The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
In order to master this method of thought, you must understand above all
that the things are only so-called things, but are in reality qualities
of the universe, in other words, relative things or predicates of the
absolute. You will then understand, that our thought has a right to make
one thing as well as six of a chair, its back, its seat, and its four
legs. You will recognize that the five senses of Aristotle are not an
eternal truth, but a classification, which is eternally variable.
Distinguishing means classifying.
I know very well that I am making a bold statement here, and that it is
not easy to justify it. For this reason you must not expect that I can
make my meaning clear in a few sentences. It is not only the general
prejudice which prevents this by making a most mysterious and miraculous
thing of the intellectual function, but also the fact that this thing is
still very obscure, although it has become clearer and clearer in the
course of time.
The freethinking pastor Hironymi writes on this point: "The most
prominent naturalists of the present, such as Dubois-Reymond, who are at
the same time thinkers, admit that they do not know what feeling, life,
consciousness, are, and how they arise. And this ignorance is far more
valuable for truth and religion than the alleged knowledge. Let us,
therefore, continue in the devotion with which we have hitherto admired
the universe without understanding it. The higher existence, the
consciousness, has not been explained, it has remained a miracle, the
only lasting, absolute, miracle."
Thus speaks the preacher who is a know-nothing by nature and makes a
business of admiring and wondering, while we are interested in
understanding and knowing. We wish to fathom the mystery, and hence I
may write still more letters on logic and you may study some more.
I shall try to demonstrate by a trivial example, how it is that
understanding or distinguishing is based on classification.
Take it that you awake at early dawn and notice in a corner of your bed
room something uncouth and moving which you cannot clearly distinguish.
To know that a phenomenon appears is not enough because the term
phenomenon applies to everything, natural and unnatural things, good and
evil spirits. Even if you are sufficiently enlightened to know that the
thing in question must be something natural, still this explains very
little, for the term "nature" again means everything. But you understand
or recognize more when you ascertain that the uncouth thing is dead or
alive, wall paper or garment, man or animal. You will notice that in
this intellectual enlightenment it is simply a matter of classification,
of the head under which the mystery should be classed. To classify the
phenomena of truth and life, means to understand, to use the intellect,
to enlighten the brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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