Knowledge and Life

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Contents:



Translator's Preface
Author's Preface

I. Introduction
I. Critical Part
II. The Limits of Science
III. The Failure of Speculative Philosophy
IV. Modern Conceptions of Life
V. Retrospect and Prospect
II. Explanatory Part
VI. The Main Thesis
VII. The Consequences of the Main Thesis
VIII. Transition to the Present

An excerpt from the beginning of the first chapter:

In relation to the problem of Knowledge, modern man is in an extreme degree beset with insecurity as to his position in the universe and the meaning of his own life. Despite the acknowledgment of values and ends, old and new modes of conceiving things stand in irreconcilable opposition to each other. The old mode sets high aims before man, and allows him to think highly of himself and of his place within Reality; but this mode, in the consciousness of the present day, has been shaken to its deepest foundations, and has consequently lost much of its power. The new mode presents us with tasks and with achievements in abundance, but these do not connect themselves into a totality or whole such as raises man in the inwardness of his being—giving his acts a self-value, and satisfying the deepest part of his nature. Consequently we vacillate insecurely between the old and the new modes; and in such unstable equilibrium the inner situation of life is in danger of falling into a serious case.

The old conception of his own greatness gave man the conviction of an inner connection with the universe and of the significance of his actions in their relation to the universe. The universe thus appeared as possessing a life of unity, or as being governed by such a life: man not only participated in this unitary condition but also occupied a special position within it, and seemed indispensable in order to bring to perfect expression the meaning of the universe. This was the view of life and its meaning as presented by religion; and also here man's relation to God raised him far beyond the sensuous environment, and enabled his deeds to be effective in relation to the destiny of the universe itself. The same view was presented in certain ideals of civilisation and culture, with their transformation of Reality into a kingdom of reason either of a logical or of an artistic kind. In such an idealism the whole of the world was transformed into an inner presence; and man's deeds, for the first time, seemed to be raised by the All to the level of clear consciousness and, at the same time, perfected. In religion as well as in idealism all greatness seemed thus to proceed out of the independence of an inner world and of its superiority to the external world.

This independence of an inner world and, at the same time, this inner relation of man to the universe have become, during the past century, more and more insecure. The inner connections of things have become more and more disintegrated; and the natural world has been resolved into a mere co-existence of individual elements, and into a web of the mutual relations of such elements. This web of relations has also more and more drawn man into itself, and has regarded him as a mere part of itself. Man's life has thus been entirely transformed into a relation with the environment of sense impressions; life is viewed as exhausting its meaning in its effects and counter-effects in connection with the external world. Thus what happens within the inwardness of the soul becomes a merely subsidiary phenomenon—it becomes a mere repetition in miniature of what happens in the great world without. Man thus becomes a mere link in an endless chain: he can neither mean anything special nor grasp, by means of his acts, any totality or whole. And if no kind of totality or whole obtains here, the idea of an inner relation to a whole— the idea of a personal experience of a whole and of a value for the whole—sinks into a delusion. To grant any specific position to man in the universe is consequently impossible; and, at the same time, it is supposed

here to be proved that what issues from the inwardness of his being has no longer any kind of value any more either for himself or for anybody else, so that all his actions have no other ends to serve than the betterment of his situation within the sensuous environment, and the extension of his power over this environment. How much has been achieved in this direction from the sides of the pure and applied sciences is evident to all. Thus, for the loss of an invisible world, the heightening of the visible one seems to offer entire compensation; and amidst the continuous development of the power of the environment we are not at all able to discover the loss of such an inwardness.

So we are surrounded and carried along not only by the results already achieved in the external world, but also by the problems of life in our own day.