Problems with German Metaphysics

 Problem with German Metaphysics

Ptolemy – a modern reference to Claudius Ptolemaeus, a 2nd century A.D. Alexandrian astronomer, brings to mind his tour de force in creating a believable – although very complex – mathematical solution to describe the movement of the planets around the earth, in the context of the then accepted belief that the earth was the center of the universe. From the perspective of the observer on the presumed stationary earth, the orbiting planets moved forward, then backwards – looping in their efforts to conform to the requirement to rotate around the earth.

Nicolaus Copernicus, in the 16th century, concluded that the planets (including the earth) orbited the sun – and that the earth rotated on its axis daily. For fear of the reaction to his heliocentric theory he chose to withhold his conclusions. Johannes Kepler, born about 30 years after Copernicus died, published this revolutionary concept.

Galileo Galilei faced house arrest – virtual banishment from society – for his heretical adherence to the heliocentric concept.

So society collectively demonstrated its willingness – no, eagerness – to accept the Ptolemaic abstraction as an explanation of natural phenomena, even though it was cumbersome. It seemed to work, and it fit into the accepted scheme of existence.

Fast forward a few years. A young German thinker devised his Theory of Special Relativity. And his method of proof was as abstruse in its time as was Ptolemy's in his era.

Yet it was accepted. For, just as in the case of the Alexandrian, there existed an intellectual vacuum – a hunger for understanding. And the willingness to grasp any solution that seemed to explain the mysteries of our existence led, as in the 2nd century, to the devoted adherence to a meaningless mind exercise, drivel which seemed to provide an answer.

Comments extracted from The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant: ⁱ

William James (1842 – 1910) was convinced that both the terms and the problems of German metaphysics were unreal. He abominated the obscurities and pedantic terminology of German metaphysics:

"... the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses, was finally reached ... and became the instrument of the most bare-faced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fatuous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity.ⁱⁱ

Will Durant, in The Story of Philosophy suggests that as we consider the achievements of the great thinkers we may be "tempted to console ourselves by denouncing this philosophic geometry as an artificial chess-game of thought in which axioms, definitions, theorems and proofs are manipulated like kings and bishops, knights and pawns; a logical solitaire invented to solace ... loneliness." ⁱⁱⁱ

Amen

i The Story of Philosophy, ISBN 0-671-20159-X. Will Durant, James, p.383

ii op cit, footnote, p. 221; Hegél, by Edward Caird

iii op cit, p. 130