Lebensphilosophie

(Redirected from Philosophy of life)

Lebensphilosophie (German: [ˈleːbm̩s.filozoˌfiː]; meaning 'philosophy of life') was a dominant philosophical movement of German-speaking countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which had developed out of German Romanticism. Lebensphilosophie emphasised the meaning, value and purpose of life as the foremost focus of philosophy.[1]

Clockwise from top left: Bergson, Dilthey, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Its central theme was that an understanding of life can only be apprehended by life itself, and from within itself. Drawing on the critiques of epistemology offered by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, notable ideas of the movement have been seen as precursors to both Husserlian phenomenology and Heideggerian existential phenomenology.[1]

Lebensphilosophie criticised both mechanistic and materialist approaches to science and philosophy[1] and as such has also been referred to as the German vitalist movement,[2] though its relationship to biological vitalism is questionable. Vitality in this sense is instead understood as part of a biocentric distinction between life-affirming and life-denying principles.[3]

While often rejected by academic philosophers, it had strong repercussions in the arts.[4]

Overview

edit

Inspired by the critique of rationalism in the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Lebensphilosophie emerged in 19th-century Germany as a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, rise of positivism and the theoretical focus prominent in much of post-Kantian philosophy.[1][5][6] As such, Lebensphilosophie is defined as form of irrationalism, as well as a form of Counter-Enlightenment.[7][6]

The first elements of a Lebensphilosophie are found in the context of early German Romanticism which conceived existence as a continuous tension of "the finite towards the infinite", an aspiration that was always disappointed and generated either a withdrawal into oneself and detachment with an attitude of pessimistic renunciation, or on the contrary exaltation of the instinctive spirit or vital impulse of the human being, a struggle for existence or a religious acceptance of the destiny of man entrusted to divine providence.[6]

Wilhelm Dilthey was the first to seek to account for a "pre-theoretical cohesion of living", by taking the phenomenological turn and relying on the historical experience of life, by highlighting relationships specific to life (Lebensbezüge), that Martin Heidegger would later considered both as a fundamental step, but also insufficiently radical.[8]

In a 2010 article, Jean-Claude Gens distinguishes four aspects in Dilthey's vision of the notion of life:[9]

  1. Life is never what it is except for consciousness, life insofar as it is lived. It is nothing of being but purely relative, thought in terms of excitement and mobility. Dilthey is the first to see representation no longer in aptitudes or faculties but in terms of mode of behavior. This vision will considerably influence Martin Heidegger.
  2. Life is characterized by the mobility of its unfolding. Life has the world as its correlate. There is no world except the lived. The texture of the world is that of these meaningful configurations. Dilthey calls this world the "world of the spirit" which therefore has configurations that are always singular and changing over time.[10]
  3. The expression Life translates for us what is best known, most intimate, but also most obscure (abysmal). Life always exceeds what consciousness can grasp, it is an enigma not theoretical, but an enigma that matters for a living person.[11]
  4. These changing configurations characterize "historicity," that is, the creativity of life that unfolds in singular worlds. There is only singularity in the spiritual dimension of the worldliness of human life and not in the unity of a world specific to a single humanity. For Dilthey, conflicts between configurations are less representative of a Darwinian struggle than the expression of the enigmatic character of life.

The Lebensphilosophie movement bore indirect relation to the subjectivist philosophy of vitalism developed by Henri Bergson, which lent importance to immediacy of experience.[12]

This philosophy pays special attention to life as a whole, which can only be understood from within. The movement can be regarded as a rejection of Kantian abstract philosophy or scientific reductionism of positivism.

The infinite in the finite

edit

The Lebensphilosophie tries to make sense of an continuous and unresolved clash between "the infinite and the finite", that is shown in the incessant fading of living beings. The questions that the Lebensphilosophie poses find a first answer in the fifteen lectures held in 1827 in Vienna by Friedrich Schlegel who sees the nucleus of divine revelation in the highlighting of the infinite in the finite of man.

Referring to this romantic vision, both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, with completely different results, exalt the active character of life, contrasting it with the staticity of idealistic perfection of rationalism.

Schopenhauer reveals the essential irrationality of living that manifests itself in the will to live (German: Wille zum Leben) , the senseless noumenal essence of everything in the world that has the sole purpose of increasing itself.

Nietzsche conceives life as a continuous growth and overcoming of those values ​​consolidated over time that would hypocritically try to normalize existence in current morality. Life, in Nietzsche's thought, contrary to Darwinism, is never adaptation, conservation, but continuous growth without which the living being dies. The typical attempt of humanity to found its life on certainties, seeking them in religion, science, moral values, causes it to die out, overwhelmed by the proverbial "modern culture".

Origins

edit
 
Christian Wolff.

The roots of the Lebensphilosophie go back to the distinction made by Immanuel Kant with regard to Christian Wolff; between theoretical school philosophy and a philosophy based on the concept of the world, which comes from life itself and is aimed at practical life.

At the end of the 18th century, life and world wisdom were fashionable terms in higher social circles.The philosophy of life was less a specific philosophical doctrine than a certain cultural mood that influenced large parts of the intelligentsia.

Lebensphilosophie was equated with the popular philosophy that was widespread in the late 18th century, which deliberately distanced itself from school philosophy and, as a philosophy of practical action, was committed to the general dissemination of the ideas of the Enlightenment.[13]

Since then, the wisdom of life and the world has often been presented in aphorisms, for example by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in the Ffliegen Blätter: "Philosophy is an inner life. A philosophical life is a concentrated life. Through true philosophy the soul becomes still, and ultimately devout."[14]

In terms of the history of the concept, the first works to be recorded are those of Gottlob Benedict von Schirach: On Human Beauty and the Philosophy of Life from 1772 and Karl Philipp Moritz: Contributions to the Philosophy of Life from 1780 (already in its third edition in 1791). Characteristics of Lebensphilosophie are attributed on Goethe's verse:

Grey, dear friend, is all theory, and green is the golden tree of life.

The Lebensphilosophie gained new support in the Romantic movement. Romantics such as Novalis emphasized that not only reason, but also the feelings and wills that are more closely related to life, must be taken into account in philosophy. "Philosophy of life contains the science of independent, self-made life, which is in my own power - and belongs to the doctrine of the art of living - or the system of rules for preparing such a life for oneself."[16]

Lebensphilosophie as systematic philosophy

edit

Max Scheler wrote a first overview of the Lebensphilosophie in 1913, in which he pointed out the similarities between Nietzsche, Dilthey and Bergson.[17] An early systematic presentation was formulated by the German psychologist Philipp Lersch [de], who, while primarily studying Bergson, Dilthey and Spengler, saw Georg Simmel and Ludwig Klages as Lebensphilosophie's most important representatives.[18]

Philosopher Fritz Heinemann considered the Lebensphilosophie as an intermediate stage in the transition from the philosophy of spirit to the philosophy of existence.[19] Georg Misch, Dilthey's student and son-in-law, worked out the relationship between the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl and the Lebensphilosophie in 1930.[20]

Contemporary approach

edit

Twentieth-century forms of Lebensphilosophie can be identified with a critical stress on norms and conventions.[21]

Criticism

edit

Before the second world war, Lebensphilosophie drew derision from neo-Kantian and rationalist thinkers, such as Heinrich Rickert[22] and Ernst Cassirer.[23] Following the second world war, various studies have found links between Lebensphilosophie and Nazism.[7][21][additional citation(s) needed]

Irrationalism

edit

A reproach often made against Lebensphilosophie is that of irrationalism. Some Lebensphilosophie philosophers endorse the irrationalist element in their philosophy, but critics find this unacceptable. To give up reason as a means to truth means to give up philosophy and even thought as a whole.

For example, Bertrand Russell states in his 1946 book A History of Western Philosophy that according to Lebensphilosophie; "intellect is the misfortune of man, while instinct is seen at its best in ants, bees, and Bergson" and concludes that for "those to whom action, if it is to be of any value, must be inspired by some vision, by some imaginative foreshadowing of a world less painful, less unjust, less full of strife than the world of our every-day life, those, in a word, whose action is built on contemplation, will find in this philosophy nothing of what they seek, and will not regret that there is no reason to think it true."[24]

This criticism is also shared by George Santayana.[25] He states that Lebensphilosophie is a symptom of a spiritually impoverished imagination, that in it; "the mind has forgotten its proper function, which is to crown life by quickening it into intelligence, and thinks if it could only prove that it accelerated life, that might perhaps justify its existence."[26]

In his 1953 book, The Destruction of Reason, Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács also strongly criticized the Lebensphilosophie and characterized it as a form irrationalism that was hostile to true reason. In fact, according to him, it amounted to nothing more than a method to justify the ruling ideology of the "imperialist bourgeoisie" (i.e. bourgeois nationalism).[7]

Vitalism

edit

Another criticism is that the principle of vitalism, which is upheld by the Lebensphilosophie, namely that there is a kind of life force behind life, contains circular reasoning.

Relativism

edit

Other philosophers accuse the Lebensphilosophie of falling into a form of relativism.[27] Because certain knowledge is no longer possible, due to the irrationalist nature of the Lebensphilosophie, it is impossible to provide any form of criticism of ideas, because one would then have to use reason anyway. The result is that all ideas and visions would then be of equal value.

This stems from Wilhelm Dilthey's hermeneutics and historicism - which laid the basis of Lebensphilosophie - being already scrutinized for being of relativistic thought.[28] If ideas or institutions have to be assessed in the specific historical context in which they exist, it is always possible to shield these ideas from any form of criticism. Criticism of an idea is then interpreted as the failure to correctly understand the idea in its specific context. Every idea is correct, as long as it is understood within the specific historical context in question.

Connection to Nazism

edit

In Germany the corresponding school [to vitalism], known as Lebensphilosophie ("philosophy of life"), began to take on aspects of a political ideology in the years immediately preceding World War I. The work of Hans Driesch and Ludwig Klages, for example, openly condemned the superficial intellectualism of Western civilization. In associating "reason" with the shortcomings of "civilization" and "the West", Lebensphilosophie spurred many German thinkers to reject intellection in favour of the irrational forces of blood and life. In the words of Herbert Schnädelbach, at this point "philosophy of life tendentiously abolished the traditional difference between nature and culture and thus facilitated the success of the general biologism in the theory of culture, which culminated in National Socialist racism."

In his 1953 book, The Destruction of Reason, having concluded that Lebensphilosophie merely represented irrationalism from the standpoint of the "imperialist bourgeoisie", Georg Lukács also concluded that it was an ideological development towards Nazism. Lukács saw Ludwig Klages in particular as the forerunner of fascism, having "transformed [German vitalism] into an open attack on reason and culture." He additionally pointed to Oswald Spengler and his work (primarily The Decline of the West) being a key part in “reconstructing [German vitalism] as a philosophy of militant reaction” following the first world war, resulting in a “veritable, direct prelude to fascist philosophy.”[7]

Intellectual historian Carl Müller Frøland concluded that Lebenphilosophie movement experienced an "Völkisch-Ideological Turn", which formed the ideological basis for the Nazism. He saw that the biopolitical vitalism of Lebenphilosophie was easily connected with social Darwinist thought, with an co-current strain of Nietzchean-style vitalism mixed with Völkisch nationalism rising within Imperial Germany. At outbreak of the first world war, these ideas fused into a proverbial "war-worshipping vitalism", which was an progenitor of Nazism.[29]

The Israeli-American historian Nitzan Lebovic identified Lebensphilosophie with the tight relation between a "corpus of life-concepts" and what the German education system came to see, during the 1920s, as the proper Lebenskunde, the 'teaching of life' or 'science of life'—a name that seemed to support the broader philosophical outlook long held by most biologists of the time. In his book Lebovic traces the transformation of the post-Nietzschean Lebensphilosophie from the radical aesthetics of the Stefan George Circle to Nazi or "biopolitical" rhetoric and politics.[21]

Frederick C. Beiser, in his book Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920 found that Nazis had appropriated some of its themes to their ideology. However, Beiser notes that "there is really very little in common" between national socialism and Lebensphilosophie thought.[30]

List of notable theorists

edit

See also

edit
People indirectly associated with the Lebensphilosophie movement

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d Gaiger, Jason (1998). "Lebensphilosophie". In Craig, Edward (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
  2. ^
    • "Ludwig Klages". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 March 2024. Klages was a leader in the German vitalist movement (1895–1915),
    • "Klages, Ludwig (1872–1956)". Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved September 26, 2020 – via Encyclopedia.com. Klages was the principal representative in psychology of the vitalist movement that swept Germany from 1895 to 1915.
  3. ^
    • Sprott, W. J. H. (1929). "Review: The Science of Character by Ludwig Klages; W. H. Johnson". Mind. New Series. 38 (152). Oxford University Press: 513–520. doi:10.1093/mind/XXXVIII.152.513. JSTOR 2250002.
    • Lebovic, Nitzan (2006). "The Beauty and Terror of Lebensphilosophie: Ludwig Klages, Walter Benjamin, and Alfred Baeumler". South Central Review. 23 (1). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 23–39. doi:10.1353/scr.2006.0009. S2CID 170637814.
  4. ^ Cf. Manos Perrakis (ed.), Life as an Aesthetic Idea of Music. Universal Edition, Vienna/London/New York, NY 2019 (Studien zur Wertungsforschung 61), ISBN 978-3-7024-7621-2.
  5. ^ a b Michael Friedman, A Parting of the Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger, Open Court, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c Ruggiano, Michele (1981). L'infinito nella sensibilità romantica (in Italian). University of California: G. Ricolo.
  7. ^ a b c d Lukács, György (1981) [1953]. "Chapter IV. Vitalism (Lebensphilosophie) in Imperialist Germany". The Destruction of Reason. Humanities Press. ISBN 9780391022478.
  8. ^ Introduction dans Le jeune Heidegger 1909-1926, VRIN, coll. « Problèmes et controverses », 2011v, p. 19
  9. ^ Jean-Claude Gens, L'Herméneutique diltheyenne des mondes de la vie, Revue Philosophie n 108, hiver 2010, p. 67.
  10. ^ Jean-Claude Gens page 68-69.
  11. ^ Jean-Claude Gens p. 69.
  12. ^ a b Wolin, Richard. "Continental philosophy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 24, 2011. In Germany the corresponding school [to vitalism], known as Lebensphilosophie ("philosophy of life"), began to take on aspects of a political ideology in the years immediately preceding World War I. The work of Hans Driesch and Ludwig Klages, for example, openly condemned the superficial intellectualism of Western civilization. In associating "reason" with the shortcomings of "civilization" and "the West", Lebensphilosophie spurred many German thinkers to reject intellection in favour of the irrational forces of blood and life. In the words of Herbert Schnädelbach, at this point "philosophy of life tendentiously abolished the traditional difference between nature and culture and thus facilitated the success of the general biologism in the theory of culture, which culminated in National Socialist racism."
  13. ^ Wilhelm Traugott Krug: Allgemeines Handwörterbuch der philosophischen Wissenschaften, nebst ihrer Literatur und Geschichte. Band 2, Brockhaus 1827, Stichwort: Lebensphilosophie. Zur Popularphilosophie siehe: Christoph Böhr: Die Popularphilosophie der deutschen Spätaufklärung im Zeitalter Kants. frommann-holzboog, Stuttgart 2003.
  14. ^ Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi: Fliegende Blätter. In: Werke. 6 Bände, Leipzig 1812–1827 (Nachdruck: Band VI, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1968, page 136).
  15. ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I, 2038 f
  16. ^ Novalis Schriften. Die Werke Friedrich von Hardenbergs. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe (HKA) in vier Bänden. Band II, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1965–1975, page. 599.
  17. ^ Max Scheler: Attempts at a Philosophy of Life, first in: Die weissen Blätter, 1st year, No. III (Nov.) 1913, republished with additions in: Max Scheler: Vom Umsturz der Werte, 1915, republished as 4th edition by Maria Scheler, Francke, Berlin and Munich 1972, 311–339
  18. ^ Philipp Lersch: Contemporary Philosophy of Life, Munich 1932, reprint in: Philipp Lersch: Horizons of Experience. Writings on the Philosophy of Life, edited and introduced by Thomas Rolf, Albunea, Munich 2011, 41–124
  19. ^ Fritz Heinemann: New Paths of Philosophy. Mind, Life, Existence. An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1929, and Fritz Heinemann: VIVO SUM. Fundamental Remarks on the Meaning and Scope of Life Philosophy. In: New Yearbooks for Science and Youth Education, 9 (Issue 2/1933), 113–126
  20. ^ Georg Misch: Philosophy of Life and Phenomenology. A discussion of Dilthey’s movement with Heidegger and Husserl. [1931], 2nd edition. Teubner, Leipzig/ Berlin 1931.
  21. ^ a b c Nitzan Lebovic, The Philosophy of Life and Death: Ludwig Klages and the Rise of a Nazi Biopolitics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
  22. ^ Heinrich Rickert: The Philosophy of Life. Presentation and Critique of the Philosophical Fashions of Our Time [1920], 2nd ed. Mohr, Tübingen 1922
  23. ^ Ernst Cassirer: Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. Part III: Phenomenology of Knowledge. (1929), reprint of the 2nd edition 1954, WBG, Darmstadt 1982, p. 46.
  24. ^ Russell, Bertrand (2004) [1945]. A History of Western Philosophy, and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Taylor & Francis. p. 716. ISBN 9781134343669.
  25. ^ O'Sullivan, Noël (1992). Santayana - Thinkers of Our Time (2 ed.). Claridge Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-1870626330.
  26. ^ Santayana, George (1968). Henfrey, Norman (ed.). Selected Critical Writings of George Santayana Volume 2 (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0521094641.
  27. ^ Bollnow, Otto Friedrich (2009). Boelhauve, Ursula (ed.). Lebensphilosophie und Existenzphilosophie. Königshausen & Neumann. p. 142. ISBN 9783826041860.
  28. ^ Wolfgang, Röd (1976). Geschichte der Philosophie,, Beck'sche Elementarbücher, Vol. 3 / Die Philosophie des ausgehenden 19. und des 20. Jahrhunderts. C.H.Beck. p. 127. ISBN 9783406492754.
  29. ^ Frøland, Carl Müller (2020). Understanding Nazi Ideology: The Genesis and Impact of a Political Faith. McFarland, Incorporated. p. 95-96. ISBN 9781476637624.
  30. ^ Beiser, Frederick C. (March 21, 2023). "Introduction". Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780192899781. Lebensphilosophie. Some of its themes were appropriated by the Nazis, who tried to make them the philosophy of their movement.[...] Yet there is really very little in common between national socialism and Lebensphilosophie. The aggressive hypernationalism, racism, and imperialism characteristic of Nazism have no precedent in Lebenphilosophie.

Further reading

edit
edit
Academic journals