176

Plato's Sophist [254-255]


scientific philosophy, detached purely for itself, feel themselves constantly obliged in the end to emphasize the value for a world-view even of such detached scientific philosophy.1 This is connected with the fact that the scientific philosophy of the West, insofar as it maintained itself as genuine on the basis of the Greeks, came under the authoritative influence of Christianity, and specifically of Christianity as a culture-religion, as a worldly-spiritual power. Thereby the classical Greek philosophy underwent a completely determinate transformation; philosophy was from then on subordinated to a quite definite world-view and its requirements. With the broader understanding of spiritual life in the Renaissance, philosophy was understood as a particular element of culture, as formative of the culture of the individual: philosophical work and philosophical literature found their place within culture in the same sense as did works of art, music, etc., with the result that philosophy got amalgamated with tendencies of that kind. In this way philosophy not only became a world-view, as another phenomenon over and against Christianity, but even became esteemed at the same time as a spiritual creation. And so it happened that more general spiritual tendencies completely stifled the idea of research, and quite definite cultural needs guided the idea of philosophy, with the consequence that one could in fact call a creation which, in an eminent sense, satisfies such needs "prophetic" philosophy, since it "foresees" intermittently, on behalf of the average spiritual situation, and in certain epochs is guiding. What otherwise still remained of the scientific tradition of the Greeks, such as logic and psychology, is usually designated as "scientific" philosophy, with a sign meant to express that it is properly only an academic matter. Jaspers, in his Psychologie der Weltanschauungen, drew this distinction between "prophetic" and "scientific" philosophy and thereby gave proper expression only to an unclear need regarding how matters stand today.2 These distinctions are characteristic, however, of the fact that, measured by the classical philosophical research of the Greeks, the radical claim to be nothing but substantive research has disappeared from philosophy. Christianity is basically responsible for this phenomenon of the decline of philosophy (others interpret it as an advance), which should cause no wonder, insofar as philosophy was amalgamated with the need of deepening and elevating the soul. The need of universal spiritual entertainment is ultimately definitive with regard to the appreciation of philosophy in public life. It is to this feeble-mindedness that "metaphysics" owes its current resurrection. That indicates we are wholly uprooted, we suffer from a


1. AH: philosophy in i ts relationship to science and world-view, cf. W.S. 1 928--29.

2. AH: The following is insufficient; concept of science 1.) not sufficiently elucidated 2.) exaggerated 3.) not acknowledged as subordinated to philosophy. The round circle = "scientific philosophy."