The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
It is a positive accomplishment of philosophy that mankind to-day has a
clear and unequivocal conception of the necessity of the division of
labor as a means of being successful. Our present day philosophers no
longer make excursions into dreamland in the quest of the True, the
Beautiful, and the Good, as did the ancients. The True, the Beautiful,
and the Good, are nevertheless the objects of all modern science, only,
thanks to evolution, these objects are now sought by special means. And
the clear consciousness of this condition of things is a philosophical
consciousness.
It is a part of the theory of understanding to know that in order to
accomplish something one must limit oneself to a specialty. That is a
fundamental demand for the use of common sense, which the primitive
musing brain did not realize. Thinking must be done with wide open and
active eyes, with alert senses, not with closed eyes or fixed gaze. This
is a part of logic. We do not deny that men have always done their
thinking by means of the senses. We only claim that they did not do so
from principle, otherwise the old complaint about the unreliability of
the senses as a means of knowledge would not have lived so long. Neither
would the inner man have been so excessively overestimated, nor abstract
thought so much celebrated, just as if it alone were the child of nobler
birth. I do not wish to detract from the merits of the power of
abstraction, but I simply claim that the clay of which Adam was made was
no less divine than the spiritual breath that gave him his life. Nor do
I mean that it is due to philosophy alone that mankind learned not to
strain "understanding" in abstract vaporings, but instead to introduce
the division of labor and to take up the various specialties with open
senses. The technique of understanding is the product of the entire
movement of civilization, and as such a positive accomplishment of
philosophy. The total process of evolution has placed the philosophers
on their feet.
There is no doubt that up to the present time, philosophy partook more
of the character of a desire and love of science than of world wisdom.
This wisdom does not amount to much, even to-day. This is plainly
demonstrated by the dissensions of the educated and uneducated on all
questions pertaining to wisdom of life. Socrates in the market of
Athens, and Plato in his dialogues, have probably said better things
about the questions: "What is virtue? What is justice? What is moral and
reasonable?" than the professors of philosophy would know how to say
to-day. Kant has well said that the unanimity of the experts is the test
by which one may decide what is a scientific fact and what is mere
dispute. From this it is easy to judge that wisdom of life is still in
a bad way and will have to wait for its scientific transformation.
We declared understanding itself to be the special object of philosophy
and shall now attempt to outline the results so far obtained by it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account