Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic: Philosphical Essays in Honor of Thomas M. Seebohm PDF
Preview Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic: Philosphical Essays in Honor of Thomas M. Seebohm
PHENOMENOLOGY ON KANT, GERMAN IDEALISM, HERMENEUTICS AND LOGIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHENOMENOLOGY IN COOPERATION WITH THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH IN PHENOMENOLOGY Volume 39 Editor: John 1. Drummond, Fordham University Editorial Board: Elizabeth A. Behnke David Carr, Emory University Stephen Crowell, Rice University Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University J. Claude Evans, Washington University Jose Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University Joseph J. Kockelmans, The Pennsylvania State University William R. McKenna, Miami University Algis Mickunas, Ohio University J. N. Mohanty, Temple University Tom Nenon, The University of Memphis Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat, Mainz Gail Soifer, New School for Social Research, New York Elisabeth Straker, Philosophisches Seminarium der Universitat KOin Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University Scope The purpose of this series is to foster the development of phenomenological philosophy through creative research. Contemporary issues in philosophy, other disciplines and in culture generally, offer opportunities for the application of phenomenological methods that call for creative responses. Although the work of several generations of thinkers has provided phenomenology with many results with which to approach these challenges, a truly successful response to them will require building on this work with new analyses and methodological innovations. PHENOMENOLOGYONKANT, GERMAN IDEALISM, HERMENEUTICS AND LOGIC Philisophical Essays in Honor ofThomas M. Seebohm editedby O.K. WIEGAND UniversityofMainz,Gennany RJ. DOSTAL BrynMawrCollege,U.S.A. L. EMBREE FloridaAtlantic University,U.S.A. J. KOCKELMANS PennsylvaniaStateUniversity,U.S.A. and J.N. MOHANTY EmoryUniversity,U.S.A. Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y. A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-90-481-5448-7 ISBN 978-94-015-9446-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9446-2 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2000. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2000 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Table of Contents Joseph 1. Kocke1mans Introduction ............................................................................................. . PART ONE: TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY Ernst W. Orth Zeitlichkeit und Geschichtlichkeit. Zum Problem des prozessualen Apriori bei Edmund Husserl ................................................. 27 Vladimir N. Bryushinkin Psychologism, Logic, and Phenomenology ................................................ 39 Robert 1. Dostal Subjectivism, Philosophical Reflection and the Husserlian Phenomenological Account of Time ........................................ 53 Juris Rozenva1ds Phenomenological Ideas in Latvia: Kurt Stavenhagen and Theodor Celms on Husserl 's Transcendental Phenomenology ................... 67 Lester Embree The Phenomenological Derivation of Oughts and Shalls from Ises or Why it is Right to Take the Stairs ................................ 83 Gian-Carlo Rota Ten Remarks on Husserl and Phenomenology ........................................... 89 PART TWO: TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC AND MATHEMATICS Olav K. Wiegand Phenomenological-Semantic Investigations into Incompleteness ............... 101 Rainer Stuh1mann-Laeisz Logische Probleme von Identitat und Verschiedenheit: Das Frege-Paradoxon der wahren und Sokrates' Ratsel der falschen Identitatsaussagen ....................................................................... 133 Dieter Lohmar Warum braucht die Logik eine Theorie der Erfahrung? ............................. 149 Vl Jitendra N. Mohanty Lask's Theory ofJ udgment ........................................................................ 171 Ra1fMfiller Interpretations ofM odality: Epistemic Logic and Peirce's Logic ofI gnorance ............................................................... 189 Barry Smith Zeno 's Paradox for Colours ...................................................................... 201 Jules Vuillemin Aristote, debiteur de Zenon ....................................................................... 209 PART THREE: KANT AND GERMAN IDEALISM Hoke Robinson Kant on Apriority, Syntheticity, and Judgments ......................................... 225 Gerhard Funke Theorie und Praxis .................................................................................... 249 James H. Wilkinson The Opening Topics ofH egel's System: Indeterminateness, the Not, and Becoming ................................................ 267 Jere P. Surber The Problems of Language in German Idealism: An Historical and Conceptual Overview .................................................... 305 Thomas M. Seebohm: A Bibliography ............................................................... 337 Profiles .............................................................................................................. 345 Name Index ....................................................................................................... 349 Introduction Joseph 1. Kockelmans Pennsylvania State University In July of 1999, Prof. Dr. Thomas M. Seebohm turned 65 years old, and thus en tered mandatory retirement. His friends, colleagues, and former students thought that it would be fitting to celebrate the event of his retirement with a volume of essays in his honor, in order to render homage to a great human being, an outstanding and dedicated teacher, a highly regarded philosopher and scholar, but above all a dear friend and colleague. When the editors thought about a unifying theme for the anthology, they finally settled on the research interests of Professor Seebohm; in their view the vast do main of his competence and interests would leave all participants the freedom to select a topic of their own choice that would nonetheless lie within this large realm as well as within the area of their own research interests. Professor Seebohm's research interests encompass work in Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, German Idealism (Kant in particular), History of Philosophy, Phi losophy of the formal sciences (of Logic in particular), Philosophy of History, Methodology and Philosophy of the Human Sciences, (including Psychology and Sociology), History of 19th Century British Empiricism (Mill), American Pragma tism, Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Law and Practical Philosophy, the devel opment of the history of philosophy in Eastern Europe, especially in the Middle Ages, but also in the nineteenth century. In addition to these main interests and concerns in philosophy, Seebohm has also been very active in research in Sociol ogy, History and Sociology of Religion, Archeological methods, the development of Byzantine, Russian, and other Slavic cultures (including the culture of the Baltic nations), new developments in Mathematics, Philosophy of the Natural Sciences. This list of Seebohm's many interests explains why the editors finally settled on the title they chose for this volume. William Thomas Mulvany Seebohm was born in Gleiwitz (Upper-Silesia) on July 7 of 1934. In 1952 he graduated from high school (Gymnasium), division of lan guages (including classical languages). In 1956 he successfully passed an addi tional exam in classical Greek in Dusseldorf. Before starting his studies at a univer sity of his choice he was engaged in learning the trade of cabinetmaking from 1952 to 1954. In March of 1954 he passed his journeyman's examination in Bonn. Im mediately thereafter he started his academic career and studied successively at the Universities of Hamburg, Bonn, Saarbrucken, and Mainz, focussing on several dis ciplines (Philosophy, Slavic Languages, Slavonic Literature, and Sociology). He received his Ph.D. degree, summa cum laude in Philosophy, Slavonic literature, and Sociology in Mainz in 1960. Between 1960 and 1965 Seebohm devoted himself to research on the history of medieval Russian philosophy and culture. The results of this research would be published later in 1977 in a book: Ratio and Charisma. Starting points for the development of a philosophic and scientific understanding of the Russian cultural world ofM oscow. In 1965 Seebohm started his long career O.K. Wiegand et al. (eds.), Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic, 1-24. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2 Joseph 1. Kockelmans as a teacher of philosophy, first as an "assistant" at the University of Mainz (1965), later as a visiting professor at the Pennsylvania State University (1970-1972), the University of Trier (1973), and finally as a full Professor of Philosophy at the Penn sylvania State University from 1973 to 1984. During that period he also taught for some time as a visiting Professor at The New School for Social Research (1980), and the University of Heidelberg (1981). In 1984 Seebohm returned to Mainz as Professor of Philosophy, where he succeeded Professor Gerhard Funke. In the United States and in Mainz, Seebohm has offered courses and seminars in German Idealism, Phenomenology, Formal and formalized Logic, and Hermeneutics. In the pages to follow I will focus on a few aspects of Seebohm's research inter ests. In so doing I have a dual purpose in mind. On the one hand, I would like to describe these aspects in some detail, in order to characterize the work of Professor Seebohm as a philosopher. On the other hand, I would like to introduce the reader to the papers constituting the bulk of this anthology and indicate briefly how these essays are related to Seebohm's own scholarly work. I shall preface this with a brief statement about his work as a whole. SECTION I: TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY ON LOGIC AND GERMAN IDEALISM There cannot be any doubt about the fact that Seebohm, as a philosopher, always considered himself to be a phenomenologist and, therefore, in some sense and to some degree a (critical) follower of Edmund Husser!. Yet from the very beginning of his career as a philosopher, Seebohm was also very much concerned with the philosophy of Kant. This dual interest was already clear in his doctoral dissertation: Die Bedingungen der Moglichkeit der transzendental Philosophie: Edmund Husserls transzendental-phanomenologischer Ansatz, dargestellt im Anschluss an seine Kant-Kritik (1962) [The conditions of the possibility of transcendental phi losophy: Edmund Husserl's transcendental-phenomenological assessment, pre sented in connection with his criticism of Kant.] As a matter of fact both of these interests, Husser! and Kant, had for Seebohm a common source or motive, insofar as both philosophers had stressed the transcendental nature of philosophy and, therefore, its fundamental position in regard to all other sciences. Both Kant and Husser! had been convinced that logic in its classical as well as in its modern form was unable to provide a solid foundation for all our knowledge, our scientific knowledge in particular. This is why both philosophers were led to develop a tran scendental type of philosophy as well as a transcendental logic in addition to classi cal formal logic. Seebohm's own concern was mainly with a critical study of the nature and the conditions of transcendental knowledge, and with the claim of tran scendental philosophy to provide a solid foundation for all other knowledge, and thus, to take the place of classical logic in this regard. In Seebohm's work, both as a teacher and as a scholar, the philosophies of Kant and Husser!, thus, occupy a central place. In Germany as well as in the United States, Seebohm has introduced many students and younger scholars to the tran- Introduction 3 scendental thought of Kant and Husserl. Many of his publications were meant to clarify "mysterious" elements and notions of transcendentalism and to substantiate the need for a transcendental dimension in all genuinely philosophical thought. At the same time, Seebohm was also concerned with the differences which separate Kant's and Husserl's conceptions of the transcendental. His penetrating analyses led him also to a careful study of the foundations of formal logic to which both Kant and Husserl had devoted important parts of their own works. In the course of this research Seebohm was eventually led to a new conception of philosophical logic and to the need to rethink Kant's work on formal and transcendental logic. Several books, in addition to many articles and essays written by Seebohm, show this dual interest: the nature of transcendental thought according to Kant and Husserl, and a concern for a philosophy oflogic. I. Research in Transcendental Phenomenology Many people who know Seebohm and his work, know him as a phenomenologist. They take this to mean not only that Seebohm has an impressive knowledge of Husserl's phenomenology and the entire phenomenological movement, and that he published often and regularly on important issues of transcendental phenomenol ogy, but above all that Seebohm considered himself a creative phenomenologist, who as a critically reflecting philosopher would look at all major issues with which he became confronted, from a transcendental phenomenological point of view. In addition, over the years in numerous courses and seminars Seebohm has intro duced many students of philosophy and the sciences to the mysteries of Husserl' s phenomenological philosophy, both in Germany and in the United States; in so doing he always made an effort thoroughly to discuss fundamental topics of Husserl's thought, with the intention of clarifying Husserl's ideas, placing them in their proper historical and thematic contexts, preventing them from being misun derstood and defending them against undue, or unjustifiable criticism. Yet in many instances his major concern was to show issues and dimensions of Husserl's works, often not mentioned, forgotten, or misunderstood. A glance at Seebohm's bibliog raphy will convince the reader quickly, that the same concern is present, also, in his publications, even though in his own work Seebohm often tried to apply Husserl' s ideas to ever new issues. As far as the latter issues are concerned, Seebohm ap peared to be as much a thinker motivated by hermeneutic concerns, as a transcen dental philosopher in the sense of either Kant or Husserl. Another very typical characteristic of Seebohm's work as a phenomenologist, is his effort to bridge the gap between phenomenology and other forms of thought, such as American pragmatism, British empiricism, Analytic philosophy, the New Hermeneutics, Deconstruction and other contemporary dimensions in interpretation theory. As a creative and critically reflecting philosopher Seebohm always had a great interest in the history and the philosophy of the sciences. In this large field the stress is usually on the formal sciences, on logic in particular. On the other hand there is also a clear preoccupation with philosophical problems raised in regard to psychology. Seebohm shared these interests with both Husser! and Kant. Yet he
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