The-Philosophy-Book-DK_345

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 199

See also: Niccolò Machiavelli 102–07 ■ Jean-Jacques Rousseau 154–59 ■ Adam Smith 160–63 ■ Georg Hegel 178–85 ■
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach 189 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 214–21

everyone—from scientists and People align into groups...
lawyers to priests and poets—had
been transformed into nothing but ...with others who ...against those in
a paid laborer. In place of religious share their social conflict with their social
and political “illusions”, Marx writes, and economic interests. and economic interests.
the bourgeoisie had “substituted
naked, shameless, direct, brutal The socio-economic status
exploitation.” Charters that had once of each group is defined by its
protected people’s freedom had been relationship to property and
cast aside for one “unconscionable
freedom—Free Trade.” the means of production.

The only solution, according to The proletariat The bourgeois or
Marx, was for all the instruments of owns little property ruling class owns most
economic production (such as land,
raw materials, tools, and factories) or business. of a country’s property
to become common property, so and businesses.
that every member of society could
work according to their capacities,
and consume according to their
needs. This was the only way to
prevent the rich from living at the
expense of the poor.

Dialectical change
The philosophy behind Marx’s
reasoning on the process of change
came largely from his predecessor,
Georg Hegel, who had described
reality not as a state of affairs, but
as a process of continual change.
The change was caused, he said,
by the fact that every idea or state
of affairs (known as the “thesis”) ❯❯

When the means of production
changes, such as from agricultural

to industrial, there are
revolutions and wars.

From each according to The ruling class is History is a
his abilities, to each displaced and a new record of these
class struggles and
according to his needs. one is created. displacements
Karl Marx

200 KARL MARX

contains within it an internal clothing, food, and habitation— The ruling ideas of each
conflict (the “antithesis”) that for themselves, but as the early age have ever been the
eventually forces a change to occur, societies began to form, people ideas of its ruling class.
leading to a new idea or state of came to rely more on one another.
affairs (the “synthesis”). This This led to the form of “bargain Karl Marx
process is known as the dialectic. making” described by the Scottish
economist and philosopher Adam ancient communal and state
Hegel believed that we can never Smith, as people exchanged goods system of ownership (where both
experience things in the world as or labor. Marx agrees with Smith slavery and private property began);
they are, but only as they appear to that this system of exchange led the feudal or estate system of
us. For him, existence primarily people to specialize in their labor, property; and the modern system of
consists of mind or spirit, so the but he points out that this new capitalist production. Each of these
journey of history, through countless specialization (or “job”) had also stages represents a different form
cycles of the dialectic, is essentially come to define them. Whatever a of economic system, or “mode of
the progress of spirit, or Geist, person’s specialization or job, be it production”, and the transitions
toward a state of absolute harmony. agricultural laborer or hereditary between them are marked in
But it is here that Hegel and Marx landowner, it had come to dictate history by stormy political events,
part company. Marx insists that the where he or she lived, what they such as wars and revolutions, as
process is not a journey of spiritual ate, and what they wore; it also one ruling class is displaced by
development, but of real historical dictated with whom in society they another. The Communist Manifesto
change. Marx claims that the final, shared interests, and with whom popularized the idea that through
conflict-free state that lies at the end their interests lay in conflict. Over understanding the system of
of the process is not the spiritual time, this led to the formation of property ownership in any one
bliss that Hegel predicted, but the distinct socio-economic classes, society, in any particular era, we can
perfect society, where everyone locked into conflict. acquire the key to understanding
works harmoniously toward the its social relations.
good of a greater whole. According to Marx, there have
been four major stages in human
The formation of classes history, which he sees as based on
In earlier ages, humans had been four different forms of property
entirely responsible for producing ownership: the original tribal
everything they needed—such as system of common property; the

Rise of cultural institutions
Marx also believes that an analysis
of the economic basis of any society
allows us to see that as its system
of property alters, so too do its
“superstructures”—such as its
politics, laws, art, religions, and

The wealthy bourgeoisie enjoyed
the luxuries of life in the late 18th and
19th centuries, while the workers in
their companies and on their estates
endured terrible poverty.

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 201

The abolition of religion religion is intellectually false—it is makes a variety of other claims
as the illusory happiness not corroborated in any way by about politics, society, and
of the people is required reasoning—and that it contributes economics. For example, it argues
to the general sum of human misery. that the capitalist system is not
for real happiness. He claimed that people make merely exploitative, but also
Karl Marx gods in their own image from inherently financially unstable,
an amalgamation of humanity’s leading to the recurrence of
philosophies. These develop to greatest virtues, and then cling to increasingly severe commercial
serve the interests of the ruling these gods and invented religions, crises, the growing poverty of the
class, promoting its values and preferring their “dreams” to the real workforce, and the emergence of
interests, and diverting attention world. People become alienated the proletariat as the one genuinely
away from political realities. from themselves, through an revolutionary class. For the first
However, even this ruling class is unfavorable comparison of their time in history, this revolutionary
not, in fact, determining events or selves to a god that they have class would represent the vast
institutions. Hegel had said that forgotten they created. majority of humanity.
every age is held in the sway of the
Zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, and Marx agrees that people cling These developments are seen
Marx agrees. But where Hegel saw to religion because they long for as underpinned by the increasingly
the Zeitgeist as determined by an a place in which the self is not complex nature of the process of
Absolute Spirit developing over despised or alienated, but he says production. Marx predicted that
time, Marx sees it as defined by that this is not due to some as technology improved, it would
the social and economic relations authoritarian god, but to material lead to increasing unemployment,
of an era. These define the ideas or facts in their actual, daily lives. alienating more and more people
“consciousness” of individuals and The answer for Marx lies not only from the means of production. This
societies. In Marx’s view, people in the end of religion, but in total would split society in two, between
do not make a stamp on their era, social and political change. the large numbers of impoverished
molding it into a particular shape; people and the few who owned and
the era defines the people. A Marxist utopia controlled the means of production.
In addition to its general account Following the rules of the dialectic,
Marx’s revision of Hegel’s of human history leading to the rise this conflict would result in a violent
philosophy from a journey of spirit of the bourgeois and proletarian revolution to establish a new,
to one of social and economic classes, The Communist Manifesto classless society. This would ❯❯
modes of production was also
influenced by another German
philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach.
Feuerbach believed that traditional

The Industrial Revolution saw the
formalization of specialized skills into
paid employment. People then formed
into groups, or classes, made up of those
with similar socio-economic status.

202 KARL MARX

Socialist-inspired revolutions
swept through Europe just after
the publication of The Communist
Manifesto. These included the
February Revolution of 1848 in Paris.

found expression. Marx saw political
interests and parties as merely
vehicles for the economic interests
of the ruling classes, which were
forced to appear as though they
were acting in the general interest
in order to gain and maintain power.

be the utopian, conflict-free society and the wage-earning working The road to revolution
that marked the end of the dialectic. class would become evident only Marx’s originality lies in his
Marx thought this perfect society when the great mass of people had combination of pre-existing ideas
would not require government, but become property-less and were rather than the creation of new
only administration, and this would obliged to sell their labor for wages. ones. His system uses insights from
be carried out by the leaders of the The juxtaposition of poverty with German idealist philosophers,
revolution: the communist “party” the great wealth of the few would especially Georg Hegel and Ludwig
(by which he means those who become increasingly obvious, he Feuerbach; from French political
adhered to the cause, rather than thought, and communism would theorists, such as Jean-Jacques
any specific organization). Within become increasingly attractive. Rousseau; and from British political
this new kind of state (which Marx economists, particularly Adam
called the “dictatorship of the However, Marx did not expect Smith. Socialism had become a
proletariat”) people would enjoy the opponents of communism to recognized political doctrine in the
genuine democracy and social give up their privileges easily. In first half of the 19th century, and
ownership of wealth. Shortly after every period of history, the ruling from this Marx derives several
this final change in the mode of class has enjoyed the advantage of insights about property, class,
production to a perfect society, controlling both the government exploitation, and commercial crises.
Marx predicted, political power as and the law as a way of reinforcing
it had previously been understood their economic dominance. The Class conflict was certainly in
would come to an end, because modern state, he said, was actually the air when Marx composed the
there would be no good reason for a “committee for managing the Manifesto. It was written just
political dissent or criminality. affairs of the bourgeois class”, and before a succession of revolutions
struggles by excluded groups to
Political power have their own interests taken into A specter is haunting
Marx predicted that the outcome account—such as the battle to Europe—the specter
of the intense class struggles in extend the right to vote—were
Europe between the bourgeoisie simply short-term ways in which the of communism.
more fundamental economic conflict Karl Marx

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 203

against the monarchies of many ideas are nevertheless still open to Karl Marx
continental European countries a variety of criticisms. First, Marx
broke out in 1848 and 1849. In the always argued for the inevitability The most famous revolutionary
preceding decades, a significant of revolution. This was the essential thinker of the 19th century
number of people had migrated part of the dialectic, but it is clearly was born in the German city
from the countryside to the towns too simplistic, as human creativity of Trier. The son of a Jewish
in search of work, although is always able to produce a variety lawyer who had converted to
continental Europe had not yet of choices, and the dialectic fails Christianity, Marx studied law
seen the industrial development to allow for the possibility of at Bonn University, where he
that had taken place in Britain. improvement by gradual reform. met his future wife, Jenny von
A wave of discontent felt by the Westphalen. He then studied
poor against the status quo was Second, Marx tended to invest at the University of Berlin,
exploited by a variety of liberal the proletariat with wholly good before working as a journalist.
and nationalist politicians, and attributes, and to suggest that a The favor he bestowed on
revolutions rippled across Europe, communist society would give rise democracy in his writing led
although ultimately these uprisings somehow to a new type of human to censorship by the Prussian
were defeated and led to little being. He never explained how royal family, and he was forced
permanent change. the dictatorship of this perfect into exile in France and
proletariat would be different from Belgium. During this time he
However, the Manifesto acquired earlier, brutal forms of dictatorship, developed a unique theory of
an iconic status during the 20th nor how it would avoid the communism in collaboration
century, inspiring revolutions in corrupting effects of power. with his German compatriot
Russia, China, and many other Friedrich Engels.
countries. The brilliance of Marx’s Third, Marx rarely discussed
theories has been proved wrong in the possibility that new threats Marx returned to Germany
practice: the extent of repression in to liberty might emerge after a during the 1848–49 revolutions,
Stalinist Russia, in Mao Zedong’s successful revolution; he assumed but after they were quashed
China, and in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, that poverty was the only real cause he lived in exile in London for
has widely discredited his political of criminality. His critics have also the rest of his life. He and his
and historical theories. alleged that he did not sufficiently wife lived in extreme poverty,
understand the forces of nationalism, and when Marx died stateless
Criticism of Marxism and that he gave no proper account at the age of 64, there were
Although Marx did not foresee of the role of personal leadership in only 11 mourners at his funeral.
communism being implemented politics. In fact, the 20th-century
in such a barbaric manner in these communist movement was to Key works
primarily agricultural societies, his produce immensely powerful
personality cults in virtually every 1846 The German Ideology
country in which communists 1847 The Poverty of Philosophy
came to power. 1848 The Communist
Manifesto
Marxist states of the 20th century Lasting influence 1867 Das Kapital: Volume 1
promoted themselves as utopias. They Despite the criticism and crises that
produced a proliferation of paintings Marx’s theories have provoked, his
and statues glorifying the achievements ideas have been hugely influential.
of their happy, newly liberated citizens. As a powerful critic of commercial
capitalism, and as an economic
and socialist theorist, Marx is still
considered relevant to politics and
economics today. Many would
agree with the 20th-century
Russian-British philosopher, Isaiah
Berlin, that the The Communist
Manifesto is “a work of genius.” ■

204

MUST THE CITIZEN
EVER RESIGN HIS
CONSCIENCE TO
THE LEGISLATOR?

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862)

IN CONTEXT A lmost a century after Jean- Thoreau’s ideas contrasted sharply
Jacques Rousseau claimed with those of his contemporary Karl
BRANCH that nature was essentially Marx, and with the revolutionary
Political philosophy benign, American philosopher spirit in Europe at the time, which
Henry Thoreau developed the idea called for violent action. But they
APPROACH further, arguing that “all good were later adopted by numerous
Non-conformism things are wild and free”, and that leaders of resistance movements,
the laws of man suppress rather such as Mahatma Gandhi and
BEFORE than protect civil liberties. He Martin Luther King. ■
c.340 BCE Aristotle claims that saw that political parties were
the city-state is more important necessarily one-sided, and that Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign of civil
than the individual. their policies often ran contrary to disobedience against British rule in
our moral beliefs. For this reason, India included the Salt March of 1930,
1651 Thomas Hobbes says he believed it was the individual’s undertaken in protest against unjust
that society without strong duty to protest against unjust laws, laws controlling salt production.
government reverts to anarchy. and argued that passively allowing
such laws to be enacted effectively
1762 In The Social Contract, gave them justification. “Any fool
Jean-Jacques Rousseau can make a rule, and any fool will
proposes government by mind it,” as he said about English
the will of the people. grammar, but the principle runs
through his political philosophy too.
AFTER
1907 Mahatma Gandhi cites In his essay Civil Disobedience,
Thoreau as an influence on written in 1849, Thoreau proposes
his campaign of passive a citizen’s right to conscientious
resistance in South Africa. objection through non-cooperation
and non-violent resistance—which
1964 Martin Luther King is he put into practice by refusing to
awarded the Nobel Peace pay taxes that supported the war in
Prize for his campaign to Mexico and perpetuated slavery.
end racial discrimination
through civil disobedience See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 154–59 ■ Adam Smith 160–63 ■ Edmund
and noncooperation. Burke 172–73 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ Isaiah Berlin 280–81 ■ John Rawls 294–95

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 205

CONSIDER WHAT
EFFECTS THINGS HAVE

CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE (1839–1914)

IN CONTEXT C harles Sanders Peirce was This idea, that the meaning of a
the scientist, logician, and concept is the sensory effect of its
BRANCH philosopher of science object, is known as the pragmatic
Epistemology who pioneered the philosophical maxim, and it became the founding
movement known as pragmatism. principle of pragmatism—the belief
APPROACH Deeply sceptical of metaphysical that the “truth” is the account of
Pragmatism ideas—such as the idea that there reality that works best for us.
is a “real” world beyond the world
BEFORE we experience—he once asked his One of the key things Peirce
17th century John Locke readers to consider what is wrong was trying to accomplish was to
challenges rationalism by with the following theory: a show that many debates in science,
tracing the origin of our diamond is actually soft, and only philosophy, and theology are
ideas to sense impressions. becomes hard when it is touched. meaningless. He claimed that they
are often debates about words,
18th century Immanuel Peirce argued that there is “no rather than reality, because they
Kant argues that speculation falsity” in such thinking, for there are debates in which no effect on
about what lies beyond our is no way of disproving it. However, the senses can be specified. ■
experience is meaningless. he claimed that the meaning of a
concept (such as “diamond” or Nothing is vital for
AFTER “hard”) is derived from the object science; nothing can be.
1890 S William James and or quality that the concept relates Charles Sanders Peirce
John Dewey take up the to—and the effects it has on our
philosophy of pragmatism. senses. Whether we think of the
diamond as “soft until touched” or
1920 S Logical positivists in “always hard” before our experience,
Vienna formulate the theory of therefore, is irrelevant. Under both
verification—that the meaning theories the diamond feels the
of a statement is the method same, and can be used in exactly
by which it is verified. the same way. However, the first
theory is far more difficult to work
1980 S Richard Rorty’s version with, and so is of less value to us.
of pragmatism argues that the
very notion of truth can be See also: John Locke 130–33 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ William James 206–09 ■
dispensed with. John Dewey 228–31 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

206 IN CONTEXT

ACT AS IF BRANCH
WHAT YOU Epistemology
DO MAKES A
DIFFERENCE APPROACH
Pragmatism
WILLIAM JAMES (1842–1910)
BEFORE
1843 John Stuart Mill’s
A System of Logic studies the
ways in which we come to
believe something is true.

1870s Charles Sanders Peirce
describes his new pragmatist
philosophy in How to Make
Our Ideas Clear.

AFTER
1907 Henri Bergson’s Creative
Evolution describes reality as a
flow rather than a state.

1921 Bertrand Russell explores
reality as pure experience in
The Analysis of Mind.

1925 John Dewey develops a
personal version of pragmatism,
known as “instrumentalism”,
in Experience and Nature.

O ver the course of the 19th
century, as the United
States began to find its
feet as an independent nation,
philosophers from New England
such as Henry David Thoreau and
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a
recognizably American slant to
European Romantic ideas. But it
was the following generation of
philosophers, who lived almost a
century after the Declaration of
Independence, that came up with
something truly original.

The first of these, Charles
Sanders Peirce, proposed a theory
of knowledge he called pragmatism,
but his work was hardly noticed at
the time; it fell to his lifelong friend

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 207

See also: John Stuart Mill 190–93 ■ Charles Sanders Peirce 205 ■ Henri Bergson 226–27 ■ John Dewey 228–31 ■
Bertrand Russell 236–39 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

…that it leads If I am lost in a ...that it leads to
nowhere. forest and see a path, food and shelter.

I can believe…

So I do nothing, My action has So I follow it and
stay lost, starve, made my beliefs find a way out
of the forest
and die. come true. to safety.

Act as if what
you do makes
a difference.

It does.

William James—godson to Ralph ideas about the world have changed Every way of
Emerson—to champion Peirce’s constantly, from thinking that Earth classifying a thing
ideas and develop them further. is flat to knowing it to be round; from
assuming that Earth is the center of is but a way of
Truth and usefulness the universe, to realizing that it is handling it for some
Central to Peirce’s pragmatism was just one planet in a vast cosmos. The particular purpose.
the theory that we do not acquire older assumptions worked perfectly William James
knowledge simply by observing, adequately as explanations in their
but by doing, and that we rely on time, yet they are not true, and the
that knowledge only so long as it is universe itself has not changed.
useful, in the sense that it adequately This demonstrates how knowledge
explains things for us. When it no as an explanatory tool is different
longer fulfils that function, or better from facts. Peirce examined the
explanations make it redundant, we nature of knowledge in this way,
replace it. For example, we can see but James was to apply this
by looking back in history how our reasoning to the notion of truth. ❯❯

208 WILLIAM JAMES

The idea of a flat Earth served well
as a “truth” for several thousand years,
despite the fact that Earth is a sphere.
James claims that an idea’s usefulness
determines its truthfulness.

For James, the truth of an idea irrespective of the facts. This process by which it becomes true.
depends on how useful it is; that is interpretation of truth not only James also thinks that belief in
to say, whether or not it does what distinguishes it from fact, but also an idea is an important factor in
is required of it. If an idea does not leads James to propose that “the choosing to act upon it, and in this
contradict the known facts—such truth of an idea is not a stagnant way belief is a part of the process
as laws of science—and it does property inherent in it. Truth that makes an idea true. If I am
provide a means of predicting happens to an idea. It becomes faced with a difficult decision, my
things accurately enough for our true, is made true by events. Its belief in a particular idea will lead
purposes, he says there can be no verity is in fact an event, a process.” to a particular course of action and
reason not to consider it true, in the Any idea, if acted upon, is found to so contribute to its success. It is
same way that Peirce considered be true by the action we take; because of this that James defines
knowledge as a useful tool putting the idea into practice is the “true beliefs” as those that prove
useful to the believer. Again, he is
careful to distinguish these from
facts, which he says “are not true.
They simply are. Truth is the
function of the beliefs that start
and terminate among them.”

The right to believe
Every time we try to establish a
new belief, it would be useful if we
had all the available evidence and
the time to make a considered
decision. But in much of life we do
not have that luxury; either there
is not enough time to examine the

William James Born in New York City, William physiology at Harvard University.
James was brought up in a His increasing interest in the
wealthy and intellectual family; subjects of psychology and
his father was a famously eccentric philosophy led him to write
theologian, and his brother Henry acclaimed publications in these
became a well-known author. fields, and he was awarded
During his childhood he lived for a professorship in philosophy
several years in Europe, where he at Harvard in 1880. He taught
pursued a love of painting, but at there until his retirement in 1907.
the age of 19 he abandoned this
to study science. His studies at Key works
Harvard Medical School were
interrupted by the ill health and 1890 The Principles of Psychology
depression that were to prevent 1896 The Will to Believe
him from ever practicing medicine, 1902 The Varieties of Religious
but he eventually graduated and Experience
in 1872 took a teaching post in 1907 Pragmatism

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 209

known facts, or there is not enough interpretation of what James is The pragmatic method
evidence, and we are forced to a saying could give the impression means looking away from
decision. We have to rely on our that any belief, no matter how
beliefs to guide our actions, and outlandish, could become true by principles and looking
James says that we have “the right acting upon it—which of course towards consequences.
to believe” in these cases. is not what he meant. There are
certain conditions that an idea William James
James explains this by taking must fulfil before it can be
the example of a man lost and considered a justifiable belief. The state that “for pragmatism, [reality]
starving in a forest. When he sees a available evidence must weigh in is still in the making”, as truth is
path, it is important for him to believe its favor, and the idea must be constantly being made to happen.
that the path will lead him out of the sufficient to withstand criticism. This “stream” of reality, he believes,
forest and to habitation, because if In the process of acting upon the is not susceptible to empirical
he does not believe it, he will not belief, it must continually justify analysis either, both because it is
take the path, and will remain lost itself by its usefulness in increasing in continual flux and because the
and starving. But if he does, he will our understanding or predicting act of observing it affects the truth
save himself. By acting on his idea results. And even then, it is only in of the analysis. In James’s radical
that the path will lead him to safety, retrospect that we can safely say empiricism, from which both mind
it becomes true. In this way our that the belief has become true and matter are formed, the ultimate
actions and decisions make our through our acting upon it. stuff of reality is pure experience.
belief in an idea become true. This
is why James asserts “act as if what Reality as a process Continuing influence
you do makes a difference”—to James was a psychologist as well Pragmatism, proposed by Peirce and
which he adds the typically concise as a philosopher, and he sees the expounded by James, established
and good-humored rider, “it does.” implications of his ideas in terms America as a significant center
of human psychology as much as for philosophical thought in the
We must, however, approach in the theory of knowledge. He 20th century. James’s pragmatic
this idea with caution: a shallow recognized the psychological interpretation of truth influenced
necessity for humans to hold certain the philosophy of John Dewey, and
Religious belief can bring about beliefs, particularly religious ones. spawned a “neopragmatist” school
extraordinary changes in people’s lives, James thinks that while it is not of thought in America that includes
such as the healing of the sick at places justifiable as a fact, belief in a god is philosophers such as Richard Rorty.
of pilgrimage. This occurs regardless useful to its believer if it allows him In Europe, Bertrand Russell and
of whether or not a god actually exists. or her to lead a more fulfilled life, or Ludwig Wittgenstein were indebted
to overcome the fear of death. These to James’s metaphysics. His
things—a more fulfilled life and a work in psychology was equally
fearless confrontation of death— influential, and often intimately
become true; they happen as the connected with his philosophy,
result of a belief, and the decisions notably his concept of the “stream
and actions based upon it. of consciousness”, which in turn
influenced writers such as Virginia
Along with his pragmatic notion Woolf and James Joyce. ■
of truth, James proposes a type of
metaphysics that he calls “radical
empiricism.” This approach takes
reality to be a dynamic, active
process, in the same way that truth
is a process. Like the traditional
empiricists before him, James
rejected the rationalist notion that
the changing world is in some way
unreal, but he also went further to

THE MOD
WORLD

1900–1950

ERN

212 INTRODUCTION

Death of Friedrich Edmund Husserl Bertrand Russell and The October Revolution
Nietzsche, whose publishes The Idea Alfred North Whitehead takes place in Russia,
philosophy proposed of Phenomenology. co-author The Principles of leading to the creation
that “God is dead.” Mathematics, set philosophers of the Soviet Union.
on a new analytical path.

1900 1907 1910–13 1917

1906 1908 1914–18 1921

Albert Einstein Henry Ford produces World War I leads to the Ludwig
introduces his theory the Model T Ford— collapse of the Russian, Wittgenstein
German, Ottoman, and publishes his
of relativity. the world’s first Austro-Hungarian empires.
mass-produced car. Tractatus
Logico-
Philosophicus.

T oward the end of the traditions. In doing so, he set the analysis—which became known
19th century, philosophy agenda for much of the philosophy as analytic philosophy—was the
once again reached a of the 20th century. work of Gottlob Frege, who linked
turning point. Science, and the philosophical process of logic
particularly Charles Darwin’s A new analytical tradition with mathematics. His ideas
theory of evolution (1859), had To some extent, the traditional were enthusiastically received
thrown into doubt the idea of the concerns of philosophy—such as by a British philosopher and
universe as God’s creation, with asking what exists—were answered mathematician, Bertrand Russell.
humankind as the peak of his by science in the early 20th century.
creative genius. Moral and political Albert Einstein’s theories offered Russell applied the principles
philosophy had become entirely a more detailed explanation of the of logic that Frege had outlined to
human-centered, with Karl Marx nature of the universe, and Sigmund a thorough analysis of mathematics
declaring religion “the opiate of the Freud’s psychoanalytic theories in the Principia Mathematica,
people.” Following in the footsteps gave people a radically new insight which he wrote with Alfred North
of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich into the workings of the mind. Whitehead, and then—in a move
Nietzsche believed that Western that revolutionized philosophical
philosophy, with its roots in Greek As a result, philosophers turned thinking—he applied the same
and Judaeo-Christian traditions, their attention to questions of principles to language. The process
was ill-equipped to explain this moral and political philosophy or, of linguistic analysis was to
modern world view. He proposed since philosophy had become the become the major theme in
a radical new approach to finding province of professional academics, 20th century British philosophy.
meaning in life, one that involved to the more abstract business of
casting aside old values and logic and linguistic analysis. At the One of Russell’s pupils, Ludwig
vanguard of this movement of logical Wittgenstein, developed Russell’s
work on logic and language, but

THE MODERN WORLD 213

Josef Stalin is made Martin Heidegger Karl Popper publishes Jean-Paul Sartre
General Secretary publishes Being and Time. The Logic of Scientific becomes one of the most
of the Communist Discovery, challenging the
Party in Russia. idea that science always important continental
proceeds from repeated philosophers with the
observations to theories. existentialist work Being

and Nothingness.

1922 1927 1934 1943

1923 1929 1939–45 1949

Psychoanalyst The Wall Street In World War II, the The Communists
Sigmund Freud Crash leads to global deadliest war in under Mao
publishes The Ego economic depression. history, more than
Zedong proclaim
and the Id. 60 million people die. the People’s
Republic
of China.

also made key contributions in in the mid-20th century due to his Liberal democracies in Europe
areas as diverse as perception, connections with the Nazi party during the 1930s were threatened
ethics, and aesthetics, becoming during World War II, but his works by fascism, forcing many thinkers
one of the greatest thinkers of the were key to the development of to flee from the continent to Britain
20th century. Another, slightly existentialism, and were important and the US. Philosophers turned
younger Viennese philosopher, Karl to late 20th-century culture. their attention to left-wing or liberal
Popper, took his cue from Einstein, politics in reaction to the oppression
and strengthened the link between Wars and revolutions they experienced under totalitarian
scientific thinking and philosophy. Philosophy was as affected by the regimes. World War II and the Cold
massive political upheavals of the War that followed it colored the
Meanwhile, in Germany, 20th century as any other cultural moral philosophy of the second
philosophers rose to the challenge activity, but it also contributed to half of the 20th century.
posed by Nietzsche’s ideas with a the ideologies that shaped the
philosophy based on the experience modern world. The revolution that In France, existentialism was
of the individual in a godless formed the Soviet Union in the made fashionable by Jean-Paul
universe: existentialism. Edmund 1920s had its roots in Marxism, a Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and
Husserl’s phenomenology (the study 19th-century political philosophy. Albert Camus, who were all
of experience) laid the groundwork, This theory became more prevalent novelists. This trend was in keeping
and this was carried forward by globally than any single religion, with the French view of philosophy
Martin Heidegger, who was also dominating the policy of China’s as part of an essentially literary
greatly influenced by the Danish Communist Party until around culture. It was also fundamental
philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. 1982, and replacing traditional to the direction that continental
Heidegger’s work, produced in the philosophies across Asia. philosophy was to take in the last
1920s and 30s, was largely rejected decades of the 20th century. ■

MAN

IS SOMETHING TO BE

SURPASSED

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844–1900)



216 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Christianity says
that everything in this
IN CONTEXT world is less important
than that of the “next”
BRANCH
Ethics after death.

APPROACH It says we should We must
Existentialism turn away from what surpass this
limiting idea.
BEFORE seems important in
380 BCE Plato explores the this life, and try
distinction between reality to transcend it.
and appearance in his
dialogue, The Republic. And besides,
God is dead!
1st century CE The Sermon
on the Mount, in Matthew’s But in doing this Christianity’s
gospel in the Bible, advocates we turn away from idea of “man”
turning away from this world undermines us.
to the greater reality of the life itself.
world to come.

1781 Immanuel Kant’s Critique
of Pure Reason argues that we
can never know how the world
is “in itself.”

AFTER
1930s Nietzsche’s work is
used to help construct the
mythology of Nazism.

1966 Michel Foucault’s The
Order of Things discusses
the overcoming of “man.”

N ietzsche’s idea that man Elsewhere Nietzsche writes about expect of philosophical works, the
is something to be philosophizing “with a hammer”, author still succeeds in setting out
surpassed appears in and here he certainly attempts to a remarkably consistent and hugely
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, perhaps shatter many of the most cherished challenging vision.
his most famous book. It was views of the Western philosophical
written in three parts in 1883–84, tradition, especially in relation to Zarathustra descends
with a fourth part added in 1885. these three things. He does so in a The name of Nietzsche’s prophet,
The German philosopher used it style that is astonishingly hot-headed Zarathustra, is an alternative name
to launch a sustained attack on and fevered, so that at times the for the ancient Persian prophet
the history of Western thought. book seems closer to prophecy than Zoroaster. The book begins by
He targets three linked ideas in philosophy. It was written quickly, telling us that at the age of 30,
particular: first, the idea we with Part I taking him only a few Zarathustra goes to live in the
have of “man” or human nature; days to set down on paper. Even so, mountains. For ten years he
second, the idea we have of God; while Nietzsche’s book does not delights in the solitude, but one
and third, the ideas we have about have the calm, analytical tone that dawn, he wakes to find that he is
morality, or ethics. people have perhaps come to weary of the wisdom he has

THE MODERN WORLD 217

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Albert Camus 284–85 ■
Michel Foucault 302–03 ■ Jacques Derrida 308–13

accumulated alone on the mountain. Zarathustra says to himself, “How The prophet Zoroaster (c.628–551BCE),
So he decides to descend to the can it be possible! This old hermit also known as Zarathustra, founded a
market place to share this wisdom has not yet heard that God is dead.” religion based on the struggle between
with the rest of humankind. good and evil. Nietzsche’s Zarathustra
Behold the Superman places himself “beyond good and evil.”
On the way down to the town, The idea of the death of God may
at the foot of the hill, he meets with be the most famous of all Nietzsche’s
an old hermit. The two men have ideas, and it is closely related both
already met, ten years before, when to the idea that man is something
Zarathustra first ascended the to be surpassed and to Nietzsche’s
mountain. The hermit sees that distinctive understanding of
Zarathustra has changed during morality. The relationship between
the past decade: when he climbed these things becomes clear as the
the mountain, the hermit says, story continues.
Zarathustra carried ashes; but now,
as he descends, he is carrying fire. When he reaches the town,
Zarathustra sees that there is a
Then the hermit asks Zarathustra crowd gathered around a tightrope
a question: why are you going to walker who is about to perform,
the trouble of sharing your wisdom? and he joins them. Before the
He advises Zarathustra to stay in acrobat has a chance to walk across
the mountains, warning him that his rope, Zarathustra stands up. It
nobody will understand his is at this point that he says, “Behold!
message. Zarathustra then asks a I teach you the Superman!” He
question: what does the hermit do continues by telling the crowd the
in the mountains? The hermit real point he wishes to convey:
replies that he sings, weeps, laughs, “Man is something to surpassed...”.
mumbles, and praises God. On Zarathustra follows this with a long
hearing this, Zarathustra himself speech, but when he gets to the
laughs. Then he wishes the hermit end, the crowd only laughs,
well and continues on his way imagining that the prophet is ❯❯
down the mountain. As he goes,

Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche was born in Prussia in was forced to resign his
1844 to a religious family; his professorship in 1879, and for
father, uncle, and grandfathers the next ten years traveled in
were all Lutheran ministers. His Europe. In 1889 he collapsed in
father and younger brother died the street while attempting to
when he was a young child, and prevent a horse from being
he was brought up by his mother, whipped, and suffered some
grandmother, and two aunts. At form of mental breakdown from
the age of 24 he became a professor which he never recovered. He
at Basel University, where he met died in 1900 aged 56.
the composer Richard Wagner,
who influenced him strongly until Key works
Wagner’s anti-semitism forced
Nietzsche to end their friendship. 1872 The Birth of Tragedy
In 1870 he contracted diphtheria 1883–85 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
and dysentery, and thereafter 1886 Beyond Good and Evil
suffered continual ill health. He 1888 Twilight of the Idols

218 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

just another showman, or perhaps total of the higher values that we mind-numbing jobs, not because
even a warm-up performer for the might hold. The death of God is not we need to, but because we feel it is
tightrope-walker. just the death of a deity; it is also our duty to do so. Nietzsche wants
the death of all the so-called higher to put an end to such life-denying
In opening his book in this values that we have inherited. philosophies, so that humankind
unusual way, Nietzsche seems to can see itself in a different way.
be betraying his own unease with One of the central purposes of
the reception thathis philosophy Nietzsche’s philosophy is what he Blaspheming against life
will receive, as if he is afraid that he calls the “revaluation of all values”, After Zarathustra proclaims the
will be seen as a philosophical an attempt to call into question all coming of the Superman, he swiftly
showman without anything real of the ways that we are accustomed moves to condemn religion. In the
to say. If we want to avoid making to thinking about ethics and the past, he says, the greatest blasphemy
the same mistake as the crowd meanings and purposes of life. was to blaspheme against God; but
gathered around Zarathustra, and Nietzsche repeatedly maintains now the greatest blasphemy is to
actually understand what Nietzsche that in doing so he is setting out a blaspheme against life itself. This is
is saying, it is necessary to explore philosophy of cheerfulness, which, the error that Zarathustra believes
some of Nietzsche’s core beliefs. although it overturns everything we he made upon the hillside: in turning
have thought up until now about away from the world, and in offering
Overturning old values good and evil, nevertheless seeks to up prayers to a God who is not
Nietzsche believes that certain affirm life. He claims that many of there, he was sinning against life.
concepts have become inextricably the things that we think are “good”
entangled: humankind, morality, are, in fact, ways of limiting, or of The history behind this death
and God. When his character turning away from, life. of God, or loss of faith in our higher
Zarathustra says that God is dead, values, is told in Nietzsche’s essay,
he is not simply launching an We may think it is not “good” to How the “Real World” at last Became
attack upon religion, but doing make a fool of ourselves in public, a Myth, which was published in
something much bolder. “God” here and so resist the urge to dance Twilight of the Idols. The essay
does not only mean the god that joyfully in the street. We may carries the subtitle “History of an
philosophers talk about or the believe that the desires of the flesh Error”, and it is an extraordinarily
religious pray to; it means the sum are sinful, and so punish ourselves condensed one-page history of
when they arise. We may stay in

Man is a rope tied
between the animal
and the Superman—
a rope over an abyss.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Existing between the levels of
animal and Superman, human life,
Nietzsche says, is “a dangerous
wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back,
a dangerous trembling and halting.”

THE MODERN WORLD 219

Western philosophy. The story Some religions and philosophies insist that a more
begins, Nietzsche says, with the important “real world” exists elsewhere. Nietzsche sees
Greek philosopher Plato. this as a myth that tragically prevents us from living
fully now, in this world.
The real world
Plato divided the world into an this world, even beauty, is
“apparent” world that appears to only a “shadow” of Forms
us through our senses, and a “real”
world that we can grasp through in another world.
the intellect. For Plato, the world
we perceive through the senses is Christianity sees this
not “real” because it is changeable life as merely a forerunner
and subject to decay. Plato suggests
that there is also an unchanging, to the more important
permanent “real world” that can “life after death.”
be attained with the help of the
intellect. This idea comes from because, as Nietzsche points out, Christianity views the world we live
Plato’s study of mathematics. this way of dividing up the world in now as somehow less real than
The form or idea of a triangle, for makes the “real world” of the heaven, but in this version of the
example, is eternal and can be intellect the place where everything “two worlds” idea the “real world” is
grasped by the intellect. We know of value resides. In contrast, it attainable, albeit after death and on
that a triangle is a three-sided, makes the “apparent world” of the condition that we follow Christian
two-dimensional figure whose senses a world that is, relatively rules in this life. The present world
angles add up to 180º, and that speaking, unimportant. is devalued, as it is with Plato, except
this will always be true, whether insofar as it acts as a stepping stone
anyone is thinking about it or not Christian values to the world beyond. Nietzsche
and however many triangles exist Nietzsche traces the fortunes of claims that Christianity asks us to
in the world. On the other hand, this tendency to split the world into deny the present life in favor of the
the triangular things that do exist two and finds that the same idea promise of a life to come.
in the world (such as sandwiches, appears within Christian thought.
pyramids, and triangular shapes In place of the “real world” of Plato’s Both the Platonic and Christian
drawn on a chalkboard), are Forms, Christianity substitutes an versions of the idea that the world
triangular only insofar as they alternative “real world”; a future world is divided into a “real” and an
are reflections of this idea or form of heaven that is promised to the “apparent” one have profoundly
of the triangle. virtuous. Nietzsche believes that affected our thoughts about
ourselves. The suggestion that ❯❯
Influenced by mathematics in
this way, Plato proposed that the
intellect can gain access to a
whole world of Ideal Forms, which
is permanent and unchanging,
whereas the senses have access
only to the world of appearances.
So, for example, if we want to know
about goodness, we need to have
an intellectual appreciation of the
Form of Goodness, of which the
various examples of goodness in
the world are only reflections.
This is an idea that has had far-
reaching consequences for our
understanding of the world; not least

220 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

The Superman is someone of
enormous strength and independence
in mind and body; Nietzsche denied
any had existed, but named Napoleon,
Shakespeare, and Socrates as models.

absolutely unattainable—even to the
wise or the virtuous, in this world or
the next—then it is “an idea grown
useless, superfluous.” As a result, it
is an idea that we need to do away
with. If God is dead, Nietzsche is
perhaps the person who stumbles
across the corpse; nevertheless, it
is Kant whose fingerprints are all
over the murder weapon.

everything of value in the world is look to the work of the 18th-century Philosophy’s longest error
somehow “beyond” the reach of this German philosopher Immanuel Once we have dispensed with the
world leads to a way of thinking Kant, whose ideas are critical to idea of the “real world”, the long-
that is fundamentally life-denying. understanding the philosophy held distinction between the “real
As a result of this Platonic and behind Nietzsche’s work. world” and the “apparent world”
Christian heritage, we have come begins to break down. In How the
to see the world we live in as a A world beyond reach “Real World” at last Became a Myth,
world that we should resent and Kant was interested in the limits Nietzsche goes on to explain this
disdain, a world from which we of knowledge. In his book Critique as follows: “We have abolished the
should turn away, transcend, and of Pure Reason, he argued that we real world; what world is left? The
certainly not enjoy. But in doing so, cannot know the world as it is “in apparent world, perhaps? … But
we have turned away from life itself itself.” We cannot attain it with the no! With the real world we have
in favor of a myth or an invention, intellect, as Plato believed; nor is it also abolished the apparent world.”
an imagined “real world” that is promised to us after death as in Nietzsche now sees the beginning
situated elsewhere. Nietzsche calls the Christian view. It exists (we of the end of philosophy’s “longest
priests of all religions “preachers of assume), but it is forever out of error”: its infatuation with the
death”, because their teachings reach. The reasons that Kant uses distinction between “appearance”
encourage us to turn from this to come up with this conclusion are and “reality”, and the idea of two
world, and from life to death. But complex, but what is important worlds. The end of this error,
why does Nietzsche insist that God from Nietzsche’s point of view is Nietzsche writes, is the zenith of
is dead? To answer this, we must that, if the real world is said to be mankind—the high point of all
humanity. It is at this point—in an
essay written six years after Thus
Spake Zarathustra—that Nietzsche
writes “Zarathustra begins.”

This is a key moment for
Nietzsche because when we grasp
the fact that there is only one world,
we suddenly see the error that had
put all values beyond this world.
We are then forced to reconsider
all our values and even what it
means to be human. And when we
see through these philosophical

THE MODERN WORLD 221

illusions, the old idea of “man” can took his writings as an excuse for The degree of
be surpassed. The Superman is unbridled violence and transgression introspection achieved by
Nietzsche’s vision of a fundamentally on a grand scale. The consensus Nietzsche had never been
life-affirming way of being. It is one amongst scholars is that Nietzsche
that can become the bearer of himself would have been horrified achieved by anyone.
meaning not in the world beyond, by this turn of events. Writing in Sigmund Freud
but here; Superman is “the an era of extraordinary nationalism,
meaning of the Earth.” patriotism, and colonial expansion, Nietzsche’s damning criticisms of
Nietzsche was one of the few the Western philosophical tradition
Creating ourselves thinkers to call these assumptions have had a huge impact not only on
Nietzsche’s writings did not reach into question. At one point in Thus philosophy, but also on European
a large audience in his lifetime, so Spoke Zarathustra he makes it and world culture, and they went
much so that he had to pay for the clear that he considers nationalism on to influence countless artists
publication of the final part of Thus a form of alienation or failure. “Only and writers in the 20th century. ■
Spoke Zarathustra himself. But where the state ends,” Zarathustra
around 30 years after his death in says, “there begins the human Nietzsche’s writings were edited
1900, the idea of the Superman fed being who is not superfluous”. and censored by his anti-semitic sister
into the rhetoric of Nazism through Elizabeth, who controlled his archive
Hitler’s readings of Nietzsche’s Nietzsche’s open-ended idea of after he became insane. This allowed
work. Nietzsche’s ideas about the human possibility was important the Nazis to wilfully misinterpret them.
Superman, and particularly his call to many philosophers in the period
for an eradication of the Jewish- following World War II. His ideas
Christian morality that held sway about religion and the importance
throughout Europe would have been of self-evaluation can be traced
attractive to Hitler as validation for especially in the work of succeeding
his own aims. But where Nietzsche existentialists such as the French
seemed to be searching for a return philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Like
to the more rustic, life-affirming Nietzsche’s Superman, Sartre says
values of pagan Europe, Hitler that we must each define the
meaning of our own existence.

222

MEN WITH
SELF-CONFIDENCE
COME AND
SEE AND CONQUER

AHAD HA’AM (1856–1927)

IN CONTEXT A had Ha’am was the pen this was a view from which he
name of the Ukrainian- later distanced himself, perhaps
BRANCH born Jewish philosopher afraid that others might read what
Ethics Asher Ginzberg, a leading Zionist was essentially an exercise in
thinker who advocated a Jewish satire as if it were written with
APPROACH spiritual renaissance. In 1890 he high-minded seriousness. Self-
Cultural Zionism claimed in a semi-satirical essay confidence is only warranted,
that although we worship wisdom, he later made clear, when the
BEFORE self-confidence matters more. difficulties of an undertaking are
5th century BCE Socrates fully understood and evaluated.
combines both confidence In any difficult or dangerous
and an admission of his situation, he says, the wise are Ha’am was fond of quoting an
own foolishness. those who hold back, weighing up old Yiddish proverb: “an act of folly
the advantages and disadvantages which turns out well is still an act
1511 Desiderius Erasmus of any action. Meanwhile (and of folly.” On some occasions we act
writes The Praise of Folly, a greatly to the disapproval of the foolishly, without fully understanding
satirical work which appears wise) it is the self-confident who the difficulties of the task we are
to praise foolish behavior. forge ahead, and often win the day. undertaking, but we win through
Ha’am wants to suggest—and because luck is on our side.
1711 The English poet when reading him we should However, says Ha’am, this does
Alexander Pope writes that remember that this is a suggestion not make our prior foolishness in
“Fools rush in where angels that is meant half-seriously and any way commendable.
fear to tread.” half-satirically—that individual folly
can often yield a result, simply If we want our actions to bring
1843 In his book Fear and because of the self-confidence that results, it may indeed be the case
Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard goes along with it. that we need to develop and use
writes about founding faith the kind of self-confidence that can
“on the strength of the absurd.” Wisdom and confidence occasionally be seen in acts of folly.
Although in his original essay At the same time, we must always
AFTER Ha’am seemed to celebrate the temper this self-confidence with
1961 Michel Foucault writes potential advantages of foolishness, wisdom, or our acts will lack true
Madness and Civilization, a effectiveness in the world. ■
philosophical study of the
history of folly. See also: Socrates 46–49 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Michel Foucault 302–03 ■
Luce Irigaray 320

THE MODERN WORLD 223

EVERY MESSAGE
IS MADE OF
SIGNS

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE (1857–1913)

IN CONTEXT S aussure was a 19th-century of signs. This means that it is a
Swiss philosopher who saw system of relationships between
BRANCH language as made up of sound-images and concepts.
Philosophy of language systems of “signs”, with the signs However, Saussure states that the
acting as the basic units of the relationship between the signified
APPROACH language. His studies formed the and the signifier is arbitrary—so
Semiotics basis of a new theory, known as there is nothing particularly
semiotics. This new theory of signs “doggy” about the sound “dog”,
BEFORE was developed by other philosophers which is why the word can be
c.400 BCE Plato explores the during the 20th century such as chien in French, or gou in Chinese.
relationship between names Russia’s Roman Jakobson, who
and things. summed up the semiotic approach Saussure’s work on language
when he said that “every message became the basis of modern
c.250 BCE Stoic philosophers is made of signs.” linguistics, and influenced many
develop an early theory of philosophers and literary theorists. ■
linguistic signs. Saussure said that a sign is made
up of two things. Firstly, a “signifier”, In the lives of individuals
1632 Portuguese philosopher which is a sound-image. This is not and of societies, language
John Poinsot writes his the actual sound, but the mental
Treatise on Signs. “image” we have of the sound. is a factor of greater
Secondly, the “signified”, or concept. importance than any other.
AFTER Here Saussure turns his back on a Ferdinand de Saussure
1950s Saussure’s analysis of long tradition that says language is
the structures of language about the relationships between
influences Noam Chomsky’s words and things, because he is
theory of generative grammar, saying that both aspects of a sign
which aims to expose the rules are mental (our concept of a “dog”
of a language that govern its for example, and a sound-image of
possible word combinations. the sound “dog”). Saussure claims
that any message—for example
1960s Roland Barthes explores “my dog is called Fred”—is a system
the literary implications of
signs and semiotics. See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Charles Sanders Peirce 205 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein
246–51 ■ Roland Barthes 290–91 ■ Julia Kristeva 323

224

EXPERIENCE
BY ITSELF IS
NOT SCIENCE

EDMUND HUSSERL (1859–1938)

IN CONTEXT Science aspires to H usserl was a philosopher
certainty about the world. haunted by a dream that
BRANCH has preoccupied thinkers
Ontology But science is empirical: since the time of the ancient
it depends upon Greek philosopher Socrates: the
APPROACH experience. dream of certainty. For Socrates,
Phenomenology the problem was this: although we
Experience is subject to easily reach agreement on questions
BEFORE assumptions and biases. about things we can measure (for
5th century BCE Socrates example, “how many olives are
uses argument to try to So experience there in this jar?”), when it comes
answer philosophical by itself is to philosophical questions such
questions with certainty. not science. as “what is justice?” or “what is
beauty?”, it seems that there is no
17th century René Descartes clear way of reaching agreement.
uses doubt as a starting point And if we cannot know for certain
for his philosophical method. what justice is, then how can we
say anything about it at all?
1874 Franz Brentano, Husserl’s
teacher, claims that philosophy The problem of certainty
needs a new scientific method. Husserl was a philosopher who
started life as a mathematician.
AFTER He dreamed that problems such as
From 1920s Martin “what is justice?” might be solved
Heidegger, Husserl’s student, with the same degree of certainty
develops his teacher’s method with which we are able to solve
of phenomenology, leading to mathematical problems such as
the birth of existentialism. “how many olives are in the jar?” In
other words, he hoped to put all the
From 1930s Husserl’s sciences—by which he meant all
phenomenology reaches branches of human knowledge and
France, influencing thinkers activity, from math, chemistry,
such as Emmanuel Levinas and physics to ethics and politics –
and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. on a completely secure footing.

THE MODERN WORLD 225

See also: René Descartes 116–23 ■ Franz Brentano 336 ■ Martin Heidegger
252–55 ■ Emmanuel Levinas 273 ■ Maurice Merleau-Ponty 274–75

Scientific theories are based on We entirely lack Edmund Husserl
experience. But Husserl believed a rational science
that experience alone did not add of man and of the Husserl was born in 1859
up to science, because as any human community. in Moravia, then a part of
scientist knows, experience is full Edmund Husserl the Austrian empire. He
of all kinds of assumptions, biases, started his career studying
and misconceptions. Husserl start philosophy with a clean slate, mathematics and astronomy,
wanted to drive out all of these free of all assumptions. Husserl but after finishing his
uncertainties to give science calls this approach phenomenology: doctorate in mathematics he
absolutely certain foundations. a philosophical investigation of decided to take up philosophy.
the phenomena of experience. We
To do this, Husserl made use of need to look at experience with a In 1887 Husserl married
the philosophy of the 19th-century scientific attitude, laying to one Malvine Steinschneider, with
philosopher René Descartes. Like side (or “bracketing out” as Husserl whom he had three children.
Husserl, Descartes wanted to free calls it) every single one of our He also became Privatdozent
philosophy from all assumptions, assumptions. And if we look (private lecturer) at Halle,
biases, and doubts. Descartes wrote carefully and patiently enough, we where he remained until 1901.
that although almost everything can build a secure foundation of He then accepted an associate
could be doubted, he could not knowledge that might help us deal professorship at the University
doubt that he was doubting. with the philosophical problems of Göttingen, before becoming
that have been with us since the a professor of philosophy at
Phenomenology very beginnings of philosophy. the University of Freiburg in
Husserl takes up a similar approach 1916, where Martin Heidegger
to Descartes, but uses it differently. However, different philosophers was among his students. In
He suggests that if we adopt a following Husserl’s method came 1933, Husserl was suspended
scientific attitude to experience, to different results, and there was from the university on account
laying aside every single assumption little agreement as to what the of his Jewish background, a
that we have (even including the method actually was, or how one decision in which Heidegger
assumption that an external world carried it out. Toward the end of his was implicated. Husserl
exists outside of us), then we can career, Husserl wrote that the continued to write until his
dream of putting the sciences on death in 1938.
Mathematics does not rely on firm foundations was over. But
empirical evidence, which is full of although Husserl’s phenomenology Key works
assumptions, to reach its conclusions. failed to provide philosophers with
Husserl wanted to put all science (and a scientific approach to experience, 1901 Logical Investigations
all knowledge) on a similar foundation. or to solve philosophy’s most 1907 The Idea of
enduring problems, it nevertheless Phenomenology
gave birth to one of the richest 1911 Philosophy as a
traditions in 20th-century thought. ■ Rigorous Science
1913 Ideas toward a Pure
Phenomenology

226

INTUITION GOES
IN THE VERY
DIRECTION OF LIFE

HENRI BERGSON (1859–1941)

IN CONTEXT kinds of knowledge.

BRANCH Relative knowledge: Absolute knowledge:
Epistemology knowing objects knowing objects in
the world as
APPROACH in the world from a they actually are.
Vitalism particular perspective.

BEFORE This is gained by using This is acquired
13th century John Duns our intellect and reason; through an intuitive grasp
Scotus distinguishes between of the truth; it is a very direct
intuitive and abstract thought, we are distanced from
and claims that intuitive the thing itself. form of knowledge.
thought takes precedence.
Intuition goes
1781 Immanuel Kant publishes in the very
Critique of Pure Reason,
claiming that absolute direction of life.
knowledge is impossible.

AFTER
1890s William James begins
to explore the philosophy
of everyday experience,
popularizing pragmatism.

1927 Alfred North Whitehead
writes Process philosophy,
suggesting that the existence
of the natural world should be
understood in terms of process
and change, not things or
fixed stabilities.

THE MODERN WORLD 227

See also: John Duns Scotus 333 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ William James 206–09 ■ Alfred North Whitehead 336 ■
Gilles Deleuze 338

H enri Bergson’s 1910 book are. Bergson believes that these are Capturing the essence of a city,
Creative Evolution explored reached by different methods, the person, or object may only be possible
his vitalism, or theory of first through analysis or intellect, through direct knowledge gained from
life. In it, Bergson wanted to discover and the second through intuition. intuition, not analysis. Bergson says we
whether it is possible to really know Kant’s mistake, Bergson believes, underestimate the value of our intuition.
something—not just to know about is that he does not recognize the
it, but to know it as it actually is. full importance of our faculty of But how do we practice intuition?
intuition, which allows us to grasp Essentially, it is a matter of seeing
Ever since the philosopher an object’s uniqueness through the world in terms of our sense of
Immanuel Kant published The direct connection. Our intuition is unfolding time. While walking
Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, linked to what Bergson called our through the city, we have a sense
many philosophers have claimed élan vital, a life-force (vitalism) that of our own inner time, and we also
that it is impossible for us to know interprets the flux of experience in have an inner sense of the various
things as they actually are. This is terms of time rather than space. unfolding times of the city through
because Kant showed that we can which we are walking. As these
know how things are relative to we Suppose you want to get to know times overlap, Bergson believes that
ourselves, given the kinds of minds a city, he says. You could compile a we can make a direct connection
we have; but we can never step record of it by taking photographs with the essence of life itself. ■
outside of ourselves to achieve an of every part, from every possible
absolute view of the world’s actual perspective, before reconstructing
“things-in-themselves.” these images to give some idea of
the city as a whole. But you would
Two forms of knowledge be grasping it at one remove, not as
Bergson, however, does not agree a living city. If, on the other hand,
with Kant. He says that there are you were simply to stroll around the
two different kinds of knowledge: streets, paying attention in the right
relative knowledge, which involves way, you might acquire knowledge
knowing something from our own of the city itself—a direct knowledge
unique particular perspective; of the city as it actually is. This
and absolute knowledge, which is direct knowledge, for Bergson, is
knowing things as they actually knowledge of the essence of the city.

Henri Bergson Henri Bergson was one of the most League of Nations in 1913. His
influential French philosophers work was widely translated
of his time. Born in France in 1859, and influenced many other
he was the son of an English philosophers and psychologists,
mother and a Polish father. His including William James. He
early intellectual interests lay in was awarded the Nobel Prize
mathematics, at which he excelled. for Literature in 1928, and died
Despite this, he took up philosophy in 1941 at the age of 81.
as a career, initially teaching in
schools. When his book Matter Key works
and Memory was published in
1896, he was elected to the 1896 Matter and Memory
Collège de France and became 1903 An Introduction to
a university lecturer. He also had Metaphysics
a successful political career, and 1910 Creative Evolution
represented the French government 1932 The Two Sources of
during the establishment of the Morality and Religion

228 IN CONTEXT

WE ONLY THINK BRANCH
WHEN WE ARE Epistemology
CONFRONTED
WITH PROBLEMS APPROACH
Pragmatism
JOHN DEWEY (1859–1952)
BEFORE
1859 Charles Darwin’s On
the Origin of Species puts
human beings in a new,
naturalistic perspective.

1878 Charles Sanders Peirce’s
essay How to Make our Ideas
Clear lays the foundations of
the pragmatist movement.

1907 William James publishes
Pragmatism: A New Name for
Some Old Ways of Thinking,
popularizing the philosophical
term “pragmatism.”

AFTER
From 1970 Jürgen Habermas
applies pragmatic principles
to social theory.

1979 Richard Rorty combines
pragmatism with analytic
philosophy in Philosophy and
the Mirror of Nature.

J ohn Dewey belongs to the
philosophical school known
as pragmatism, which arose
in the US in the late 19th century.
The founder is generally considered
to be the philosopher Charles
Sanders Peirce, who wrote a
groundbreaking essay in 1878
called How to Make our Ideas Clear.

Pragmatism starts from the
position that the purpose of
philosophy, or “thinking”, is not
to provide us with a true picture
of the world, but to help us to act
more effectively within it. If we are
taking a pragmatic perspective,
we should not be asking “is this the

THE MODERN WORLD 229

See also: Heraclitus 40 ■ Charles Sanders Peirce 205 ■ William James 206–09 ■
Jürgen Habermas 306–07 ■ Richard Rorty 314–19

Problems arise …the challenges
because we are trying of living in a

to make sense of… changing world.

We only think John Dewey
when we are
confronted with John Dewey was born in
Vermont, USA, in 1859. He
problems. studied at the University of
Vermont, and then worked as
…the traditions a schoolteacher for three years
we have inherited. before returning to undertake
further study in psychology
Philosophy is not about and philosophy. He taught at
gaining a true picture of various leading universities for
the world, but about practical the remainder of his life, and
wrote extensively on a broad
problem solving. range of topics, from education
to democracy, psychology,
way things are?” but rather, “what practical responses to these and art. In addition to his
are the practical implications of problems. He believes that work as a scholar, he set up
adopting this perspective?” philosophizing is not about being an educational institution—
a “spectator” who looks at the the University of Chicago
For Dewey, philosophical world from afar, but about actively Laboratory Schools—which
problems are not abstract problems engaging in the problems of life. put into practice his
divorced from people’s lives. He educational philosophy of
sees them as problems that occur Evolving creatures learning by doing. This
because humans are living beings Dewey was strongly influenced institution is still running
trying to make sense of their by the evolutionary thought of the today. Dewey’s broad range of
world, struggling to decide how naturalist Charles Darwin, who interests, and his abilities as a
best to act within it. Philosophy published On The Origin of Species communicator, allowed his
starts from our everyday human in 1859. Darwin described humans influence on American public
hopes and aspirations, and from as living creatures who are a part life to extend far beyond the
the problems that arise in the of the natural world. Like the other Laboratory Schools. He wrote
course of our lives. This being the animals, humans have evolved in about philosophy and social
case, Dewey thinks that philosophy response to their changing ❯❯ issues until he died in 1952 at
should also be a way of finding the age of 92.

Key works

1910 How We Think
1925 Experience and Nature
1929 The Quest for Certainty
1934 Art as Experience

230 JOHN DEWEY

environments. For Dewey, one of the many environments in which We no longer employ sacrifice as a
the implications of Darwin’s we find ourselves are themselves way to ask for help from the gods, but
thought is that it requires us to always changing. Not only this, but many people find themselves offering
think of human beings not as fixed these environments do not change up a silent promise to be good in return
essences created by God, but in a predictable fashion. For several for help from some higher being.
instead as natural beings. We are years there may be a good crop of
not souls who belong in some other, wheat, for instance, but then the can live in it more easily. We can
non-material world, but evolved harvest fails. A sailor may set sail learn the art of forecasting the
organisms who are trying to do our under fine weather, only to find that weather, and build houses to
best to survive in a world of which a storm suddenly blows up out of shelter ourselves from its extremes,
we are inescapably a part. nowhere. We are healthy for years, and so on. Rather than attempting
and then disease strikes us when to ally ourselves with the hidden
Everything changes we least expect it. powers of the universe, this
Dewey also takes from Darwin the strategy involves finding ways of
idea that nature as a whole is a In the face of this uncertainty, revealing how our environment
system that is in a constant state of Dewey says that there are two works, and then working out how
change; an idea that itself echoes different strategies we can adopt. to transform it to our benefit.
the philosophy of the ancient Greek We can either appeal to higher
philosopher Heraclitus. When beings and hidden forces in the Dewey points out that it is
Dewey comes to think about what universe for help, or we can seek important to realize that we can
philosophical problems are, and to understand the world and gain never completely control our
how they arise, he takes this control of our environment. environment or transform it to
insight as a starting point. such an extent that we can drive
Appeasing the gods out all uncertainty. At best, he
Dewey discusses the idea that The first of these strategies involves says, we can modify the risky,
we only think when confronted attempting to affect the world by uncertain nature of the world in
with problems in an essay entitled means of magical rites, ceremonies, which we find ourselves. But life
Kant and the Philosophic Method and sacrifices. This approach to the is inescapably risky.
(1884). We are, he says, organisms uncertainty of the world, Dewey
that find ourselves having to respond believes, forms the basis of both A luminous philosophy
to a world that is subject to constant religion and ethics. For much of human history, Dewey
change and flux. Existence is a writes, these two approaches to
risk, or a gamble, and the world In the story that Dewey tells, dealing with the riskiness of life
is fundamentally unstable. We our ancestors worshipped gods and have existed in tension with each
depend upon our environment to spirits as a way of trying to ally other, and they have given rise to
be able to survive and thrive, but themselves with the “powers that two different kinds of knowledge:
dispense fortune.” This scenario is
We do not solve played out in stories from around the
philosophical problems, world, in myths and legends such as
those about unfortunate seafarers
we get over them. who pray to gods or saints to calm
John Dewey the storm, and thereby survive. In
the same way, Dewey believes,
ethics arises out of the attempts
our ancestors made to appease
hidden forces; but where they made
sacrifices, we strike bargains with
the gods, promising to be good if
they spare us from harm.

The alternative response to the
uncertainties of our changing world
is to develop various techniques of
mastering the world, so that we

THE MODERN WORLD 231

Scientific experiments, such as those
performed by Benjamin Franklin in the
1740s, help us gain control over the
world. Dewey thought philosophical
theories should be equally useful.

He is critical of any philosophical
approaches that ultimately make
our experience more puzzling,
or the world more mysterious.
Second, he thinks we should judge
a philosophical theory by asking
to what extent it succeeds in
addressing the problems of living.
Is it useful to us, in our everyday
lives? Does it, for instance, “yield
the enrichment and increase of
power” that we have come to
expect from new scientific theories?

on the one hand, ethics and religion; from studying the sciences. In this A practical influence
and on the other hand, arts and context philosophy can be seen as A number of philosophers, such as
technologies. Or, more simply, the art of finding both theoretical Bertrand Russell, have criticized
tradition and science. Philosophy, and practical responses to these pragmatism by claiming that it
in Dewey’s view, is the process by problems and contradictions. has simply given up on the long
means of which we try to work philosophical quest for truth.
through the contradictions between There are two ways in which to Nevertheless, Dewey’s philosophy
these two different kinds of judge whether a form of philosophy has been enormously influential in
response to the problems in our is successful. First, we should ask America. Given that Dewey places
lives. These contradictions are not whether it has made the world such an overriding emphasis on
just theoretical; they are also more intelligible. Does this responding to the practical problems
practical. For example, I may have particular philosophical theory of life, it is perhaps unsurprising
inherited innumerable traditional make our experience “more that much of his influence has been
beliefs about ethics, meaning, and luminous”, Dewey asks, or does it in practical realms, such as in
what constitutes a “good life”, but make it “more opaque”? Here education and in politics. ■
I may find that these beliefs are in Dewey is agreeing with Peirce that
tension with the knowledge and philosophy’s purpose is to make our Education is not an affair
understanding that I have gained ideas and our everyday experience of telling and being told,
clearer and easier to understand.
but an active and
constructive process.

John Dewey

232

THOSE WHO CANNOT
REMEMBER THE PAST
ARE CONDEMNED
TO REPEAT IT

GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863–1952)

IN CONTEXT I n The Life of Reason (1905), the who do not remember the past are
Spanish-American philosopher condemned to repeat it, and this is
BRANCH George Santayana wrote that sometimes understood to mean
Philosophy of history those who cannot remember the that we must do our best to
past are condemned to repeat it. remember past atrocities. But
APPROACH Santayana’s naturalistic approach Santayana is actually making a
Naturalism means that he sees knowledge and point about progress. For progress
belief as arising not from reasoning, to be possible, we must not only
BEFORE but through interaction between remember past experiences, but
55 BCE Lucretius, a Roman our minds and the material also be able to learn from them; to
poet, explores the origins of environment. Santayana is often see different ways of doing things.
societies and civilizations. misquoted as saying that those The psyche structures new beliefs
through experiences, and this is
1730s The Italian philosopher how we prevent ourselves from
Giovanni Vico claims that all repeating mistakes.
civilizations pass through
three stages: the age of the Real progress, Santayana
gods; the age of artistocrats believes, is not so much a matter
and heroes; and democracy. of revolution as of adaptation, taking
This is due to “an uninterrupted what we have learned from the past
order of causes and effects”. and using it to build the future.
Civilization is cumulative, always
1807–22 Georg Hegel writes building on what has gone before,
of history as the continual in the same way that a symphony
progress of mind or spirit. builds note by note into a whole. ■

AFTER Progress is only possible through
2004 In his book, Memory, an understanding of the past coupled
History, Forgetting, French with a sense of possible alternatives.
philosopher Paul Ricoeur The AT&T Building, New York, uses
explores the necessity not old architectural patterns in new ways.
only of remembering, but
also of forgetting the past. See also: Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ William James 206–09 ■
Bertrand Russell 236–39

THE MODERN WORLD 233

IT IS ONLY SUFFERING
THAT MAKES US
PERSONS

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO (1864–1936)

IN CONTEXT The Spanish philosopher, our lives a kind of weight and
novelist, and poet, Miguel substance is to embrace this
BRANCH de Unamuno, is perhaps suffering. If we turn away from
Ontology best known for his book The Tragic it, we are not only turning away
Sense of Life (1913). In this he from what makes us human, we
APPROACH writes that all consciousness is are also turning away from
Existentialism consciousness of death (we are consciousness itself.
painfully aware of our lack of
BEFORE immortality) and of suffering. Love or happiness
c.500 BCE The Buddha What makes us human is the There is also an ethical dimension
claims that all life is marked fact that we suffer. to Unamuno’s ideas on suffering.
by suffering and offers the He claims that it is essential to
Eightfold Path as a route to At first glance, it may seem acknowledge our pain, because
release from its causes. as if this idea is close to that of it is only when we face the fact of
Sidhartha Gautama, the Buddha, our own suffering that we become
c.400 CE Saint Augustine asks who also said that suffering is an capable of truly loving other
how there can be suffering in inescapable part of all human life. suffering beings. This presents us
a world created by a good and But Unamuno’s response to suffering with a stark choice. On the one
all-powerful God. is very different. Unlike the Buddha, hand, we can choose happiness
Unamuno does not see suffering as and do our best to turn away from
AFTER a problem to be overcome through suffering. On the other hand, we
1940 The Irish author and practicing detachment. Instead he can choose suffering and love.
scholar C.S. Lewis explores argues that suffering is an essential The first choice may be easier,
the question of suffering in part of what it means to exist as a but it is a choice that ultimately
his book The Problem of Pain. human being, and a vital experience. limits us – indeed, severs us from
an essential part of ourselves. The
20th century Unamuno’s If all consciousness amounts to second choice is more difficult,
philosophy of suffering consciousness of human mortality but it is one that opens the way
influences other Spanish and suffering, as Unamuno claims, to the possibility of a life of depth
writers such as Federico and if consciousness is what and significance. ■
García Lorca and Juan Ramón makes us distinctively human,
Jiménez, and the British author then the only way we can lend
Graham Greene.
See also: Siddhartha Gautama 30–33 ■ St Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■
Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Albert Camus 284–85 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71

234

BELIEVE IN LIFE

WILLIAM DU BOIS (1868–1963)

IN CONTEXT I n 1957, close to the end of “Always,” Du Bois writes, “human
his long life, the American beings will live and progress to a
BRANCH academic, political radical, greater, broader, and fuller life.”
Ethics and civil rights activist, William This is a statement of belief rather
Du Bois, wrote what has become than a statement of fact. It is as if
APPROACH known as his last message to the Du Bois is saying that we must
Pragmatism world. Knowing that he did not believe in the possibility of a fuller
have much longer to live, he penned life, or in the possibility of progress,
BEFORE a short passage to be read at his to be able to progress at all. In this
4th century BCE Aristotle funeral. In this message, Du Bois idea, Du Bois shows the influence
explores the ancient Greek expresses his hope that any good of the American philosophical
ethical concept of eudaimonia he has done will survive long movement known as Pragmatism,
or “human flourishing”. enough to justify his life, and that which claims that what matters is
those things he has left undone, or not just our thoughts and beliefs,
1845 Publication of Narrative has done badly, may be taken up by but also the practical implications
of the Life of Frederick others to be bettered or completed. of these thoughts and beliefs.
Douglass, an American Slave
boosts support for the abolition We aspire to …believe So we must...
of slavery in the United States. a broader and in life.

Late 19th and early 20th fuller life.
century Pragmatists, such as
Charles Sanders Peirce and To attain this If we lose this belief,
William James, argue that we we need to believe we suffer a form
should judge the value of ideas of death: existence
in terms of their usefulness. in the possibility without growth.
of progress.
AFTER
1950s and 1960s Martin
Luther King Jr., leader of the
African-American Civil Rights
movement, adopts a policy of
non-violent direct action to
address social segregation.

THE MODERN WORLD 235

See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Charles Sanders Peirce 205 ■ William James 206–09 ■ John Dewey 228–31

The problem of the 20th
century is the problem

of the color line.
William Du Bois

Du Bois goes on to say that the He rejects scientific racism—the Martin Luther King Jr. cited Du
“only possible death” is to lose one’s idea that black people are inferior Bois’ writings as a key influence in his
belief in the prospects for human genetically to white people—that decision to become actively involved in
progress. But there are also hints was prevalent throughout most of the battle to demolish racial divisions
of deeper philosophical roots here, his life. As racial inequality has and establish social equality in the US.
going all the way back to the no basis in biological science,
ancient Greek idea of eudaimonia he regards it as a purely social employment are correlated with
or “human flourishing”; for the problem, one that can be addressed high levels of criminal activity.
philosopher Aristotle, this involved only by committed political and In his final message to the world,
living a life of excellence based social activism. Du Bois reminds us that the task
upon virtue and reason. of bringing about a more just society
Du Bois is tireless in his search is still incomplete. He states that it
Political activist for solutions to the problem of all is up to future generations to believe
Du Bois considers two of the major forms of social inequality. He in life, so that we can continue to
impediments to a life of excellence argues that social inequality is contribute to the fulfilment of
to be racism and social inequality. one of the major causes of crime, “human flourishing.” ■
claiming that lack of education and

William Du Bois Du Bois showed exceptional glowing eulogy on the death of
academic promise from an early the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
age. He won a scholarship to Fisk Nevertheless, Du Bois remains
University, and spent two years in a key figure in the struggle for
Germany studying in Berlin before racial equality, thanks to what
attending Harvard, where he Martin Luther King Jr. called his
wrote a dissertation on the slave “divine dissatisfaction with all
trade. He was the first African- forms of injustice”.
American to graduate from
Harvard with a doctorate. Key works

Alongside an active career as 1903 The Souls of Black Folk
a university teacher and writer, 1915 The Negro
Du Bois was involved in the Civil 1924 The Gift of Black Folk
Rights movement and in radical 1940 Dusk of Dawn: An Essay
politics. His political judgement Toward an Autobiography of
has sometimes been called into a Race Concept
question: he famously wrote a

236 IN CONTEXT

THE ROAD TO BRANCH
HAPPINESS LIES Ethics
IN AN ORGANIZED
DIMINUTION APPROACH
OF WORK Analytic philosophy

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872–1970) BEFORE
1867 Karl Marx publishes the
first volume of Capital.

1905 In The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism,
German sociologist Max
Weber argues that the
Protestant work ethic was
partly responsible for the
growth of capitalism.

AFTER
1990s Growth of the trend
of “downshifting”, promoting
fewer working hours.

2005 Tom Hodgkinson,
editor of the British magazine
The Idler, publishes his leisure-
praising book How To Be Idle.

2009 British philosopher Alain
de Botton explores our working
lives in The Pleasures and
Sorrows of Work.

T he British philosopher
Bertrand Russell was no
stranger to hard work. His
collected writings fill countless
volumes; he was responsible for
some of the most important
developments in 20th-century
philosophy, including the founding
of the school of analytic philosophy;
and throughout his long life—he
died aged 97—he was a tireless
social activist. So why is this most
active of thinkers suggesting that
we should work less?

Russell’s essay In Praise of
Idleness was first published in
1932, in the middle of the Great

THE MODERN WORLD 237

See also: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 154–59 ■ Adam Smith 160–163 ■ Edmund Burke 172–73 ■ Jeremy Bentham 174 ■
John Stuart Mill 190–93 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ Henry David Thoreau 204 ■ Isaiah Berlin 280–81 ■ John Rawls 294–95

Depression, a period of global class and the middle class. But to The Great Depression was the worst
economic crisis following the Wall these Russell adds a third class, economic depression of the 20th century.
Street Crash of 1929. It might seem who he claims has a lot to answer For Russell, it highlighted the need for a
distasteful to promote the virtues for—that of the leisured landowner critique of capitalism and a re-evaluation
of idleness at such a time, when who avoids all work, and who of the ethics of work.
unemployment was rising to a third depends on the labor of others
of the working population in some to support his or her idleness.
parts of the world. For Russell,
however, the economic chaos of According to Russell, history is
the time was itself the result of a littered with examples of people
set of deep-rooted and mistaken working hard all their lives and
attitudes about work. Indeed, he being allowed to keep just enough
claims that many of our ideas for themselves and their families
about work are little more than to survive, while any surplus they
superstitions, which should be produce is appropriated by warriors,
swept away by rigorous thinking. priests, and the leisured ruling
classes. And it is always these
What is work? beneficiaries of the system, says ❯❯
Russell begins by defining work,
which he says is of two kinds. First, Our attitudes to work
there is work aimed at “altering the are irrational.
position of matter at or near the
earth’s surface relative to other We assume that work We value different
such matter.” This is the most is good in itself. types of work
fundamental sense of work—that differently.
of manual labor. The second kind of
work is “telling other people to alter These attitudes lead
the position of matter relative to to unhappiness.
other such matter.” This second
kind of work, Russell says, can be So we should recognize Working less will
extended indefinitely—not only what work is genuinely increase human
can you have people employed to valuable, and only do this.
supervise people who move matter, happiness.
but others can be employed to
supervise the supervisors, or give
advice on how to employ other
people, while still more can be
employed to manage the people
who give advice on how to employ
people, and so on. The first kind
of work, he says, tends to be
unpleasant and badly paid, while
the second tends to be more
pleasant, and better paid. These
two types of work define two types
of worker—the laborer and the
supervisor—and these in turn relate
to two social classes—the working

238 BERTRAND RUSSELL

Russell, who are heard extolling this perceived virtue rather than Immense harm
the virtues of “honest toil”, giving for what they produce. And given is caused by
a moral gloss to a system that is that we consider work itself to be the belief that
manifestly unjust. And this fact inherently virtuous, we tend to see
alone, according to Russell, should the unemployed as lacking in virtue. work is virtuous.
prompt us to re-evaluate the ethics Bertrand Russell
of work, for by embracing “honest The more we think about it, the
toil” we comply with and even more it seems that our attitudes the ends of human life.” If we allow
promote our own oppression. toward work are both complex and work to occupy every waking hour,
incoherent. What, then, can be we are not living fully. Russell
Russell’s account of society, done? Russell’s suggestion is that believes that leisure, previously
with its emphasis on the struggle we look at work not in terms of something known only to the
between classes, owes something these curious moral ideas that privileged few, is necessary for a
to the thought of the 19th-century are a relic of earlier times, but in rich and meaningful life. It might
philosopher Karl Marx, although terms of what makes for a full and be objected that nobody would
Russell was always uneasy with satisfying human life. And when know what to do with their time
Marxism, and his essay is as we do this, Russell believes, it is if they worked only for four hours
critical of Marxist states as it is hard to avoid the conclusion that a day, but Russell regrets this.
of capitalist states. His view also we should all simply work less. If this is true, he says, “it is a
owes much to Max Weber’s book What, Russell asks, if the working condemnation of our civilization,”
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit day were only four hours long? Our suggesting that our capacity for
of Capitalism, first published in 1905, present system is such that part of play and light-heartedness has been
particularly Weber’s examination the population can be overworked, eclipsed by the cult of efficiency.
of the moral claims that underlie and so miserable, while another A society that took leisure seriously,
our attitudes to work—claims that part can be totally unemployed,
Russell insists should be challenged. and so also miserable. This, it
seems, does not benefit anyone.
For example, not only do we see
work as a duty and an obligation, The importance of play
we also see different types of work Russell’s view is that reducing our
as occupying a hierarchy of virtue. working hours would free us to
Manual work is generally considered pursue more creative interests.
less virtuous than more skilled or “Moving matter about,” Russell
intellectual work, and we tend to writes, “is emphatically not one of
reward people in accordance with

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell was born in educationalist, an advocate of
Wales in 1872 to an aristocratic atheism, and a campaigner
family. He had an early interest against nuclear arms, as well as
in mathematics, and went on to the author of numerous popular
study the subject at Cambridge. works of philosophy. He died of
There he met the philosopher influenza in February, 1970.
Alfred North Whitehead, with
whom he later collaborated on the Key works
Principia Mathematica, a book
that established him as one of the 1903 The Principles of
leading philosophers of his era. It Mathematics
was also at Cambridge that he 1910, 1912, and 1913 (3 vols)
met, and deeply influenced, the Principia Mathematica
philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. 1914 Our Knowledge of the
External World
Russell wanted philosophy to 1927 The Analysis of Matter
speak to ordinary people. He was 1956 Logic and Knowledge
a social activist, a pacifist, an

THE MODERN WORLD 239

The morality of work is labor entirely convincing. The raw work nor our leisure are as fulfilling
the morality of slaves, and materials for industrial production as we believe they could be, and at
still need to come from somewhere. the same time we cannot help
the modern world has They need to be mined and refined feeling that idleness is a vice.
no need of slavery. and exported to the place of Russell’s idea reminds us that not
Bertrand Russell production, all of which depends only do we need to scrutinize our
on manual labor. Despite these working lives, but that there is a
problems, Russell’s reminder that virtue and a usefulness to lounging,
we need to look more closely at loafing, and idling. As Russell
our attitudes to work is one that says: “Hitherto we have continued
remains relevant today. We take as to be as energetic as we were
“natural” the length of the working before there were machines; in
week and the fact that some kinds this we have been foolish, but
of work are rewarded more than there is no reason to go on being
others. For many of us, neither our foolish forever.” ■

Russell believes, would be one that
took education seriously—because
education is surely about more than
training for the workplace. It would
be one that took the arts seriously,
because there would be time to
produce works of quality without
the struggle that artists have for
economic independence. Moreover,
it would be one that took the need
for enjoyment seriously. Indeed,
Russell believes that such a society
would be one in which we would
lose the taste for war because, if
nothing else, war would involve
“long and severe work for all.”

The balanced life
Russell’s essay may appear to
present something of a Utopian
vision of a world in which work is
reduced to a minimum. It is not
entirely clear how, even if it were
possible to reduce the working day
to four hours, this change would
lead to the social revolution that
Russell claims. Nor is Russell’s faith
in the idea that industrialization
can ultimately free us from manual

Leisure time, for Russell, should
no longer be spent merely recovering
from work. On the contrary, it should
constitute the largest part of our lives
and be a source of play and creativity.

240

LOVE IS A BRIDGE
FROM POORER TO
RICHER KNOWLEDGE

MAX SCHELER (1874–1928)

IN CONTEXT T he German philosopher knowledge possible. Scheler writes
Max Scheler belongs to the that love is “a kind of spiritual
BRANCH philosophical movement midwife” that is capable of
Ethics known as phenomenology. This drawing us toward knowledge,
attempts to investigate all the both knowledge of ourselves and
APPROACH phenomena of our inner experience; knowledge of the world. It is the
Phenomenology it is the study of our consciousness “primary determinant” of a person’s
and its structures. ethics, possibilities, and fate.
BEFORE
C.380 BCE Plato writes his Scheler says that phenomenology At root, in Scheler’s view, to
Symposium, a philosophical has tended to focus too exclusively be human is not to be a “thinking
exploration of the nature of on the intellect in examining thing” as the French philosopher
love and knowledge. the structures of consciousness, Descartes said in the 17th century,
and has overlooked something but a being who loves. ■
17th century Blaise Pascal fundamental: the experience of
writes of the logic of the love, or of the human heart. He Philosophy is a love-
human heart. introduces the idea that love forms determined movement toward
a bridge from poorer to richer
Early 20th century Edmund knowledge in an essay entitled participation in
Husserl develops his new Love and Knowledge (1923). the essential reality
phenomenological method
for studying the experience Scheler’s starting point, which is of all possibles.
of the human mind. taken from the 17th-century French Max Scheler
philosopher Blaise Pascal, is that
AFTER there is a specific logic to the
1954 Polish philosopher Karol human heart. This logic is different
Wojtyza (later Pope John Paul from the logic of the intellect.
II) writes his PhD thesis on
Scheler, acknowledging the A spiritual midwife
philosopher’s influence on It is love, Scheler believes, that
Roman Catholicism. makes things apparent to our
experience and that makes

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Blaise Pascal 124–25 ■ Edmund Husserl 224–25

THE MODERN WORLD 241

ONLY AS AN INDIVIDUAL
CAN MAN BECOME
A PHILOSOPHER

KARL JASPERS (1883–1969)

IN CONTEXT F or some, philosophy is a 1941 book On my Philosophy, we
way to discover objective can philosophize only as individuals.
BRANCH truths about the world. We cannot turn to anybody else to
Epistemology For German philosopher and tell us the truth; we must discover
psychiatrist Karl Jaspers, on the it for ourselves, by our own efforts.
APPROACH other hand, philosophy is a personal
Existentialism struggle. Strongly influenced by A community of individuals
the philosophers Kierkegaard and Although in this sense truth is
BEFORE Nietzsche, Jaspers is an existentialist something that we realize alone,
1800s Søren Kierkegaard who suggests that philosophy is it is in communication with others
writes of philosophy as a a matter of our own attempts to that we realize the fruits of our
matter of the individual’s realize truth. Since philosophy is an efforts and raise our consciousness
struggle with truth. individual struggle, he writes in his beyond its limits. Jaspers considers
his own philosophy “true” only so
1920s Martin Heidegger far as it aids communication with
claims that philosophy is a others. And while other people
matter of our relationship with cannot provide us with a form of
our own existence. “ready-made truth”, philosophy
remains a collective endeavor. For
1920s Friedrich Nietzsche Jaspers, each individual’s search
says that “God is dead”, there for truth is carried out in community
are no absolute truths, and we with all those “companions in
must rethink all our values. thought” who have undergone
the same personal struggle. ■
AFTER
From 1940 Hannah Arendt’s The philosopher lives in the invisible
ideas of freedom are influenced realm of the spirit, struggling to realize
by Jaspers’ philosophy. truth. The thoughts of other, companion,
philosophers act as signposts towards
From 1950 Hans-Georg potential paths to understanding.
Gadamer explores the idea
that philosophy progresses See also: Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Friedrich Nietzsche 214–21 ■ Martin
through a fusion of individual Heidegger 252–55 ■ Hans-Georg Gadamer 260–61 ■ Hannah Arendt 272
perspectives.

242

LIFE IS A SERIES
OF COLLISIONS
WITH THE FUTURE

JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET (1883–1955)

IN CONTEXT O rtega y Gasset’s philosophy In his Meditations on Quixote,
is about life. He is not published in 1914, Ortega writes:
BRANCH interested in analyzing the “I am myself and my circumstances.”
Ontology world in a cool and detached fashion. Descartes said that it was possible
Instead, he wants to explore how to imagine ourselves as thinking
APPROACH philosophy can engage creatively beings, and yet to doubt the
Existentialism with life. Reason, Ortega believes, existence of the external world,
is not something passive, but including our own bodies. But
BEFORE something active—something that Ortega says that it makes no sense
1641 In his Meditations, René allows us to get to grips with the to see ourselves as separate from
Descartes argues that there circumstances in which we find the world. If we want to think
are two worlds: the world of ourselves, and allows us to change seriously about ourselves, we have
mind and the world of matter. our lives for the better. to see that we are always immersed

Early 1900s Edmund Husserl We are always immersed in
establishes phenomenology. He particular circumstances, such
claims that philosophers must
look at the world anew, putting as where we live, what we do,
all preconceptions aside. and things we assume.

AFTER We can accept or reject these The new possibilities
1920s Martin Heidegger circumstances, by imagining collide with our current
explores questions about what
our existence means for us, new possibilities. circumstances.
citing Ortega as an influence.
Life is a series of
1930s onward Ortega’s collisions with the future.
philosophy becomes popular
in Spain and Latin America,
influencing philosophers
Xavier Zubiri, José Gaos,
Ignacio Ellacuría, and María
Zambrano, among others.

THE MODERN WORLD 243

See also: René Descartes 116–23 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Edmund Husserl
224–25 ■ Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71

in particular circumstances— I am myself and José Ortega y Gasset
circumstances that are often my circumstances.
oppressive and limiting. These José Ortega y Gasset José Ortega y Gasset was
limitations are not only those of born in Madrid, Spain, in 1883.
our physical surroundings, but also However, there is a limit to the He studied philosophy first
of our thoughts, which contain amount that we can change the in Madrid, then at various
prejudices, and our behavior, which world. Our habitual thinking runs German universities—where
is shaped by habit. deep, and even if we free ourselves he became influenced by the
enough to imagine new possibilities philosophy of Immanuel
While many people live without and new futures, our external Kant—before settling in Spain
reflecting on the nature of their circumstances may stand in the as a university professor.
circumstances, Ortega says that way of realizing these possibilities.
philosophers should not only strive The futures that we imagine will Throughout his life, Ortega
to understand their circumstances always collide with the reality of earned a living not only as a
better, they should actively seek the circumstances in which we philosopher but as a journalist
to change them. Indeed, he claims find ourselves. This is why Ortega and essayist. He was also
that the philosopher’s duty is to sees life as a series of collisions actively engaged in Spanish
expose the assumptions that with the future. politics in the 1920s and
lie behind all our beliefs. 1930s, but his involvement
Ortega’s idea is challenging came to an end with the
The energy of life on both a personal and a political outbreak of the Spanish Civil
In order to transform the world and level. It reminds us that we have War in 1936. Ortega then
to engage creatively with our own a duty to attempt to change our went into exile in Argentina,
existence, Ortega says that we circumstances, even though we where he stayed, disillusioned
must look at our lives with fresh may encounter difficulties in doing with politics, until 1945.
eyes. This means not only looking so, and even though our attempts After three years in Portugal,
anew at our external circumstances, may not always succeed. In The he returned to Madrid in
but also looking inside ourselves to Revolt of the Masses, he warns that 1948, where he founded the
reconsider our beliefs and prejudices. democracy carries within it the Institute of Humanities. He
Only when we have done this will threat of tyranny by the majority, continued working as a
we be able to commit ourselves to and that to live by majority rule—to philosopher and journalist
creating new possibilities. live “like everyone else”—is to live for the remainder of his life.
without a personal vision or moral
Every act of hope, such as celebrating code. Unless we engage creatively Key works
Christmas on the front line in World with our own lives, we are hardly
War I, is a testament to our ability living at all. This is why for Ortega, 1914 Meditations on Quixote
to overcome our circumstances. For reason is vital—it holds the energy 1925 The Dehumanization
Ortega, this is “vital reason” in action. of life itself. ■ of Art
1930 The Revolt of the Masses
1935 History as a System
1957 What is Philosophy?

244

TOPHILOSOPHIZE,
FIRSTONE MUST
CONFESS

HAJIME TANABE (1885–1962)

IN CONTEXT B efore you read on, confess! To answer these questions, we
This may seem like a need to look at the roots of Tanabe’s
BRANCH strange idea, but it is one philosophy in both the European
Ethics that Japanese philosopher Tanabe and the Japanese traditions of
Hajime wants us to take seriously. philosophy. In terms of its European
APPROACH If we want to philosophize, Tanabe roots, Tanabe traces his thought
Phenomenology believes, we cannot do so without back to the Greek philosopher
making a confession. But what is it Socrates who lived in the 5th
BEFORE that we should confess, and why? century BCE. Socrates is important
5th century BCE Socrates
claims that he is wise because asking
he knows he is ignorant. deeper questions about life.

4th century St. Augustine To do this,
of Hippo writes Confessions, we need to
which is both an autobiography admit that…
and a work of philosophy.
...we do not know ...our powers of
Early 13th century Buddhist the answers. reason are limited.
monk Shinran claims that
salvation is only possible In order
through “other power.” to philosophize,

1920s Martin Heidegger first one must
writes that philosophy is a confess.
matter of our relationship
with our own being.

AFTER
1990s Jacques Derrida,
influenced by phenomenology,
explores themes such as
confession and forgiveness.

THE MODERN WORLD 245

See also: Siddharta Gautama 30–33 ■ Socrates 46–49 ■ St. Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■ Edmund Husserl 224–25 ■
Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Jacques Derrida 308–13

The Buddha Amitabha, here shown The Japanese roots of Tanabe’s For a problem
between Kannon (Compassion) and idea go back to the thought of the to belong to philosophy,
Seishi (Wisdom), is the principal buddha Buddhist monk Shinran, who there must be something
of the Pure Land school of Buddhism, belonged to what is known as the
to which Shinran belonged. Pure Land school of Buddhism. inconceivable in it.
Shinran’s innovation was his claim Hajime Tanabe
to Tanabe because of the way he that enlightenment is impossible if
frankly confessed that he knew we rely on our own power. Instead, It is only through confessing,
nothing. According to the story, the we must confess our own ignorance Tanabe believes, that we can
oracle at Delphi said that Socrates and limitations, so that we are open rediscover our true being—a
was the wisest man in Athens, and to what both Shinran and Tanabe process he describes in directly
Socrates, who was certain of his call tariki, or “other power.” In the religious terms as a form of death
own ignorance, set out to prove the context of Pure Land Buddhism, and resurrection. This death and
oracle wrong. After innumerable this other power is that of the resurrection is the rebirth of the
conversations with people in Athens, Buddha Amitabha. In the context mind through “other power”, and
he came to the conclusion that he of Tanabe’s philosophy, confession its passing from the limited view
was indeed the wisest person in leads to a recognition of “absolute of the “self” to the perspective of
the city, because he alone could nothingness”, and ultimately to enlightenment. However, this shift
accept that he knew nothing. self-awakening and wisdom. is not simply a preparation for
philosophy—on the contrary, it is
Hajime Tanabe Forsaking ourselves the very work of philosophy itself,
For Tanabe, then, philosophy is which is rooted in scepticism and
Hajime Tanabe was born in not about discussing the finer the “forsaking of ourselves to the
Tokyo, Japan, in 1885. After points of logic, or about arguing grace of other power.” Philosophy,
studying at Tokyo University, or debating anything—it is not, in other words, is not an activity
he was appointed associate in fact, an “intellectual” discipline. that we engage in, but something
professor of philosophy at Kyoto For Tanabe, it is something much that happens through us when we
University, where he was an more fundamental—a process of gain access to our true selves by
active member of what became relating, in the deepest possible letting go of the self—a phenomenon
known as the Kyoto School sense, to our very own being—an that Tanabe calls “action without
of philosophy. In the 1920s, idea that is partly shaped by his an acting subject.”
he spent time in Germany reading of Martin Heidegger.
studying with the philosophers Continual confession is, Tanabe
Edmund Husserl and Martin to Japan he was appointed to writes, “the ultimate conclusion”
Heidegger, and after his return the post of full professor. He to which the recognition of our
was deeply affected by World limitations drives us. In other
War II, and when it ended in words, Tanabe asks us not to find
1945 he retired from teaching new answers to old philosophical
philosophy. Tanabe’s book questions, but to re-evaluate the
Philosophy as Metanoetics was very nature of philosophy. ■
published a year later, in 1946.
After his retirement, Tanabe
dedicated the remainder of his
life to meditation and writing.

Key works

1946 Philosophy as Metanoetics

THE LIMITS OF MY

LANGUAGE

ARE THE LIMITS OF MY

WORLD

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889–1951)



248 LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

IN CONTEXT Language is The world is
made up of propositions: made up of facts:
BRANCH things are a certain way.
Philosophy of language assertions about things,
which may be true or false.
APPROACH
Logic Propositions are “pictures”
of facts, in the same way that
BEFORE maps are pictures of the world.
4th century BCE Aristotle
sets the foundations of logic. Any proposition that My language is
does not picture facts therefore limited
Late 19th century Gottlob is meaningless—for to statements of facts
Frege develops the foundations example “killing is bad.” about the world.
of modern logic.
The limits of my language
Early 20th century Bertrand are the limits of my world.
Russell develops notation that
translates natural language
into logical propositions.

AFTER
1920s Ideas in the Tractatus
are used by philosophers of the
Vienna Circle, such as Moritz
Schlick and Rudolf Carnap, to
develop Logical Positivism.

From 1930 Wittgenstein
rejects the ideas expressed in
the Tractatus, and begins to
explore very different ways
of viewing language.

W ittgenstein’s Tractatus philosophical tradition that stems necessary limits of our knowledge,
Logico-Philosophicus from the 18th-century German we can then either resolve, or even
is perhaps one of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. In perhaps dissolve, nearly all of the
most forbidding texts in the history The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant philosophical problems of the past.
of 20th-century philosophy. Only set out to explore the limits of
around 70 pages long in its English knowledge by posing questions The Tractatus tackles the same
translation, the book is made up of such as “What can I know?” and kind of task that Kant did, but does
a series of highly condensed and “What things will lie forever outside so in a far more radical fashion.
technical numbered remarks. of human understanding?” One Wittgenstein states that he is
reason that Kant asked such setting out to make clear what can
In order to appreciate the full questions was that he believed be meaningfully said. In much the
significance of the Tractatus, it many problems in philosophy arose same way that Kant strives to set
is important to set it within its because we fail to recognize the the limits of reason, Wittgenstein
philosophical context. The fact limitations of human understanding. wants to set the limits of language
that Wittgenstein is talking about By turning our attention back onto and, by implication, of all thought.
the “limits” of my language and my ourselves and asking about the He does this because he suspects
world sets him firmly within the that a great deal of philosophical