The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature

414 Pages·2008·12.27 MB·English

by  By Pierre Hadot. Translated by Michael Chase

P I E R RE
"*• u H A t ) QT "] "~
/
T HE V E IL OF I S IS /
An Essay on the History of the
Idea of Nature
Translated by Michael Chase
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2006
-?4>e_ &X+
,5-00 fc
Contents
Preface Vll
Prologue at Ephesus: An Enigmatic Saying 1
Copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved PART 1 • The Veil of Death
Printed in the United States of America
1. Heraclitus' Aphorism: "What Is Born Tends to Disappear"
This book was originally published as Le Voile d'Isis: Essai sur I'histoire de
PART 11 • The Veil of Nature
Videe de Nature by Editions Gallimard, copyright © 2004 by Editions
Gallimard, Paris 2. From Phusis to Nature 17
3. Secrets of the Gods and Secrets of Nature 29
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
PART in • "Nature Loves to Hide"
Hadot, Pierre.
[Voile d'Isis. English] 4. Heraclitus' Aphorism and Allegorical Exegesis 39
The Veil of Isis: an essay on the history of the idea of nature /
5. "Nature Loves to Wrap Herself Up": Mythical Forms
Pierre Hadot; translated by Michael Chase.
and Corporeal Forms 50
p. cm.
6. Calypso, or "Imagination with the Flowing Veil" 58
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02316-1 7. The Genius of Paganism 67
ISBN-IO: 0-674-02316-1
8. The "Gods of Greece": Pagan Myths in a Christian World 76
1. Philosophy of nature. I. Title.
PART IV • Unveiling Nature's Secrets
BD581.H2813 2006
II3.O9—dC22 2OO6044554 9. Prometheus and Orpheus 91
-?4>e_ &X+
,5-00 fc
Contents
Preface Vll
Prologue at Ephesus: An Enigmatic Saying 1
Copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved PART 1 • The Veil of Death
Printed in the United States of America
1. Heraclitus' Aphorism: "What Is Born Tends to Disappear"
This book was originally published as Le Voile d'Isis: Essai sur I'histoire de
PART 11 • The Veil of Nature
Videe de Nature by Editions Gallimard, copyright © 2004 by Editions
Gallimard, Paris 2. From Phusis to Nature 17
3. Secrets of the Gods and Secrets of Nature 29
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
PART in • "Nature Loves to Hide"
Hadot, Pierre.
[Voile d'Isis. English] 4. Heraclitus' Aphorism and Allegorical Exegesis 39
The Veil of Isis: an essay on the history of the idea of nature /
5. "Nature Loves to Wrap Herself Up": Mythical Forms
Pierre Hadot; translated by Michael Chase.
and Corporeal Forms 50
p. cm.
6. Calypso, or "Imagination with the Flowing Veil" 58
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-674-02316-1 7. The Genius of Paganism 67
ISBN-IO: 0-674-02316-1
8. The "Gods of Greece": Pagan Myths in a Christian World 76
1. Philosophy of nature. I. Title.
PART IV • Unveiling Nature's Secrets
BD581.H2813 2006
II3.O9—dC22 2OO6044554 9. Prometheus and Orpheus 91
-^2- -^-
PART v • The Promethean Attitude
Unveiling Secrets through Technology
10. Mechanics and Magic from Antiquity to the Renaissance
101
Preface
11. Experimental Science and the Mechanization of Nature
118
12. Criticism of the Promethean Attitude
138
PART VI • The Orphic Attitude
Unveiling Secrets through Discourse, Poetry, and Art
13. Physics as a Conjectural Science I have been thinking about this book for more than forty years.
155
14. Truth as the Daughter of Time Around i960 I began to be interested in the various meanings as
166
sumed by the secret of nature in antiquity and in modern times. In
15. The Study of Nature as a Spiritual Exercise
182
the years that followed I became passionately enthralled by the phi
16. Nature's Behavior: Thrifty, Joyful, or Spendthrift?
190 losophy of nature, and I wondered if it were possible that a renewal,
17. The Poetic Model 201 and no doubt a metamorphosis, of this type of research might take
18. Aesthetic Perception and the Genesis of Forms 211 place in the contemporary world.-Absorbed by my teaching and by
other tasks, however, I was never able to devote myself intensely to
PART vn • The Veil of Isis this study. Nevertheless, in the perspective of the research I was then
carrying out on Plotinus, I wrote for the Eranos meetings of 1968 a
19. Artemis and Isis
233 paper on the contribution of Neoplatonism to the philosophy of na
ture in the West, in which I was able to present a few ideas that were
PART vin • From the Secret of Nature
dear to me. I concentrated especially on the case of Goethe, a poet
to the Mystery of Existence
and at the same time a scholar, who seemed to me to offer the model
Terror and Wonder
of an approach to nature that was both scientific and aesthetic. It was
20. Isis Has No Veils on this occasion that I encountered the image and the text that were
247
the starting point for the writing of this work.
21. The Sacred Shudder
262
22. Nature as Sphinx Let me ^briefly situate this image and this text within their his
284
torical context. From July 16, 1799, to March 7, 1804, the German
23. From the Secret of Nature to the Mystery of Being
300 scholar Alexander von Humboldt, together with the botanist Aime"
Conclusion
315 Bonpland, had embarked on an extraordinary journey of scientific
exploration in South America, whence he had brought back a con
Notes
321 siderable mass of geographical and ethnographical observations. The
Index
389
-^2- -^-
PART v • The Promethean Attitude
Unveiling Secrets through Technology
10. Mechanics and Magic from Antiquity to the Renaissance
101
Preface
11. Experimental Science and the Mechanization of Nature
118
12. Criticism of the Promethean Attitude
138
PART VI • The Orphic Attitude
Unveiling Secrets through Discourse, Poetry, and Art
13. Physics as a Conjectural Science I have been thinking about this book for more than forty years.
155
14. Truth as the Daughter of Time Around i960 I began to be interested in the various meanings as
166
sumed by the secret of nature in antiquity and in modern times. In
15. The Study of Nature as a Spiritual Exercise
182
the years that followed I became passionately enthralled by the phi
16. Nature's Behavior: Thrifty, Joyful, or Spendthrift?
190 losophy of nature, and I wondered if it were possible that a renewal,
17. The Poetic Model 201 and no doubt a metamorphosis, of this type of research might take
18. Aesthetic Perception and the Genesis of Forms 211 place in the contemporary world.-Absorbed by my teaching and by
other tasks, however, I was never able to devote myself intensely to
PART vn • The Veil of Isis this study. Nevertheless, in the perspective of the research I was then
carrying out on Plotinus, I wrote for the Eranos meetings of 1968 a
19. Artemis and Isis
233 paper on the contribution of Neoplatonism to the philosophy of na
ture in the West, in which I was able to present a few ideas that were
PART vin • From the Secret of Nature
dear to me. I concentrated especially on the case of Goethe, a poet
to the Mystery of Existence
and at the same time a scholar, who seemed to me to offer the model
Terror and Wonder
of an approach to nature that was both scientific and aesthetic. It was
20. Isis Has No Veils on this occasion that I encountered the image and the text that were
247
the starting point for the writing of this work.
21. The Sacred Shudder
262
22. Nature as Sphinx Let me ^briefly situate this image and this text within their his
284
torical context. From July 16, 1799, to March 7, 1804, the German
23. From the Secret of Nature to the Mystery of Being
300 scholar Alexander von Humboldt, together with the botanist Aime"
Conclusion
315 Bonpland, had embarked on an extraordinary journey of scientific
exploration in South America, whence he had brought back a con
Notes
321 siderable mass of geographical and ethnographical observations. The
Index
389
rm
viii >-> THE VEIL OF ISIS Preface c"^- ix
first result of these years of discoveries was a communication to the god of poetry, was a representation of the goddess Nature, who had
Institute of France in 1805, which was published in 1807 under the emerged from a fusion between the figure of Artemis of Ephesus and
title Essai sur la giographie des plantes.1 A German version of this that of Isis, who, according to an ancient inscription reported by Plu
work was published in Tubingen in 1807, under the title Idem zu tarch, said, "No mortal has raised my veil." In that lecture I sketched
einer Geographic der Pflanzen,2 with a dedication to Goethe, intended a brief history of the metaphor of the unveiling of nature. These
to give public recognition to Humboldt's debt to the author of The themes were also the subject of my seminars at the College de France
Metamorphosis of Plants. This dedicatory page was adorned with during the year 1982-83. During the following years, I continued to
an engraving made after a drawing that the Swedish sculptor work on what I consider to-be three aspects of the same phenome--
Thorvaldsen had conceived to respond to the wishes of the great ex non: the history of the exegesis of the Heraclitean fragment, the evo
plorer (Fig. 1).3 This allegorical engraving, which is quite beautiful in lution of the notion of a secret of nature, and the figure of Isis in ico
itself, is a measure of how distant we are from the spiritual world in nography and in literature.
which scholars, artists, and poets still lived at the beginning of the
This book sets forth the results of that research. It is above all a
nineteenth century. The allegory was perfectly clear to educated peo
historical work, which deals especially with the period extending
ple of this time. It is perfectly obscure for our contemporaries. Who
from antiquity to the beginning of the twentieth century and traces
is this nude personage, holding a lyre in his left hand and unveiling
the evolution of mankind's attitudes toward nature solely from the
with his right hand the statue of a strange goddess? Which goddess is
perspective of the metaphor of unveiling. I must specify, moreover,
this, with her hands and her fingers spread wide apart, whose chest
that I have not dealt with two problems that are linked to the notion
bears three rows of breasts, and the lower part of whose body is en
of a secret of nature. The first is of a sociological order, and refers to
closed in a tight sheath, adorned with the figures of various animals?
esotericism: not only does Nature refuse to be unveiled, but he who
Why is Goethe's book The Metamorphosis of Plants placed at the
thinks he has penetrated her secrets refuses to communicate them.
statue's feet?
The reader who is interested in this theme should read the remark
Goethe himself sketched an initial answer to these questions when able and monumental work by William Eamon, Science and the Se
he wrote, "A. von Humboldt sent me the translation of his Essay on crets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Cul
the Geography of Plants with a flattering illustration that implies that ture. This book studies in great depth the phenomenon represented,
Poetry, too, might lift the veil of Nature."4 However, the contempo on the one hand, by the numerous books of "secrets" that flourished
rary reader understands this explanation scarcely better than the in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of modern times and, on the
enigma. Why does Goethe recognize Nature in this goddess? Why other, the academies which, in Italy, France, and England, united
does this Nature have secrets? Why must she be unveiled? Why can scholars in the search for the secrets of nature. This historical phe
Poetry accomplish this task? nomenon played a major role in the birth of modern science. From
this sociological perspective, one can also read the essay by Carlo
I answered these questions briefly in a lecture given in June 1980 to
Ginzburg "High and Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in
the Academy of Sciences and Literature of Mainz.5 The notion of a
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries."
secret of nature must be understood in the perspective of Heraclitus'
aphorism "Nature loves to hide." The statue unveiled by Apollo, the The second aspect is the psychological and psychoanalytical one
rm
viii >-> THE VEIL OF ISIS Preface c"^- ix
first result of these years of discoveries was a communication to the god of poetry, was a representation of the goddess Nature, who had
Institute of France in 1805, which was published in 1807 under the emerged from a fusion between the figure of Artemis of Ephesus and
title Essai sur la giographie des plantes.1 A German version of this that of Isis, who, according to an ancient inscription reported by Plu
work was published in Tubingen in 1807, under the title Idem zu tarch, said, "No mortal has raised my veil." In that lecture I sketched
einer Geographic der Pflanzen,2 with a dedication to Goethe, intended a brief history of the metaphor of the unveiling of nature. These
to give public recognition to Humboldt's debt to the author of The themes were also the subject of my seminars at the College de France
Metamorphosis of Plants. This dedicatory page was adorned with during the year 1982-83. During the following years, I continued to
an engraving made after a drawing that the Swedish sculptor work on what I consider to-be three aspects of the same phenome--
Thorvaldsen had conceived to respond to the wishes of the great ex non: the history of the exegesis of the Heraclitean fragment, the evo
plorer (Fig. 1).3 This allegorical engraving, which is quite beautiful in lution of the notion of a secret of nature, and the figure of Isis in ico
itself, is a measure of how distant we are from the spiritual world in nography and in literature.
which scholars, artists, and poets still lived at the beginning of the
This book sets forth the results of that research. It is above all a
nineteenth century. The allegory was perfectly clear to educated peo
historical work, which deals especially with the period extending
ple of this time. It is perfectly obscure for our contemporaries. Who
from antiquity to the beginning of the twentieth century and traces
is this nude personage, holding a lyre in his left hand and unveiling
the evolution of mankind's attitudes toward nature solely from the
with his right hand the statue of a strange goddess? Which goddess is
perspective of the metaphor of unveiling. I must specify, moreover,
this, with her hands and her fingers spread wide apart, whose chest
that I have not dealt with two problems that are linked to the notion
bears three rows of breasts, and the lower part of whose body is en
of a secret of nature. The first is of a sociological order, and refers to
closed in a tight sheath, adorned with the figures of various animals?
esotericism: not only does Nature refuse to be unveiled, but he who
Why is Goethe's book The Metamorphosis of Plants placed at the
thinks he has penetrated her secrets refuses to communicate them.
statue's feet?
The reader who is interested in this theme should read the remark
Goethe himself sketched an initial answer to these questions when able and monumental work by William Eamon, Science and the Se
he wrote, "A. von Humboldt sent me the translation of his Essay on crets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Cul
the Geography of Plants with a flattering illustration that implies that ture. This book studies in great depth the phenomenon represented,
Poetry, too, might lift the veil of Nature."4 However, the contempo on the one hand, by the numerous books of "secrets" that flourished
rary reader understands this explanation scarcely better than the in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of modern times and, on the
enigma. Why does Goethe recognize Nature in this goddess? Why other, the academies which, in Italy, France, and England, united
does this Nature have secrets? Why must she be unveiled? Why can scholars in the search for the secrets of nature. This historical phe
Poetry accomplish this task? nomenon played a major role in the birth of modern science. From
this sociological perspective, one can also read the essay by Carlo
I answered these questions briefly in a lecture given in June 1980 to
Ginzburg "High and Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in
the Academy of Sciences and Literature of Mainz.5 The notion of a
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries."
secret of nature must be understood in the perspective of Heraclitus'
aphorism "Nature loves to hide." The statue unveiled by Apollo, the The second aspect is the psychological and psychoanalytical one
x >-i THE VEIL OF ISIS
Preface t^K xi
implied in the representation of the unveiling of a feminine figure, einer Metaphorologie how the history1 of certain metaphors, many of
Isis, who symbolizes nature. Since I lack the necessary medical and which cannot be adequately translated into propositions and con
psychoanalytical training, I have contented myself with alluding to cepts—for instance, the nakedness of truth, nature as writing and as
this question in the chapter devoted to Nietzsche. This problem has a book, or the world as a clock—enable us to glimpse the evolu
been dealt with from a feminist perspective by Carolyn Merchant in tion of spiritual attitudes and visions of the world throughout the
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. ages. These traditional metaphors are linked intimately with what are
This work is invaluable because of its vast range of information and called commonplaces in rhetoric. These are formulas, images, and
its intense reflection of the destiny of Western civilization. I must metaphors adopted by philosophers and writers like prefabricated
also mention an essay by Evelyn Fox Keller, "Secrets of God, Nature, models, which they think they use freely, but which nevertheless have
and Life." an influence on their thought. They hold sway for centuries over suc
In this book, I have tried to show that in order to explain the con cessive generations like a kind of program to be realized, a task to be
cepts and the images that, down to the present day, have served to de accomplished, or an attitude to be assumed, even if, throughout the
fine the method and ends of the science of nature, we must turn first ages, the meaning given to these sentences, images, and metaphors
and foremost to the ancient Greco-Latin tradition. For instance, in can be profoundly modified. These ideas, images, and symbols can
a remarkable study on physico-chemical order, Bertrand de Saint- inspire works of art, poems, philosophical discourse, or the practice
Sernin cites a text by Pascal in which we find the following statement: of life itself. The present study takes its place within the history of
"The secrets of Nature are hidden; although she always acts, we do these metaphors and commonplaces, whether in the guise of the for
not always discover her effects." He comments on this text as follows: mula "Nature loves to hide," of the notions of veiling and unveiling,
"This passage brings to the fore the religious origin of positivism in or of the figure of Isis. These metaphors and images have both ex
the theory of knowledge. Indeed, the allusion to the hidden secrets of pressed and influenced mankind's attitude toward nature.
knowledge recalls the Book of Job, where God parades the wonders
The reader will perhaps be surprised to note that the word "na
of creation before Job, without unveiling the modes of their fashion
ture" is sometimes written in this book with a small n, and some
ing."6 It is quite true that, up to a point, we can recognize-the reli
times with a capital N. I have chosen to write it with a capital letter if
gious origins of positivism, insofar as it is an attitude that refuses to
the word bears a capital letter in a given text that I cite, or again if it
go beyond the effects known through the observation of experi
obviously designates an entity that is personified or is transcendent
ence—a point I will discuss in Chapter 11. Nevertheless, the expres
in nature, or even a goddess.
sion "hidden secrets of nature" comes not from the Bible but from
no other source than Greco-Latin philosophy, in which formulas
such as arcana naturae, secreta naturae, or aporrheta tes phuseos are
I thank with all my heart those who have helped me write this book
frequently used. This will be the subject of Chapter 3.
through the documents they have supplied, the advice they have
Hans Blumenberg, who was a friend of mine, and whose loss I given, and the corrections they have suggested. In particular, I thank
deeply regret, showed in a striking way in his book Paradigmen zu Eric Vigne for his patience and judicious remarks, and Sylvie Simon
x >-i THE VEIL OF ISIS
Preface t^K xi
implied in the representation of the unveiling of a feminine figure, einer Metaphorologie how the history1 of certain metaphors, many of
Isis, who symbolizes nature. Since I lack the necessary medical and which cannot be adequately translated into propositions and con
psychoanalytical training, I have contented myself with alluding to cepts—for instance, the nakedness of truth, nature as writing and as
this question in the chapter devoted to Nietzsche. This problem has a book, or the world as a clock—enable us to glimpse the evolu
been dealt with from a feminist perspective by Carolyn Merchant in tion of spiritual attitudes and visions of the world throughout the
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. ages. These traditional metaphors are linked intimately with what are
This work is invaluable because of its vast range of information and called commonplaces in rhetoric. These are formulas, images, and
its intense reflection of the destiny of Western civilization. I must metaphors adopted by philosophers and writers like prefabricated
also mention an essay by Evelyn Fox Keller, "Secrets of God, Nature, models, which they think they use freely, but which nevertheless have
and Life." an influence on their thought. They hold sway for centuries over suc
In this book, I have tried to show that in order to explain the con cessive generations like a kind of program to be realized, a task to be
cepts and the images that, down to the present day, have served to de accomplished, or an attitude to be assumed, even if, throughout the
fine the method and ends of the science of nature, we must turn first ages, the meaning given to these sentences, images, and metaphors
and foremost to the ancient Greco-Latin tradition. For instance, in can be profoundly modified. These ideas, images, and symbols can
a remarkable study on physico-chemical order, Bertrand de Saint- inspire works of art, poems, philosophical discourse, or the practice
Sernin cites a text by Pascal in which we find the following statement: of life itself. The present study takes its place within the history of
"The secrets of Nature are hidden; although she always acts, we do these metaphors and commonplaces, whether in the guise of the for
not always discover her effects." He comments on this text as follows: mula "Nature loves to hide," of the notions of veiling and unveiling,
"This passage brings to the fore the religious origin of positivism in or of the figure of Isis. These metaphors and images have both ex
the theory of knowledge. Indeed, the allusion to the hidden secrets of pressed and influenced mankind's attitude toward nature.
knowledge recalls the Book of Job, where God parades the wonders
The reader will perhaps be surprised to note that the word "na
of creation before Job, without unveiling the modes of their fashion
ture" is sometimes written in this book with a small n, and some
ing."6 It is quite true that, up to a point, we can recognize-the reli
times with a capital N. I have chosen to write it with a capital letter if
gious origins of positivism, insofar as it is an attitude that refuses to
the word bears a capital letter in a given text that I cite, or again if it
go beyond the effects known through the observation of experi
obviously designates an entity that is personified or is transcendent
ence—a point I will discuss in Chapter 11. Nevertheless, the expres
in nature, or even a goddess.
sion "hidden secrets of nature" comes not from the Bible but from
no other source than Greco-Latin philosophy, in which formulas
such as arcana naturae, secreta naturae, or aporrheta tes phuseos are
I thank with all my heart those who have helped me write this book
frequently used. This will be the subject of Chapter 3.
through the documents they have supplied, the advice they have
Hans Blumenberg, who was a friend of mine, and whose loss I given, and the corrections they have suggested. In particular, I thank
deeply regret, showed in a striking way in his book Paradigmen zu Eric Vigne for his patience and judicious remarks, and Sylvie Simon
xii >-> THE VEIL OF ISIS
for the help she contributed. All my gratitude also goes to Concetta
Luna, who assisted me with such amiability and efficacy in all the
problems raised by the bibliography and the writing of this work. I
have also profited from the valuable help and advice of Monique
Alexandre, Veronique Boudon-Millot, Ilsetraut Hadot, Sandra
Laugier, Jean-Francois Balaud^, Rene' Bonnet, Louis Frank, Richard
T HE VEIL OF ISIS
Goulet, Dieter Harlfinger, Philippe Hoffmann, Nuccio Ordine, Alain
Segonds, Brian Stock, and Jacques Thuillier. I express my gratitude to
them all.