True Philosophy consists in relearning to look at the world, And in this sense a historical account can give meaning to the world quite as deeply as a philosophical treatise. We take our fate in our hands, we become responsible for history through reflection, but equally by a decision on which we stake our life, and in both cases what is involved is a violent act which is validated by being performed. Phenomenology, as a disclosure of the world, rests on itself, or rather provides its own foundation. All cognitions are sustained by a ground of postulates and finally by our communication with the world as a primary embodiment of rationality. Philosophy, as radical reflection, dispenses in principle with this resource. It, however, too is in history, it too exploits the world and constituted reason. It must therefore put to itself the question which it puts to all branches of knowledge, and so duplicate itself infinitely being, as Husserl says, a dialogue or infinite meditation, and, insofar as it remains faithful to its intention, never knowing where its going. The unfinished nature of phenomenology and the inchoative atmosphere which hass surrounded are not to be taken as a sign of failure, they were inevitable because phenomenologys task was to reveal the mysteries of the world and of reason. If phenomenology was a movement before becoming a doctrine or philosophical system, this was attributable neither to accident nor to fraudulent intent. It is as painstaking as the words of Balzac, Proust, Valery, or Cézanne – By reason of the same kind of attentiveness and wonder, the same demand for awareness, The same will to seize the meaning of the world or of history as that meaning comes into being. In this way it merges into the general effort of modern thought.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:07:44 +0000
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