The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
day life differ from the thoughts of science.
The analysis of any idea and the theoretical analysis of any object, or
of the thing which suggested the idea, is one and the same. Every idea
corresponds to some real object. Ludwig Feuerbach has demonstrated that
even the concepts of God and immortality are reflections of real objects
which can be perceived by the senses. For the purpose of analyzing such
ideas as animal, light, friendship, man, etc., the phenomena, the
objects, such as animals, friendships, men, and lights, are analyzed.
The object which serves for the analysis of the concept "animal" is no
more any single animal, than the object of the concept "light" is any
single light. These concepts comprise classes, things in general, and
therefore the question, or the analysis, of what constitutes the animal,
the light, friendship, must not deal with any concrete, but with the
abstract elements of the whole class.
The fact that the analysis of a concept and the analysis of its object
appear as two different things is due to our faculty of being able to
separate things into two parts, viz., into a practical, tangible,
perceptible, concrete thing and into a theoretical mental, thinkable,
general thing. The practical analysis is the premise of the theoretical
analysis. The individually perceptible animals serve us as a basis for
the analysis of the animal concept, the individually experienced
friendships as the basis for the analysis of the concept of friendship.
Every idea corresponds to an object which may be practically separated
into its component parts. To analyze a concept is equivalent, therefore,
to analyzing a previously experienced object by theoretical means. The
analysis of a concept consists in the understanding of the common or
general faculties of the concrete parts of the analyzed object. That
which is common to the various modes of walking, the rythmical motion,
constitutes the concept of walking, that which is common to the various
manifestations of light constitutes the concept of light. A chemical
factory analyzes objects for the purpose of obtaining chemicals, while
science analyzes them for the purpose of obtaining their concepts.
The special object of our analysis, the faculty of thought, is likewise
distinguished from its concept. But in order to be able to analyze this
concept, we must analyze the object. It cannot be analyzed chemically,
for not everything is a matter of chemistry, but it may be analyzed
theoretically or scientifically. As we have already stated, the science
of understanding deals with all objects. But all objects which this
science may wish to analyze theoretically, must first be handled
practically. According to their special natures, they must either be
handled in various ways, or carefully inspected, or scrutinized by
intent listening, in short they must be thoroughly experienced in some
way.
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