Professor Dr. Dr. hc Peter Koslowski Department of Philosophy Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Free

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ProfessorDr.Dr.h.c.PeterKoslowski
DepartmentofPhilosophy
VrijeUniversiteitAmsterdam/FreeUniversityAmsterdam
DeBoelelaan 1105
1081 HVAmsterdam,TheNetherlands
E-n1ail:[email protected]
Website:www.fiph.de/koslowski
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Absolute Historicity, Theory of the Becoming
Absolute, and the Affect for the Particular in
German Idealism and Historism:
Introduction
PETERKOSLOWSKI
German idealism introduces a new understanding ofthe historical to the
history ofideas. The historical becomes absolute historicity andthe historic
ity of the absolute. In this sense, German Idealism is the discovery of his
toricity in the strong meaning of the term. The ontological quality of the
historical as suchhadalready been discoveredby the Enlightenmentbut itis
the contribution of German Idealism to attribute historicity to totality and
even the absolute. Absoluteness is thereby attributed to the historical. Even
God is subjected to history and in the historical process of becoming con
scious according to HegelandSchelling.
The origins ofthe absolute conceptofhistoricity lie inSchelling's system
of identity and Hegel's dialectics ofthe absolute spirit. Schelling introduces
the systenl of the identity ofthe absolute subject and the absolute object, of
spiritandnature as the basic structureofthe totality ofbeing whichisbeing
in-becoming. The world process and being are the becoming conscious of
the subject or spirit at the object or nature. All being, even the being ofthe
absolute, is subjected to time and history. There is no supra-temporal realm
ofbeing.
Schelling's identity system was taken up by Hegel. Hegel's basic idea is
that becoming is the movement from nothingness to being, a process in
which the absolute falls from itself into nature ("der Abfall der Idee von
sich") to become self-conscious absolute spirit in the dialectics of an abso
lute historical process. Hegel transforms Schelling's identity system fur
thermore inthe directionofa dialectical processofhistorical totality.
German Idealism dynamizes Spinoza's pantheism. The identity of God
andnature is not like in Spinozabeing-in-identitybut being-in-becoming, an
absolute process. It is the history of the progressing consciousness of the
identityofabsolute subjectandabsolute object.
PETERKOSLOWSKI
At the beginning of his work Philosophische Untersuchungen Uber das
Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit (Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of
Human Freedom) of 1809, Schelling explains his philosophy of the histori
cal absolute and defends himself against the reproach of being a pantheist
and atheist. God's being is in becoming but this does not imply that the
absolute is identical with every mistaken aspect ofbeing and every accident
of history. It is identical with the historical process in total. This dynamic
pantheism or one-in-all philosophy does not annihilate the singular and par
ticular, according to Schelling.1 He does, however, not recognize here yet
that the dynamizedpantheism will give a new andhithertounknown value to
the particular and unique as a stage ofthe realization of the absolute in the
following decades ofhistorism inthe 19th century.
The systemofidentity as the metaphysical basis ofthe philosophyofhis
tory in German Idealism gives groundto two major ideas: the philosophy of
history as the theory ofthe developmentofanabsolute substrate oftemporal
or historical being on the one hand and the elevation of the singular and
particular to the realization of the absolute in historism on the other hand.
The first, the philosophy of history of German Idealism, is a metaphysical
theory that claims to understand the laws of development of totality, the
second, the philosophical emphasis on the historically singular and particu
lar, forms the core ofthe Historical School's concernfor theuniqueness and
importance ofevery instantiationofthe spiritandofculture inevery histori
cal period and location, its preoccupation with the particular. Although
historism defmed itselfas a critique ofthe totalistic philosophy ofhistory in
German Idealism it remains still shaped by its pantheistic idea that every
historical instantiation is an instantiation of the spirit. The Geisteswissen
schaften, the human sciences of the spirit, remain, even in their very term,
indebtedto theiroriginsinthe Hegelianphilosophyofspirit.
The philosophy ofhistory ofGermanIdealismbecame subjected to a cri
sis due to the fact that it could not solve the problem of the relationship
betweenfreedom andnecessity in the developmentofhistory. Ifthe absolute
develops according to a metaphysical logic as Hegel assumed, it is not free
from this logic and process but subjected to it. The question arises whether
an absolute that is not free can be absolute. The necessitarian connotations
characteristic ofthe philosophy ofhistory, be it Hegel's absolute idealismor
F.W.J. SCHELLING: Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature ofHuman Freedom,
LaSalle,Illinois(OpenCourt)4thpaperbackprinting 1992,p. 16.
2
INTRODUCTION
Marx's dialectical materialism, stem from the idea that there are laws ofthe
development of history or a preconceived "logic" in history. The meta
physical philosophy of history is a theory of laws of history. Schelling has
been the first thinker to see this Achilles' heel of German Idealism and to
criticize Hegel's determinism and dialectical necessitarianism. The thinkers
ofhistorism followed Schelling in the emphasis that the historically singular
cannotbe derivedfrom the general.
Not all philosophy of history is Hegelian as several ofthe contributions
to this volume demonstrate. For the present debate on the philosophy of
history, the Kantian and Enlightenment traditions have to be considered as
well, andthey are so inthis volume.
With the volume at hand, the Historical School's contribution to the phi
losophy of history and the theory of history and historiography is ap
proached within a larger project on the Historical School's contribution to
the studyofsociety, economy, culture, andpolitics. The Historical School is
characterized by a strong concept of historicity of human society, of its
culture, economy, ethics, law, and politics. The Historical School stresses
not only the historical character of cultural phenomena in general but their
uniqueness and singularity. In its emphatic concept of historicity, the His
torical School can not be understood without its metaphysical origins from
which it distanced itself but at the same time remained linked to. The dis
covery of historicity implies a countermovement to the rationalism of the
18th century and its idea of the foundations of ethics and law on reason
only. Starting with German Idealism and European Romanticism, the new
awareness of the historicity ofhuman culture tried to reconcile the dualism
ofreasonandhistory.
Historyis at the centre ofthe Historical School. Its discoveryofhistoric
ity was caused by the emphasis on world history andhistorical development
in the philosophy ofhistory expounded in German Idealism. When the Ger
man historians after Hegel further developed the historical method they felt
the need to give more room to the singular, the unexpected, the unforesee
able, the contingent, and the free then the idealist philosophy ofhistory had
provided for. "Historical greatness is", as Droysen put it, "only a piece of
dust in the theophany".2 How even more so is the ordinary historical event
only the dust ofa piece ofdust ofthe absolute! To recognize the meaning of
2 JOHANN GUSTAV DROYSEN: GrundrifJ der Historik (Outline for a Theory of
Historiography),Leipzig2nded. 1875,paragraph90.
3
PETERKOSLOWSKI
history or its laws of development is a difficult task for the historian. The
taskofaphilosophyofhistory is, as LeopoldRanke putit, unsolvable.
The historical event and the historical actors retain, however, their pan
theistic meaningfulness for the realization of the absolute in the historical
school. In this sense, it is true for most of the central authors ofhistorism
what Gadamer attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey: They were always already on
the way to the absolute.3 Historism emancipates the human sciences from
the metaphysics of German Idealism. It criticizes the "grand theory" of
world history in idealism and remains also connected to its pantheistic ori
gins. This metaphysical connection can not only be considered·a theoretical
weakness. It is also a theoretical strength of historism since it gives the
human sciences a deeper meaning and metaphysical unity that unifies the
cultural sciencesas the sciencesofthe spirit.
The theory ofhistory and ofhistoriography, the methodology ofthe his
torical sciences, forms the othermajor topic ofthe volume athandby which
it makes the attempt to elaborate the relevance ofhistorism for today's his
torical andcultural studies.
The Historical School is worth to be reconsidered due to its insight in the
historical nature of society, economy, and culture. The cultural sciences
must include the determinedness of human culture by history, even if this
inclusionofthe historical dimension creates an additional difficulty ofanaly
sis that unhistorical approaches can avoid. It is open whether the idea of
historism thatthe culture ofahistorical periodanda nationis determined by
a "spirit of time" (Zeitgeist) and a "spirit of a people" (Volksgeist) is a
meaningful and sensible question to be asked. The question whether there
are common features of an epoch and of a people can not, however, be
discardedfrom theoutsetas beingparticularisticandnationalistic.
This volume has been produced as part of the project "The Historical
School. Economics, Economic Ethics, Theory and Philosophy of History,
Law and Political Science in the German Human and Social Sciences Tradi
tion" supported by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. The project tries to throvJ
light on economics and the social sciences, on the study of society and his
tory, from the tradition of German Idealism and Historism and aims at an
approach to economics and the social sciences as sciences ofculture and of
the spirit(Geisteswissenschaften).
3 HANS-GEORG GADAMER: Wahrheit und Methode, TUbingen (Mohr Siebeck) 2.
Aufl. 1965,p. 223.
4
INTRODUCTION
The volume at hand presents the fourth volume on the Historical School
after two volumes on the older and younger Historical School and one vol
ume on the theory of capitalism in the German economic tradition.4 The
contributions to this volume have first been discussed in a workshop in
Viehhofen near Zell am See, Salzburger Land, Austria, in December 2000
andhave been further elaborated since then. The editor and the contributors
to this volume express their appreciation to the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Co
logne, Germany, for their continuous support to this volume and to the en
tire projectonthe Historical School.
Historism can be defined by four characteristics.5It is first the approach
to historize the different branches of knowledge. It is second the attempt to
find diachronic laws ofhistory. Itis thirdthe recognitionthatall periods and
places ofhistory have their specific andunique meaning and importance that
they derive from themselves and not only from their relationship with the
historical center of power and meaning. Historism is fourth the readiness
and the will to be modest in one's conclusions, to collect and selecthistori
cal data, sources, and documents. With this will to be modest in one's con
clusions comes the conconlitantattitude ofrelativismandmodesty connected
with historical empiricism. In this sense, historism is a human attitude char
acteristic toall periods that endeavortounderstandhistory andsociety.
4 Cf. P. KOSLOWSKI(Ed.): The Theory ofEthicalEconomyinthe HistoricalSchool.
Wilhelm Roscher, Lorenz von Stein, Gustav Schmoller, Wilhelm Dilthey and
Contemporary Theory, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo (Springer-Verlag) 1995,
reprint 1997, 343 pp.; P. KOSLOWSKI (Ed.): Methodology ofthe SocialSciences,
Ethics, and Economics in the Newer Historical School. From Max Weber and
Rickert to Sombart and Rothacker, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo (Springer
Verlag) 1997, 564 pp.; P. KOSLOWSKI (Ed.): The Theory ofCapitalism in the
German Economic Tradition: Historism, Ordo-Liberalism, Critical Theory,
Solidarism, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo (Springer-Verlag) 2000, 587 pp. - In
the series"Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy has also been published:
H.H. NAU and B. SCHEFOLD (Eds.): The Historicity ofEconomics. Continuities
and Discontinuities ofHistorical Thought in 19th and 20th Century Economics,
Heidelberg,NewYork,Tokyo(Springer-Verlag)2002,245pp.
5 Cf. also KARL ACHAM: "Diltheys Beitrag zur Theorie der Kultur- und
Sozialwissenschaften", Dilthey-Jahrbuch fur Philosophie und Geschichte der
Geisteswissenschaflen,3(1985),pp.9-51.
5
Part A
German Idealism's Philosophy of
History and its Contemporary Critique
Chapter 1
Schlegel's Theory ofHistory and his Critique of
Idealistic Reason
PETERL. OESTERREICH
I. 'DeathAbsolute': Schlegel'sCritiqueofAbsoluteReason
II. 'TheIdeaoftheVividWord':RhetoricalAnthropology
asaBasisofSchlegel'sTheoryofHistory
III. 'TheIronyofLove':TheThreeBasicRulesof
ConjecturalHistoriography
The discovery ofhistoricity in German Philosophy is atale which cannot
be told withouttaking into accountthe late philosophy ofFriedrich Schlegel.
In his youth, F. Schlegel, who createdthe Ironic IdealismoftheAthenaeum1,
was a prominent 'leader'2 ofthe early ronlantic movement. Hegel's famous
system of absolute reason can be interpreted as a negative reaction against
Schlegel, whose concept of infinite irony was condemned as "the evil as
such,,3 andas"absolutesophistry"4.
Inthe wake ofthe general spiritualtum in late Romanticism, Schlegel be
gan to reconstruct his philosophy. Living in Vienna and in Dresden in his
later years, he attempted a new beginning in his philosophical thinking. The
H. DIERKES: "Ironie und System. Friedrich Schlegels 'Philosophische
Lehrjahre''', in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 97 (1990), pp. 251-276; and PETER
L. OESTERREICH: "'Wenn die Ironie wild wird ...': Die Symbiose von
Transzendentalphilosophie undTropusbei Friedrich Schlegel", in: Rhetorik: Ein
internationalesJahrbuch, 12(1993), pp.31-39.
2 See W. DILTHEY: Gesammelte Schriften, XIV, 2, Gottingen (Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht),p.670.
3 See G.W.F. HEGEL: Werke, vol. 7, ed. by E. MOLDENHAUER, K.M. MICHEL,
Frankfurta.M.(Suhrkamp) 1979,p. 279.
4 loco cit.,p.280.
PETERL. OESTERREICH
result was his late Philosophy ofLife, which he presented in three series of
public lectures. This trilogy of philosophical oratory comprises Schlegel's
lectures on the Philosophy ofLife (1827), the Philosophy ofHistory (1828)
and the Philosophy ofLanguage andthe Word(1828/29). Due to Schlegel's
sudden death in Dresden on January 12th, 1829, his last lectures about the
PhilosophyofLanguageandthe Wordremainedunfinished.
Withinthe general evolution ofa historical consciousness, Schlegel's late
philosophy plays a role which is as significant as Schelling's.5 On the one
handhecritizisedthe claimofthe absolute validityofidealisticreason, which
is incorporated in Hegel's system. On the other hand he invented, as a spiri
tual soul mate ofSchelling, a new historical style ofthinking. In contrast to
Hegel, he emphasized the differences between reason and reality rather than
their similarities. Starting from this perspective Schlegel discovered the posi
tivenessoflifeandthehistoricalcharacterofhuman existenceandculture.
It was already in his Philosophical Apprenticeship that Schlegel con
ceived ofhistory as a synthesis ofcriticism, religion and rhetoric.6 The con
stellationofthesethree disciplines alsocharacterizesthehistoricalthinkingin
his late philosophy which comprises, first, a polemics against idealistic rea
son, second, a new concept ofuniversal history developed from a Christian
andspiritualperspectiveand, finally, arhetoricalconceptofhistoriography.
I. 'Death Absolute': Schlegel's Critique ofAbsolute Reason
The modern quality ofSchlegel's philosophy arises from its critical and
ironical self-reflexion which is inspired by the metacritical mentality of a
philosophy ofphilosophies: "The spirit ofaphilosophy is itsbeingaphiloso-
5 For the development of Schlegel's late philosophy see: F. LEDERBOGEN:
Friedrich Schlegels Geschichtsphilosophie. Ein Beitrag zur Genesis der
historischen Weltanschauung, Leipzig (Verlag der Dlirr'schen Buchhandlung)
1908, pp. 109-151 and"Die Grundlagen der Schlegelschen Spatphilosophy und
Idealismuskritik"in: KA 8,CVII-CLII.
6 See: KA (= Kritische-Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe, ed. by E. BEHLER, 1.-1.
ANSTETT, H. EICHNER, 35 vols., Paderbom/Mlinchen/Wien/Zlirich (Schoningh
/ThomasVerlag) 1958ff., 18,312.
10
SCHLEGEL'STHEORYOF HISTORY
phy ofphilosophies."7 This perspective protectsthe philosopherfrom uncon
sciously identifying himself with his own work. It can be described as a
metacritical reflexivity whichestablishes a critical distanceto a philosophical
systemwhich itselfisaconstructionofdialecticalreason.
Schlegel'scriticism ofGerman Idealism arises from thismetacritical men
tality. InhisreviewofJacobi(1822)heoffersacritical characterizationofthe
philosophyofhiscontemporaries. Thiscritiqueofthe 'outstandingsystemsof
the last epoch ofGerman Philosophy,g provides the matrix for the complete
criticismofreasonwhichwefind inhis latePhilosophyofLife.
Schlegel's attacks on contenlporary philosophical systems, which are
highly polemical at times, share a profound theoretical background. Schlegel
explains that dialectical reason is merely a power of logical synthesis. De
scribed in rhetoricalterms, reason is a powerofjudgement(iudicium), notan
inventive faculty (ingenium). Certainly it is a faculty of indefinite logical
thinkingandformal construction,"butitcannot inventorproduce anything"9.
In contrast to imagination, reason is no creative faculty. According to
Schlegel the lack of poetic power turns reason into something negative
something which is separated from real life. Therefore, the absolute system,
as the highest resultwhich can be achieved in an immanentdialectical evolu
tion, can principally never do justice to the positiveness ofhistorical reality.
Reason can only produce an absolute phantasma, which Schlegel called 'the
deadabsolute' (das todteAbsolute).lO
In concreto Schlegel's criticism ofthe contemporary philosophy ofsys
tems is founded upon the classical distinction between knowledge and faith.
Consequentlywecandistinguishbetweentwo differentforms ofknowledge:
a) Negative knowledge, which is not connected to faith: It consists of
logical or dialectical identities only. Comprising the features offormal per
fectibility and absolute necessity this negative knowledge is related to
mathematics. In philosophy, however, negative knowledge will necessarily
turn intosophistry, becauseitlacksanyconnectiontothepositivefacts ofreal
life. It will be nothing more than "dialectical play, and sophistical artificial
ity"ll.
7 KA 18,37.
8 KA 8, 585.
9 KA 10,496.
10 KA 10,524.
11 Ibid.
11