Logos And Life The Three Movements Of The Soul

Logos and Life

The Logic of the Living Present

Some might ask "Why Locke's theory of knowledge now?" Though appreciated for his social philosophy, Locke has been criticized for his work in the field of epistemology ever since the publication of the Essay. It is even as if Locke serves only as an example of how not to think. When people criticize Locke, they usually cite the hostile commen taries of Berkeley, Kant, Husserl, or Sellars. But, one might ask, are they not all so eager to show the excellence of their own epistemo logical views that they distort and underestimate Locke's thought? Russell aptly noted in his History of Western Philosophy that: No one has yet succeeded in inventing a philosophy at once credible and self-consis tent. Locke aimed at credibility, and achieved it at the expense of consistency. Most of the great philosophers have done the opposite. A philosophy which is not self-consis tent cannot be wholly true, but a philosophy which is self-consistent can very well be wholly false. The most fruitful philosophies have contained glaring inconsistencies, but for that very reason have been partially true. There is no reason to suppose that a self consistent system contains more truth than one which, like Locke's, is obviously more or less wrong. (B. Russell, A History of Western Philosophy [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945], p. 613. ) Here Russell is uncommonly charitable with Locke.

Logos and Life: The Three Movements of the Soul

PART I THE CRITIQUE OF REASON CONTINUED: FROM LOGOS TO ANTI-LOGOS 1. THE NEW CRITIQUE OF REASON A new critique of reason is the crucial task imposed on the philosophy of our times as we emerge more and more from so-called "modernism" into a historical phase which will have to take its own paths and find its own determination. It may be considered that the main developmental line of modern times in its philosophy as well as in its culture at large was traced by the Cartesian cogito. The unfolding of Occidental philos ophy has culminated in reason or intellect's being awarded the central place. This is its specific trait. We can see a direct line of progression from the cogito to Kant's Critique. It is no wonder that this work is the landmark of modern philosophy. Kant's Critique was concerned with the foundation of the sciences. Edmund-Husserllaunched a second major, renewed, critique of reason, one which addresses not only the critical situation of the sciences but extends the critique even to the situation of Occidental culture as its malaise is diagnosed by this great thinker. Edmund Husserl voiced, in fact, the conviction that Occidental humanity has reached in our age the peak of its unfolding. His identify ing this peak with the formulation of phenomenological philosophy strikes at the point in which the significant and novel developments of Occidental culture and philosophy (phenomenology, that is) coincide.