Thought and action, each considered in its essence, may be as distinct as we will ; but in their existence in concrete instances they are so connected that it is possible, and more than possible, for an instance of the one to be an instance of the other also. Actual thinking is a labour to which ethical predicates may attach ; and although it is a mistake to regard thesepredicates as throwing any light on its nature as thinking-a mistake made by those who regard thought as essentially practical-they do throw light on the question under what conditions thought can exist.
Query: How do Collingwood's thoughts about thought & action compare to those of Hannah Arendt?
Descartes, one of the three great masters of the Logic of Questioning (the other two being Socrates and Bacon), insisted upon this as a cardinal point in scientific method, but so far as modern works on logic are concerned, Descartes might never have lived.
Thus there are two things that the deductive sciences, logic and mathematics, always and necessarily overlook; first, they cannot see what makes logic or mathematics precisely what it is, that is, its logicality or mathematicality, any more than a person can see the very ground on which he is standing; and secondly they cannot observe the subject of the logical and mathematical operations. They always see only their own shadows, so to speak, but not themselves. Now it is natural that the mathematicality in mathematics, in other words “number as such,” should be the “absolute” for mathematics; and this very absolute is given to mathematics from outside, demonstrably existing outside its own system.
If—as late as 1900—a Japanese or a Chinese wished to know precise matters about the history of his state and country in recent centuries, he had to read such narratives and accounts written by a European or American historian. But during the twentieth century historical consciousness began to spread, even though unevenly, to nations and peoples previously unaffected by it.
The Economy differs from other world empires, depending neither on Roman legions nor on British battleships, secret police, or stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Its power, like that of religions, has become interiorized. It rules by psychological means. The Economy determines who is included and who marginalized, distributing the rewards and punishments of wealth and poverty, advantage and disadvantage. Because this internalization of its ideas is so unquestioningly and universally accepted, it is the Economy where the contemporary unconscious resides and where psychological analysis is most needed.
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