
Out of the vulgar reality there are only two means of exit—poetry, which
transports us into an ideal world, and philosophy, which makes the real
world vanish before us. It is not plain why the sense for philosophy
should be more generally diffused than that for poetry, especially among
that class of men, who, whether by memory-work (nothing destroys more
directly the productive) or by dead speculation (ruinous to all
imaginative power), have completely lost the æsthetic organ.
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