The Abdication of Philosophy — The Abdication of Man: A Critical Study of the Interdependence of Philosophy as Critical Theory and Man as a Free Individual

174 Pages·1974·11.52 MB·English

by  G. A. Rauche (auth.)

=
THE ABDICATION OF PHILOSOPHY
THE ABDICATION OF MAN
THE ABDICATION
OF PHILOSOPHY =
THE ABDICATION OF MAN
(A CRITICAL STUDY OF
THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF PHILOSOPHY
AS CRITICAL THEORY AND MAN AS A FREE INDIVIDUAL)
by
G.A. RAUCHE,
University of Durban-Westville
•
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1974
© 1974 by Martinus Ni;ho/f, The Hague, Netherlands
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or
to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN 978-94-015-0345-7 ISBN 978-94-015-0895-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-0895-7
CONTENTS
1. Preface VII
2. Introduction 1
3. What is Philosophy? 5
4. What is Man? 43
5. Contemporary Forms of the Abdication of Philosophy and
Contemporary Forms of Human Thinking and Human Existence 78
6. The Abdication of Philosophy and the Problem of Freedom 135
7. Conclusion 162
Index 166
PREFACE
We live in a time of functionalism, operationalism and technologism
with all its levelling, depersonalising and dehumanising effects. In
such an age, the question arises of philosophy as critical, reflective
theory about the world, man's position and purpose in the world and
the relationship between philosophy and man as a free individual. This
book makes an attempt to give an answer to this question. It has been
written from great concern as to the future destiny of mankind, in the
light of various contemporary attempts at the abolition of philosophy
and at merging it in practice, as this practice is seen by the respective
thinker or school of thought. This work may be seen as representing
an answer to such attempts, as they are made, for instance, by the
advocates of linguistic analysis or by representatives of the so-called
Frankfurt School respectively.
By an analysis of Western thought in general with emphasis on the
present, the author of this book seeks to show that the abdication of
philosophy as critical, reflective theory leads to the abdication of man
as a critical, reflective individual, one that is free to dissent and to
say No to the system. Man is perverted and alienated from his true
nature. He is forced to conform and to lead an "unauthentic existence"
within the system. The practical consequences for man of this state
of affairs with reference to the sciences, to logical positivism and linguistic
analysis, to existentialism and to the various brands of contemporary
Marxism are discussed in great detail. But it is also shown that all
attempts at the abolition of philosophy as critical, reflective theory are
made by philosophical methods and thus theories. We have, therefore,
to do with an abolition of philosophy by philosophy. From this the
conclusion is drawn that philosophy as theory cannot be abolished,
because man is by nature a reflective, critical individual and, as such,
free.
VIII PREFACE
From this insight, a new way of thinking becomes possible, one that
shows the way out of the existential dilemma and alienation man
experiences as a result of functionalistic levelling with its dehumanising
and depersonalising effects. The i,mpossibility of the abdication of
philosophy as theory of the world and man's position and purpose in
the world points to the impossibility of man's abdication as a free
individual, in spite of appearances to the contrary. This result should
give new hope to contemporary man, who, in his present state of
alienation, and the feeling of utter dejection, despair and frustration
resulting from it, is frantically searching for a new meaning, new values
and a concrete content of life.
INTRODUCTION
In the times that we live, it appears as though philosophy were finished.
We are told that philosophical reflection is futile and that philosophy
has failed to provide us with conclusive answers, and that, instead, it
has led us into ever greater confusion. It is argued that, in seeking to
answer questions which cannot meaningfully be answered, in the sense
that its answers are accepted by all, philosophy has not only increased
man's perplexity, but has also contributed to turning him into a neurotic
being that lives in a state of uncertainty, anxiety and disorientation.
From all this, the conclusion was drawn that philosophical questions
are the wrong kind of questions asked and that philosophical problems,
to speak with Rudolf Carnap, are mock problems. These self-made
pseudo-problems would disappear as soon as the pseudo-questions of
philosophy were abandoned.
Actually, the question of the use and purpose of philosophy is very
old. It is already asked in Indian philosophy, e.g., by the nastiks or
nihilists, i.e., those who reject the teachings of the Vedas and the
Upanishads, e.g., the materialists, but in a certain sense also the Jains
and the Buddhists, who were not interested in philosophical and
theological questions about the universe and the deity, but, solely and
exclusively, in redemption from the suffering and pain of the world;
and they sought to bring about this redemption in a practical manner,
by adopting a specific way of life. In ancient Greek thought, the use
and purpose of philosophy were called in question by the sophists, who
considered speculations about the cosmos useless and occupied themselves
with man's practical affairs and with the compilation of empirical
knowledge in encyclopedic form. The sceptics, too, adopted a critical
attitude towards philosophy. They distrusted the senses to such an extent
that they, too, questioned the use of theorising about man and the
world. All in all, it could be said that the Greek sceptics, notably Pyrrho
2 INTRODUCTION
and his pupil Timon of Phlius, sought happiness through the idea of
epoche, i.e., the reservation of judgment in view of the fallacious nature
of both man's senses and reason. It was these that led us to confusion
and contradiction and thus involved us in anxiety, uncertainty and
suffering, making us unhappy: It must, however, be pointed out at
once that all these retreats from philosophical reflection about the cosmos
occur in a reflective spirit and are therefore themselves philosophical
in character.
More methodical or systematic attempts at the destruction of
philosophy as a reflective discipline putting forward theories about life,
man and world, were made with the rise of the sciences in the 19th
century and were continued with even greater vigour in the 20th century.
In fact, in our age reflective philosophy appears to be bankrupt. A host
of "philosophers" is watching anxiously and jealously that philosophy
abstains from all theory and conceptualisation and restricts itself to a
mere analytical activity as far as the language of the sciences or natural
language is concerned. To restrain philosophy from relapsing into theory,
a number of rules and principles have been established, which, as it
were, are signs of direction, sometimes even signs of prohibition, which
are supposed to restrain philosophy from running astray again. This
trend in contemporary philosophy of keeping away from reflection and
theory and the preference of contemporary philosophy for analysis and
the functional also become manifest in existentialism and in Marxism.
In the former, philosophy elucidates man's existence as an act of
self-creation in a foreign and hostile world. In the latter, philosophy
illustrates man's productive or creative act of labour as changing the
world in such a way that man himself is changed, and a just and
harmonious society is established. In existentialism and Marxism,
therefore, philosophy is reduced to certain forms of operationalism and
actionalism and so is as functionalistic as the neo-positivistic analytical
philosophy, i.e., logical positivism, i.e., the analysis of scientific language,
and linguistic analysis, i.e., the analysis of ordinary or natural language.
Descriptive analysis, operationalism and actionalism appear to be the
obsession of our age. We find them not only in the natural sciences
(where especially descriptive analysis is most appropriate), but we find
them in the social sciences, in psychology and in linguistics as well.
Every discipline to-day wants to be scientific in this sense that the
methods of the natural sciences are applied in this discipline, lest it
be ridiculed as speculative, illusory and unscientific. Thus the methods
of the natural sciences are used in the humanities at all costs, without
INTRODUCTION 3
considering whether the discipline concerned really lends itself to the
application of the methods of natural science or whether its character
requires a different approach. This indiscriminate application of the
methods of natural science leads to an uncritical scientism, i.e., the
blind belief that the methods of natural science will solve all the riddles
of man and the universe. This scientism is, however, itself unscientific,
in as much as it lacks the power of critical insight and discrimination
as to the proper place of the method of the natural sciences. In our
opinion, the' methods of the natural sciences have their proper application
in studying the world of material objects. They are inadequate, however,
when it comes to the study of man, man's relations with his fellowman
and human institutions, such as society and the state.
It is now the purpose of this work to show that attempts of abdication
by philosophy as a critical, reflective discipline (which abdication, to
a great extent, has happened to-day) means the abdication of man as
a reflective and therefore free individual. After trying to answer the
questions: What is philosophy? and: What is man? by' reference to
natural science and the history of philosophy, the various forms of the
abdication of philosophy, constitutive and reductive forms, will be
critically discussed. From these discussions it emerges that, although
these various forms of the abolition of philosophy as a reflective
discipline, positivism, existentialism and Marxism, actually fail to abolish
philosophy because they remain controversial theories themselves, they,
nevertheless, adversely affect man's existence. They seduce man from
reality and make him conform to their respective theory by insisting
that this theory represents truth par excellence. In this way, man ceases
to be a critical, reflective being, who is free to say No to the system;
for the system is totalitarian in character. But because the attempt to
abolish philosophy is itself based on reflection, and thus is philosophical
in character in that any such attempt remains a controversial theory
which points to man's true nature as a reflective and critical being,
the abdication of philosophy and its replacement by any single method,
theory or approach are impossible.
In showing that man's freedom and the authentic nature of his
existence are inextricably linked with the dynamic, critical, controversial
and reflective nature of philosophy, the author of this study hopes to
make a modest contribution to the overcoming of man's present
preoccupation with functionalism, operationalism and actionalism, which
preoccupation makes man blind to other aspects of life and prevents
him from leading an existence in accordance with his true nature as
4 INTRODUCTION
a free individual with his own outlook on life and the world. The
author hopes that this work will help man to restore his balance and
to recover his freedom as a critical reflective individual, who, by his
freedom to think, enriches life by the discovery of new aspects of it,
thus leaving behind his present feeling of emptiness, frustration and
despair, symptoms of his functionalistic disease. In short, this work is
a modest attempt at assisting man to find his way back to sanity and
natural reason, in a world that has gone mad and that has lost all
sense of sound proportion, a world which, by its totalitarianism,
radicalism, extremism and megalomaniac superlatives, hides its weakness,
emptiness, impotence and sickness. Since everything in life is changing,
however, it stands to reason that man's present functionalistic and
operationalistic preoccupation is also a passing phase, which will
eventually give way again to a more balanced outlook on life and the
world.