German Philosophy's topics - tribe.net

Nietzsche's Breakdown: Insanity, or brilliance?

2008-04-12T19:37:01Z

I've been reading more and more about Nietzsche's aleged breakdown, and the more I read the more it confirmed my suspicions that his "breakdown" was just a natural result of his philosophy.

Plenty of people, including doctors it seems, rejected the idea that he had syphilis, and said that his symptoms were not consistant with the disease. GeorgesBataille was one of these people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bataille

Nietzsche himself characterized his "breakdown" as a breakthrough that he rejoices over, and he doesn't seem to think something wrong is happening.

Reading Nietzsche's philosophy, it seems obvious that his strange behavior was his idea of a joke, as well as an application of his philosophy in his life. Signing his name on letters as other people I think are attempts at humor, that most people would view as insane.

I think Nietzsche's maddness really came from his brilliance, and the people around him only saw it as insanity because they didn't understand what he was doing.

posted in German Philosophy - 27 replies

Kant: Wrong for America

2008-01-03T00:10:28Z

Holy cow, is this hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-cmNdiFuI

posted in German Philosophy - 4 replies

International Philosophy

2007-11-28T19:59:18Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrShK-NVMIU

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

When Nietzsche Wept

2007-09-10T01:44:13Z

Greetings all! I'm not sure if this subject is relevant to this tribes mission (newbie here); but,I was wondering if anyone has read the book "When Nietzsche Wept" (Yalom, 1993)? It's a ficitional/hypothetical story about Joesf Breuer (Freuds' mentor)treating Nietzsche for depression in the last days of his (Nietzsches)life (see Amazon.com for a more detailed description)...I was just wondering if anyone who has read this book would like to share their thoughts, criticisms, etc...

Thanks!!

posted in German Philosophy - 16 replies

How much of a monist are you?

2007-08-02T16:14:16Z

Monism, or the theory that all that exists comes from and is identical to a single priniciple or force (e.g. God) and that it is meaningful to speak of metaphysics from this perspecive, has been an integral part of much of idealist German Philosophy. The most pure expression of monism is probably Spinoza and the Germans had their reactions to him in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Schelling, Hegel, and Schopenhauer can be read as taking up the problems of monism in their work. How do you stand on the monist question? Lets hear some views first and then I want to be more specific about the implications of monism.

posted in German Philosophy - 4 replies

Kant and Conceptual Containment

2007-05-09T08:17:16Z

Conceptual containment
The philosopher Immanuel Kant was the first to use the terms "analytic" and "synthetic" to divide propositions into types. Kant introduces the analytic/synthetic distinction in the Introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1998, A6-7/B10-11). There, he restricts his attention to affirmative subject-predicate judgments, and defines "analytic proposition" and "synthetic proposition" as follows:

analytic proposition: a proposition whose predicate concept is contained in its subject concept
synthetic proposition: a proposition whose predicate concept is not contained in its subject concept
Examples of analytic propositions, on Kant's definition, include:

"All bachelors are unmarried."
"All triangles have three sides."
Kant's own example is:

"All bodies are extended," i.e. take up space. (A7/B11)
Each of these is an affirmative subject-predicate judgment, and in each, the predicate concept is contained with the subject concept. The concept "bachelor" contains the concepts "unmarried"; the concept "unmarried" is part of the definition of the concept "bachelor." Likewise for "triangle" and "has three sides," and so on.

Examples of synthetic propositions, on Kant's definition, include:

"All bachelors are happy."
"All creatures with hearts have kidneys."
Kant's own example is:

"All bodies are heavy," i.e. have mass. (A7/B11)
As with the examples of analytic propositions, each of these is an affirmative subject-predicate judgment. However, in none of these cases does the subject concept contain the predicate concept. The concept "bachelor" does not contain the concept "happy"; "happy" is not a part of the definition of "bachelor." The same is true for "creatures with hearts" and "have kidneys" - even if every creature with a heart also has kidneys

FROM WIKIPEDIA

posted in German Philosophy - 1 reply

Husserl anyone ?

2007-04-28T03:43:23Z

The writings of Edmund Huseerl were brilliant--iasmuch as they opened up long overlooked areas of epistemology ---and sought to illumine the relationship between sensory phenomenon and knowledge in a systemic , linear manner .
It is a damn shame that the relativist/postmodernist ANTI-philosophers have tried to co-opt the thrust of what he wrote .

posted in German Philosophy - 6 replies

Philosophy v. Critical Theory

2007-04-21T23:18:31Z

Many discussions on tribes focusing on French and German philosophy seem to reflect the problem that many French and German philosophers of the twentieth century are not always considered "philosophers" by the Anglophone academy. Instead of absorbing the more interdisciplinary (and often politically-motivated) work of writers such as Benjamin, Adorno, Barthes, Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, etc., philosophy proper has become predominantly "analytic," relegating such work to the category of "continental."

One way to start thinking about the status of this divide is by tracing the Frankfurt School distinction between philosophy and critical theory. We might look at Marcuse's 1937 essay in _Negations_ to start marking distinctions. Whereas philosophy takes itself for granted as a mode of approaching the "truth," critical theory questions its own methodological conditions of possibility at every step.

I want to get feedback from people who call themselves continental philosophers (or people who are interested in French and German thought grounded in figures such as Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, etc).

What are some of your experiences in the academy? To what extent is your work influenced by the analytic/continental distinction? What is the future of continental philosophy (especially in America, where it is relegated to a disintegrating category of "theory" in literature departments)? For those of you outside of the academy, how do you experience the distinction between philosophy and critical theory?

posted in German Philosophy - 45 replies

Any Kantians Out There?

2007-02-09T11:39:47Z

Not sure if anyone is still groovin' on Kant's Ethical Maxims and Categorical Imperative, but there's a great site now which has a whole video conference online by the San Diego Kantian Ethics Institute, the rock stars, so to speak, of the newer wave of Kantian enthusiasts.

http://ethics.acusd.edu/video/USD/Kant2003/index.html

posted in German Philosophy - 20 replies

What devides the continent?

2007-02-09T11:35:01Z

I'm curious.

Are there sharp divisions in the continent qua philosophy? Which tradition denies the existence of the other?

Some publications on this would be nice as well.

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

The Shopenhauer Cure

2006-11-17T16:41:52Z

Did anyone catch Irvin Yalom's commentary on Shopenhauer the other night on KQED's Forum?

posted in German Philosophy - 10 replies

Benjamin

2006-11-17T11:37:18Z

does anyone here read walter? i'm nothing without what illuminations gave me. i feel like B's critique of the fetish of historical progress is the most poetic and pertinent. not least at the moment because of iraq...

posted in German Philosophy - 20 replies

marx's reversal of the dialectic

2006-10-07T16:22:17Z

'It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousnes." -Marx

A penny for your thoughts?

I'm also thinking in line of the substructure and the superstructure that he wrote about.

posted in German Philosophy - 7 replies

Critique of Pure Reason: best translation?

2006-09-14T23:55:10Z

What do you guys say? I'd love to get some opinions in the next day or two so I can make a purchase....

philosophically yours,
B~

posted in German Philosophy - 3 replies

German Idealism

2006-07-13T13:04:29Z

Hey all. I'm planning on doing an independent study on German Idealism next semester, and I was just wondering if any of you with experience have any advice: should I just concentrate on Kant and Hegel? Or should I read some Fichte? Schelling? What about Schopenhauer? Umm...any general opinions or discussions would be awesome. Thanks.

posted in German Philosophy - 4 replies

authenticity

2006-06-29T09:12:01Z

I mentioned in the Habermas contra Heidegger thread that the Frankfurt school critiques Heidegger, and the Existentialists in general, for their project of authenticity.

This has gotten me thinking, because in my view authenticity is extremely important. When I consider that idea critically, I see that to some degree my focus on authenticity is pre-reflective. I have a visceral response to discourse of authenticity and an innate impulse to move in that direction.

I think it's high time I put it on the table, and this seems like a good forum to start.

My basic position is that authenticity is of fundamental importance to treating human problems, both on an individual and societal level. It is my belief that often when people behave in destructive ways, they are often not being honest with themselves about what they are doing. To put it another way, when people understand the truth of what they want in the world, they are less likely to cause suffering for themselves or others.

I realize there is a core optimism at the heart of this belief, which is a little funny because I am something of a cynic and a misanthrope. However, one can draw systematic empricial support for this view. The foundation of psychoanalysis, for example, is that when people understand the truth of what is going on in their lives it has an immensely therapeutic effect.

I would also add that when people act in coarsely destructive ways, such as certain American politicians I could name, it is often accompanied by coarse and obvious instances of dishonesty. On the contrary, the rare politicians I have seen who seem highly ethical, like Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin, exhibit a deep commitment to truthfulness.

Of course, it is not necessarily the case that more ethical behavior will lead to less suffering, but I believe that by definition ethical behavior at least works TOWARDS less suffering.

So there it is - the short version of my conviction that authenticity is the ground of ethical and therapeutic human action. I'd love to debate it on an ideas level.

PS I have cross-posted this idea to a couple different tribes, but I don't think that is inappropriate because I'm willing to carry on the discussion independently in each Tribe.

posted in German Philosophy - 13 replies

Jung's connections to philosophers of his time.

2006-06-28T15:22:00Z

Does anyone know what contact either personally or through their writings, Jung had exposer to the ideas of Heidegger, Jaspers, Wittgenstein or any of the other contemprary German philosophers? If you could give me reference sources that would be much appreciated.

posted in German Philosophy - 8 replies

speaking of w. benjamin...

2006-03-09T06:22:20Z

Gruesse g.philo tribe!

Rather than reanimate an ancient thread here, thought i'd kick off a new Benjamin blurb...
and let folks here know about my recent experience...

Last year the artist television access - www.atasite.org
in SF asked some artists to contribute to a 21st anniversary (fundraising) project called
""The Work of Art in the Age of DIGITAL Reproduction"
with W.B's essay as the trigger...

From this, ATA produced a cd, a book, and a dvd ( which i haven't seen yet )...
For now, they are only available by donation here:
http://atasite.org/donate/

There are some fascinating results which examine Benjamin's unique lens on art and mass media
in a kind of 21st century remix.

There are a number of folks who would like to see these items more publicly released...myself included...
if there's any interest here, please contact me or ATA.

There were some incredible synchroncities that occurred while exploring this material, like meeting THe Benjamin scholar,
Samuel Weber in Berlin last November. If peeps here in the philo tribe are interested to hear some inspiring tales related to this project, maybe i could share more, but for the moment i'll just make this a "brief" entry.

respex,
Podp

posted in German Philosophy - 1 reply

Heidegger

2005-06-30T22:41:27Z

Have not had the time to devote to Heidegger. Always get sidetracked on the other existentialists, and find I run out of time and then only get a whif of Heidegger. Could someone give me a brief summary as to what you view as the central tenets of his thinking. Took a course on them all, and we had a good section on him, but then I went senile and forgot it. I'm too busy trudging through Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Satre's Being and Nothingness too pile on any more books.

posted in German Philosophy - 58 replies

BBC

2005-06-07T18:31:30Z

Fun little site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher.shtml

posted in German Philosophy - 1 reply

San Francisco Existentialism Reading Group

2005-06-05T17:57:27Z

I am starting a reading group to examine existentialism as a philosphy and its place in today's world. Sartre wrote in a very different time, and I think it would be interesting to discuss how his philosophy can be adapted to better fit today's pertinent struggles. We will start with Kierkegaard but treat him rather summarily as the main focus will be on Existentialism as a Humanism, and Being and Nothingness. Let me know if anybody is interesting in joining. The group will meet in San Francisco. Times and dates have not yet been set up, so let me know what times work. Thank you.

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Habermas contra Heidegger

2005-05-04T23:35:45Z

Howdy

I know very little about Jurgen Habermas, but I've recently been persuaded that I should look into him.

I found a recent interview with JH where he explains why he chose early in his career to study Kant and Marx instead of Heidegger. I don't fully understood the techincal language he was using, but he seemed to say that a genuine approach to the problems of the world must be rooted in human action and communication, not in questions of authenticity.

I find that a very interesting position, and I wonder if the basic extistential project of delving into authenticity is profoundly introverted at its root. That seems plausible.

I would be very interseted to hear what people think - particularly if anyone can jump in and further elaborate on Habermas' rejection of Heidegger.

posted in German Philosophy - 10 replies

Greek philosophy tribe

2005-04-08T17:47:26Z

Hi there

Please come by the new Greek Philosophy tribe.

http://greekphilosophy.tribe.net

----

Note: I don't want to spam this Tribe - I'll delete this thread in a couple days.

posted in German Philosophy - 3 replies

Heidegger and Nazism

2005-04-01T01:13:02Z

All this talk about Heidegger has rekindled my interest in this weighty thinker. I have been reading some of his essays, and turning to some of the secondary material.

I came across a damning indictment of his Nazism while researching Walter Kaufmann, the great Nietzsche translator and Hegel scholar. I have excerpted some of the most salient points. This analysis strongly supports my conviction that one cannot divorce Heidegger's political views from his philosophy.

the source:
www.denisdutton.com/heidegger.htm

From Heidegger ’s 1933 inaugural address as the first Nazi rector of the University of Freiburg:

<quote>
The German student body is on the march. And what they seek are those F ührer through whom they wish to elevate their own vocation into a grounded, knowing truth....From the resoluteness [Entschlossenheit, the criterion of authenticity in Sein und Zeit] of the German student body to persevere under the German fate in its most extreme need there issues a will to the essence of the university. This will is a true will insofar as the German student body, by means of the new student law, places itself under the law of its essence and thus draws boundaries for this essence. To give oneself the law is supreme freedom [according to Kant]. “Academic Freedom, ”celebrated so often, is banished from the German University; for this freedom was not genuine because it was only negative. It meant mainly lack of concern, randomness of intentions and inclinations, lack of all bonds in what one did and omitted. The concept of the freedom of the German student is now brought back to its truth. From this truth the bond and service of the German student body will unfold in the future.

[commentary]
The whole address is strewn with the rhetoric Nazism: F ührerschaft (leadership), Gefolgschaft (following), Studentenschaft (the student body), Volksgemeinschaft (the national community). Heidegger also published a statement on November 10th, just before the elections: “The German people has been summoned by the F ührer to vote. But the F ührer does not beg anything from the people. Instead he gives the people the most immediate possibility of the highest free decision: whether it —the whole people —wills its own Dasein or whether it does not want this .... ”Authenticity, Kaufmann remarks, required a vote for the F ührer.

[further commentary]

[George] Steiner ’s Heidegger, now published by the University of Chicago Press, treats its subject more in earnest than Kaufmann, and when it takes up the Nazi episode, the tone becomes correspondingly more baffled and depressed. Wading through the material, Steiner says, “is a sickening business ... it is vile, turgid and brutal stuff in which the official jargon of the day blends seamlessly with Heidegger ’s idiom at its most hypnotic. ”Steiner admires —anyway, wants to admire —Heidegger, but this does not prevent him from approaching the Nazi episode with absolute honesty.

Steiner finds the evidence “incontrovertible: there were instrumental connections between the language and vision of Sein und Zeit, especially the later sections, and that of Nazism. Those who would deny this are blind or mendacious. ”There is a Spenglerian sense of apocalypse, a crisis so deep that normal standards of moral conduct can be ignored. There is a sense of the both innocent and mystical relation of hand and tool “which must be cleansed of the pretensions and illusions of abstract intellect. ”From this, we come to the “stress on rootedness, on the intimacies of blood and remembrance which an authentic human being cultivates with his native ground. Heidegger ’s rhetoric of ‘at-homeness ’, of the organic continuum which knits the living to the ancestral dead buried close by, fits effortlessly into the Nazi cult of ‘blood and soil ’. ”Perhaps most important, the well-known idea that “language speaks ”is “an ominous hint of Hitler ’s brand of inspiration, of the Nazi use of the human voice as a trumpet played upon by immense, numinous agencies beyond the puny will or judgement of rational man. This motif of dehumanization is key. ”As terrible as this is, it is at least “tractable. ”Steiner finds simply “intolerable ”Heidegger ’s silence on the subject of Nazism from 1945 until his death. He speaks of the “feline urbanity and evasions ”of the famous 1966 Der Spiegel interview, and its failure to answer the question of why the world of Auschwitz was never addressed by the philosopher: all that remains is the “cold silence and abject evasions of Heidegger ’s followers (among whom Jews are implausibly prominent). ”

Heidegger's proclamation in the Freiburger Studenten Zeitung (November 3, 1933):

German Students! The National Socialist revolution brings complete upheaval to our German life....Do not let dogmas and “ideas ”be the rules of your being. The F ührer himself and alone is the German reality, present and future, and its law. Learn always to know more deeply: from now on every matter requires decision and every action responsibility. Heil Hitler

posted in German Philosophy - 40 replies

Wittgenstein

2005-02-10T04:06:14Z

What do you think of the inclusion of Wittgenstein under a "German Philosophy" tribe? Some people would argue he is the property of the Brit tradition...

posted in German Philosophy - 16 replies

Nietzsche & Philosophy

2005-02-01T05:57:00Z

Has anyone hear read Nietzsche & Philosophy by Gilles Deleuze? I read that about ten years ago and certain parts of it were quite powerful for me at the time. The discussion between active & reactive, for example, says a lot.

Mems

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Feuerbach

2004-11-26T09:20:00Z

Was enjoying his concept of the conversion of religion to Anthropology and his belief in Naturism/Scientism, and also got a kick out of how Marx and Engles celebrated his work.

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Hegel's Christianity

2004-10-30T08:23:07Z

Copleston was sort of making fun how Hegel held out to the bitter end that his philosophy was compatible with orthodox Christianity. I agree with his analysis that, in the end, one would have to choose one or the other, but that finally Hegel's Dialectic process would supercede Christianity, if the two were practiced equally. (Not that I mind Christianity being superceded.) My thought was that he sort of pulled a Clintonesque equivocation, in the sense that, if he wanted to be # 1, he just had to insist, so to speak, that he never inhaled the humanism.

Hey, what's this I read about the falling out between Neitzche and Wagner?

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

How Do You Spell Schliermacher?

2004-08-08T08:17:26Z

I left my Copleston Volume 7 at work and forgot how to spell Schliermacher. Anyway, I really enjoyed Copleston's short outline of his thinking. In a nutshell, he apparently did not reduce the search for the Absolute to a simple ethical quest like Fichte, nor to a direct intellectual apprehension like Hegel, but leaned towards an emotionalist theory. Being the sentimental and flowery type, I go in for anything that smacks of Romantic Pantheism, although Schliermacher wouldn't quite categorize himself that way either. He felt that either affirming or denying Pantheism cut off too many possibilities, and so he left open the slight possibility of human separation from the Absolute, while maintianing that there was a unity there too. He was all very imprecise. Maybe I was just charmed by him.

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Fichte Controversy

2004-06-12T11:32:29Z

Any thoughts out there on the charge of "Atheism" against Fichte that forced him out of his Chair of Philosophy at Jena? Justified? Not justified? I think, in the context of the time and place, it was probably fair enough. But technically speaking, he had a fairly good defense, in hindsight. God, he said, is the active force of the Moral Order acting in the world. Plausible? No?

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Tribe Meet Up

2004-06-06T20:12:32Z

By the way, The Zen Scoundrels, a tribe I host of admittedly debauched philosophers, would nonetheless enjoy the presence of the German Philosophy Tribe, hence this meet up announcement:

Cafe Royale, 800 Post @ Leavenworth, Teusday, June 22nd, 6PM till they kick us out.

posted in German Philosophy - 2 replies

The German Romantics And The German Idealists

2004-06-03T20:18:45Z

Copleston, in his nine-volume series, was just discussing the connection, or affinity, between the German Romantic movement and the Idealist movement, i.e. Hagel, Fichte and Schelling. Any thoughts on that one?

posted in German Philosophy - 4 replies

Wittgenstein

2004-03-05T17:36:13Z

Great audio on his life and works:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20031204.shtml

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Cross-section with a historical context

2004-03-01T00:54:05Z

I am looking for suggestions as to works that offer a cross-section approach to examining the various predominant philosophers of 20C-present German philosophers. In particular, I would like something that offers a historical context with which to consider the underlying philosophies under examination. Any suggestions?

posted in German Philosophy - 3 replies

Me, too!

2004-02-22T03:18:19Z

I, too, am a neophyte in this tribe. I fully expect to walk the hot coals...just don't make me eat anything gross. I studied for a few years in Germany, and did a bit of dabbling in philosophical studies...took a seminar on Arthur Schopenhauer at the University in Mannheim...in which I wrote a paper on his pessimism and its application to his views on death. A poor piece I must say, written early in my years of higher education. Anyway, am always game for good conversations about the great thinkers. Bis dann, Scott (SidStoic)

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

Introduction

2004-02-22T02:21:52Z

Hello everyone,

just a short note to introduce myself very briefly. I'm Christoph. I currently live in Barbados for a while, but I've grown up in Germany. I hope to gain some interesting insights into German philosophy via this group.

Best regards from sunny Barbados!

Christoph

posted in German Philosophy - 0 replies

New Nietzsche Scholarship

2004-02-12T01:41:07Z

For those of you interested in a soteriological examination of Nietzsche's work (and, no, it's not a contradiction), take a look at "Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief" by Giles Fraser. You can get it on http://www.amazon.com

posted in German Philosophy - 13 replies

Web resources

2003-12-04T03:24:26Z

http://home.cwru.edu/~ngb2/Pages/Intro.html

http://books.cambridge.org/0521663814.htm

http://books.cambridge.org/0521667828.htm

posted in German Philosophy - 3 replies

Beginning philosophy students

2003-10-21T15:12:06Z

There is a great book that is a must-have for beginning philosophy students. The title is
"Wonder and Critical Reflection: An Invitation to Philosophy" by Tom Christenson. It is not specifically about German philosophy, but it will help beginning students understand what German philosophy is all about.

posted in German Philosophy - 1 reply