Spirit and Man An Essay on Being and Value
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SPIRIT AND MAN AN ESSAY ON BEING AND VALUE
by
NATHAN ROTENSTREICH Professor of Philosophy The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
II THE HAGUE
MARTINUS NI]HOFF 1963
Copyrighl1963 by Marlinus NijJwjf, TIre Hague, Netherlands All righls reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or paris thereof in any form ISBN-I3: 978-90-247-0127-8 e-ISBN-I3: 978-94-010-3614-6 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-3614-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part One /
DIMENSIONS
I. Consciousness a. b. c. d. e. f.
g. h. 1. k.
Alertness Elucidation Spontaneity Cognition Self-consciousness Truth and self-consciousness Activity and structure Trends of consciousness Privacy and community Identity
II. Experience III. Spirit and Principles Part Two /
3 4 7 9 11 12 15 16 18 19
22 44
FEATURES
IV. On human Nature 1. Features are a topic for philosophical contemplation 2. Some factual features of human life can be understood only by referring to philosophical distinction 3. Cognition and posture 4. Environment and world 5. Education 6. Instincts 7. Language and learning 8. Learning 9. Tools 10. Historicity 11. Potentiality and individuality 12. The dynamic relation between factors 13. Anthropocentrism 14. Finiteness 15. The analysis is not too optimistic
V. The linguistic capacity Part Three /
77 81 83 84 85 86 87 89 92 95 99 103 106 112 121
124
SIGNIFICANCE
VI. Freedom a. The preference of the preferable b. Levels of freedom
VII. The worthiness of Man Index
157 190
217
253
PART ONE
DIMENSIONS
CHAPTER I
CONSCIOUSNESS
Our aim is to present a constructive theory of consciousness and spirit. A difficulty arises, however, in that the nature of consciousness, which we construe as a type of activity crystallizing itself into a specific plane or phase of reality, does not lend itself to complete description. This limitation holds not only for the nature of consciousness, but for every other phase of reality as well. Nevertheless, we are able to arrive at some experience of its nature and some elementary understanding of the way in which it functions. Our first objective will be to point out several characteristics of consciousness, beginning with the position it occupies in relation to external reality. This end is best achieved by proceeding introspectively at first, so as to aware of consciousness and through analysis of the basic directions of conscious activity, to arrive at a tentative description of consciousness. In this way, we are able to arrive at an analysis of the major functions of consciousness. l (a) Alertness. Alertness is distinguished by both an orientation to, and transcendence of the environment or given situation. We only encounter this position of alertness when the human being is not totally submerged in the conditions and circumstances to which he orients himself; when he somehow understands and, by so doing, ceases to be a mere part of them and becomes independent - at least partially - of them. Consciousness masters a situation through being alert but does so from its own position and does not become
