German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Dilthey to Honneth

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The path taken by German philosophy in the twentieth century is one of the most exciting and controversial in the history of human thought, by turns radical and conservative and secular and religious. In this outstanding introduction, German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Dilthey to Honneth--the third and final volume in his trilogy--Julian Young examines the work of eight German philosophers and theologians of the period. He discusses their engagement with the deepest existential questions, their critique of the rationalization and mechanization of modernity, and their commitment to varying forms of liberalism, socialism, and democracy. Young introduces and assesses the thought of the following figures: Wilhelm Dilthey: the need for 'worldviews', and the distinction between 'explanation' and 'understanding' as a bulwark against the reduction of human beings to scientific quantaKarl Jaspers: existentialism, the challenge of nihilism, and the turn to theologyEdith Stein: the phenomenology of empathy, community versus society, and the turn to Catholicism Paul Tillich: philosophical theology and the 'theonomous' lifeMartin Buber: recovering the 'thou' in the face of modernity's reduction of everything to an 'it'; the kibbutz as the paradigm of a socialist communityHans Jonas: the mortal threat posed by the unknown consequences of modern technology and the ethics of responsibility for the planetErich Fromm: the 'art of loving' as a bulwark against hard and soft totalitarianism; the replacement of capitalism by communitarian socialismAxel Honneth: contemporary Hegelianism and the ethics and politics of recognition; the nature of real freedom. Lucidly and engagingly written, German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Dilthey to Honneth is essential reading for students of German philosophy, phenomenology, and theology and will also be of interest to students in related fields such as literature, political theory, and sociology. German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Weber to Heidegger (2018) and German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Lukács to Strauss (2020) are also available from Routledge. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1 Wilhelm Dilthey: Explanation and understanding Philosophy and worldviews What is a worldview? The ‘essence’ of philosophy The problem of relativism Dilthey’s solution to the problem of relativism The new ‘essence’ of philosophy Historicism and existentialism Dilthey’s philosophical task The inadequacy of explanatory psychology Descriptive psychology The nexus Objective spirit Understanding others Elementary understanding Projection, re-creation, and re-experiencing Is Verstehen really a scientific method? Dilthey’s achievement 2 Karl Jaspers: The first existentialist Section I: Existential psychiatry Philosophy or psychology? Worldviews again The ‘hidden ideal’ Limit situations The moment and the choice Assessment Section II: Religious existentialism Existence and Existenz Boundary situations Metaphysics The absurdity objection Beyond reason Section III: After the war Jaspers’ political development 1945–69 The Question of German Guilt Arendt and Blüchner’s reactions to The Question of German Guilt The atom bomb and the future of humanity The crisis Dealing with the bomb The new way of thinking Dealing with totalitarianism Criticism 3 Edith Stein: Empathy, community, and Catholicism Section I: The problem of empathy What is empathy? Primordial versus non-primordial experience Perceptual empathy Empathy as empathising Empathy as a condition of self-knowledge The constitution of a person Disembodied existence Section II: Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities The issue Causality and the psyche Freedom Religious implications Criticism Section III: Individualand community The basic forms of social union Individual and community Higher and lower forms of social union Community as a person Social ontology Is the individual a social construction? Could there be a Gemeinschaft without a Gesellschaft or a Gesellschaft without a Gemeinschaft? Section IV: Political philosophy The ‘essence’ of the state The origin of the state The internal organisation of the state State and community State and land The justification of the state Section V: After the conversion Christian philosophy Stein’s Heidegger critique Section VI: On women The souls of men and women Women and the professions 4 Paul Tillich: Religious existentialism Section I: Our predicament The task of theology Estrangement Anxiety Existentialism Section II: The answer to our predicament The theology of culture Faith The ontological God Ethics Politics Section III: Two questions Is Tillich really a Christian? Is anxietyreally inescapable? 5 Martin Buber: I and thou Section I: I and Thou The way we are now I-thou and I–it The thou-relation The it-relation Difficulties in I and Thou Dialogue The importance of dialogue Section II: Social and political thought The re-establishment of community Difficulties in Buber’s communitarianism Section III: Religion and ethics The nature of God Religion and ethics Religion and philosophy Religion and pseudo-religion Section IV: Buber’s Heidegger critique Heidegger’s anthropology Heidegger’s theology Conclusion 6 Hans Jonas: Responsibility for the planet The Imperative of Responsibility The crisis The incapacity of all previous ethics to deal with the crisis Value and metaphysics The will in nature: the ‘Aristotelian’ account From ‘is’ to ‘ought’ The ethics of responsibility Applying the imperative of responsibility Jonas’ philosophy of mind Green technology Jonas and Heidegger Jonas’ humanism Postscript on utopia 7 Erich Fromm: Humanistic psycholog Section I: Escape from Freedom The problem The method of investigation: social psychology The rise of the individual The rise of anxious individualism The psychology of Nazism American conformism What is the solution to modernity’s loss of security? Reservations Section II: Man for Himself The problem Humanistic ethics Human nature The ‘productive’ character Destructiveness Reservations Section III: The Sane Society The question The pathology of normality The matriarchy and the patriarchy Nationalism The capitalist condition Saving the self Saving society Reservations 8 Axel Honneth: The struggle for recognition Section I: The Struggle for Recognition The thesis Recognition and identity Love and self-confidence Legal rights and respect Social esteem and self-esteem Forms of misrecognition Recognition and social development Combining Gesellschaft with Gemeinschaft Criticism Do we really need recognition? Progressivism The ‘struggle for recognition’ versus the ‘struggle of interests’ The attempted synthesis between liberalism and communitarianism Meaning Nature Section II: Freedom’s Right Honneth’s method The foundational value of modern society: freedom Negative freedom Reflexive freedom Social freedom Legal freedom Moral freedom Personal relations The market The sphere of consumption The sphere of production Politics and the ‘we’ of democratic will-formation Nationalism and constitutional patriotism Criticism The prioritising of freedom Optimism about personal relations Can the market really be a sphere of social freedom? Afterword Bibliography Index