PHILOSOPHY PATHWAYS Issue 207

The following group of three essays is assembled around the concept of "reason". Sujit Debnath writes on the "Epistemological position of G.W.F. Hegel", displaying a systematic ladder where Hegel "discusses four sources of knowledge. They are sense-certainty, perception, understanding and reason." Richard SchainÕs essay, "The art form called philosophy" is of a totally different character, claiming that philosophy is an art form and rejecting clearly the idea that philosophy could or should be a form of science. My own essay concerns the related problems of "Reason, Delusion, and 'The Good'". Some comments on the essays of Mr. Debnath and Mr. Schain may be helpful [...]

We humans are thinking animals, and because of our thinking we are forced to supplement the natural habitat with a mental and spiritual habitat that would guide our thinking and behaviour. Thus Kant wrote an essay "What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?" ("Was heisst, sich im Denken orientieren?") and Heidegger published a series of lectures under the same title. Such a question would not be applicable to animals. Religions, philosophies and sciences are all offering some frames of reference for the confused minds of thinking humans, and they all are at the same time mental constructs of humans in a similar way as houses and cities are physical constructs for humans to live in. Thus the problem of reason is to critically justify and to improve those mental constructs [...]

In this paper I shall discuss Epistemological position of G.W.F Hegel (1770-1831). In his epistemology Hegel discusses four sources of knowledge. They are sense-certainty, perception, understanding and reason. Sense-certainty is the source of our knowledge of the ordinary consciousness of things. Hegelian notion of sense-certainty can be compared with Kantian view that human knowledge begins with and terminates in sensibility. The second source of knowledge according to Hegel is perception. By ÔperceptionÕ Hegel refers to that form of consciousness, in which, world is regarded as the collection of things with properties. Understanding is the capacity of reflective interpretation. Understanding conceives a world of finite entities, governed by the principle of identity and opposition. The understanding introduces the conception of force and its expressions. The force is manifested in its expressions. Hegel in order to overcome the Kantian distinction between thing-in-itself and the appearance or between the reality and the appearance draws the analogy of force and its expressions. Just as the force experiences through its expressions, similarly the thing-in-itself has revealed through its appearances [...]

I believe that the main thing to know about philosophy is that it is a form of art. Philosophy is the art of reflection on the realities of the human condition; a philosopher who has not experienced life in its many manifestations is like a composer who has never heard music. The idea is inconceivable. Much of what goes under the name of philosophy today is actually science, theology, mathematics, history, or journalism. Philosophy is none of these; it is an art form whose identifying characteristic is the expression of ideas about the realities experienced by the philosopher. The appreciation of philosophy requires a taste for art that is not greatly different from that required for other art forms. The person whose spirit is not touched at one time or another by music, by painting, by architecture, or by poetry will not be touched by genuine philosophy. Plato, regarded as the founder of discursive western philosophy, was seen as a poet by the scientifically minded Aristotle [...]

www.geoffreyklempner.net

klempner@fastmail.net

International Society for Philosophers

Wisdom begins with wonder