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In formulating this point, I begin from the analysis of Alexandre Kojève in hisIntroduction à la lecture de Hegel, Paris, 1947, but go on to criticize his own conclusions.
Recent attempts to derive freedom from quantum mechanics and the principle of indeterminacy can succeed only if the mathematical physics involved is seen as a consequence of a synoptic philosophical interpretation of reality, and not as the controlling factor.
Ästhetik, Bd. I (ed. Bassenge), Frankfurt 1955, pp. 73–74, 161.
I am thinking specifically here of Nietzsche and Heidegger.
As Nietzsche wisely says inEcce Homo, “Um nur etwas von meinem Zarathustra zu verstehn, muss man vielleicht Ähnlich bedingt sein, wie ich es bin — mit einem Fussejenseits des Lebens...” (Schlechta ed., Vol. II, p. 1074).
Of course, Nietzsche regarded his own speech as ‘true’, and so to have transcended mere ‘historicism’. I shall return to this difficulty in the next few paragraphs.
The impossibility, even the hypocrisy of this attempt is clear from the fact that ‘happenings’ are planned or programmed.
This is reminiscent of, and related to, Hume's denial that we perceive causal connections.
PhÄnomenologie des Geistes (ed. Hoffmeister), Hamburg 1952, pp. 523ff.
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Rosen, S. Reflections on Nihilism. Man and World 1, 64–95 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252593
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252593