Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Given, philosophy: something in the outside world, which should correspond to what we perceive through the senses. It is problematic how to distinguish the constitution of external objects from what is determined by the construction of our sense organs. The presupposition of a given, also assumes that both this and the side of the perceiving subject are fixed in a certain way. This is doubted by many authors.See also reality, myth of the given, perception, world, world/thinking, thing in itself, perspective, nature, naturalism, epistemology._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Humanities on Given - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 70 Given/Humanities/Science/Dilthey/Gadamer: Since [Dilthey] is concerned with epistemological justification of the work of the humanities, the motif of the truly given dominates him everywhere. So it is an epistemological motif or better the motif of epistemology itself that motivates its conceptualization and that corresponds to the linguistic process (...) (>Experience/Dilthey). ((s)VsDilthey: see Wilfrid Sellars' criticism of the concept of the given: >Given/Sellars). Humanities/Gadamer: This is precisely what characterizes the development of the humanities in the 19th century, that they not only outwardly described the natural sciences as a role model but that they, coming from the same reason for which modern science lives, develop the same pathos of experience and research as they do. ((s) Cf. >Sensations/Carnap). Gadamer I 71 Dilthey/Gadamer: The conditions in the humanities are in fact of a special kind, and Dilthey wants to formulate this through the concept of "experience". In connection with Descartes' distinction of res cogitans he defines the concept of experience by reflexivity, by being within. He also wants to justify the knowledge of the historical world epistemologically from this special way of giving facts. The primary conditions on which the interpretation of historical objects are based are not data of experiment and measurement, but units of meaning. This is what the concept of experience wants to say: Given/Dilthey: The sense entities we encounter in the humanities no matter how strange and incomprehensible they may be to us - can be traced back to the last units of what is given in consciousness, which themselves no longer contain anything foreign, representational or in need of interpretation. They are the units of experience, which are themselves units of sense. Gadamer I 231 Given/Humanities/Dilthey/Gadamer: The concept of the given is [in the humanities] of a fundamentally different structure [than in the natural sciences]. It distinguishes the conditions of the humanities from those of the natural sciences, "that everything solid, everything alien, as is inherent in the images of the physical world, is given, must be thought away from the notion of what is given in this field"(1). All that is given is brought forth here. Dilthey: According to Dilthey, the old preference that Vico already attributed to historical objects is the basis of the universality with which understanding takes possession of the historical world. Gadamer: The question is, however, whether on this basis the transition from the psychological to the hermeneutical point of view is really successful or whether Dilthey gets entangled in problem contexts that bring him into an unwanted and unacknowledged proximity to speculative idealism. Not only Fichte, but also Hegel is visible right down to the words at the quoted passage. His criticism of "positivity"(2) the concept of self-alienation, the definition of the spirit as self-knowledge in otherness can easily be derived from Dilthey's sentence, and one wonders where actually the difference remains that emphasized the historical view of the world compared with idealism and that Dilthey undertook to legitimize epistemologically. This question is reinforced when one considers the central turn with which Dilthey characterizes life, this basic fact of history. >Lebensphilosophie/Dilthey. 1. Dilthey, Ges. Schriften VIl, 148. 2. Hegels theologische Jugendschriften, ed. Nohl, S. 139f._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Humanities Gadamer I Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010 Gadamer II H. G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986 German Edition: Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977 |
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> Counter arguments against Humanities
> Counter arguments in relation to Given
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19