Berdyaev om vores noumenale virkelighed ud fra Kant, her præsenteret af Georg Nicolas, hvor sætningerne i apostrof er Berdyaev citater.



The static and rationalized world of ontologism crushes the person. It is at this point that Kant's 'great discovery, which makes a sharp cut in the history of human thought'.
Kant's thought is both a culmination of rationalism and a potential turning point. His discovery 'consist in this, that what refers merely to appearances and phenomena must not be transferred to what is noumenal, to things-in-themselves'.

What makes this discovery all important for Berdyaev? It is the discovery of the dimension of existence itself, because the sphere of the noumenal is the sphere of freedom and 'the order of freedom is indeed Existenz'.

(Its discovery results, in Hegelian terms, from the 'negation of a negation': increasing objectification negates a state of original participation mystique, and seeing through objectification itself negates the subjection of the existential subject to the sphere of objectified phenomena. As a result the human person, or existential subject, awakens to itself, and thus no longer transfers to its authentic existential sphere that which it now has recognized as being a product of its own objecifying rational consciousness. A new capacity for conscious participatory knowledge becomes possible.)

Kant instignated a dramatic 'paradigm shift' by understanding the whole of ontology not as a study of the fundamental structures of being, but of the fundamental structures of consciousness. Ontology therefor became transcendental philosophy. This Kantian insight is formulated by Berdyaev as follows:

Pure being is an abstraction and it is in an abstraction that men seek to lay hold upon primary reality, primary life. Human thought is engaged in the pursuit of its own product. It is in this that the tragedy of philosophical learning lies, the tragedy, that is, of all abstract philosophy.

That human thought, inasmuch as it has become abstracted from its spiritual roots (transcendental subject), is engaged in the pursuit of its own product and does not penetrate into primary reality is demonstrated by Kant in his doctrine of transcendental illusion (al efter Kant'iansk teologi hviler på denne Kant's præcisering), which Berdyaev considered to be his most ingenious achievement. In this doctrine he shows that while reason cannot but conceive of 'the world', 'the soul' and 'God' as real objects of knowledge, doing so leads reason into irresovable contradictions.

Dermed slutter en epoke i europæisk filosofi, hvor langt om længe den middelalderlige metafysik endelig bliver skudt i sænk. Al filosofi, som al teologi, bliver herefter en ny begyndelse, en efter Kant'iansk diskurs. Vi kender alle reaktionerne, hvor de vigtigste er Hegel og Marx og psykoanalysen som kontinental europæisk eksistentialisme. Men uanset hvem (fx Schopenhauer og Bergson) så kan de alle kun forstås som en ny begyndelse ud fra Kant, hvor man har taget afsæt i Kant's erkendelsesteoretiske overvejelser:

what refers merely to appearances and phenomena must not be transferred to what is noumenal, to things-in-themselves'

Mest berømt er selvfølgelig Hegel og Schopenhauers reaktion på Kant's påstand at vi ikke kan vide noget om vores noumenale, tingene som de er i og for sig selv, vores primære ultimative virkelighed, der ikke er underkastet subjekt objekt spaltningen, vores fornufts normale arbejdsfunktion (jeg her og det der, altså hvor observanten, iagttageren og tænkeren ikke selv er tænkt med som en del af virkeligheden, eller som værende med i virkeligheden selv, vi står jo ikke udenfor, kun i forbindelse de videnskaber der tingsliggør os eller gør os til objekter og adskiller os fra vores primære holistiske organiske virkelighed).

Hos Schopenhauer finder vi at vores noumenale virkelighed er lig med en blind urvilje til liv der vil liv for enhver pris. Spørgsmålet er om dette ikke er for instinktivt driftsbetonet fastlåst, hvad med det affektive instinktive element der ikke er driftsbetonet bøjet (fikseret) på horisontal vis (slangen der ikke kryber horisontalt, men er rejst vertikalt, altså kundalini energien eller spiritualiteten og æskulapstaven, apotekernes varemærke)? Ihvertfald er det sådan kritikken idag lyder rettet imod Schopenhauer og Freud. Okay det affektive positive element har Schopenhauer måske taget højde for i sin intellegible æstetik, og så dog nej må vi sige, fordi det betyder et brud med (pessimisme) at der er noget positivt af finde i forbindelse urviljen, der jo ifølge hvad man ved idag, godt kan generere positive affektive tilstande der er forudsætning for, sundhed, livsmod og godt humør.

Hegels reaktion på Kant er måske den mest frugtbare overhovedet. Da han vitterlig tar fat og gir et bud på vores noumenale virkelighed og han formår som ingen anden at forbinde dialektisk vores transcendentale jeg (subjektet), med vores givne objektive virkelighed, set under et historisk udviklingsperspektiv. Vi skal op til Heidegger før en lignende sund forbindelse med vores subjektivitet og de objektive forhold forefindes (hvis vi ser bort fra mesteren over alle Marx). Jeg er meget uenig med dem der mener at Kierkegaard er eksistentialisten og Hegel idealist, repræsentant for idealismen, jeg mener stik omvendt at hos Kierkegaard finder vi en sygelig form for idealisme og hos Hegel finder vi en sund eksistentialistiske tankegang, forståelse, hvilket hvis vi sammenligner deres livshistorie, også alt tyder på er tilfældet, altså at Hegel står nærmere det vi forstår idag ved at være eksistentiel godt rodfæstet, hvorimod Kierkegaard tydeligt ikke magter sin egen eksistens, men så desto meget mere som den neurotiker han er, kan skrive side op og side ned om hvor frygteligt svært det er for ham at give sig hen til voksenlivet med fx Regina eller et job som praktiserende præst. Et og andet sted er jeg idag mere til Martensen og Hegel end jeg er til Kierkegaard, mere til Løgstrup end jeg er til Kierkegaard om det skal være, og jeg forstår Jung's afvisning Kierkegaard som værende særligt interessant, væsentlig for udarbejdelsen en forståelse menneskets psykiske sjælelige liv. Ofte har jeg tænkt at Kierkegaard jo betyder en udslettelse vores i positiv forstand givne og medfødte omfattende psykiske liv. Der er fx sjæl og psyke, psykisk liv, hos Grundtvig, men stort set intet at spore i positiv forstand hos Kierkegaard, andet end dilemmaer, konflikter der hele tiden abstraheres, rationaliseres, fremfor at der overhovedet i positiv forstand siges noget om hvilke kvaliteter et menneskeliv og dets eksistens, også retteligen byder på. Kierkegaard er et numinøs vægelsindet tossehovede, mere end han er noumenal intelligent og interessant, altså magter at gå videre i positiv forstand fra Kant's paradigmeskifte og den nye begyndelse al filosofi herefter må stille sig ind under.



Med venlig hilsen HansKrist'i'Kant.

Albert Schweitzer forbinder uløseligt Paulus og Kant, og Kristusmystikken med vores noumenale etiske virksomhed, praktiske kreative spontane noumenale frihed.



Magnus Ratter siger om Albert Schweitzer: "Han står i stor gæld til Goethe, han skylder Kant meget, og Bach er hans lyst og glæde. Men Paulus er hans åndsfrænde".

Albert Schweitzer's teologiske hovedværk er: "The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle".

Og som det fremgår af det efterfølgende er Schweitzer's syn på religion, specielt Paulus, forstået ud fra Kant's moral filosofi, som opfattelsen af at vi må opfatte Kant og Paulus primært som moralske genier, hvilket Schweitzer om noget fandt sin egen praktiske løsning på og efterlevelse gennem sit fantastiske liv:

the noumenal with him is the moral, the total ethical commitment which is so profund it takes the place of religion



The Essence of Faith: Philosophy of Religion. Albert Schweitzer's doktor afhandling.

Kurt F. Leidecker skriver i forordet til udgivelsen af Albert Schweitzer's "The Essence of Faith: Philosophy of Religion":

Kant's philosophy of religion, his religiosity and his concern with religion in general and Christianity in particual, have been treated by many, favorably as well as critically. They usually take Kant's biography as a background and search minutely the writings of his which discuss religious topics.

Such a routine job of producing just another exposition or review was certainly not to the liking of the young Albert Schweitzer in his doctoral thesis. He wanted to come closer to Kant's mind and to the sources of his motivation. This precluded somewhat a systematic presentation of Kant's ideas of religion and the philosophy of religion. More than that, it turned out that such a method would endanger the reputation of Kant as the most consistent and systematich thinker on all fronts.

This was not a matter of regret or something to be shied away from by the one who was to become the sage of Lambaréné. Quite the contrary. His secret delight over having discovered a deep affinity with Kant the moral genius is but thinly veiled in the often tedious and repetitious discussion in the true style of Germean philosophic tradition.

There is a sense of the noumenal in Schweitzer's life and thought. It saturates his mission of mercy, his reverence for life in any form, his devotion to Bach, his longing for fuller being. But it did not lead him to speaks of solitude; it led him to intensified social action. For, the noumenal with him is the moral, the total ethical commitment which is so profund it takes the place of religion. It is this same quality which he discovered in Kant's attempts and projects relating to a philosophy of religion as compared with the execution of his plans, marred by either the assimilation to the critical philosophy or the independent development of it.

It has rightly been said that the German phrase 'Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben' means more than "reverence for life". It injects the flavor of holiness, sanctity, as well as gripping and awesome profundity in its realization. It is this attitude which Schweitzer manifested all his life. He discovered it in Kant as a moral genious.


Few who are, likewise, profoundly committed to either morality or religion extricate themselves from overwhelming mystical emotions and inarticulate gropings to master the language of reason and logic. Schweitzer did master the critical idealism of Kant, in fact he seems to imitate the involved style of the Critiques. He was exceedingly convinced that Kant was a profoundly moral genius, first and last, who developed a critical philosophy, rather than an intellectual Allzermalmer (all-destroyer) who made room for practical morality and religion only for the sake of expediency. Schweitzer crushes with utter logic many of the statements which Kant thought would favor his argument, but he assures us that it is for the glory of Kant the moral genius par excellence. The absolutely consistent Schopenharuer, who followed out the critical arguments of Kant relentlessly, is less esteeemed by Schweitzer than the inconsistestent Kant whose whole being identified itself with the moral ground of the universe.

This early masterpiece of dialectics and logic is important in that it shows up flaws in Kant's thinking, but more important in that it exhibits one side of Kant which is also the secret source of Schweitzer's genius and succes.

Mange Noumenale Spontane kærlige hilsner HansKrist'i-Kant

Hvad er det du har læst af Hegel, Kant, Heidegger, Marx, ku' du ikke fortælle os lidt om dine læseoplevelser af ovennævnte forfattere? ;)

mvh
Simon