Rudolf Eucken (1846 – 1926) Of hoe een andersdenkende over Spinoza schreef [4]

Rudolf Eucken, Gemälde von I. Eucken, 1900
(Reproduktion: Jan-Peter Kasper / FSU)
© Universität Jena
[van blog.klassik-stiftung.de]

Voor ik verder ga met een volgend blog met teksten over Spinoza die Rudolf Eucken uit de pen vloeiden, wil ik in dit blog eerst nog wat meer over het eigen denken van deze professor filosofie uit Jena brengen.

Het beste lijkt me dat te doen door enige passages te citeren uit het Lemma Eucken, Rudolf Christoph van Alan Snell in: Stuart Brown, Diane Collinson, Robert Wilkinson (Eds.), Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers [Routledge, 1^e 1996, 2012 - 968 pagina's – books.google p. 218, p. 219, p. 220]. De geleende tekst is aaneensluitend; ik bracht er enige tussenkopjes in aan.

Je proeft dan hier en daar een kleine overeenkomst met Spinoza, maar veel sterker zijn de contrasten met diens zo heel andere filosofie.

Eucken typeerde zijn denken als: activisme of actionisme
Eucken was a leading representative of that spiritual brand of philosophy which, rejecting intellectualism and abstruse speculation, sought a philosophy of the whole of life. He labelled his result 'activism', and distinguished it from pragmatism, the ends of which were mundane. With natural existence, deemed to be ultimately meaningless and self-frustrating, he contrasted spiritual existence -personal relationship with the supreme reality, Spirit, which, though immanent in nature, transcends it. Only in such a relationship are human interests truly fulfilled, and this in a universal religion (Geistlichkeit). The necessary prelude to this relationship is conversion from the sensory realm to the spiritual. This entails constant striving. Christianity is the highest—though, because of the truth grasped by other faiths, not the absolute—religion.

Onze spirituele zoeketocht ondernemen we bij voorkeur samen met anderen
The spiritual quest on which, if we are wise, we are embarked is not pursued in solitariness. Our choosing of one 'system of life' in preference to others, and on the basis of its anticipated benefits, inevitably involves those to whom we are related in society. Through their persistent questioning, human beings, though part of the natural order, rise above it: their souls transcend the spatio-temporal sphere.

Wetenschap, hoe belangrijk ook, biedt ons geen weg naar ’t spirituele – zeker niet als naturalisme
It is important to note that for all his emphasis upon spirit, Eucken welcomed the positive contributions of modern science. Science, however, could not introduce us to the realm of spirit; and he lamented that our technical achievements have not ‘been accompanied by a corresponding growth in the content of life and the soul of man'. The remedy does not lie in the aesthetic transformation of existence into pleasure or enjoyment. Rather, we must develop the life of the spirit, and do this in opposition to naturalism's constricted view of human nature. Earth-bound as it is, naturalism offers no guidance as to how new knowledge and human freedom are to be used, or how a better world of peace and freedom may be established.

Socialisme zag hij als de politieke kant van het naturalisme
Hence Eucken's trenchant criticism of socialism, which he regarded as the political expression of naturalism. Eucken's views were widely disseminated. Windelband hailed him as 'the creator of a new metaphysic'.

Zijn ideeën over christendom werden zwaar bekritiseerd
However, some questioned his optimism concerning the ongoing evolution of the spirit; his understanding of the heart of Christianity as a matter of world-denial and world-renewal was deemed reductionist by some; his view that such metaphysical concepts as the Trinity have been superseded by improved understandings of existence has been contested; his Christology—Jesus is not God but 'merely an incomparable individuality which cannot be directly imitated'—has been repudiated by many, and has been branded a deficiency which deprives his activism of that expemplification of the union of humanity with divinity of which the Incarnation is the supreme instance; he has been faulted for not allowing the miraculous as traditionally conceived, and for not giving due weight to the idea of redemption wrought in one historic act; and his lack of attention to the experiential aspects of faith has been deemed an unfortunate relapse into intellectualism.

Uit A. Pablo Iannone, Dictionary of World Philosophy. Routledge, 1e 2001, 2013 - 576 pagina's – books.google haal ik de volgende (delen van) lemma’s, die eveneens Eucken’s filosofie iets nader bengen en/of die een kleine illustratie zijn van hoe iets van Eucken toch doordrong tot in de moderne overzichten van filosofie.

Ontwerper van een Lebensphilosophie