Philosophy’s highest concepts fail precisely through their claim to totality
Evidence
The motive for dialectics did not lie merely in what offered a certain resistance from below, however. The concepts that allegedly lay at the origin of philosophy, its highest principles, were driving forces behind dialectics as well. It was precisely in their claim to totality that they failed. But if they were not first principles in the absolute sense, then they were not first principles at all. Instead, they wereas `higher’, more active, more dynamic principlesall the more subordinate. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2540
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: A self-consistent philosophy can be completely false while inconsistent systems hold truth — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2213; The hierarchy principle fails precisely where zero-sum thinking takes hold. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 681; Philosophy’s absolute form, though not intuitable, remains fundamentally sensible (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Philosophy’s absolute form, though not intuitable, remains fundamentally sensible
#contradicts(0.85) - Philosophy’s own conceptual method blocks access to the non-conceptual objects it seeks
#corroborates(0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1592 - A self-consistent philosophy can be completely false while inconsistent systems hold truth
#contradicts(0.80) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2213 - Totality of being arises only through the detotalized for-itself
#qualifies(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 585 - The hierarchy principle fails precisely where zero-sum thinking takes hold.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 681 - Totalitarian claims to totality merely reversed the bourgeoisie’s own political philosophy
#complicates(0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 798 - Classical philosophy founded reason on harmony with a totality
#complicates(0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1457