Abstract
This chapter takes its starting point in a paper of Leonard H. Ehrlich on hermeneutics, in which he discussed the validity of valuation in understanding. The chapter discusses schools of history of philosophy, attitudes towards valuation and the relationship between philosophy and other academic disciplines. Jaspers’ early teachings are examined, in particular his work on worldviews, as a means of elucidating the history of philosophy. Jaspers’ concept of existential will is offered as a means of unraveling the significance and legitimate potential of the study of the history of philosophy.
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Notes
- 1.
This is separate from the possibility that reliance upon reason might require an implicit faith commitment. If that underlying attitude of faith is all there is to Jaspers’ philosophical faith it might encounter little opposition. However, as we will see, I consider his notion a much more radical and controversial one.
- 2.
See Eugenio Garin, “Osservazione preliminari a una storia della filosofia,” Gionale Critico della Filosofia Italiana, Vol. 38, 1959, pp. 1–55.
- 3.
For example, the historian and philosopher Quentin Skinner assert that History by uncovering more archaic modes of thought can guide us in thinking aright about political or perhaps religious issues. Drawing the disciplinary lines somewhat differently, I argue that a historian who draws normative conclusions from historical investigations is no longer doing history but philosophy. All such labels are somewhat arbitrary but descriptive of substantive areas in which philosophy has something to contribute, especially since history is so occupied already. See Quentin Skinner, Regarding Method (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 21.
- 4.
For an excellent summary of the historical relationship between philosophy/religion and intellectual history see Gabriele Boccaccini, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2001), pp. 15–41. In his final summation he suggests that “the emancipation of intellectual history from philosophy stands today as a consolidated achievement of Western civilization.”
- 5.
Leonard H. Ehrlich, “Jaspers’ Methodology of Verstehen: It’s Basis for History, Psychology, Translation,” Existenz, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2008, pp. 188, here p. 6. http://www.existenz.us/volumes/Vol.3-1Ehrlich.pdf.
- 6.
Cited in Herschel B. Chipp, “Essai sur une nouvelle méthode de critique,” translated by H.R. Rookmaaker and Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1968, p. 87.
- 7.
Some argue that history is also sometimes evaluative. For example, as Leo Strauss once pointed out, the description of a historical figure as cruel is evaluative yet sometimes inescapable. But the disallowance of value judgments in history seems to do less damage to its traditional character than such a proscription in philosophy would accomplish. There are other humanistic disciplines such as art criticism and literature that also seem to evade the academic proscription against value judgments but even in those fields it is debatable whether the allowance of evaluation is as global as in traditional philosophical discourse.
- 8.
Ficino’s motives were similar to Aquinas’ criticism of the purported views of Averroes as expressed in his Long Commentary to the De Anima. His Middle Commentary, expressing somewhat different views, was unknown to the Christian world until the fifteenth century. See Alfred Ivry, Averroes Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002), pp. xiii–xxiv.
- 9.
For his more purely philosophical treatment of worldviews see Philosophy, Volume I (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 250–268. [Henceforth cited as P]
- 10.
General Psychopathology, Seventh edition (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1963), p. 6.
- 11.
Translated from Psychologie der Weltanschauungen, second edition (Berlin, 1922) by Edwin Latzel. See “The Concept of the Ultimate Situation,” The Philosophy of Karl Jaspers, second augmented edition, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1981), p. 183. [Henceforth cited as PW]
- 12.
Jaspers shows himself to be an intentional realist, believing in inner conscious, intentional states and also an intentionalist, using them as explanatory accounts. For a good discussion see Karsten Stueber, “Intentionalism, Intentional Realism, and Empathy,” Journal of the Philosophy of History, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2009, pp. 290–307.
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Gluck, A.L. (2012). Verstehen in Historical-Philosophical Interpretation. In: Wautischer, H., Olson, A., Walters, G. (eds) Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2223-1_19
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