Bertrand Russell in chapters 20 and 21 of his book ‘History of Western Philosophy’ wrote about two German philosophers Kant and Hegel.
Kant (1724-1804) was a romanticist, philosopher and geographical scientist. His two influences were Rousseau and Hume. His ‘critique of pure reason’ was his most important treatise. This essentially explained how knowledge exists before experience confirms.
He claims to of solved the problem of how synthetic judgements are a priori possible. He explains this by saying that the outer world causes only the matter of sensation. Our own mental apparatus orders this into space and time and supplies the concepts by means of which we understand experience. Things in themselves which are the causes of our sensations are unknowable. From what I understand from this nothing can be perceived as remotely real, but simply adaptations of how our a priori knowledge combines with our synthetic knowledge in order to help us understand what is around us but not fully understand what is around us, it is simply our perception of it. Therefore space and time are subjective and are only part of our apparatus of perception. Essentially forms of our intuition. His philosophy is a cross between rationalism and empiricism.
He also set about to prove that god doesn’t exist countering the three methods of proof which prove his existence. However he still believes in god for his own reasons which Russell never explains.
Bertrand Russell seems to accept Kant’s theories as important, even though he does not agree with them. He says in the opening, ‘Immanuel Kant is generally considered the greatest of modern philosophers. I cannot myself agree with this estimate, but it would be foolish not to recognize his great importance.’ Ultimately Kant was important because he was the beginning of socialist theory which ultimately led, through Hegel to Karl Marx who is one of the key philosophers in introducing communism and socialism by writing ‘the communist manifesto’.
Hegel (1770 – 1831) as I said above was the stepping stone in between Kant and Karl Marx (apart from Spengler) therefore his importance is evident for Socialism and communism. It is an idea to note that this book History of western philosophy was written in 1946, a year after the end of the Second World War therefore as Bertrand Russell; A British philosopher writing about German Idealism there is ultimately going to be an element of bias against these kinds of philosophers. This is highlighted when he starts quoting Hegel’s idea of freedom.
“The German spirit is the spirit of the new world. Its aim is the realization of absolute truth as the unlimited self determination of freedom – that freedom which has its own absolute form itself as its purport”. Bertrand Russell follows this quotation with a very clear attack on his beliefs; ‘this is a very superfine brand of freedom. It does not mean you will be able to keep out of a concentration camp. It does not imply democracy, or a free press, or any of the usual liberal watchwords, which Hegel rejects with contempt.’
The key thing to look at in Hegels philosophy is his idea that ‘the absolute idea is pure thought thinking about pure thought’ and that ‘ultimate reality is timeless, time is merely an illusion generated by our inability to see the whole. However there is no evidence in which he can call on in order to ascertain this as true in any kind of way. It sounds like spiritual ramblings which are pulled out of thin air. Bertrand Russell comments on this; ‘It required, If it was to be made plausible, some distortion of the facts and considerable ignorance. Hegel, like Marx and Spengler possessed both these qualifications’.
In conclusion, Kant and Hegel where the building blocks Karl Marx used in order to write his communist manifesto. Without these ideas Karl Marx may not have had enough information in order to create a developed philosophical view which later turned into socialism and communism.
How does David Hume relate to Kant?
What role did Kant play in aiding Hegel in his beliefs?
Is there any relationship between this early socialism and Hitler’s national socialist party?
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