PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
In this chapter some of the most important problems of the present day
will be touched upon in the light of Eucken's Philosophy of Religion.
Reference has already been made to Eucken's account of the limitations
of various Life-systems, of their struggle with one another, and of the
necessity for a religious synthesis which will include their most
important results within itself.[71] The answer as to the possibility
and necessity of such a synthesis constitutes the kernel of Eucken's
Philosophy of Religion. He has succeeded in a remarkable manner in
assessing the results of science, philosophy, sociology, art, and
religion. In them all he has discovered the presence of a reality which
is non-sensuous in its nature, and, which reveals itself [p.207] in
judgments of value that carry within themselves their own _necessity_
and _self-subsistence_. This is his conclusion in regard to the work of
the spirit of man on whatever plane of knowledge or experience that
spirit works. Man's spirit has to carry all its knowledge and experience
into its own conative spiritual potencies. We thus see that everything
becomes an aid to the unfolding of an ever greater degree of reality
within the spirit of man. It is then within the _spirit_ of man that
everything finds its interpretation and value. Whatever interpretation
is given to anything apart from the union of the _whole_ potency and
cognition of man's spirit is only a partial interpretation. And it is in
the failure to recognise this truth that so many Life-systems have set
themselves against the higher aspects of philosophy and religion. The
most important question has not been asked: What is the relation and
value of all results in connection with the deepest potency and
necessity of man's spirit? Are these results capable of enriching that
spirit of man when he becomes conscious of them? These are the questions
which Eucken continually asks and answers in his great works; and it is
this fact which makes his teaching so valuable and superior to all the
Life-systems of our day. It is difficult to think of any aspect of
experience which Eucken has left out of account. He has not, indeed,
interpreted [p.208] in detail all the Life-systems in vogue, and no
human being is capable of achieving such a task; but he has clearly
perceived the flaws which lie in them all. And this discovery of his has
revealed a flaw common to them all. That flaw consists in ignoring the
presence of a spiritual life as the great workshop where every form of
reality finds its truest meaning. This flaw is so serious in that
several Life-systems have thus over-estimated the importance of their
results by neglecting to take into account the potentialities and
necessities of man's spirit. Let us, then, try to trace this defect in
connection with some of the most important Life-systems in vogue to-day.
When the various systems of _Idealism_ are estimated, they seem to
present aspects of reality with vast portions of human potencies and
experiences left out of account. _Absolute Idealism_ is based upon the
demands and implications of logic. Its doctrines would have taken a very
different colouring had it considered that the necessities of Logic have
to be adjusted to the necessities of Life. Such systems are of little
value to the soul, because the needs of the soul were not taken into
account when they were formulated. This fact was the main cause of the
late Professor James's rebellion against all forms of Absolute Idealism.
He felt that they bore no relationship to human life and its needs, and
consequently could not exercise any important [p.209] influence on life;
they could not move the will, for no possibility of reaching the
Absolute was offered to man. All the conclusions were in the realm of an
_intellectual universal_ and not in the realm of _spirit_. They must be
unreal in the highest sense on account of this very failure. They have
presented their half-gods as realities outside Nature, human nature, the
pressing ideals of life, and even God Himself.
Eucken shows that any true Life-system has to start with Life itself.
There may be interpretations needful which have no implications for
Life, and these have a right of their own; but when such interpretations
are carried further, when the subject who _knows_ such interpretations
and who _uses_ them is taken into account, then the interpretations
found on this level are something quite different from what they were
when the whole spirit of man was not taken into account. Eucken
consequently comes to the conclusion that philosophy has not completely
fulfilled its vocation until it has become a philosophy of _Life_--until
the truest meaning of every object is discovered in its relation to all
the necessities of the spirit. And it is here that his teaching comes
into conflict with so much that goes by the name of Idealism. How can
any system be more than a half-truth when its final meaning is presented
with but little attention to the highest aspect we know in the world
--to human life in its struggles and conquests, [p.210] in its living
and loving, and its forward movement towards some distant goal? The
special value of Eucken's teaching lies, then, in the fact that it
interprets what happens, can happen, and ought to happen within life
itself. No system which leaves out the soul with its possibilities is
complete. This has been done too often in the past, and is being done
to-day. Is it, then, a wonder that philosophy has given so very little
help to Life in its complex problems without and its sharp opposites and
contradictions within? Life is more and needs more than a philosophy of
words, devoid of power, can offer it. Life, when at its best, believes
in the all-power of its own spiritual potency; it has faith in the
possibility of ascent from height to height, as well as in the
possibility of an incessant progress not only of individuals but of the
whole of mankind.[72] A System stands or falls according as it is able
to conceive of Life in such a manner. And Eucken has done this as
probably no other living philosopher has done it.
If we turn to _Immanent Idealism_, we discover the same failure. It
emphasises the presence within consciousness of what is idealistic and
noble, but it leaves out the objective and imperative character of what
is present. It also forgets that the possession of ideals as ideas is
only the initial stage of such ideals becoming a very portion [p.211] of
the deepest substance of soul itself. We may deceive ourselves even with
the contemplation of the best ideals; they can never become truly ours
until the will is set in motion and the whole nature is stirred to its
depths in order to press forward to what it perceives as having infinite
value. Something has inevitably to happen within the depth of the soul
before its real creation can advance. Eucken here, again, has perceived
this truth and presents it everywhere with great power. His Philosophy
is an _Activism_ of the most powerful type. He is aware that to _know_
and to _be_ are so far apart. But his Activism is not a mere movement of
the individual's will, brought forth by anything that has grown within
it as a private inheritance. The Activism is started and kept going on
its course by the over-personal norms and values already referred to. It
is the union of norm and will that constitutes the full action. Life's
greater meaning and value is, therefore, not a ready-made possession; it
is rather something already possessed, and a vision of something _more_
in the distance to be possessed.[73] The presence of the Divine within
the soul is not the same prior to the search and after the search. This
is [p.212] one of the most distinctive features of Eucken's teaching,
and constitutes a necessary supplement to certain presentations of
Immanent Idealism prevalent in various forms to-day.
When we pass to _Materialism_ in its various forms, we find Eucken
conscious of its poverty and its caricature of life. It is caused by
excessive absorption in the sensuous object with all its manifold
relations. But it is possible to believe in all that it states; for it
can never really say anything concerning the deeper meaning of spiritual
life if for no other reason than that it cannot penetrate into life's
deeper experiences. It is a stage in human thought which is passing
away. What will become of it after Professor Haeckel's passing is
difficult to imagine. One thing at least is certain: as a complete
system of the universe or of life it is doomed.[74] A mechanical
interpretation of the universe is legitimate: we may have to adopt more
of such interpretations in the future. But there is no need for any
alarm from the sides of philosophy and religion. Their citadel is not
built upon a _thing_, but upon a _thought_; and the gap between the two
increases in the degree in which our knowledge of Nature and Man
increases. Eucken has many great things to say on this subject in his
larger works. Doubtless he would agree with some of the [p.213]
advocates of _Naturalism_ in regard to the meaning of the physical
universe, but such agreement would not be an admission that _all_ had
been said that could be said concerning the need and the possibility of
a _Metaphysic of Life_.
The one word _More_ constitutes all the difference. This _More_, with
Eucken, is the beginning of a new order of existence and of value where
the physical order ends. His work consists in interpreting this _More_,
and we have already seen whither the _More_ leads us: it leads us into
spiritual norms and their values, and these in their turn led us into
Infinite Love in the Godhead. The failure to see the value of all this
is due to the inattention of the advocates of Naturalism in regard to
the non-sensuous structure of mind: the _Thing and its relations_
monopolise them so completely that they are blind to every reality
non-sensuous in its nature, although they possess some amount of such
reality in their very knowledge and adoration of the _Thing_. Our
troubles will continue to accumulate, and the prospect of the future
will grow extremely dark, if the grip which physical things have on the
world to-day be not relaxed. The very physical powers which we have
helped to create, and which hitherto have proved of service to men, will
mean our destruction unless something of the _More_ which is beyond them
be found as a possession and an activity within the governing centre of
life. This is Eucken's [p.214] plea over against the various forms of
the Naturalism and Materalism of our day. These are not enough for man.
But man is so slow in recognising this fact. The appeal of Spiritual
Idealism is considered to be something which is vague and useless. Our
deepest reality and the source of all true energy have been robbed of
their efficacy by our absorption in scraping together physical elements
of chaff and dust. How often does Eucken show our dire poverty in the
midst of all this external plenty! The all-sufficiency of all forms of
Naturalism condemns itself through its failure to pass beyond itself.
Had there not been some who did pass beyond the _Thing and its
relations_ the spiritual values of the race would have been annihilated.
"As soon as we demand to pass beyond mere awareness to a genuine
knowledge, we discover our deplorable poverty, and must confess that
what is termed certain seems on clearer investigation to rest upon a
totally insecure foundation."[75] "It is not natural science itself
which leads to naturalism, for, indeed, no natural science could arise
if reality exhausted itself in the measurements of naturalism; but it is
rather the weakness of the conviction of the spiritual life; it is the
failure of certitude in regard to the presence of a spiritual existence;
it is the unclearness concerning the _inner_ conditions of all mental
and spiritual activity which a shallow and popular philosophy [p.215]
presents--it is all this which turns natural science into a
materialistic naturalism."[76] The strength of materialistic _monism_
does not lie in any proof of there being nothing but mechanism in this
wide universe, but in its energetic propaganda against certain
traditional theological forms of ecclesiastical religion--forms which
are rapidly being disowned by the leaders of religious thought. Even
monism concedes that "it is better being good than bad, better being
sane than mad." This concession, and the attempt to live according to
it, constitute a proof of the presence in some form of a non-sensuous
reality and value in the constructions of materialistic monism itself.
Hence, Eucken's conception of spiritual life cannot be got rid of after
all. It will remain so long as men live above the animal level and
strive to ascend to something higher still.
When the _neo-Kantian_ movement is examined, we find that its long and
honourable history presents us with gains which cannot be measured. But
we have already noticed that in so far as this movement has specialised
within the domain of the connections of mind and body, and has attempted
to reduce psychology to the limits of the relations between the two, it
is largely outside the _inner_ meaning and value of the life of
consciousness. [p.216] Its work has proved useful in many important
respects. It has made man realise that the connection of body and mind
is not so simple a matter as materialistic naturalism would lead us to
suppose; and it has shown, on the whole, the impossibility of reducing
consciousness to mechanical elements. Even in the various forms of
psycho-physical parallelism the factor of mind and meaning stands apart
in its origin from the factors of bodily movement. But neo-Kantianism
has developed on higher lines than those of physiological psychology. It
has dealt with the presence of an inner world of thought--a world of
values and judgments of values, of norms, imperatives, and
ideals--realities which are not presented in any scheme of natural
science. It is impossible to read such a great book as the late
Professor Otto Liebmann's _Analysis der Wirklichkeit_[77] without
discovering this truth. In this great work, as well as in his _Gedanken
und Thatsachen_, Liebmann shows how man is more than a natural product.
[p.217] "Natural science," he tells us, "is a very useful, and, indeed,
an indispensable handmaid to philosophy, but it is in no manner the
first, the deepest, the most original basis of philosophy."[78]
Liebmann's successors, especially Windelband, Rickert, Münsterberg,
Adickes, and Vaihinger, work on similar lines. And there is a great deal
in Eucken's teaching which tends in the same direction. But he goes a
step further than all the neo-Kantians. We have already noticed how he
gives judgments of value and spiritual norms a _cosmic_ significance. He
finds that when these norms and values have awakened with great
clearness within man's spirit they inevitably lead to the conception of
the Godhead. And it is in this work that Eucken's Metaphysic of Life
becomes a _religious metaphysic_. As values and norms mean so much when
a reality is granted them by the truest of the neo-Kantians, they come
to mean infinitely more when they are acknowledged as somehow
constituting the foundation and the acme of all existence. Eucken's main
desire is to establish such norms and values beyond the possibility of
dispute and beyond the constant changes of Life-systems. They mean for
him what is present within their spiritual content as a realisation as
well as the _More_ to which they still point. His teaching is not
contradicted by anything in the neo-Kantian movement;[p.218] he accepts
its transcendental reality and lifts it out of the realm of
individuality and of history into a cosmic realm. After having followed
the implications of the neo-Kantian movement so far, he feels compelled
to take the next step. For unless that next step is taken, some of the
deepest potencies of human nature fail to come to flower and fruit. When
the step is taken, they do blossom and bear fruit. Is not this a
sufficient justification for taking the "next step"? It is; for man
cannot allow any potency of his being to remain dormant without
suffering a loss; and on this highest level of all the loss must be
incalculable. "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart will
never find its rest until it rests on Thee." That confession of
Augustine is Eucken's confession also; and it is the implication which
such a confession contains that constitutes the significance of his
message to the world. He is in the line not only of the philosophers but
of the prophets and the mystics. The ladder of knowledge reaches, like
Jacob's ladder, up to heaven itself--to that pure atmosphere where
knowledge, merged in a deeper reality, becomes something so different
from what it was before. An eternal blessedness has now become the
possession of man.
Eucken has a great deal to say regarding the _Historical_ Life-systems
of the present day. [p.219] He is aware that the neglect by German
thinkers of the fundamental importance of Hegel's teaching on this
question has meant a heavy loss. That loss is already perceived, and
Hegel's value in the realm of the Philosophy of History is being
rediscovered. Men are more and more feeling the necessity of conceding a
validity and objectivity to the concepts of History. The work of the
late Professor Dilthey[79] in this respect is of great importance, and
has strong affinities with Eucken's teaching on the same subject. But
Dilthey's objectivity and validity stopped short of religion in the
sense in which religion is presented by Eucken. Dilthey gave the norms
of History a transcendental objectivity and considered them sufficient
for man. But Eucken, as already stated, while granting all this and even
insisting upon it, finds that the norms of History do not include the
whole that human nature needs. The "next step" has to be taken whereby a
reality is revealed beyond the confines of the best collective
experiences of the human race. Once more, we are landed in the
conception of the Godhead. The step became inevitable, because the best
[p.220] historical concepts, in their totality, pointed to something
still beyond themselves.
During the past few years Eucken has devoted much attention to the
Life-system presented in _Pragmatism_. He is alive to the value of much
of the work of the late Professor William James and of Dr F.C.S.
Schiller. He feels that Absolute Idealism is too abstract and too remote
from life to move the human will. It is too much like placing a man
before a mountain, and asking him to remove it. The very magnitude of
the object weakens instead of strengthening the will. Pragmatism has the
merit of insisting that the task be done piecemeal, so that man may not
lose heart at the very outset. And some kind of goal is present in
Pragmatism. But Eucken's main objection to Pragmatism is that, however
adequate it may be at the beginning of the enterprise, it will tend, as
time passes, to turn man in the direction of the line of least
resistance, and so be degraded to the level of the ordinary life and its
petty demands.[80] His Activism is entirely different from James's
Pragmatism. James depended too much upon the "span of the moment" and
its immediate experience. There is in this "span" often no cosmic
conviction present in consciousness to proclaim that the action is
[p.221] "worth while" at all costs. While constantly demanding the need
of effort in order to experience the deeper potencies of spiritual life,
Eucken insists that such effort can enter into a current only in so far
as norms and values are clearly perceived as the meaning and goal of
spiritual life. A _universal_ of meaning and value must be perceived,
however imperfectly it may be, before the individual can call his
deepest nature into activity. And what is such a _universal_ but
something beyond the flow of the moment and beyond the realm of ordinary
daily life? Such a _universal_, too, must have an existence of its
own--an existence and a value which are beyond the opinions of any
individual or of any group of individuals, even if such a group were to
include the whole human race. It is clear, then, why Eucken parts
company with Pragmatism.
If, finally, we view his attitude towards the _Religious_ Life-systems
of our generation, we find words of warning and of encouragement. His
whole work culminates in religion. But he teaches us that we have to
learn from the sides of knowledge already presented in this chapter. And
it may be said that the Christian Church (or any other Church) has yet
to learn this lesson. It still seeks to find its revelation in what
_was_, and in modes which come constantly into direct conflict with the
results of the various Life-systems already referred to. It wants the
fruits of religion without tilling [p.222] the ground and nurturing its
plants. Its insistence on placing the basis of religion in myth and
miracle dooms it to a greater disaster in the future than even in the
past. Eucken sees no hope for a "revival" of religion in the soul until
an inverted order of conceiving reality takes place. The religious
synthesis from the intellectual side is to be obtained by passing
through the grades of reality explicit in the various Life-systems, and
by abstaining from the imposition of barriers which forbid anyone
roaming and "ruminating" within these. If one condition is obeyed, this
is the most fruitful way to construct a new religious metaphysic which
will supplant traditional theology. That condition is that the various
Life-systems form a kind of scale which extends from Matter up to the
Godhead. The new religious metaphysic will then mean a real philosophy
of values.
Does this constitute an impossible task for the Christian Church? It
will remain impossible so long as we look upon the essence of
Christianity as something which descends upon us apart from the exertion
of our own spiritual potencies. It is a consolation to know that the
highest reality may be experienced without having to undergo a training
in the methods and implications of science, history, or metaphysics. But
the experience here cannot possibly mean so much as the experience which
passes through and beyond the implications of knowledge to the [p.223]
Divine. Such an experience as the latter must be richer in content. And
even apart from this, it produces something of value on the intellectual
side--something which grants religion a security in the eyes of the
world. When the Church tends in this direction, its faith will come into
comradeship with the various branches of human knowledge as these reveal
themselves on level above level. Christianity has nothing to fear, but
everything to gain, from the development of all the branches of human
knowledge. Its source being Spiritual and Eternal, why should opposition
be presented to any development of the lower realities in science,
Biblical criticism, history, and philosophy? This lesson is not yet
learned, and Eucken pleads for its acknowledgment. "If we consider how
much is involved in such a change in the position of the spiritual life,
and if we also present before ourselves what transformations
civilisation, culture, history, and natural science carry within
themselves, we see clearly the critical situation in which religion is
placed, because these surface-changes are not of the essence of
religion. Through the mighty expansion and the fissures which these
changes bring about, the old immediacy and intimacy of the soul have
become lost, and religion has now receded into the distance, and is in
danger of vanishing more and more. The derangement of things which such
changes cause occurs [p.224] not only in connection with their own facts
and material and against their old forms, but the effect proceeds into
the very character and feelings of man and into his religion. And yet,
when we examine the matter more closely, we find that such changes cause
not so much a breach with Christianity as with its traditional form, and
that they seek to bring about a fundamental renewal of Christianity. For
when we penetrate beyond the motives and dispositions of men to their
spiritual basis, all the changes are unable to contradict what is
essential to Christianity, but they even promise to assist this
essential element in its new, freer, and more energetic development. But
we have to bear in mind that all this will not descend upon us like a
shower of rain, but will have to be brought forth through immense labour
and toil. It becomes necessary to replace that which must pass away, and
to reconsolidate the essentials which are threatened. All this cannot
come about save through an energetic concentration and deepening of the
spiritual life, save through a struggle against the superficiality of
Time regardless of all consequences, and save through a vivification and
integration of all that points in the right direction."[81]
[p.225] This passage illustrates well Eucken's whole attitude regarding
Christianity. It is evident that much remains to be done within and
without the Church. Within, radical changes are to take place; but
always in the light and with the preservation of the spiritual
substance. Without, the indifference of a vast portion of the civilised
nations of the world has to be reckoned with. It is an immense problem,
often enough to dishearten good men and women. How can men be moved from
their inertia and their resentment against the deeper demands which
spiritual life makes upon every human being? That is the problem of
problems and the task of tasks to-day. No clear solution of it is yet
perceptible. But in the meantime, those who care for Divine things and
who have experienced some of their power within their own souls must
hold fast to all they possess, and labour unceasingly to increase the
spiritual value of their possession. Probably catastrophes have to
happen in order to bring the world home to religion and God.
Rudolf Eucken's gospel is a proclamation of the necessity of religion
and the possibility of its possession. This, according to him, is the
final goal of all knowledge and life. If religion is not this, it is the
most tragic deception conceivable. "Religion is either merely a
sanctioned product of human wishes and pictorial ideas brought about by
tradition and [p.226] the historical ordinance--and, if so, no art,
power, or cunning can prevent the destruction of such a bungling work by
the advance of the mental and spiritual movement of the world; or
religion is founded upon a superhuman fact--and, if so, the hardest
assaults cannot shatter it, but rather, it must finally prove of service
in all the troubles and toils of man; it must reach the point of its
true strength and develop purer and purer its Eternal Truth."[82]
The fact that the influence of Rudolf Eucken's personality and teaching
is spreading with such rapidity and power from west to east and from
north to south is a proof that an increasing number of men and women are
aspiring after a religion of spiritual life such as was presented by the
Founder of our Christianity. All the Life-systems of our day must
converge towards such a conception of religion.
* * * * *