Abstract
We have so far proceeded from our original affirmation, through the problematic which it posed (the problem of authentic existence), to an analysis of the human condition — all in an effort to clarify man’s situation in the world and discover a method for the authentic employment of an axiological metaphysics. An analysis of the human condition revealed the structure of inauthenticity as genetically linked to the maturation of consciousness as it receives an essentially new orientation. That is, a consideration of the “conscience malheureuse” revealed that inauthenticity and the conscious awareness of this condition, when resolutely faced by a generous will, effected a dramatic and wholly new attitude of consciousness. It is this change that is signified by the term “spiritual conversion” and we must now proceed to point out the full ramifications of this movement in Bastide’s philosophy.
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References
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 133 of T.I.
Ibid., p. 133; cf. also G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 284.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 140.
G. Bastide, Méditations, p. 129.
G. Bastide, Les grands thèmes, p. 91.
The primitive function of judgment does not distinguish between value judgments and existential judgments. For in the early stages of consciousness’ development “the object has no reality except by its value and no value except with reference to a subject.” The judgment is, in this context, a confrontation of subject-object, such that the subject has no reality expect by its tension and no consciousness of its tension except by reference to the object. Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 79.
The first part of Bastide’s De la condition humaine is devoted to a psychological consideration of the development of consciousness as it moves towards reflection and spiritual conversion. Bastide’s purpose is to discover the essential and fundamental needs of all conscious life, since these already point to the metaphysical order in some way. Id. p. 34. All along the way of the reflexive method the objective disciplines (which consider man “outside himself”) are necessary, since they afford reflection the elements of a “constant confrontation” in the “constant check of verification.” There is a “felicitous synchronism,” says Bastide, “between the objective critiques of the primtive, infant and pathological mentalities (Lévy-Bruhl, Jean Piaget, Pierre Janet) and the reflexive analyses of the idealists, together with the historical perspectives of Brunschvicg himself. Cf. G. Bastide, De la Condition humaine, pp. 6–7.
Cf. Note §9, part. II, chapter II.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, pp. 133–134.
De la condition humaine, G. Bastide, p. 284.
Cf. G. Bastide De la condition humaine, p. 284.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 141.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 141.
While the terminology of idealism is at times strange to a realist point of view, it is necessary to see it always in the light of its original project of placing the spontaneity of thought in a non-objectivist context, in a philosophy of action. The incorporation of the life elan of Bergson into the idealist context is not without foundation. Cf. A. Dondeyne, “Idealisme of realisme?” Tijdschrift voor Philosophie, 1941 (November), p. 614.
Cf. A. Cresson, Maine de Biran, Paris, 1950, pp. 123 and 128.
It is a question here of making precise the notion of spirit. Bastide accepts Kant’s critique against ontological substantialism. But Bastide believes that Kant missed the full creative nature of spirit by reason of the formalism of his method, which passed from the given to the metaphysical conditions in the direction of an absolute purity. Anxious to complete his revolution Kant ended up by giving a structure to “human consciousness in general” in the a priori forms. As such, says Bastide, transcendental idealism, in so far as it attempts to translate this structural conception of spirit, was an unstable equilibrium between subjectivism and absolute idealism. The problem is to reconcile the concrete, individual and dynamic aspects of personal subject with the universal and objective character of human existence. Eventually Bastide finds the orientation of his solution in the practical philosophy of Kant. In the postulates of practical reason and in a practical faith the spirit is attained on a new level, especially if the tendency to formalism is avoided by an approach to spirit in its “hand to hand” engagement with the problem of its existence not only as immanence but as transcendence as well, i.e. the notion of spirit as tension in an axiological metaphysics of action. Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, pp. 293–303.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 302.
Ibid., p. 313.
Ibid., p. 317.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 284.
Cf. Note § 13 of this chapter.
Bastide gives a very enlightening exposition, from a psychological point of view, of the various forms of psychological alienation in De la condition humaine, pp. 177–194.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 319.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 366.
Ibid., p. 321.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 319.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 320.
Ibid.
Cf. G. Bastide, “La conversion spirituelle,” op. cit., p. 19.06-4.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 321.
De la condition humaine, p. 322.
Cf. G. Bastide, “Le malin génie,” op. cit., p. 240.
Cf. G. Bastide, “Le malin génie,” op. cit., p. 240.
G. Bastide, Traité, p. 133.
Cf. G. Bastide, “De la condition temporelle de l’homme,” Les études philosophiques, 1962 (17), p. 80.
Cf. G. Bastide, “The Metaphysical Dimensions of Man,” op. cit., p. 351.
Id.
“Three spheres of reality here detach themselves from one another: the sphere of ‘corps,’ that of ‘esprits’ and that of ‘charité.’ Between them lies a ‘différence de genre’;... each sphere has its own kind of value... Associated with each is a particular cognitive prerequisite and a particular ‘vue,’ a view corresponding to the specific object.” R. Guardina, “Man and his situation in the world,” in Pascal for our Time, translated by B. Thompson, Herder (New York), 1966, p. 72.
G. Bastide, “The Metaphysical Dimensions...” op. cit., p. 354.
Cf. G. Bastide, “La nature, la conscience,” op. cit., p. 27.
Cf. G. Bastide, De la condition humaine, p. 376.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 166.
Cf. G. Bastide, “La condition spirituelle,” op. cit., p. 19.06-5.
Cf. G. Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, p. 66.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 357.
Id., p. 358.
Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, pp. 104–106.
Cf. G. Bastide, “The Metaphysical Dimensions of Man,” op. cit., p. 355.
G. Bastide, “La Conversion spirituelle,” op. cit., p. 19.06-6.
Cf. G. Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, p. 46.
Ibid., p. 6.
Ibid., pp. 54–55.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 134.
Ibid., p. 135; see also La conversion spirituelle, p. 55.
Cf. G. Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, op. cit., p. 19.06-6.
Ibid., p. 19.06-7.
G. Bastide, Traité, p. 135.
Ibid., p. 136. See as well pp. 190–191 and La conversion spirituelle, pp. 650–66.
Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 136; also De la condition humaine, pp. 329–331.
G. Bastide, “De la situation de l’homme,” op. cit., p. 245.
G. Bastide, “The Metaphysical Dimensions of Man,” op. cit., p. 353.
G. Bastide, Traité, p. 127.
G. Bastide, “The Metaphysical Dimensions,” p. 360. We are in the practical order of the postulates of the practical reason.
Id., p. 365.
Cf. La conversion spirituelle, p. 66.
Ibid., p. 69.
Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, p. 104.
Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, p. 106.
Id., p. 108.
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© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Koenig, T. (1971). Spiritual Conversion and the Transfiguration of Values. In: The Philosophy of Georges Bastide. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3045-8_6
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