Shadow life
Dec 12, 2013 6:33:37 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2013 6:33:37 GMT -5
Despite the absence of the name "Fedoroff" from Dagobert D. Runes's Dictionary of Philosophy, we do find on the page in question the name of an equally rarely encountered man: Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801 to 1887). He philosophized we are told during the ascendency of modern science and the wane of metaphysical speculation; but though a physicist - as are a number of our members - believing in induction, analogy, history and pragmatic procedure, Fechner expounded a pure, objective idealism of the Berkeley type. (And for Berkeley, remember, the very term "matter" is found upon analysis to mean and stand for nothing but complexes of experienced qualities. For him "existence" except as presence to consciousness is meaningless, and nothing can be said to exist except minds (spirits) and mental content (ideas).)
So, following Berkeley's track, jolly old Fechner held that everything is in consciousness; there are no substances, no things-in-themselves; everything, including animals, plants, earth, and heavens, shares the life of the soul ("alles ist beseelt"). He had the right approach did he not?
He did not publish much, but several of his productions are available at the Internet Text Archive. In 1846 he put out under the alias "Dr. Mises" a short and strange book entitled Four Paradoxes. The headings of the four chapters are:
1) "The Shadow Lives"
2) "Space has Four Dimensions"
3) "Witchcraft Exists"
4) "The Principle that gives rise to the Universe is not Creative, but Destructive."
Here in translation is its first page: straight to the point, in striking contrast to Kant or Hegel, but perhaps a little silly?
"The Shadow Lives
"Thinking that shadows are alive is really nothing new. The ancients already did it when they described men's souls after death as shadows, and in that way restored to them a kind of life. Just as a living man casts a shadow, which stays by his side everywhere he goes; so, according to the Greeks, does he cast a second shadow which follows him at a distance. The first is caused by sunlight; the second by 'life-light.' But why kill a man to give life to that shadow? Must a man not rejoice if the most faithful companion he has under the sun does not accompany him as corpse, but retains a life of its own? And is that not the reason why legends tell us that men who sell their shadows come to a sticky end? What they sell is their twin brother. Once the Devil gets hold of the shadow-soul, he will very soon take possession of the light-soul as well."
So, following Berkeley's track, jolly old Fechner held that everything is in consciousness; there are no substances, no things-in-themselves; everything, including animals, plants, earth, and heavens, shares the life of the soul ("alles ist beseelt"). He had the right approach did he not?
He did not publish much, but several of his productions are available at the Internet Text Archive. In 1846 he put out under the alias "Dr. Mises" a short and strange book entitled Four Paradoxes. The headings of the four chapters are:
1) "The Shadow Lives"
2) "Space has Four Dimensions"
3) "Witchcraft Exists"
4) "The Principle that gives rise to the Universe is not Creative, but Destructive."
Here in translation is its first page: straight to the point, in striking contrast to Kant or Hegel, but perhaps a little silly?
"The Shadow Lives
"Thinking that shadows are alive is really nothing new. The ancients already did it when they described men's souls after death as shadows, and in that way restored to them a kind of life. Just as a living man casts a shadow, which stays by his side everywhere he goes; so, according to the Greeks, does he cast a second shadow which follows him at a distance. The first is caused by sunlight; the second by 'life-light.' But why kill a man to give life to that shadow? Must a man not rejoice if the most faithful companion he has under the sun does not accompany him as corpse, but retains a life of its own? And is that not the reason why legends tell us that men who sell their shadows come to a sticky end? What they sell is their twin brother. Once the Devil gets hold of the shadow-soul, he will very soon take possession of the light-soul as well."