Types of men. The Psychology and Ethics of Personality 9780598835390

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221 experienced and interpreted.

The

roots of metaphysics too are to

attempt to remain be found in these spiritual motives, in spite of its The hopelessness of this aim has already been pure cognition.

by Kant when he disclosed the development of the mimdus intelUgihilis by moral consciousness, and placed the category {Primat dcr praJctlscJien of value above the category of being. demonstrated

appended

may have moved Hamann when he

Something similar

Vermmft.)

expression

the

to

‘Things of another world are nothing

the note;

another world’

of

‘things

more than

certain peculiar

views of the present changeable and sensible nature which that

is

Keduced

given to ns.’^)

supernatural world-picture with

God beyond, which

‘lifts

is

forms,

is

all

to the final simplest motives, the

creation out of nothing and the

its

of

central experience

a

of

freedom

Pantheism on the other hand,

above nature’.

itself

in all its different

dency which

radiation

a

is

is

of the experience of depen-

a reflex

based on the biological, logical or aesthetic context

of life.

Finally,

of the

empirical

follows from this that such a strong devaluation

it

be bound up

consciousness of reality can

witli

world degenerates into mere

the theistic viewpoint that the present

appearance, or at least into a meaningless purely negatively deter-

mined matter

(//?)

This sentiment plays as important a part

ov).

dualism as in Kant’s and the entire early Christian world

in Plato’s

lived in this dualism

But since

of

cognition

mind and body. and

its

—

achievements finds in religious

one must from

consciousness such an opposing force,

its

point of

view, either through I’eflection or experience, consider the question of the ‘limits

thus appears dualistic

of cognition’.

type

to belief.

motivated scepticism; giving

of

religious

sufficiencies;

has

three

Either science

refer

meaning

in

its

to

‘belief

the contrast which

and knowledge’ the

is

of

subordinating

devaluated by a religiously so to speak, constitutive

or the functional sphere of belief sort

of

possibilities

so that there is,

mutually delimited by a

also

we

by the naive old phrase

religious

knowledge

If

room

lacks

for the

and

and knowledge

inis

double mental book keeping in

0 In P. H. Jacobi, Works Vol. IV, 2, p. 70. Very characteristic is the note which Goethe (Maxims and Reflections IV.) adds to thi.s

passage in

Hamann: For him, as a pronounced immanent mystic, the turning toward another world amounts to watching the blindspot or mental aberration.

TYPES OF MEN THE PSYCHOLOaY AND ETHICS OF PERSONALITY

-

OT

^IDUABD SPBANGER FBOrESSOB OP PHILOSOPHY AXH PPOAQOOICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OP BERLIN

AUTHOEIZED TRANSLATION OP THE PIFTH GERMAN EDITION BY

PAUL J

W

PIGOES Ph.D

MAX NIEMETER VERLAG HALLE (SAALB) 1928

HAFNER PUBLISHING COMPANY

NEW YORK

All nglits renrred Coigrrigbt

bj Mns

AicfflCfcr Verltg, Halle

(Saale),

l'i3ti

DEDICATED TO

ALOIS AND SOFIE RIEHL WITH LOVE EVERLASTING

TABLE OF CONTENTS vn

Author’s Preface Part I

Philosophical Basis.

Chapter

1

„

2

Two Kinds of Psychology Methods of Qeisteswissensdmft

3 Analytical and Syn-

21

thetical

3 4

„

5

Mental Acts of Solidarity The Elementary Mental Laws

33 55

6

SubjeotiTO Spheres of Interests and Objective Levels

„

7

Summnry''and Outline

II

The Idcallp Basic Types of Indmduahty

„

Part

Indmdnal Mental Acts

„

,

The Theoretic Attitude The Economic Attitude The Aesthetic^ Attitude 4 The Social Attitude 5 The Political Attitude 6 The Eeligious Attitude

Chapter 1 2 „ ^ r

„ „

Part III

'

Part

2

The Ethical Problem The One sided Systems

„

3

Collective

IV

172 188 210

Conserpiences foi Ethics

„

„

109 130 147

3

Chapter 1

„

64 84 104

249 of Ethics

and Individual Morality

4 The Hierarchy of Values 5 The Personal Ideal

The Understanding of Mental

„

Complex TjT®® 2 Histoncally determined Types

„

3

„

4

Chapter 1

On Understanding The Hhythm of Life

257 267 278 304

Slnictuics

319 348 366 391

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

P

erhaps the study of

man

is

any other science

And

it is

we have

more worthy of consideiation than cnnous that though for centanes

the nn/beious species of plants and animals in

classified

a well-ordered system, and have mosses and each minute fication

species

At any

homo

we

rate,

still

names

for the raiest

regard man, whose classi-

he weie

if

is

by

human

of

differences

and

one

'relations of

Noah’s Ark

But thisjs only genealogy not morphology

contains an infinite vaiictj

all of

man, only

the species

classify

and clan, that

according to race, nationalit} descent

scientific

ne

insect,

should be more impoitant to us, as

if

there were

a Linnaeus of anthropology he would need manj more than twentyfour classes to cover (he most important foims of the

human body,

oven disregaiding the human soul This book attempts to carry ont a new method of diffeiontiating

human

There have been many

types, especially types of the soul

attempts to solve this problem, and the old theoiy of Tempei aments

has endured for thousands of years

The

^Charactets’ of Theophiastus

ranks with the most important literature of the world of

man

ancient

The more a

times

organic world

is

carried

biological

ovei

into

and genetic study of the

the

woild of

frequent are the attempts to utilize the instincts dencies

Gl issification

according to his dominant emotions also dates back to

of

man

as

a basis for classifying

more the

are

emphasized, the finer are the methods

of intelligence

is

And

In these

undoubtedly the leadei

Everyone must admit that man can be

by interpreting him

more

developed for deter-

mining them on a qualitative and quantitative basis psychological efforts America

tho

anginal ten-

and general endowment

the

differences

man oi

the individual

as a multifoim

entirely undei stood only

phenomenon among the psy chic

organisms of the earth, and as a biologically determined being

having great

possibilities

of variation

As such

a being

man

is

—

—

vm

dependent on the conditions of his nitiinl inMnonnicnt like >n\ other jininnl, rcprnrdlecs of nhether one ronsidcrs Jus psAcJnc onl>

diftcrentntion>! •IS

the result of einironmcntsl diffcrentis or

is

the outcome of diff’crcnl mental direclues

onh

in

the

Icicl

n

n

but

iturnl

serintion of his life depend

md

poners to

The

book

this

Mcn point

il

mcntil

ilso

problem

llie

1

on the

is

learned Isrgcl}

Jins

calcgonts

from

the

liittei

think tint the biological foun-

il

and ln\c

region

hitlicito

leitlu in which mtanlng-conknts

ncglcetcd

become

Ameucin, Lnglish, and

i

In Gernnui

with

the

nothcr line of

Ihoiiglit

is

soeiological

Ins been dc\ duped,

of Culture (liultmiyhilosophc)

called the 'Pliilosophi

life

large estent rrench scientists ako,

consider thc-e p-ichie altitudes of bthivior

problems

slaits

to

these

Eignifieant

bciond mere adaptation to conditions which bareh pri-scnc nsiivlh

ire

tod'ii

(cultur'il)

piiniiinlv

«l

pre-

unimport'int but because sticntisls have minutch

ire

the biologic

snpcrbiologic

And

forces

ciiltnriil

nhich he represents

bnt

biological

do «o not because

1

dations of life

studied

much on

is

dificrontntioiis

consider

1

m'ln li\es not

formstion and

tlie

energies of intnrc ninth lus mind

control

therefore not onli In

lliil

n mltiirnl cniironinent

.ilso in

he has schicicd lodat

iiliirli

Tins school

coni option tint there arc dcteriiiin ints of higher

developmental levels other thin the mere f'Ct of social lelations

These

factors

creating

unique objective contents of experiencing and

arc

cm,

that

nevertheless

obev

of course, livv-

Thus

there

is

vvliich

appcir

oiilv

cannot

bo deduced from the mere

in

forms

sociil

hut

and act in common

fact that people live i

diftircncc between the soeicdogv

iiiaikcd

of

Gciman 'GctslcspJtilocopJiic or KnUnrphJosophic icison nnnv points of view set forth here m iv seem

"Western nations ind

Tor

this

thcAracncm

foreign to

these chapters the

general

Ic iding

i

mav give

1 ask Iheitforc tint he

of the argument before condemning

For, the f

psv chologists

leader

fnendlv consider ition and at least ittcmpt

ticnd

icts

considered bv

arc to a large

extent

to follow

it

as mis-

both Amcric.m and German the same

And

these

f.icts

which we tn

to understand scientific illv will appear most clcarlv the reader begins with the summarv of the first part lOG) and then reads Paitll The first part might (pp 104

if

—

give tho impression that tin® (it the recent International

is

inotlici

instance of whit Clapartdc

Congress of pBjdiologv

m

Groningen,

1926) complained of as tLe German passion the contiary, as indicated

genuine

are these

by the German

life-forms

It

my

is

title

belief

On

‘Zehensformen', these

that

we cannot

solve

by such simple psychological concepts as ‘Idea’, ‘Instinct’, ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Inheritance and we need more complex tools of analysis

questions

‘Peeling’,

‘Striving’,

but

Variation’,

that

Modem Geiman

psychologists usually speak of the investigation of

We

forms (^Gmeheitsfo) scinmg)

total

wilting systematic

foi

Bat we are not dealing here with abstract questions

treatises

no longei believe that the

highei psychic achievements can be understood through the summation 01

We

elaboration of simple psychological elements

regard these

elements as dependent phenomena in a meaningful hfe-totahty the

whole

which must be known

of

one wants to understand the

it

part played in the psychic whole by each individual psychic function

In a word, which

new psychology context

physical organism

its

oiganism

is

and vegetative functions,

The same

it,

it

Even a

oi

aggregation

is

a life-unity

cells is

determined

Besides that, the total

whose conditions

and from which, by means of

‘vital importance’ for

its

it

sense organs

chooses just those factois that arc of

that

is,

of biological significance

more apparent on a mental level No one feelings, instincts and volitional acts belong

relation is

can deny that ideas, as

and the elementary

group of

whole

also placed in an environment for

internally organized

just

cell oi

relation or contribution to the

this

or meaningful total

life- context,

more than a mere summation which could exist alone It

which the function of each

by IB

is

one of

each

of cells

becomes the fundamental concept of

leceive their significance only from this total

functions

in

also

the structure,

of primary importance foi psychology,

IS

much

to

economic activity

investigation

scientific

or

as

leligwus contemplation

to

atUstic

creation,

But for the very

reason that these elements appear in all these connections, the

importance

lies

pecubar kind

not so

much

in the elements themselves as in their

And

of interaction

this inteiaction to

foim a total

achievement of unique significance 1 call a stmetwe

The concept IS

familiar

to

stiuctiire

biologists,

the theoiy of organisms grasp

reason

the

we

whole both in

or law of construction (Aiifbaugesets)

and

But its

this it is

concept of totality appears in

always

difficult for science to

totabty and individuality

follow a procedure that

is

For

this

divided into four steps, each

Btep of wLicli 16 as artificial ns all mental analysis of an organism

must be

wc

(1) First

totality of the soul its

pure form, that

ideal tjTies which

abstraction

Then we think of this value-tendenc} m we idealise it In this way we construct

ifl,

we use

This

as regular though artificial outlines

counteracted by our third step,

is

from tbc

isolate a psjohic value -tendency

(2)

(3) the relation of

the one-sided tjpe to the whole (the method of totalisation)

(4)

The

fourth step also counterbalances the initial artificiality of our method b) the process of individuahsation which emphasizes special historical,

Thus we develop we think of the abstract

geographical and wholly personal circumstances

a

scientific

method similar

First

to Galileo’s

we add more and more

pure case and then

concrete conditions

In this way the psychology of higher psychic phenomena can

be made

a science suitable for the foundation of the various

into

social sciences insofar as the

understood at

all

Even though

this

ovenndmdnal

cultural forms can be

through their reactions on individual mental

whole method may seem too

life

abstract, nevertheless

abstraction is on essential preliminaiy for science

Even

anal) tical

geometry does not begin at once with curves of the second order but rather with regular figures such

is

the straight line, the circle

or the sphere, and then proceeds to the most complex forms, provided that such

forms

illustrate

still

a law by means of which they

weie evolved

Our aim

is to

contemporaneous society

cognize psyohologicallv the context of our real

life

as

In Germany

we

it

goes on in the frame of a civilized

are convinced that this life not only can

be undei stood psychologically but that

it

also represents

individual context of unique laws of meaning only

an over-

Here, however,

we

venture to deal with what can be expenenced in individual

mental

life

It

would be wholly erroneous

to

believe that any

one of these types really exists as desenbed by our wholly one-sided method. They exist as little as we may expect to find a perfect cube, or a rigid body or a body falling in a struction of these ideal basic types of clarify

and bring order

vacuum The conhuman nature serves only to

to the confusion of

complex real forms There

must be some way for our thought to approach these and more closely Therefore suffice

to

it

is

realities

most important to question whether our

understand the most

significant

forms

more tyqies

of personality.

—

XI

Pei haps the reader misses a basic type that has been more definitely

The

expressed in America the ‘Peoweei

type

’

phenomenon Bnt I consider type Por the centie of this the

in

pioneei

the

conquest of

for existence

great

theiefoie,

IS

aesthetic

achievements

that

well tiained

is,

To

self-control

eneigies,

this extent his

When

Thus man

is

filled

utiLtarian aim) in

tlie

it

it

with a joyous piide,

oots,

were,

has a leaning to

consciousness pf his

even

participating in the peaceful competition of sport

i

the feeling

enjoyed onlj in the preliminary exercise (as

side

He

and the conquest of the elements

foimallv, with no immediatel}

the

political

Usually the

obstacles

mental impulses, are biological

like those of all

power

material

vitality,

pon era and

decisive volitional

of

an expression of the

attitude lies in the feeling of powei,

human and

himself with the urgent problems of colonisation,

busies

struggle

needs,

as

it

I did not consider

and inventor) as an independent

a uniqne and very important

lepresents

it

why

translatoi asked

(the adventurer, explorer

giant that

I

if

And

he if

is

onn only

ho breaks

a record he glows with the feclmg of superioiity in which he experiences the apotheosis of his vital energies substitute for military traming for the instincts tend to it

Spoit becomes a

modem man whose

atiophy in peaceful society

,

all the

includes real dangers and serious obstacles

combatii o

moie insofar as

Indeed spoit has

now become almost a sepaiato legion of onltnro which might have Nevertheless 1 have not developed it as its own typical attitude such because this sphere of

power and the

overlap

lies

on the borderlme where the region

aesthetic spheie of play parti}

jSport is

touch and partly

a divergence from the political instinct into an

imaginatively determined foim of play as demanded b} a peaceful, indnstiialized

and democratic community objected that this book abandons the concicte

Some people have

gionnd of experience and lednces psychologj to mere speculation 1

cannot admit this objection and beg indulgence

the reasons for

my

stand

finall} to indicate

Ps} chological experience

is

not gained

only in the laboratory oi the clinic or merely fiom contempoiar}

human of this

beings bnt also from the vast nnmbei of

whom wo know broademng

of

men

only through literary documents onr

experience

all the

of the past

Wo

need

more since otherwise

we should learn only psychological phenomena which coriespond What is the value of the most comto our cultural determinants

xn

—

prohensivc mnES-statisticB compared to tbo enormous material of different pE}chic

strnotnres

psychology aims

and

aspect

whicli

Innsmits

Listory

M\

ns’

to

an understanding of these historical etmcturcs

at

even though I can give

their transfoi matron

The supplement

to this typo psy

Bpace to this

little

chology would be a de\ elop-

mental psr chology' emphasizing on one hand structural transformations in the different ages of individuals in the

human

soul itself during

have only attacked the

I

IQt'i

JvgcndaUos'

dcs

first

and on the

its

other, stiiictnral changes

So far

thonsand-y car-old history

pait of this problem in

ed Leipzig 1928 It

my

'^Psj/chologie

also necessary to study

is

the mental stincture of piimitivc people or earlier cultural epochs,

and a few attempts have been made in nail’s

And

To

this direction

well-known book 'Adolescence' I owe

many

Stanley

suggestions

Spengler and the explorer Probenius in Germany liaie shown

an especially

go

sense in this direction

fine psi chological

To summarize direction which I am beyond

book only

this

a

takes

first step,

convinced must be pursued further

if

but in a

ps\ chologi

phenomena to the understanding The more differentiated modern men and

elementary

IS

to

of

higher mental lifc^

cultures become, the greater will be our need of these insights for

oui practical life

and IS

if

as

We

possible in the it

must bridge the gap between soul and

context of life from which our

modem

culture has drifted

This

aw ay but

without which a higher culture in the long run cannot last I

soul,

same way between group and group

were, the conscious re- establishment of the diiine total

want

to

—

thank the translator for the great pains he has

taken in preparing this book for the English -reading pnbbc

am

also

much indebted

to

Dr Japha

in

Halle (Saale)

for

reading of the English text and careful revision of the proof

has thus aided greatly lu the success of a

And

finally I

difficult

wish to thank my friend and pupil

I

the

She

undertaking

Dr Wenke

in Berlin

for his help

Berlin, Febniary 25

1926

Eduard Spranger.

PART

I

PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS

iger, Tjpea of

mon

1

TWO KINDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

O

ne might begm a study of character and with the question

pomt

scientific

of view?

its

possible types

I9 there such a thing as character from a

Empiricists maintain that

we must

limit

clnracter study strictly to actual psychological processes and their

The} also believe that theie is no gionnd for assuming earner of these expenences and reactions, either constant or

vanations -I

developing according to definite laws

admit that states,

many

there

is

Foi, even though empincists

an individual connected with psychological

of them regard this individual as a flux 01 an event

(Altus) and so declare that

it is

unwarranted

to conceive it as a

substance

by substance we necessarily mean ‘matenal substance* this attitude 16 only too well justified. Eant too limited the concept of substance to the permanent substratum which we think of apnori as underlying all temporally changmg natural phenomena This, If

however, IS,

is

only the transcendental conception of substance, that

the concept of permanence in a theory of cognition

scientist

means by substance not only what

is

But the

absolutely permanent

and unchanging but also a unifying law or a sum

total of

laws

by means of which we think of a subject relatively permanent in time Thus the scientist divides substance into a complex of ‘legal’ relations .ind

which are valid for a mental subject locabsed in space

time I

cannot conceive

how

the

Geisteswissenschaft&i

could get

along without such a concept of substance, namely the assumption that the behavior of a subject which is identical scientifically investigated

Only by means

m

time

may be

of this conception is the

mental subject determined as having 'being* and the manifoldness of

its

behavior

reduced

to

essential

{Wesens-

corielations

verJcmiepftinge/i)

1*

4

The problem however,

further complicated bj

is

undergoing some sort of development in which

as

the fact that

the individual as stable, but must think of

we cannot regard

its

‘being’

it

is

preserved according to certain laws in spite of organic deformation, 1

which necessarily follow one from

e certain changes of condition

ps\oholog\

We

the

of

at

stage

definite

shall, rather, take a cross-section of the subject

maturity and view

of mental

attitudes

laws

ns the earner of constant

it

That we are here dealing with

behaaior

shown bj the

is

we assume

fict that

above tcmpoial experience and

over and

dual,

to elaborate here a developmental

But we do not intend

another

and

dispositions to experiences

mjstenous

for science, not

acts

in the indivi-

‘acts’,

enduring

Tliesc dispositions arc then,

qualities but precipitations of cognized

A

laws and the mental grasp of identity in temporal changes

become an object of knowledge if we presuppose If (he individual were a chaos devoid of laws,

subject can only

lawful behavior that

IS,

if it

could not be reduced to gcncial ideal

interdependent relations of ideal

mamtams

All

entities

(and

should have to abandon

the very attempt to formulate a science involves

that

certain assumptions

—

science itself

we

entities),

But wc should follow Kant when he

a scientific characteiologj

which afterward become the foundation of the

this discussion

however, has as jet given us no specific

information about the kind of law peculiar to the mental realm

But

let

us not be

theory of cognition itself

and oui

pnnciple

of

We

to

want

detained bj

We

questions pertaining solclj

want rather

preliminary question the

differentiating

basic

to

is

to a

present characterologj

meant

tvpes

bring

to

out the

mental attitudes

in

reduce each to a special law by means of uhich

internal construction

may be

imderstood

its

Let ns now, therefore,

consider in more detail whether such an investigation would

come withm the field of psychology Some psychologists confine their studj to the subject, that is, to processes and conditions belonging to an individual which another consciousness can only reconstruct indirectly through the aid of

own

subjective processes

For such a science even would bo a nddle

to

its

approach the

subjectivity of anothei being

As a matter creations

By

of fact, subjectivity is always related to objectn e

‘objecfive’ I

mean

(a) only

what

is

independent of

the single individual, that which confionts and influences

may mean

the mental objects which

are naturally

derive therefrom their enduring form

works of

art,

the individual

rites

is

etc)

These

distinction remains to

be made

We

attached to

too

matter and

however, repiesent at the

latter

by which

effectual relations

A

constant!} surrounded

which

we have

e tools, language, writing,

(i

same time psychologically determined

and

it

the sectional area of sensory phenomena with

socalled Nature presents each individual, (b) Secondly

must

and very important

third

differentiate (c) the over-

indiiidual meaning contained in the matenal points of contact of these objects from the psychic reciprocal inteirelation tbej

are

it

it

I

a book

give

it

an

an intellectual

more from the point aesthetically These

"dearly give ns a systematic division of the is based in each case on an ideal relation

a unique system of values

i

may \iew

as

it

by which

consider

mind which

sciousness

has

looking upon

theoretically, or once

appearance, I

of its

distinctions

objective to

again

significance,

achievement I classify

three

I

a part of matter) as a saleable object

economic of view

When

np aocio - histoncally

built

(primarilj

This division

by the giving and expeiiencing

corresponding objective system

of

of

is

reflected in con-

meaning which always

values

Each

of these

Thns the

fundamental attitudes Innst be based on a unique law

laws of cognition aie different from those underlying economic behavior, or those

upon which

artistic cieation

and enjoyment aie

based

By

considering the subject with

as interwoven with the

world, relate

we it

free

it

to objective lealities

(1) because

expeiiences and creations

They

are objective

foi

states

and

three reasons

they are attached to physical forms -whether these

function as direct carriers of value,

means

its

configurations of the histoiioal and social

from the isolation of purely subjective

of

or sjmbols,

as signs

of artistio expression- (2) because they

from the reciprocal relations

many

or

as

have been developed

single

subjects

-in

this

context I call them collectively determined forms- and (3) because

they are based on definite laws of meaning which have an overindividnal validity

The whole

This last point needs elucidation

of nature is never present to our senses at

one time, and in the same way the histoiico-mental woild given to us in

its totality

is

any

nevei

Bather both must be ‘actualized’ again

6

oxpcncncc

jind agniii jn individual

nhicli exists ‘for us’ is infimtelj

also

so

field,

iiidividual’s

And

the menial world onlj

IS

the context of niturc

is

greater than

oiir

limited )

Elements heie are rather to be conceived as conscious contents

which

differentiate

themselves

qualitatively

and

spectivclv anal} zed as independent phenomena, artificial

Those

isolation

if

can

be

intio-

need be through

qualities of the elements

which can no

longer appeal independently in consciousness are aptly designated '

ittributes’, that is,

man> psychologists

dependent simple contents classify single

Thus, for instance,

sound impressions as independent

conscious elements, but differentiate nevertheless the attributes of

volume and timbre

pitch,

This ps>chology usually considers only so

many

classes

of

conscious elements as aie necessary and sufficient to build up the total process

method successfully used in

the

Etiation of psychic

used to

This

of individual consciousness

make

atoms

(i

all natural

is

an imitation of

The

sciences

lUii-

o conscious particles) has in fact been

clear the intention of this synthetic process

The

of the method differs widely with individual

actual development

Some

with a primal y class of psychological elements and deduce otheis from them, conceiving tho latter

psj cliologists

start

m

some way as attributes Herbart attempts to build up conscious life as a mechanism of ideas in which feeling and desire are only ‘iccompaniments of the one class of primary ideas in

his

if

This conception receives a slightly different emphasis

we agree with Wundt

but

a

Muensterberg,

physiological psychology treats the simple sensation as a

psychic atom

piocess

In this

that the soul

case

is

howevei,

not a substantial being, simple processes merely

replace the simplest elements Psychologists do not always go so fai

one class of piimai} elements or processes

number

a limited the

tnpaitite

sponding

of basic classes

division

into

to cognition, feeling

ideas,

The

as to postulate only

Some

of them retain

outstanding

feelmgs

and conation)

and

example

dosiies

is

(coive-

Usually these classes

are then furthei subdivided

*)

long

The

external object, for instance, and not the idea is

two inches

10

We are not interested in giving a detailed and in subjecting each

in this direction

no

tainly find

account of the attempts

One can

to criticism

mental phenomena in experience general names and to

the province of psychologj'

ne

the above

find that

is

But we must question whether

denies that the poet, the

educator

word

of

psychological processes the minister and the

historian,

must be good psychologists in the accepted sense of the

But

it 18

a striking fact that those

achievements in this

psychology

of

18

field

aiif

often

who have made

dm

notable

knew nothing whatever about

The psychology

elements

Romeo md Jitha common with such that this

in asking this

accomplish the most im-

to

fails

portant results for the understanding

Noone

And

thus exhausted

method

utilize these

and then of the

of the simpler

a more specific description first more complex psychological states In

cer-

similar and funda-

fault with the attempt to give

Gottfried

in

a form of analysis

And

a

Keller’s

has nothing in

for instance,

JDorfe,

who would deny Or take the psycho-

yet

a profound psychological study?

logy of politics, can this study be mastered by means of these elementary concepts? It

always makes an essential difference whether one dissects

a psychological process or whether one treats broader contexts of meaning

was certainly

in

it

as a whole in

Moses, angry with the Jewish people,

One might analyze his conand ideas, accoiding to the

a state of emotion

dition according to its feeling states

course and rhy'thm of these feelmgs and their tension and relaxation

But the histonan takes indicate only the

all

complex

this

state

for granted

and

is

satisfied

to

one wants to explain psycho-

If

logically the decision of a historical figure, one does not begin by

analyzing this judgment into ideas, feelings and desires, but classifies

only the motive which ultimately prevailed in a historical

meanmg- and value complex

The

lest is self-explanatory

some abnormal conditions have intervened

As

unless

a rule, the Geistes-

wmenschaften do not go back to the

last distinguishable elements

They remain on a higher conceptual

level,

sidei

and immediately con-

the inner process as a significant whole which has impoitance

because a poet

it

is

a part of a total mental situation

Noone thinks

that

merely mixes ideas, feelings and desires in order to create

the psychological world of his heroes

They

are,

on the contrary,

immediately present to his imagmation as significant wholes

— To

11

meanugful

destroy the sonrs

total is the scientific limit

One might compare its procedure Anyone who eviscerates a frog inner construction and also, by lefiection, the

of the psychology of elements

with the vivisection of a frog

may

learn

its

physiological

expect to

functions

of

its

He must

organs

however,

not,

he able to put Hie parts together again and so

lecreate the living frog

Similarly, the

meie synthesis

to

of ps>chic

elements can never create the totality of a soul whose meaningful

complex the

On

related to the entire mental woild

IS

whole

significant

difteicntiates

its

piimary

is

the contiaiy,

however,

Analysis,

which do not in

elements

the least

meielj

give

Wundt,

fundamental reason for the insight of the whole

the

in the

methodological principles of his psychology acknowledged this in the Bocalled piinciples of ‘creative Bj'nthesis’ and ‘relative analysis’

psychology, too,

Ills

in

the

begpns

construction

with the

a psychology of elements

is

of his

ekments

classic

of the

outline

soul

This

is

and advances by way of

mental formations to the more complex configurations and

t!iat

final!}

But Wundt strongly emphasizes the

development

to ps}chic

shown

psychology which

of

fact

forms composed of elements contain qualities which could not

What

he deduced from the qualities of the elements themselves Mill

called

‘mental

ohjemistrj'’,

Complex forms contam

thesis’

predicted fiom

the

Wundt

designates

characteristics

original elements

But

‘creative

syn-

which could not be

this

does not reall}

formulate a laio of creative synthesis, for that would have to be a

law which enunciated an

could

not

principle

be grasped

irrational

scientifically

designates the

complex of relations that I

rather

think

that

constant error of Wundt’s method

this It is

up a mental world from elements Rather, in this mechanism out of material parts

absolutely impossible to build as one does a

case

the

significant

total

is

and valid

the if

relation to the whole

fundamental thmg

and

analysis

is

onh

one thinks of the elements and moments in I should, therefoie, reverse the point of

View and replace the principle of creative synthesis by that of destructive analysis

The above simile has already indicated that the attitude which we have described is not without analogy in the natural sciences Hoone has yet realized the hope of understanding an organism bv means of puiely physico-chemical principles

True, partial physical

,

12 and chemical processes are peiceptiblc evcrjv.hcre in

But they are never

lealm i

snfficient to

The problem

total function

tlie

or{;.iiiic

explain the organism as

of the organic cMdontly lies on

i

higher conceptual level than the scientific concepts of chcmistrj

and phjsics

But

because the fact that ivc do find material proecsscs

is

in influence of

proof that such a relation

Therefore in the foUouing

is possible

problem and deal cxclu-

with the moie general legion of meaning relations

Wo

to

was a pecnliarity of the mental toUlitj represent a meaning relation What does that signify^ Meaning said above that

it

alwajs has reference to value ficant

if

all

its

parti

il

Anj

processes

functional relation

concern us for

whom

pa

Its

sc

bo meanmgful because a total

effect

A

if

may be IS

i

its

the values

one mnv even speak of

all its partial acliievements

An

work togcthei organism

is

functions tend toward the preservation of

existence under given environmental conditions, since

vation of all

signi-

present

at

machine, for inst nice, ma) be said

which somehow has value

meaningful insofar as

not

who can cspericnce

himself or in another consciousness, or

for

It does

these achicv'cments are of value, whether the

relation takes place in an individual

a thing as valuable

is

can be understood throngh

reference to valuable total achievements

to

easier

is

mental forces on

regarded by Geisieswissenschaft as sufficient

ire shall leave aside the psjcho-phjsical

Eiveh

This

develop the philosophical question

instead

shall

and

shall not pursue this problem anj farther

I

considered valuable for itself

But most

its

prescr-

significant

the psjchic life of an individual because an individual

experiences within itself the valuable or valueless significance of its

total actions

and the relations of

its partial

functions

Dilthej

for this reason, called the soul a purpose complex, or teleological structure

Through the inner teleology ho ascribed

to the psj cho-

logical total a structure such that it registered the valuable

and

harmful by means of some sort of feeling regnlatoi

But the problem

is

not so simple as Dilthey implies bj this

concept of structure If

the soul were Tcall> nothing more than such an immanent

teleology one could conceive acts self

it

purely biologically, that

is

all its

and experiences would be regulated by the desmed goal of preservation, to which one might add a reference to the preser-

vation of the specie's

Many people do

conceive the soul as such

13 a stiucture tending only toward

The human

preservation of self and species

tlie

however (the abbieviation inclusive concept of an

soul,

throughout for

be used

will

‘soul’

the

individual’s

actions,

reactions and expeiiences), is interwoven with a far laigei system

On

of value contexts than that of pure satisfaction of self

a lower

On

purely biologically^) deteimined

level, perhaps, the soul is

a

higher level, the historical for instance, the soul participates in objective values which

cannot be deduced from the simple value

We

of self preservation

mean by mind, mental

an ovenndividual meanmg and

of history and which have

That the individual soul determined by

more than a

interrelation with

its

two ways

illustrated in

is

validity

teleological structure

for self-preservation and physical enjoyment

conceined solelj

(1)

this

mental context

preservation

of

While

regarded

intellectual

no

satisfies

an actual value foims, bo

Thus the

life

which

cognition

man because

achievement

isolated

vital needs

result is

is

of

cannot,

pure

of

from the

in all

its

An

expediency

biological

different

to the

be experienced as

can

aesthetic enjoj'ment

a

as

human being

is

This

an individual eipenences as valuable

and achievements which have no immediate relation

objects

fur

life or objective

those realized values which were foimed in the process

culture,

fictitious primitive

the former has higher and more far-reaching needs

than mere existence and

E itisfaction

animal pleasure

His

achievements and experiences leach to highei levels of value and his internal

makeup

is

differentiated accordingly

logical structure of the soul deviates to

a

(2)

fact that

And

valuable IS

per se valueless

To

much

is

with

diSicnlt

the

express this in psychological terms

objective

problem of the

values

unless

1)

it

I

IS

brings

is

biological

the

by no means up the very

Some

actually valued

no better than the opinion

This

that nothing is leal

the object of actual sense perception

mean by

self or species

is

This

critical-objective or genuine values

tend to regard as valuable only what view, however,

all that is

experienced as valuable that

subjective values (with their individual pecubanties)

coincide

well

It is a

no individual experiences as valuable

conveisely,

teleo-

moie noticeable

still

extent from the simple biological regulative system

known

The

any structure wliicn seeks

Nor can

this

solely to preserve

14 extreme empiricism end relativism be saved by the

fiction

the collective evaluations of all people (corresponding!}

perceptions of all

hnman

For the question

the objectively valuable (the objectively real) 18

that

the sense

beings) arc the subjective correlative for

By

do aU these people value correctly?

the ciitical-objective

value ure do not conceive anything susceptible of purely intellectual

But

demonstration

do

ire

01

intend

imply that evaluation

to

which coincide with these laws of evaluation

‘valid’

dental factual consciousness of an} individual of

objectively valuable,

the

values

Just

as

bemg,

of

is

The

acci-

not the measure

but merely of what he subjectively

we have added

the idea

an overindividual

of

within the empirical self, to the genuine

cognitive consciousness,

cognition

is

and that only those values are ‘genuine’

subject to definite laws,

we need

so

to

consciousness for genuine evaluation

an

construct It

overindividual

would bo totally erroneous,

however, to believe that this overindividual ‘normative conscionsness’ could be understood as

a

society IS just as liable as

that

collective (social)

an

mdmdnal

consciousness

construct a normative consciousness objective

laws,

i

For

to err in value judgments,

they ma} be just as purely subjective

IS,

We

must instead

e a consciousness guided

by

which shall be arbiter of collective as well as

individual judgments

This construction

of

a normative consciousness

is

only

a

metaphysical shortcut for an exceedingly complex conception of

laws

In contrast with Eickert,

we

shall

proceed to investigate

minutely the special laws of evaluation and their interrelations

And

in the third section of this

thesis into

indicate

book we

a normative ideal of culture

how

objective value fiom a cntical

shall consider their syn-

Here we only wish

pomt

to

of view transcends

subjectivity in geisiesioissemchafthche philosophy

An

intellectual life as it represents itself in history, a cnltuie,

not only means the actualisation of genuine values, but also contams

apparent values (such as erroneous values based on theoretically

judgments, or subjective values which arise from pnrel} momentary and disparate evaluations, or unsolved value conflicts) Whatever is objectively valuable in a culture must be thought of as the fulfillment of norms of evaluation, as the results of laws of evaluation which confront the individual as demands unless he obeys them of his- own accord

false

16 Let

now look back

116

upon whose threefold

interrelation

The

vgue

interrelations,

objective

this

self,

it is,

values

pel verted exist

a very high degree,

Fnithermore one might mclnde in

very complex

concept of mental norms

It IS,

This objective mind does not yet

and errors

complex of norms which

instead, the ideal

totality or in sections confronts society,

dual,

as

but also in the sense that

‘subjective’ then

it is

it

either in

as well as the indivi-

a real deniand of how one should evaluate

‘objective’ not only in the sense that

dual

to

anft that it is a not-I which exercises a

found the valid, objective and genuine values by excluding

hirli

its

the

mentalitj

tire

make up

of chance and failure helped to

iclion on the individual >^01

number

infinite

mental world were not

This mind now confironts the individual and

mind

independent of the

I

It

historical

mass of pnie subjectivity and obscured norms

objective at least in this sense that

15

already tonched

of objects as something trans-

which created

acts

A

aliiais lawful

this

we have

and summation of the behavior of an

rnbjeots

of

field

which can be understood only through the

ciibjective

of

significance

been projected into the

Las

mind

to the concept of the objective

It is

normative, genuine and valid,

would mean not only the isolated individual as

opposed to the ovenndividual histonco -mental sphere, but

which deviates from the norm

tbing clarity

we

then

exists outside of the indivi-

For the sake

of

everj''-

greater

shall in future call the first form 'dbjekiwet Geisf and

the second hiormativer Geist' (corresponding for instance to Hegel’s

absohitem Geisf)

The

individual

insofar as

it is

mental, must be thought of as

The

belonging to both though in diffeient senses with

its

objective

mind

content of genuine and false values signifies the socially

determined milieu, the intellectual environment which has become history directive

The normative mind, howevei, means which aims

bej’-ond

of relative value, toward that

The

first

the cnltuial ethical

every given condition, that

is

only

which has genuine and tiue value

then represents reality, the second that which should

become so Getstcsivtssenscliafiltclie

ing

conclusions

The

psychology theiefore draws the follow-

individual soul must be thought of as a

meaningful content of functions in which different value tendencies are correlated in the unity of consciousness

These value

attitudes

16 irc detei mined b\ specific

to the

Hns

The

of value

classes

various

normative

of value which correspond

empiiical

finds

self

itself

by ovenndmdnal mental configurations of value which m their realization have become detached from the cxpciienoing selves In them the constructive laws of value have alreadi created an overmdividual meaning which transcends the individual sui rounded

ahead}

Insofar then as taut connections

we seek the structure of the ovenudiridual icsulwe find onisehes in the field of general (desciipAnd insofar as we diiect our interest to

tive) Geistcsiiissoischaft

normative laws of value and to the mental value formations which follow

these

laws,

we study

the ethics

Should we,

of culture

however, place the meaningful experiences and acts of the individual in the foreground (regardless of whethei these coincide with

from the ideal noims) oui study

01 deviate

For psychology

hche psychology

is

that psychology is possible without

or the critical objective

nmque problem background of of

elements

knowledge

On

a

is

gcisteswissenschaft-

and

descriptive

under-

though one must not think

standing but not a normative science,

knowledge of the normative

the contiai}

wo regarded

ai?

it

the

of psychology to outline the subjective against the

The ps}cholog\

objeotivit} in all its significations

constantly

presupposes

ph}Sical

and

ph} Biological

manner gmteswisscnschaftJiche psjchologi presupposes the knowledge of mental objectivities in geneial In like

Mental

life

accordingly

is

a complex of significant contexts in

which

attitudes can be differentiated and in which the objective and subjective senses often conflict The cognitive is one of such attitudes

This

is

dommated b} a

definite

law though the

indivi-

dual does not always expenence and behave in accordance with it

The

upon an

aesthetic is

objective

mother

attitude

A

work

law of construction even

of ait is

if it

based

cannot be for-

mulated, but the subject does not alwajs realize in himself the

complete objective sense of the IS

aitistic object

one of economic evaluation and creation

A

third attitude

But even though the

subject is usually inclined to behave according to these objective

laws of value, subjective deviations aie found

And

these can

only be understood psychologically In concluding let us compare the two psjchologies

Geistes-

mssenscliafthche psychology begins with the totality of the mental structure

(By structure we mean a context of achievements, and

17

by achievement we mean the

lealization of objective value)

Theie

aie partial stiuctmes which deiive their meaning from the total

mental stiuctuie of which they are a part, such paitial structures are foi

instance

that

cognitive,

the

The

consciousness

specifically leligious

whenevei the achievements of these

upon

And

precipitation

definite laws,

that is,

if

or

partial

structures

if

achievements

these

critical

noimative sense

as the inclusive concept of ovenndividual configurations

mental

’

content

is

‘

based

are

they are accoiding to norms, then

they found the objective mind in the 13 ,

collective

total

work and the mind develops

co-operate and result in an objective (trans-

of vaiious subjects subjective)

technical

of

that

whose

any consciousness that can place upon which this content is founded

accessible to

itself in the concrete situation

Consequently, above the limited and fortuitous individuals there develops a mental world of ovei individual sense, which in the historical

process grows, changes and under ceitain conditions disintegiates

The psychology

elements on the

of

methodologically justified

if

it

contrary,

can only be

investigates, in every case, the last

distinguishable content in lelation to the paitial structures (single

achievements), and beyond these the total structure

logy

18

after

This psycho-

thus dependent upon stiuctural psychology and must come feelings

Ideas,

it

and desires take pait in acts of puie

cognition as well as in technical cieation oi in aesthetic behavior,

but in each case in a unique oiganic combination

expressed as follows

if

it

and

This

desires aie

m

may be

themselves

Theiefoie the psychology of elements, taken

senseless material

alone and

ideas, feelings

consistently followed

its

own method, wonld be a

science of meaningless parts, and would be as futile as the natuial sciences which

build up

nevei

significance

find

the

nature

phenomena The psychic embedded in a structural context,

of natuial

elements only have a meaning just as

from mateiial elements but can

if

the parts of an organism have a meaning through then

con elation

Then

ideas and their connections

become a cognitive

Older of objective significance in contrast to the elementary purely subjective play of association

an

aesthetic

meaning

if

Or, on the other hand, they receive

they appear

m

the lawful structure which

coiresponds to the aesthetic attitude

Our compaiison

of the

two kinds of psjchology consciously

emphasizes the points of extreme diffeience

Sprang er, Types

of

men

To

the question of

2

18 wliether theie is

any possible agrccmont

them we mast answer that the

oi

mediate stops betivccn

different points of

view nhich arc

determined by the different intended objects cannot be abolished, bnt that

we can

and methods

adjust the difference in the foi motion of concepta

Phj Biological psychology nhich expressly

investi-

gates the relation of the psychical to the anatomical and physiological facts can never coincide with a psychology which investi-

gates the psychical in

which

18

by

its

relation to the

mind

Bnt the method

based upon an analogy of atomic and mechanical theoiy

can be improved upon

Indeed this was attempted long ago even

who started from the point of view The very adoption of biological terms and

psychologists

science

of natural

the

point

of view of developmental theory signifies a reconciliation of the different psychologies

The

discussions

and ‘GesiaW

development', ‘structure’, ‘totality’ heit)

of the concepts (i

e

‘psychic

Geghedcit-

are in too gieat a state of flux to allow a summary

A

point

reference to William Stern,

Koehler-Wertheimer-Koffka, must

E R

at this

Jaensch, Felix Kriiegei,

smee they are, despite their differences, all exponents of the movement which has as its goal the unification 6i psychological method Meanwhile no one of the above mentioned concepts suffices to designate

The

the

peoulianty'

of

suffice,

gmiesxoisscnsclaflhche

psychology

ultimate distinction lies in the fact that the latter deals with

meaningfully related acts

and experiences of the subject

This

subjective meaning, however, could never be understood by anothei

individual

how

if it

did not present itself as a special case, no

mattu

unique, of objectively valid meaning contexts, because objective

laws of constinction play

a lole in the structures, even

if

not

wholly unqualifiedly

There is thus created, over and above the meaning which is comprehensible to others ') I should call a mental achievement the interweaving of subjective mental functions by means of which an overmdividnal meaning- complex, an objective mental confignration is created Insofar as the soul individual, a

IS

not merely

a self-preservative system but a mental struotuie

There is, however, also a purely subjective meaning such as for instance, is found a wholly private set of symbols or certain pathological mental states If however we still call this meaningful we have already made a reference to the fact that indirectly, through objective meaning tendencies, their final indindnal specification is generally obvions »)

m

19

complex

capable

18

it

achievements, of creating overin dividual

of

The pS 3^chical elements on the contrary, They are always purely

meaning constellations

aie and lemain bound to the individual

me

ideas,

Ins

Another individual can nevei shaie with feelings and Jns desiies For essentially they

and isolated

subjective

Ins

are puiely individual states or functions

my

and they also are inseparable from

meaning

the

woik

of art,

with

and

desires

creates

first

m

may act may

i

elation

develop a coiresponding mental act

The

again be an interweaving of ideas, feelings

But then they are

ideas etc

7)17/

which of conise do

The meaning

not coiTCspond with his ideas in kind and content 18

all

we have

common

in

then the individual soul It IS

m (i

the

to

connection

this

e

gieatlj

too

i

As

creating and experiencing meaning

caches into overindividual mentality credit

toward

of

E R

a

reunion

Jaensch to have worked of

both

psychologies

the psychology of elements and gcistesioissenscliafthclie psycho-

He

logy)

distinction

Tt should set us thinking, that the

says quite rightly of two

kinds of psychology implies a resurrection of

the doctrine of the dual nature of truth

howevei, that no matter how perceptions

we

find

illusion that

fostered

by the

deepl}’’

even

that never,

consciousness of leality which

The

something

language or a

Then by empathic

a technical product

or

structure of this

He

cognitive achievement fixed

object I

this

Accoi-

phenomena which

with

the introspecting individual

b}-'

experiences

of his

either a

objective,

states

however, for another individual to communicate to

It IS possible,

me

my own

expeiience of self

dingly the psychology of elements deals

can be dnectly experienced only

have

I

is

m

these

sensations

regions

is

fact,

and

there a

two independent psychologies are possible was

work

Our

consciousness which

to

are those which are most completely realized

And

we have

investigations of these conscious strata

showed that the intentions which referred of consciousness

an indubitable

wholly devoid of meaning value

stiatified structuie of

elucidated in our

It is

we exploie

therefore

it is

meaning and value in.

the higher level

impossible to miss them here,

though in the lowei levels they are only bi ought to light by a very searching investigation

But

this

difference

is

one of degree and

not of essence*^)

E R

Jaensch, TJelei den

Aufbau do Wahinchinungsioelt

1923 p 413

2^

Leipzig

20

The of

lawful stiuctuic in which there

its

meins

individuil soul participates in the montil world bj

intellectual experience

is

cioation and cralnation for the total soul

and

Tlie individual soul

•)

cannot alwajs wliolh grasp the objective sense of this legion, other times

norms There

it

There

transcends

with

it

its

of

which arc in thcmsclics onlv tendencies of the

The

meaning

discovcrj

of

We

called their inclusive concept the normative

mind

uisscnscliaftliclic

we

and

laws

these

branching iclations will bo our next problem

because

mind and

also a continual tension between the historical

IS

the eternal laws oroation

their

have previously This

gcistcs-

problem immcdiatclj becomes one of psjchologj

shall attempt to investigate the manifold subjects with

a view to discoloring which of the mental laws

each one ind t>picalli determines

its

structure

gences from the idea of a normal structure of

dominant in

is

For, these diver-

man

deal witli the

histoncal and individnil pccnli intics, the description of vhich

The

present ition

the

of

human

soul

structure

as

such in

relation to the total structure of the objective and normatiie

would be the psjchologj

subject

The

psichology IS

is

domiin of psjchologj

in the

spccificalh

it

actnitj which follows certain

thus a tension betneen the soul and the mind

is

matter

region

the studj

which some aspect of

tlic

of

mind

general

gcistesjcissenschafthchc

differential

gcistesnissenschafthchc

of

of tjpes objective

of individualized structures

and normative mind

is

in

predomi-

nantly expressed

0 How

far this

mental objectivity must be affixed to the materially endnnng temporal existence we cannot here

objective in order to attain an

investigate

Cf

my

essaj in the Festschrift fuer Volkclt 1918

des Verslehens uiid cur gcistesicissenschaftbchen JPsgcJiologte

Zur Tlteone

2

METHODS OF GEISTESWISSENSCHAFT ANALYTICAL AND SYNTHETICAL

T

he unity of the soul

and experiences

acts

founded

is

We

What

mental achievements

body and therefore

is

meanings

m

ordinarily called ‘ego’

is

difteient

definitely localized

culminate in its

tiated

number

its

m

They

bound

and time a coherent

must, theie-

this structuie is differen-

structure

which has

is

its

composed

of a

unique function

illustiation of this is

found in

on the basis of a coherent plan

now define a few necessary mean the activity of an individual e the structural intei weaving of many different psychic functions,) Thus, for create a mental achievement of ovenndmdual sense For the sake

to

But

total

An

specific value

division of laboi

By

expressions (i

The

of partial structures each of

and so also

any

m a umtaiy meaning

achievements

is

in space

individuality they belong to a closed structuie fore,

single

that experience

and experiences are processes

Insofar as all acts

its

cannot be

self

some mystenous way,

the experiencing center which in to the

This

shall see latei

by no means unequivocal but has

IS

different

the relation of all

to the individual

defined but only experienced of self

m

instance, a

of clarity I shall

‘mental act* I

judgment

is

a mental act, while the participating ideas,

associations, reproductions, feelings

psychic that

I

carrier

unites

functions

hum this

me

by which

to

If

I

and conative processes are only

should give a meaning

to

a few notes

myself and thus make them a sort of objective

would also represent a mental act

to anothei

I define

Conespondmg

person

my to

is

a mental

act,

The

love which

and likewise the claim

right against his

the act as spontaneous oi

behavior {sinngebendes Yerlialten) there

given behavior, {sinne^fiiUendes

is

the receptive or meaning-

Yerlialten)

expeiience I actualize the ovei individual

meaning- giving

the

‘experience*

meaning which

is

In

attached

22 I translate the

to mental creations

my

states of

when in

my

When

soul

destiny and

may be

being I

when

said to

meaning

I understand

when

a work of ait,

I ‘enjoj’

into the actual ps} chic

what another person

hand

I recognize the

expenence

Acts and experiences cannot be sharply distingnishcd there is an experiential factor which has a on the individual, and in aU experiences there is a

all acts

we

In the following

character

word

‘act’

sajs,

God human

of

I feel mjself beloved by another

For, in

reflex action

resisting act

shall, theiefore, generally

even when the mental relation

is

use the

more an experience

than a creation, more a reception of meaning than a giving of significance

A special This sense

class of mental

acts',

then, creates its

own meaning

grasped and interpreted by a coiresponding class of

is

Thus,

experiences

has a peculiar meaning

foi instance, cognition

The

which must not be mistaken for that of art or of religion visual experience involved in seeing a star

astronomy,

or

whether

and

class of acts

its

of

appearance

its

tained in

has

its

it

is

m

Therefore each

lywio or religions

and of the human achievements con-

histoiy

Every cultural realm

ideal independence because it subserves a definite significance

We have

already defined meaning as something associated with

value

Ovenndividual meaning

value

‘Overindmdual’ here

the critical sense might that

toward

one thinks both of the possible varieties

one refers to a sphere of culture

it

interpreted in

inclines

associated class of experiences has a specific

When

region of meaning

may be

my mood

various ways, according as to whether

still

is

thus related to overindividnal

signifies

A

which follows certain noims

values

IS

thus intended

not the collective (which in

be subjective) but only

critical objective,

of objective

class

definite

and realized by the mental

correspondingly a value of the associated class the particular experience

It

is

And

acts

apprehended in

should follow, therefore, that

it is

possible to derive classes of acts from classes of value

Now The in

however, we must guard against a

stincture of the individual

the

value

acts

and

experiences

themselves

accurately,

when mental

specific

laws,

mind

is,

experiences

not

are acts

evaluations

misunderstanding

so to speak,

articulated

But the mental

necessanly

acts

evaluations

and More

are earned out according to then

and

value

experiences

aie

founded

23

upon them because the

mental tendency has been objec-

specific

by means

satisfied

tivel}'-

mental

the

of

But

acts

the

acts

themselves aie not evaluations, or at least not necessarily so

uould be wholly eironeous, for instance,

cognition as evaluating acts, as has been done

It

regard the acts of

to

now and

then

Affix-

mations and negations aie not predicates of positive or negative

On

value which must be ascribed to propositions cognitive

thiough

have their own

acts

examination of the pure

cognitive

are

acts

indifferent

The

cognitive

value

decrease of

individual increase or

mining role

to

life

the contrary,

which must be derived

structure

as

attitude fai

of

does not play any deter-

by which we cognize

categories

And

itself

the feeling

as

reality

aie

purely mental attitudes with a lefeience to objects which cannot

be derived from any evaluation of the same

any lawful!} earned out act

that to

and

for the active subject, a specific experience of value

Or

to the class of pure cognitive values

as

a definite

of evaluation

class

acts

of

Whenever

I

the

mood and not

But anothei senes

And

of acts

experience

is

added

complex of technical

no element

mood

portrayed,

the

to

acts involved in

tilling his field is

previous

a general formula

ever\

becomes the object

field

of

In

constellation of purpose

its

And

contained a

is

expiess this in

mental activity,

of actual endeavoi, is

of evaluation

To

the actual

not evaluation

the successful completion of his work there

third kind of value experience, the economic

altitude

it

and expenences, namely the purely aesthetic one

finally, the

m

belongs

empathically appieciate oi re-live the

eneigy which a farmer expends in

But

affixed,

this

the tones or tonal sequence which I evaluate

value

specific

is

again, aesthetic behavioi

and expenences has in

tonal sequence of a symphony, and find a certain it is

however

It is true,

of cognition there

insofai

as

it

dominated by a specific

temporal appearance

from the realization of

it

becomes a

this purpose,

as in any teleology, is leflected on These ‘have’ value, but aie not of couise

the specific value experience,

the means and tools evaluations is

In a machine too the technical value of any part

piopoitional to

its

contribution to the achievement of the whole

But one cannot understand the parts solely fiom the

They They

total value

are lather, the objects of chemical and physical consideration are subject not only to laws of value, but primaiily to laws

of mathematics, statics

and dynamics

In applying this consideration

24 to

our problem,

find that theories of cognition,

•n-e

aesthetics

md

economics are not theoiies of value, though

it is

cognitive achievements, aesthetic experience

and economic production

from the standpoint of their

aesthetic to a

specific classes of value

correlate each class of mental acts to

one ma}

finally,

If,

mental unity in the individual, then

formed

all

obvious that each

is

it

i

of cognitive,

and economic values which are, nevertheless,

system of values must somehow shade each

may speak

of values, if one

corresponding system

possible to consider

the others and that

off into

experience of n definite class of values must be related to

the whole value experience of the mental subject

Otherwise the

mental subject would have no structure,

i e no closed constellation wonld be instead a bundle of achievements random This center, in which the value of every

of achievements

conjoined at

It

mental achievement of

life,

we

is

experienced as related to the mental totalitv

shall later call the religious realm

of finality

is

experience

is

peculiar

to

the

religious

religious insofar as

it

Therefore a charactei

and every mental

acts,

of ultimate impoitancc for

is

But we are getting too

the individual’s total value expenence far ahead of our sdbject

must

It

suffice for the introdnctorj

emphasize here that

we

We

cative of the division of the mental realm

see that

its

every region has

its

shall, howevei,

unique laws of construction, requinng

Our method,

a special analysis

of concepts to

definition

consider diffeient value directions as indi-

then, shall be to view each specific

value as a goal which the total act and experience structure of the

specific

region

Pure cognitive value

subserves

whenevei the pure law of cognition

When

the law

of

economics

is

realized

is

in

acts or experiences, the purely economic value

is

unless experience follows the laws of

region

In conclusion

tempoial pi o cesses, that this

does

its specific

and expenences

acts

is,

is

achieved

specific

acts

actualized in a specific group of

attached to

are, as the

it

it

indicate,

they occui as real events in time

not imply that their content

is

But

has no value

names

merely temporal

But

We

have said that mental acts reabze value, and here we must make

two

distinctions

first,

their eternal tendency

which suffuses them, and secondly, the created

by them, or

lather,

economic goods there

is

and the mental law

historic realitj

which they endow with

meanmg

which

is

Above

the ‘Economic’, superior to cognition there

25 IS

lud highei than \\ork 3 of art

‘Tiiitb’

and Justice, become

temporal in a double sense, hrst in respect spice and time the}

the real world of

to

aie actualized in a peculiai mannei, at least

ichieved in a struggle with the world, for instance, they aie

ire

given

material representation, and secondly as

i

tactual experience

of

some soul

mentil content of acts

contain

the acts

m

ictualisation

We

cnce

v

an

only possible because

is

which

ilidit}

histone

ictuil

means

the timeless b> i

can be undeistood regard-

independent of then

is

the world, or then realization

tre ited according to certain

horn

obvious however, that the

This

ind time oi

it

ictualized in the

m

individual expeii-

understand the significance of mental acts by putting

m

onrsehes

law

i

It is

timeless since

is

less of intervening space

111

These eternal

‘Beauty*

is

or laws, for instance Tiuth, Beauty

objects

timeless

of

il

situition,

its

as configuration following

liws, even though the manifolduess of

cm

then

piehcnsion, then,

lawful

meins

to its eteinil 8 >stem of

The m

iin

problem

i

phenomeni

its

fatructurc

educing

i

is

pnon com-

Mentil

eteinal

temporal mentil phenomenon

meining of

i

psychology of

ids

is is

to

find

built,

the

or in

words, to determine the lines of contict which exist between

the overindiYidual mentil life and the individuil it

ilwa^s

enclosed tempoiall> but their

oi

fundamental duections in which the objectiic mind othei

definite

is

ne\ei be wholly understood a

Mentil phenomena arc determined mentil content,

which meaning was

p irticipates laws, just as natuie can be conceived

point of view

temper ill> determined ind

m

The ment il realm

norms

cinnot be doubted that the objective mind, with

uegitive viluo content, has

its

roots

m

Foi

center

ict its

positive

and

the experiences and cieations

Through these individuals it was developed We may must always bo awakened to new life

of finite individuals

md

m

issume

them

it

therefore that

coincides, in

its

The meaning

mind

the mentil structure

of

a subjective

soul

fund iraentil lines with the stiucture of the objective directions in

which the acts and expeiiences

of the individual move, reflect the culturil regions of value, but only in

legard

to the

fundamental tendencies and not the historic

Foi, the normative

*)

of

mind opeiates

il

content

in both as the formitive principle

It is absolutely futile to try to nuderstauil simply

‘expression* the relation to the historically uuniue

by the category

ludmdual

of the

— There life

determined

18

honever, there

The

The moaning

o£ nn indn idtnl

given objects e

alwajs re-created and transfoimed b\ the

is

and arc

living Sonia nlncli sustain it

which

—

the mcining of historicnUj

bj'

and culture

ciiltmc,

2G

nlso i reciprocal iclntion

is

siistained bj

Above

it

the individual soul,

for

both,

norms

a guiding stai, the all-inclnsive concept of

is

are valid

idea of humanitv

the

application of this concept to the objective

mind leads

to the

idea of a genuine culture

Tims, mental

We

we might

life

might

start

deduce from

determine the fundamental directions

order to

in

its

given objective culture and

organisation the attitudes uhich must

Or we maj

contained in an individual soul structure

ilw.ays

be

build

tr> to

from the eternal attitudes

an articulated cultuic sjnthcticall}

lip

of

two methods

avail omselves of cither of

from the histoncall>

Let ns take up both methods in gi cater detail

of the soul

I

A

culture

or

historicallj is

which aio kept sepai

ite in

(Tins

subjeofs

Culture

ment

is

i

on the highei cnltuial spheres

the consciousness and linguage of the

done apparent!} regardless of time and space)

divided into

18

life,

number of

given mental

composed of

developmental levels,

i

number of icgions

of activitj or acliicic-

In each of these regions a specific kind of value

We may

also call each sphere of value,

is

is

mines the goal one

may be

In over> purpose constellation there

allowed to snimisc, a definite law

the system of structural

means which

satisfj

its

Let ns enumerate, for thepiesent, regardless of

which

may be

considcied independent

realized

seen from the point

of view of leal purposes, a purpose constell ition insofar as

')

is

it

deter-

immanent,

which regulates

domm int

purpose

s} stem, the regions

puie and applied science,

art, moralitj, religion, societj , politics, law and edncition Of course these regions aie not spatially conjoined like paits of

economics,

the body

They

are rathei interlaced to foim a structure,

i

c

a

mmd, in any definite histoncal form The objective mind embraces more than the mere expression of the indmdnal soul structure which

objective far IS

histoncally connected with it

0 The

abbreviated expression ‘law’

complex of laws which

is often greatlj

of course

difterentiated

always indicates a

27

Thus modem

constellation of achievements

theoretical science has

aspects which are political, economic, moral and pedagogical

m

economics

we

The

religious factois

differentiation of each region

leal division, but rathei

value which division

is

must have been very obvious

aie realized

thus not a

is

a theoretical isolation according

But the motives

intended in each case

The modem discussion instance, shows how difficult

differentiation is not easy

knowledge’ for

And

science and religion

this

foi

But

classes

they do not grasp moie than the geneial boundaries, because ‘belief or

the

to

Foi, the geneial boundaiies

by the uneducated

even

mstinctively

And

moral and even

find judicial, scientific, technical,

finer

of the question it is

to sepaiate

the problem of distinguishing politics,

law, society and the field of moials leads us into the most complicated questions

we want

If

coriespondmg purposive

to find a

legion of the individual soul for each cultuial legion, as for instance a

economic, technical

scientific,

and a

religious heiedity,

and social nature, we

judicial

aie faced with the same iiddle which

demanded

a solution in our

What

pievious consideration of various cultural spheres the religious yearning of the soul?

How

the scientific and aesthetic motives'^

Where

end and the

political begin^ etc

It

is,

a moral and

urge,

aesthetic

oi

political,

is

constitutes

distinguished

it

from

does the social nature

of course, possible to use

the objective cultural systems as piinciples of discovering the basic

mental attitudes, as

But

it

IS

I did in the first edition of this

volume (1914)

not sufficient merely to reduce the overindividual context

to individual tendencies

For we cannot

in this

way

satisfactoril}

explain the significance of these acts

There

is

Every

a further difficulty

histoiical region of culture

has peculiaiities which belong solely to that paiticular epoch

nomy may be

of

money and

of credit, science

may be

Eco-

positivistic,

society a class system, religion interwoven with philosophy to the

point of confusion, and law perhaps be any positivistic individual

law

If

we were

to construct

to the above spheres

t 3^pes

we should

of behavior

which coirespond

airive not at eternal t^pes, valid

for all differentiated cultures, but rathei at historical!}" determined t 3"pes

hclie

t^pes

We

Thus Woelfflin Grundbeg) iffe

has

in set

his

which are derived from must

theiefore,

caiefull}

work

magnificent

side

by the

side

eternal

direct

oui

Kunstgeschtclit-

historical

and

eternal

being of plastic art inquiry

so

that

we

eternal laws of economics, art

reicli the

cm

This it

and religion themscl\es

How

scarcely be done bj a reductive method

would be for instance, to reduce

the histoiical

difficult

chance data of

an epoch to eternal and separable laws of economics and jurispru-

What a difference there would be in wo started with Spinoza’s woild view

dence 1

eligion

if

Chnstianitj

of Ritschl

It

the final concept of or the neo-protestant

obvious that one can only achieve

is

a iclatively correct picture in this waj after a preliminary compaiison of cnltiiial sj stems indifferent cultural levels and cultural is admittcdlj futile if we Our study must be based on

But such a comparison

individualities

merely collect mateiial empirically deductive pimciples so that

we

one can assume a prioti, an identical law of structure

we might

science something that

classify as

is

nearly related to religion or aesthetic intuition

what

as moral

As

is roallj

hne

which

Otherwise

more Or we might take essentially

of a legal nature

a second alteraative one might think of utilising as principles

for the sjstematio division

levels

m

only compare those forms

of mental regions the single

which have been found by reflecting upon mental

and pedagogy would then point toward

But even

if

the

who would be

life

cultural

Science,

economics, politics, sociology, jurisprudence, ethics

aits, religion,

situation

specific

mental motives

were more clearly defined than

make a

able to

it

is,

systematic division of the social

sciences?*)

We

must

insist that it

conclusions from

the

would not do to arrive

actual

situation

nt philosophical

of the individual sciences

which as a rule have been so developed for practical reasons.

Thus pure economics customarily taught

No we may

mattei

how

is

So

leally

satisfy our ambition,

of the analytic,

Thus we must

different

from economics as

it is

this alternative is also fruitless

difficult it is

and how

we must

insufficientlj

at first

accept the synthetic instead

the deductive lather than the reductive method try to deduce from the eternal attitudes of

human

nature the fundamental directions which each culture embodies in

unique arrangement and irrational interrelation

’)

Cf Georg v Mayr Begnff tmd CUtedcnmg der Siaatsictsscnschaften

Tubmgen 1910 (3)

29

II It follows

fiom the conclusions in the

up

if

external and internal material

to

And

elements aie no longer constellations of meaning

understind

to

consider as building material only what has

meaning or a the

matter by means

significant

of

always significantly

soul from

the

interi elated

qualitatively

different,

yet

end

it is

To

mental attitudes

meaning

all

classes of acts

because

of

their

and

are necessary

which are cleaily

diffeient

sufficient

mental phenomena

The

to

this

Completed, fiom each

distinct

immanent meanings explain

i

which

e

manifoldness

the

up

to build

is

necessary to completely determine the vaiious attitudes

other

material

an independent

Our problem then

significant attitude

stiucture

total

im-

is

it

of

In the reilm of psychology of structure we

devoid of meaning

may

or the soul

life

For, the psychic elements ^\h^oh have been partiall}

deduced fiom their correlation

possible

that the

concerned with the

which the mental

last diffeientiable elements out of 13 built

chaptei

fiist

synthetic method must not be thought of as

of

qualification ‘necessary’ indicates that

independent attitude should be excluded,

complex act which might be

‘sufficient’

the

no

means that no

deduced fiom the combination

of

simpler acts which endow with meaning should be included Since both the deductive and inductive methods aie essential to

every genuine science, so the

piinciples

13

final test of the validity of

a

pnon

there also the fact that by means of these principles

one really can understand the manifoldness of empirical phenomena

But

this historical verification is

of our method lies rather their intended

in

of these

nature

oi

m

a second step

apion

tendencies with material which

for, this necessitates

life

central point

the fact that all mental attitudes and

meanings can be understood

historical

The

can nevei

i)

may be

The

filling

taken fiom

be reasoned out befoiehand,

a knowledge of facts, just as individual natuial

A

prion, of course, does not mean previous to all experience, but It is not our intention to spin out the mental world with all experience from a pi ion concepts, but to understand its fundamental laws of meaning which are already assumed when we classify in any particular region any The encroaching of what is evidently a prion into single phenomenon has been treated more in detail by Theodoi factual contexts psychological

Ensmann logie

Die

JEJigenart des Geistigciii Inductive

Leipzig 1924

und

emsichtige Psyc/io-

30 liiws

cm

only be derived through observation of rcil mtui

But the formitne pimeiples,

rences

directions of meaning,

m

(in

law of causaliti) are conditions necessary

mind and nature

If ci

il

occin-

case fundament

this

il

the case of natural science the general

understanding of

to the

human being n ei e a chaos

erv

of changing

tendencies there would be no possibility of interpreting the histoiical

But the mental nucleus of man always has the

and social world

Even though the degrees

same stiucture

of differentiation change

with the developmental processes of the mind (as well in the latent

foim as in the most developed) there are eternal tendencies, eternal directions

of

and experiences, without which

acts

it

would

be

impossible to ‘understand’ the inner cobtext of a foreign and distant

We

soul foi

this

carry in oui

reason

it

own being

may be

the scaffolding of the mind

presented a prion without consideration

and geographical differences

of histoiical

possible to predict that wherevei find the

And

same fundamental

we

attitudes

find

Yes,

human

And

it

must even bo

culture

we

shall

that with the special

emphasis of one attitude there are necessary displacements of

explain, affirm and I

make

a pi ion

vivid

must confess, however, that

I

in eveiy

have found

vision from the great complexity

b\ a metaphor

which seems

me

to

methodological it is

which

is

of mind before one

historical representation

out the fundament il mental attitudes

to

this

This was because

principle only after y ears of study to free one’s

all

The fundamental laws of The examples only

the others in the total \alue of life these attitudes can bo understood

I shaB try

illuminating

necessary

invohed

can smglc

to illustrate this It takes practice

hear the limited number of leitmotifs which interweave to form

the sounding

symphony

of life

Certain motifs force themselves

on our attention and cannot be overlooked, but others have been so elaboiated and vaiied by' the composer that

them

after hearing

Life

18

them once

m

their simple

we can

only'

grasp

form

alwaas for us a complex process and the simple compo-

nents of meaning hardly ever appeal in an isolation such that

we

might express them immediately in abstract thought Quite suddenly', however, in 1920, I perceived that it was precisely this mter-

weavmg which

should be the startmg point foi

Perhaps unconsciously influenced I

by'

became convmced that everything

our

new method

a neo-Platonic point of view is

a part of eveiy thing else

31 In each section of mental

though in diffeient proportions,

life,

Each

mental attitudes are present

all

mental act displays to

total

the analyzing obseiver all the aspects into which the mind could

possibly be differentiated

One must

certainly be prepared to altei all one’s concepts in

No

Older to understand this line of thought 18

proposed, on the contrary

and far-reaching

complicated theoiy

extiaoidinaiily simple

it is

All fruitful

pimciples aie simple and clear

scientific

the alteration of one’s thought

is

But

we

necessitated by the fact that

heie anal} zing not a single mental legion but rather all of

lie

them

in

i

For apparently

each other

elation to

has not been previously considered and

and limited essence onl}

learn to see stinctuie

isolating

been understood

of each attitude has not

mental tiansformation will not be easy

and idealizing

if

complexity

this

consequently the simple

foi

This

But one can

everyone

one recognizes the necessity of

fiist

in order later to understand the interrelations

of life as a complication of oiiginally veiy simple threads

A

which

bias

is

a necessary copsequence of every determined

methodological procedure

is

caused b} the fact that we must start

But we

from the single mental subject

find

only in the objective mental medium which

We

geneiations and carried on b} entire groups the

forget that

summation

is

many

created by

must

howevei,

not,

accompanying social reciprocal interrelation and the form

leall} onl}

and complicates

starting point

this

is

Mental

itself

the individual as a tendcnc}

m

life

which the mental itself

life

expands

must previously exist

For unless some germ

of

m

could

it

be found in him we should go on indefinitely adding zero to zeio

True, the single acts in they grow

into

this

And

extension in society

an evei

oi

that individual

in the historical inci casing

individual and bears him awa}

stieam

We

shall,

visible

which surrounds the

But analysis must begin with the

individual consciousness, ignoring as far as possible

pecubanties

find

first

development of society

theiefore,

speak

first

of

its

the

historical

individual

mental acts, meaning those which a single individual, no mattei

how

primitive,

must cany out

Even Robinson Cnisoe must

cognize,

have economic and aesthetic relations and reverently appreciate But he could neither love nor the meaning of the couise of life rule

Here we come

social mental acts

to the tuining point

By

where we must postulate

individual mental acts then,

we mean

those

to

AThoBO

Significant

completion a second

ego

is

not

ncccssirj

Bj social mental acts we mem those which e\piessl> impl\, or hare as their object the expeiiential context of another person

The mere

fact that a mental act is occasioned

or appears in social interrelation it

as social, for here society

content

Those mental

acts,

is

is

by social correlations

not sufficient to chaiactcrize

mcrclj

the carrier of the mental

however, which intend anothci peisoii

or a group as such, constitute a special class for themselves

3

INDIVIDUAL MENTAL ACTS we

^ reverie ^

m

find,

and about ns, a mass

which really mean nothing

of impressions

I

This condition

i-rnot he adeqnatelj' portrayed in words, since verbal definitions

and other associated meanings which nre excluded when we are semi-conscious We aie drowned in a EC.I of light and color without form or limit There isi a wealth uniTK'diatel} include intellectual

of undifferentiated sounds

There

clearly localized state

a scarcely apperceived general feeling

mind antecedent to

characteristic of

arc not separated nor It

we

and dull bodily pressuies which aie not is

which merges vaguely into other

is

m

has been asserted that

confront

and"” that

‘reality’,

its

Such a chaos

states

is

Subject and object

cieation

the object lecognized and given meaning

waking consciousness

we then

objective order around us and build

onl}’-

do

separate our ego from the

up a conceptual world which

This is a wholly mistaken idea the same for all observers Even the scientist does not for a moment think of translating the IS

sense impressions of his daily experience into a scientific and strictly

He

theoretic form

colors

of

themselves clouds,

is satisfied to let

the sun rise and

set,

he sees

and hears tones even though he ‘knows’ that these aie

qualities

his

own

He

continues to

of its

looking

soul

and not immediately

the

of

things

speak of the sun’s hiding behind

down upon

the earth and of ‘nature’

as

arranged in a certain manner and as having either a beneficent or a maleficient attitude toward

man

He

chooses to be interested

in a certain object rather than others, finds his

mood

reflected in

the universe so that the coming of autumn gives him a premonition of his IS

own approaching death

In a word

the conscious attitude

not by any means sjnonymons with the

theoretic

attitude

The

naive

consciousness

scientific

of

Sprani^er,

l^es

of men.

oi

pureh

reality is

absolutely determinable for all times and all people

not

Secondly,

3

apprehension of realitj

this naive

m

is

not merely a preliminary step

cognizing behavior, but contains in a enrions jumble a totality

Added

of lelations to life

the irorld

attitude

The

in c-stnco

circumstances

is

last faotoi

means

toward the identical essence

di'fctcd

’"nii.ssion

we

cognizing act

that the

directed to the general, that

co^ized

deiive the

m

all

an act which

is

is

Thus from the experienced

identical object

b) In this experienced something there lemains a factoi, howevei,

cannot be included

M.fl.


everything

say then

are always the starting point collects its rays

religious language is

of

m

a final

simply ‘the soul

’

a religious impoitance

64 whether

m

not

oi

Evor\ thing relates

religious center

stone at

tlie

in

the

cxpenonce

actual

my

The

feet

unit}

it

of

closely

mine

experience

embracing religious value emphasis

all

appioachcs

this religious ccntci,

to

the

eicn

reflected

is

{Weithctonung)

Finally evciy thing deserves respect or condemnation

boemse

it

is

a pait of the total value context of life

But

same

is

the place to call attention to the fact that the

this IS

The

meaning contexts

true of the other

tically signiJScant

of a

grej

w hcthei

it

mined wall

much an

is

diffeientiation

identification,

theoretic acts

may

also grasp an>

instance this study, which contexts

seeks onlj

of

Likewise everything maj become the object

impression-expression

The

aesthe-

is

aesthetic experience as

For both have the chaiacter

the red of a full blown rose

of general

Every form

be in the real or the imaginative zone is

is

and essential correlations

As

conscious content

directed to the total

to grasp in

them

identities,

of the

for

meaning

difteronces

and

In the last analysis, even thing,

identical contexts of plistic life

even the non-phj sical ma} be significant for the immediate economic lalne context

mj

For, c\er> thing

materiallj

determined self

furthering or hindering as nothing to value

is

is

for the psycho-ph> sical state of

advantageous

cither

Kothing

or

harmful,

of economic indifference, just

is

of theoretic or aesthetic indifference or of indifference

at all

If,

however, in these partial values and

in the

partial significance of life, everything

can liave

moie

must harmonize together

just

make a symphony

And

in the final

meaning

e\ cry thing

as melodies and phrases intei weave to

the great leitmotif of

life’s

symphoni

is

its

place, then even

the experience siurra {itla

4

MENTAL ACTS OF SOLIDARITY

T

which we

he acts

so

may have

all

then

essential chaiaoteiistics iMthout social leciprocit} of an}

soit

h-ive

studied

fax

The} meiely add, to the subjective experiential context, objective configurations which in themselves expeiience nothing and are the subjects neithei the

foi

hive refeience acts

of

of acts noi

cognitive, to

objects

meaning

which are in themselves the subjects of iihich then occuis

m

the regions

factoi

The

of a second subject can

life

be understood thiough the significant mterpietation of the

mental

Only

to

that the mteipietation of foreign experiential contexts

is

becomes a fundamental only

however,

possible,

It is

economic and religious attitudes

The change

e persons)

(i

expeiiences

aesthetic,

which

acts

he accomplishes

one has

after

enteicd

in

his

individual

an empathic

into

i

situation

uith

elation

his

mental piocess (a relation which need not necessarily be cognitive)

cm

one enjoy him as a ps}cho- lesthetical phenomenon

economic

acts, his ‘work’, is favoiable to our 8}

purposes he

and bodily

And

experienced as useful

is

life is

i

becomes the object

elated to

If his

stem of economic

finall}

if

his

meaning of our

the ultimate

mental life

he

of religious expeiience

Whethei these inteipretative

aie to

acts

be classed only in

the cognitive region, oi whether they also belong in each case to

the mental world to whose meaning they aie empathically related IS

a

question

we answei

it

which requiies the problem

judgments in the

is

fiiithei

GeisietiWissenscliaften

heie nothing new, and aie instead

meaning giving

investigation

veiy closel} lelated

acts

still

At any

to

But however that of value late

we have

concerned with the foui

which we have previously consideied

Omitting foi the moment the peculiaiities of the interpietative

which aie lequiied when persons become the object of theoletic, aesthetic, economic and religious acts, we might say*" even

acts

56

BobmEon Crusoe could develop second

had no

thej'

if

its

There

directions

completion

meaningful

socio- reciprocal

or

action

is

a

be ven

True, these acts would

subject

experiential

primitive

these

in

which requires for

nothing posited

historical

But their essence and fundamental content is the same. There arc however, without doubt some mental acts and expenences Bobinson Crusoe, which are possible onlj in a social context summation

especiaUj'

if

we

separate him from his animals, social or pedagogical

political, juristic,

more

vestigate

closeli

the social

could' not

have

Let us in-

experiences

phenomena

of mental life

The

question which confronts us is whether there are independent

first

mental acts which

mental

are

and which

attitudes

di£erent from the four basic

essentially

correspond

to

the

phenomenon

of

society

The

methodological difficulty which

gations of society is that societj effects

we

into

which the individual

cannot imagine anj

is

found in

is

an ovenndividual context of

is

bom

individual

It

Without

detei mines

context

this

from the ven

And

beginning everj individual’s whole mental stiucture it

all iniesti-

through

he shares in the "unique level of mind which in each case

the result

with

this,

of

the

however,

of the individual

histoncal developmental process

place in which society can be experienced or It IS true that entities

meaning actualized

its

one maj consider the social groups as ovenndividual

which act in space and time as vitalized masses, but even

then one understands them

mdmdualities

means

ib

In contrast

we must emphasize that the experiential context who is a part of any society can be the onlj

The

in

the

scheme of mental

cognitive

individual mental stmctuie

of understanding mental configurations,

is

our only cognitive

and

for this reason

the complexly interwoven innei stmctuie of sociological formations IS for

ever bejond our cognition and undei standing

This limitation of our cognitive means, which not sufficiently observed, psjchologj of individuality

is

is

as

a rule

however of no importanee for the

On

the contrary, our interest in this

investigation is directed to those bonds which unite one individual

soul to another and thus to the truly experiential foundations of the social lelations 01

enndmdual

The new and unique

reflexes

which the

latter,

as

formations, aie capable of eliciting in the individual

cxpeiience will not be considered in this study

57

we wished

If

foim

(ovei individual) of experience

a

above

the

of

assume

to

m

question

puielv

a

eveiy objective

foi

conesponding individual form

society a

Individualized family experiences would conespond

to the famil},

of

answer

to

we should have

analjtical mannei

expeiiences of fiiendship to friendship, expeiiences

One might perhaps

shaieholder to the stockcompany etc

mam

start off with the

of objective social forms,

classes

but that

would not solve the question of the point of view from which

The

one should classify these experiences

ps) chological point of

view, the basic forms of social expenence

looking

aie

Another

and

for

cannot

thus

difficulty with

serve

procedure

this

is

are

the

as

cal!}

Assuming

given

foi

B}stem

cultural

that one

instance, of the

state

many

the legal system to law and the

’\^e

point

starting

we might thus take

that

into account historical peculiarities rather than reall)

phenomena

what

exactly

i

foundational

educes the historibasic acts,

political

to

extia-state

and extra-legal

forms of society to specifically „80cial“ acts one cannot derive in this

way

consider the objective state onl}

as a special

think that the forces at woik in

it

fact that

form of society, and

are the same

as in

power within a

the state wields the highest social

sectional region

(soveieignt})

and that the

laws (as

it

moulds

m

from the

totality of the othei associations

also

itself

any other

Others, influenced by

kind of ^socialisation" (Vei gesellschaftiing) the

Some people

the borderbne between state and societ}

state

alone fixes

sepaiate

these forms),

and oppose

the

it to

the state

societ}

in a narrower sense

Obviously

we

are

dealing

historical levels, the peculiarities into an analytical proceduie

social acts

we should

If

such

in of

cases

with

complicated

which aie easily taken over

we wish

to grasp the

fundamental

instead proceed 8} nthetically and ask which

simple attitudes of association are possible within a group of beings, whether of two or of thousands i

classification of

empirical forms

on the basis of social ps}choIog}

any purpose acts

m

of society

we wish

to

which the consciousness

of society

And

human

Thus we do not attempt but a differentiation

temporarily disregarding

emphasize those unique meanmgful of union builds itself

up

Eveiy form of society (we repeat here the method used in its membeis,

the foregoing chaptei) rests, in the consciousness of

on two interwoven mental

acts,

either of which

may be dominant

58

means of acts of po\\er oi sympathj, The} confiont each othei on an snboidmation oi cooidlnation Evei\ one knous th it we are dealing equal basis oi aie giadated with two dimensions when ive mention the two coiiesponding act

Human

beings aie united by

diiections

of

the

subjects

the

limited

fiist

domination and dependency, the second act diiection,

would icsult

isolated,

if

m.i}

I

e\tiemes

of

One by love and hate s>stem in a social powei

(which would not at all coiiespond to the system of community

the

b}

state),

the

other in

be united nith othei s b}

a

relations

Acts of dominance and sjmpowei or by bonds of sympathy pathy seem then to designate the fundamental meaning tendencies

of

in the social realm of subjection

aio

Coiiesponding leceptive sets are the expenences

and of sjmpath}

Accoiding

to

piesent in

eveiy

means

of value

one's

own value

oui

fundamental act

social

community

oi

direction, or

poison’s value diiection

i)

Inpothesis

consciousness

the

contiast,

thiongh

both

components of

union bi

and through supeiioiit} of

its

dependence upon anothei

Relations of domination cannot be thought

of without Bimnltaneoiis lelations of commuiiit}

and in these theie

aie again piesent factois both of supeioidination and suboidination,

legal dless of whethei these

meaning lelations are peimanentlv

oi

only temporal ily actualized in the consciousness of the paiticipants Soon, however, the act of domination

By

may become piedominant,

sympathy I mean here mental acts which are directed dominant value direction of another being, they thus determine, at least on one side, a consciousness of identical intention and of unity We do not refer here to the sphere of passing acts of

to the essential value or the mentally

association through emotion (feeling of equality,

The

tiuly mental acts of

sympathy aie

compassion, suggestion)

differentiated

from each othei hj

the depth, extent and diiiation of the intention toward the other

And

upon the depth and content of the value 'for the sake of which’ one sympathizes wuth the other A love founded on religion according to depth, extent and duration would he the highest, on the other hand sjunpathy in regard to external economic purposes would be comparitively low, no matter whethei it appears in the form of

this differentiation depends again

mutualism or the more valuable form of altiiiism As a choose the aesthetic -erotic empathy which Schelei in his important and learned Wesen und Foiinen der Sympaihic Bonn 192B solidarity,

midpoint

(2)

of

we might

designates as the vital feeling of oneness {vtiale Einsfiichlung)

a compieheusive comparison with Scheler’s presentation would go heyoud the limits of this study

at this

But point

59 then the ‘socnl’ act^) becomes subservient,

oi if the

‘sociar act

decisive then the snpenoiity of the one subseives the

s\mpathetic lelationship and vice veisa

mav

but in leadeiship

an nnescapeable factor of comradeship, and comradeship

is

many subtle giadations The problem, however,

Ins

deepei

still

In a social context one

oneself either as leader or follower,

feel

there

is

We

ippeared

is

moie complicated than has

as }et

above that we judge the independence

said

mental acts by the question of whether there

is

Do

specific region of value in the structuial context of the soul

power and 6}mpatliy actually found unique

of

a coriesponding

One

classes of value?

might object that we are here dealing onl} with sociological forms of

alternate

i

elation

cooperation

oi

sammcmonlaingsfoimcn) be thought of

And

might say that power

the influence of superioritj

as the

value

othei

This

piesent also lies

Thus

m

But the unique

if

the factor

side of this

i

is

possible onlv insofai

mdiiectly, the superioi

onl}

superior person

the fact that the

peisonal value

otheis definite and lasting

however,

result,

finall}

of

community

Powei

is

is

heie

elation of superordmatiou

has lealized for and in

himself a gioup of values which places the other in a inner dependency

One

contents

a foreign value SNStem, so that

initiates in

person affirms, even

direction

value

signifies the superiority of the

content and value strning ovei

motives of behavioi

Zai-

indeed power and sympathy cannot

independent of definite

as

ode)

which the previously disclosed value

in

tendencies are actualized

{Wechschonhungs-

i

elation of

therefoie always an actual supeiioiit}

which can be understood only by means of the value content of the powerful subject and is consequent!} based throughout upon this

Powei

content

can only bo

thought of as

superioi it}

ot

actual knowledge, or of technical means (hence derives the relation of propel ty)

or

of

capacity to

express oneself

aesthetically and

thus influence people strongly (powei of orator} for instance) or of leligious conviction (enthusiasm

And

similarly with

i

e

charismatic power)

sympathy, one might say,

sympathy

is

a

tinning toward the other due to a community of inteiests and a stiiving for the

same values

We

love another person as a cainei

of value or because he posits oi seaiches for value 1)

rom

I use the expression ^social’ in

the popular usage ns meaning

*

what

This factor

follows in a different sense

based upon sympathy’

60 empnical for ne emnot deduce a in ion

also presupposes something

whether the other

we

bond If

The

are dealing nith a

one of eqnalitj

18

means of positive predicates, since

it

meant for him something whoUj indeter-

minate or the mcio possibilit\ might

still

We

of assuming determination

ask, however, whether there

is

not a sort of original

formation which serves as a foundation for all others, so that they

seem to be derived from or founded on is

it

In philosoph} there

a tendency to regard the theoretic forms of determination (thouglit

alone or expanded to cognition) as original form prehensible since philosophy itself

is

great mistake, I might saj the hcreditarj secretli

tran'iforina

of the material of

cognition

is

theoretic context of

life

in

This

com-

is

a science and consequentiv

places the theoretic attitude above all others

sm

It is,

howcier, a

of philosoplij

that

it

the pcculiantj of an instrument into a qualit\

Philosoph} must alwaj s be cognition

The

alwajs more thin and different from a

object

mcrclj

Philosophx can no more include all the meaning

mere theorj

than

aesthetics

can

transform

art

into

85 But instead, both philosophy and aesthetics merely

scionce

minate present pictures of

with then own

life

Previous to the piesent discussion

illu-

light, that of theoietic

Bnt the atheoretic content must always be preserved theoretic form analysis

we allowed

in the

by

for this fact

aapcrting that in every meaningful experience all othei diiections of

mpining aie contained, even colors the whole experience

if

This was at

"We can now lUnstrate

st-rt

When we

nndei the domination of one which

it

a methodological

first

by the following example

speak of Nature are obviously imply moie than an

‘expLiience’

Foi, nature as a whole cannot be experienced

c'r

the whole only in thought, or in biief

refer to

The

'l)''i'glit

itl

0

il

IS

connotations of this thought

not necessarily

the case onlj

if

we

itself

maj be

nature

We is

a

wliolly different,

mainly a theoretic act

This would

conceived the meaning of nature to be a

clo'ed system, an inclusive concept of identically recnriing essences

uhich behaved according to identical laws This is what nature means for the scientist who thious the network of thought-forms and categories over natuie, and where it is a mattei of indiffeience nhctlier be finally reduces oveiything to quantitative mathematical

fqu'tions

whether ho stops at the explanatory principle of

or

substantial forms 'totality

oneself into play

It is,

however, also possible to confront this

of nature’ in anothei attitude its

of foim

of nature

life, its

Oi

One can empathicalh

This

is

the

aesthetic

its

inteipretation

again the selection of values might be regarded

from the utilitarian standpomt for the preservation

mamtainance of human

Or

life

finally,

be always identical) can meaning and intend, accordmg

context

of

totality

of life in

comfortable

entei into a leligioiis to

which every individual has

sinful level of the physical

oi

nature (which only the

theorist believes to

illusion

feel

color, its light, its smell, its rhythm,

and harmony

its

emphasis, that

his being,

or the

and the material, or even an mferioi

beyond which the real meaning of

life

may be found

Indeed, some will perhaps inclme to call all these meaning interpretations metaphysical -religious, totality

of

beemse they

nature which is never given

are related to that

But the

different act-

colorations remain, even if in every case only a section of socalled

natnie

(foi

instance

a plant)

is

correspondmg regions of meamng

giasped

ind

classified

in

the

86 Of course these

onh

meaning region' are

difierenfiitions of

In

abstractions arri% ed at b\ theoretic reflection

undivided

of acts

there

find

.all

directions of

that

w IS onh

of anahsis

is

cverj

in

we have

as

act

total

The

But

problem

real

determine in the meaningful total act

to

mce

c shall

i

explained aboie

a preliminarv rough determination

i'

Btructuie nhicli

the

act

unique in c\cr\ case and which builds up exacth

i'

For the meanings interrelate not once onlj

complex

till'

and

life

meaning

•'gain

perfo’-m

tlic

but

awain and again so that, as in the Volta column, the same strata

m ij

shall trevt only the

Later when we consider pnmarj complications but we must

that tins too

a methodological shortcut

be found sei eral limes

IS just

two relatnch simple examples of

The

we

pcs

sai

here

forms

stratified

aesthetic effect of a mediaeval cathedral is based on a

hctcrogcncons acts

great m.an}

act of cognition in

the outline

knowledge of

its

cars

i

judgment

When wc

if

is

judgment

this

a

this

in

it

God

the house of

m

new

figures etc

So

experience too

its size

sense, so

fullest

its

knowledge that

appreciate

insignificance of the individual

form on the basis of

see regularities of

VTc cannot, uithout a harmonic

purpose

this IS the latent historical

m

arc

comprehend

of religious acnoration .add the silent

primitive

the ver\

is

and repetitions of parts of

of distance

aesthetic impressions

Lleracntari also the

First there

which u e determine as a part of the real world

of the cathedral’s external shape,

form, relations

hundred

t\

I shall cite onl>

it

we

Over and above

has a past of seven

enormous

realize the

Perhaps ue

the effort in\ohed

conscious

theoretic, thongli scarcelj

a tremendons achievement of human cooperation

‘that is

iihich

would haic been impossible uithont the harmonious relation

of

tlicir

ill

Much more

souls'

niaj

be woven together in such an

experience, and the whole could, and docs .1

religious Eignific

an aesthetic

act,

u ith manj people, have But there mn\ also be nothing more than cmpathic cxpencncc of formed grandeur

mce

in

Or take a simpler example icsthctic

‘Gold

is

experience) rare'

‘The nng

‘This is

nng

gold’

(economic valuation)

shines’

(theoretic

(the significance of this relation of loae enters in)

m>

life’

(comparison of economic and religious

jon’

The

it

to

a

condensed single act

full sigaificancc of this act is,

therefore,

it

to

‘I prize

i allies)

which

mcntallj

(pnmitiie

evaluation)

mother gave

finally

‘I

me’ it

as

give

becomes

founded throngh

87 a comple'C of other mental acts and can be adequately understood

by empathy Here is an enoimous

individual analysis of G-etstes-

field foi

The problem

v^isscnschaftcn

to stndj

is

of foundations of value acts, experiences

In order

draw a few simple

to

we must make use

possibilities

the

many

different kinds

and constant dispositions

lines through this field of

of a

enormous

simplifying consti notion, as

For every one of the mam spheres of meaning we posit on the one hand its subjective attitude and on the othei its oliaractcristic form of objective existence Even though the outlines follows

we

v.lwrh

ndh

’

j

irt

IS

me

seems to

it

that

we

one-sided influence of the natnial sciences upon previous

fhologi shows itself in the nairow conception of the ego

ii'hcvL that

p

only be crude

considered

The p

give here can

open up a new world of questions which philosophy has

Mnn

Manj

connection with the physical

its

of the self

is the most essential them a psychical tact which

It is, therefore, foi

connected with natuie (nature being interpreted solely in physical

m

its spatial and temporal localisation and phjs'ological terms) and must it«clf be interpreted as a pioduct of nature From this view,

which

wholly undei

IS

the

by

irani

has been di)

in xiew of our principle that in every mental

The

others

are not,

I have never midntiuncil ifant cbanctcrDlogy cannot oncat It*cl(

by other element i th's the dominant value direction of the individnoL I do, hiiwcvir. iroI*t that the mental character of man is principally

dctormic'l

thru'iirh

hi* oxrn life

in In* v« ty llVrirl'

1

the value organ by means of which he live* and *hapt-i

IVl rn I wrote thi* book J did not

imp .rtani woik

dvfnitr p^r isal

il'r

S iL vJuc tvpt*

llaili 10H',

Formah^mw p

know

that

Max

m Jer Kthk uk>I the

GOT, al

Schelsr

a*enale

bnngs forward the idea

of

105 howevei, absent but are instead in a definite relation to the figures

The

on top

and

isolating

idealising

method

thus

is

leenforced

by the

totalising (totahsierende)

wanted

to describe the manifoldness of the historically determined

types

we should hare But

procedure

this

Here we remain

we

add an individualising (indtviduahsterende) point of view of historical pecnlianties does

to

We

not enter in here

method

want only

to

work out the few most general

forms of personality In the following

wc

shall start with each type from the central

region and relate the five others to

must appear

it

The

direction of

i

elation

a ptiori from the meaning of the basic sphere For, the diiections of mental acts and their interrelation to a total to ns

a pfioti (even though not in every single

structure are within us

This

detail)

basic

not the merely intellectual a

is

structure

pnon

but the plastic

means of which we are able with a

bj

of life

variation of our individual attitude to anticipate or to follow in-

tclbgentl) situations which five

points

we have not expenenced

Besides these

view we shall present a section on the tjpe of

of

motivation which belongs to each

life

form

For,

it

will be clearly

seen that the reasonable choice of one or more value emphasized

purposes and the causal-theoretical calculation of the means necessary to their

attainment,

originates

in

IS

onl>

is

a

special kind of motivation

a blend of the theoretic

which we might

call

which

and economic types and

tho t}pe of technical motivation

This tjpe

characteristic of our time, but not of all time nor indeed

With the consideration

all beings of our time

of motivation

already touch upon the specific ethics of this region, but

remember that

this section is

purely psychological

of

we

we must

In othei words,

no value judgments are made in regard to the types except those Even which refer to uhat follows of then innei consti notion

where we speak

of

an

ethical

psychology of these ethics

tendency we refer onlj

For,

we can

grasp

to

the

psychologically

the psychic mental attitude which belongs to every ethical attitude of

an individual

Noimatn e experiences always have

slant even though the

norms themselves and

a psj chological

their validity cannot

be the object of purely' psychological consideration

Besides the

question of the type of motivation and the ty'pe of ethics

make a survey

of the

can be differentiated

we

shall

most important forms into which the types

The

standpoint of such differentiation will

—

—

lOG

drairs frois the aniqne ftractnrc of eich

lie

for every type.

baTf a It

Many

cxrisplcs

trill

repon and thc«

furthonnoro, be difficult for ns to at old tafcinc lao^t of

frill,

tlie

example' from our own and clasMc culture.

cm

ont}

be applied

irithont

For,

this stud}

mediating interpretationt to culture*

wiifxc meantne dinction* are already clearl} differentiated

ofou Ml piononnred

i
) General validity then, comprehends (universality of the subject) (2) Validity of all objects which have been included in this general concept or law (universahty of the object)

112

And by means

interrelations

He

m

lives

an

e}es gazing into the

world, his

eternal

he transcends the moment

of this

future and sometimes comprehending ir>hole epochs

And

history

m

the immortality which

which

Even

He

become, so

has

who

scholars

vocational

all

We

is

general

necessity,

objectivity,

most easily

can find this attitude then

lives’

woik

may be found independent

type

hia

moment

creature of the

chosen careeis in

this

partakes of

systematized to a degree

instinctive

follow

But elementary forms of

He

master

from the eternal validity of

speak,

to

can

beliavior

the

and applied logic

validity

among

radiates

practical

his

mmd

his

impossible for

IS

of the world's

this reflection he intertwines past and present in

an ordered whole which

tiuths

distant

of

Here the structural aspect appears perhaps even

life

moie clearly than

moie complex natures

in the

men

of great

II

To

attempt

objectively

least

whole

the

like projecting a plastic object

is

the cognitive value

At

comprehend

to

they

is

content

expeiiential

upon a plane

When

placed hist the others must necessarily suffei

undergo a

determined

structurally

which can only be understood

if

transformation

we constantly remind ourselves

of their relation to the theoretic man’s life centei

No

complete

life is

pressure, physical needs

achievement

possible without economic acts

and

all the

make themselves

felt

mateiial bases of intellectual

though

even

existence

is

to

him

one

iiishes

to

But no othei side of

dedicate oneself to purely objective study

needs

External

so unimportant subjectively, as these immediate

Foi, utilitarian interests necessitate such a stiong subjective

emphasis that they injure

all

And

puie cognition

this dismterested

is just what has led to objective systems which would never have been developed if obseivation had been lestiicted

cognitive attitude

to the directly useful scientific

training

consciously repudiates

application and utilitarian interest of our

classical period

helpless

of

the

He

(I

this

all

might

which followed the

of the eighteenth century)

the face

For

and ‘applied’

practical

The

reason any puiely

immediately practical cite

here the idealism

utilitaiian lationalism

that

m

puie theoiist

is

necessaiy consequence

problems of

life

the

is

has not learned to relate his reflections to specific

practical situations and the necessaiy puipose-means consideiations

lie IS

fitted for

ill

a stinggle for existence, not because he lacks

understanding, but because such an attitude

His consequent helplessness

pioblems

technical

is

often

foreign to his nature

is

carried

over to the simplest

‘Kant, the great theorist,

small mechanic, the

first all

and Lampe, the

head, the second all hands, vrero often

nonplussed by insignificant things*')

PJnlosopJian nocessc

est,

vtverc

est necessef A scholai may sunonnd himself uith a mass boohs and instruments and jet have no bed to sleep in, as Hcrminn Reich reports of Pinl von Winterfeldt Plato depreciates the economic tjpe of man Spinoza canies on a modest

non of

—

—

trade which does not satisfj him all

this

we

In seeming contradiction to

that scholars sometimes develop

find

miserliness oi even

m

‘Where jour tieisure

a pathological

astonishing passion to accumulate wealth

is,

thcie will lour heart be also’

these aie not born theorists and, like sophists, really aio utilitarians

many

We cm

perhaps

of the old (and

new)

understand howevei, that

Thej come fiom the

the pure theorist might exhibit such traits

feeling that the practical side of life presents almost insuperable difficulties

For

this

renson their

expresses

deficiency

itself

in

haplnraid accumulation, not so much for the love of possession IS

the

in

desiie for

tlcoi'st loathes

ficedom fiom such material worries

the economic attitude with

verj

its

specific

The law

Wheio we find the cainest conviction that economic possessions make tor independence, there we no longer have the pure theoietio mixed attitude

tvpe but instcid theorist,

Ins limits

Schopenhauer was not a pure

were set by the will

This contrast between the theoretic and economic attitudes expressed hv the Gieck thinkers who They upon anj foim of eaniing one’s living felt that the business interest of the sophists was definitely opposed And since the dsagia to the pniely philosophic state of mind which also stood for the aesthetic set was their highest value, the

has

been most strongly

looked scornfullj

word ^dvavaoq acquired the same deprecatory meaning which And when today ve are thej gave to the word ^agfiagog offended by the mixing of the commeicial attitude with research,

quest for truth and philosophic reflection, this effect of *)

the ancient Greek point of view but

Wasiaiiski,

Bibbothek

Immanuel Kant in semen

is is

not only an afterexpressive of an

letzten Lebensjahren, Deutsche

p 239

Siirang-cr, T\iic? of

mm

8

114 eternal

The economic and

psychology

m

cannot both have a place

the

theoietic

attitudes

m

the same soul, at least not

equal

propoitions

The economic

attitude

Foi, even cognitive acts

as a suboidinated factoi

they

economy,

without

aie

cognitive behavior

neveitheless enteis

certain

immanent lawfulness

then

injuiing

demand a

psycho - ph} siological achievements which must obey the economy A phjsical foimula, perhaps a yard long, may be of eneigy but

accurate,

A

it

cannot thus be used

ceitam technique underlies as

the

instruments

and

well

as

But

aptitude

pme

pragmatism,

which often necessitates

to

perveisions

The

is

is

in

IS

Aesthetic

additions

distinctly

subjective,

it

of imaginative combinations

is

latliei

to

quite easily understood

now and

entei into the

impulsive (whim)

who were

where the

once of

chief

technical ability

is

tiuth

and all

on the other hand,

aitistic inventions

‘Intuition’

Hegel used

it is

to

The

theoiist’s

and Romanticists, who emotional powers,

may become

a

is

method

devoid of method and puiel\

say that one could do nothing

entiiely guided

the aesthetic type ultimately

it

said

piuging cognition of

object with all then

then but fundamentally

with people

of

empathj, sometimes even productive

and

thus

of

and cognition once

His goal

imagination,

passionate objection to all such di earners

want

forms

necessaiily devaluated by the

also

can be achieved onlv by cnticall\

subjective

certain

The same may be

level

theoretic type because of his dominant set this

mechanical

ends which perhaps

biological

no longei thought, but

aesthetic attitude

precise

Where economy

as

expeiimcntal psjcholog}

of

veiy

ceitam

a

cognitive laws are abolished

was upon an undifferentiated requirement

presupposes

mling piinciple,

cognition

of

research (the histoiical

must be suboidinated

the

more becomes a means certain

all scientific

consequentlv

all this

becomes

thought

physical)

a means

as

clings

while the scientist strives to master

by emotion

In addition,

with his whole soul to form it

intellectually

and analyze

into geneial essences

Only that is scientific which has been grasped in a generally valid sense, and therefore the aim of science is conceptual desciiption but not the stimulation of an emotional

it

attitude

Plato, himself a poet, banished poets from his philosophic

which the theoretic ideal was placed above eveiything else because poets did not desne pnmaiily truth but lather to

state

in

115 excite feelings

and

to stimulate

dangerous

He

also

>)

emotions which were often ethicallj

m

saw

them beings twice lemoved from which were in themselves

reality because they copied single objects

back

copies, instead of going

The

valid Idea

stoics

to the original, eteinal

believed imagination

man who

danger of the wise

and generallj

be the greatest

to

stiove to regulate his life by general

laws, because the maginaiio chained

man

to

single objects

and

extornal tilings

This devaluation of the pictorial imagination, the imagmaUo, can be traced up to modem lationalism, and Spinoza’s

knowm

position in this regard is well

In the Leibnitzean school

the tmaqmatio uses from the level of a confused cognition to an

independent aesthetic impoitance

The

theorist,

Lick conceptual imagination, but he subjects

and discipline b\

It is

VoihiMungsJo aft which

is

it

however, does not to

strict

relation

dominated throughout

objective Laws

IVhen the theoiist views

own

pcculi

ir

He

bias

artistic objects lie

judges them with his

traces then influences from a puiely scientific

standpoiut and tiica to foimnlate his conclusions in aesthetics, not content

until

he has -biased the conciote

formulated gcneial idea which obje'’lioa to

mn«ic

but also to

hi->

t”!

the

iiio«t

’S

rrtistic

satisfies his lational

object

upon

needs

a

Kant’s

piobablj not duo only to a natural defect in

liis

psi chological stnicluio

unintellcctnal art since

the general laws theorist

is

upon uhitlTit

is

To him music was

he never undoistood

oi discovered

based (dm ThemaUl)

®)

The pure

pnmarilj inteiested in the object, in rational technique

oi

pure concepts in a manner directly opposed to the aesthetic attitude

And aesthetic

’)

A

}ct even the purest theoiist cannot quite factoi

exclude the

but must recognize this attitude at least as a

eimilai fanatical adherence to truth as

an enemy of art

is

found

in Eousseau, based here, however, on ascetic rather than theoretic motives Here we must also class the objection which is felt by some philosophers

with a decided logical trend to the socalled philosophy of life They scent in this an aesthetic or mjsticnl element which they cannot understand ) Cf Gladstone, Faraday (p 47 of the German translation) On the function of imagination in science see

my

essay

Fhaniaste mid Welt-

anschauung in the collected aolnme Weltanschauung Berlin 1911 p 142fi, and al®o Heinrich Maier Psychologic des emottonalen Venhens Tuebingen 1908 ch 5 Kognitive Pliantasietnetigkeit und Phantasieurtcile ») The mathematician’s question on hearmg a Beethoven symphony 5” ‘Beautiful, but what is thus proved by it IS famous 8*

116 All thought finally bordeis on the individual, the Even the most abstiact logical piocess seems to have

auboidmate act pictoiuil

a

No

thought

wholly possible without

13

tative ideas

It

which

inadequate,

no matter hoiv

snbstiatum,

is

imaginative

and represen-

illustiative

has often been demonstiated that the fruitfulness of

empiiical thought ultimately depends upon the wealth and plasticity of

An

such ideas leason

this

empiiical thinkei (botanist, geogiapher etc

most closely

is

i

achieved a great deal

Kant’s abstiact intellect too seems to have

Geometiy exhibits an aesthetic chaiacter

in this aesthetic direction

because

concepts also have foim, even though

its

foim of the theoietic

(lational)

Similar aesthetic

urns aie peihaps even

art

are

more valid

The pioblem

means

itself,

concept und lawful

however,

all art

suggest a

No

concrete

seems

imaginative pictuie

to

The

detail here

historian

is

much

very

various reasons for this

Especially today

*)

so

still

when

accessible

to

directed

is

the

into empathic

to

IS

matter

how

closely

it

ultimately appio-

cannot be developed in

and

it

is

in the nature

of

things

abolished

For, historical

isolated occurrences

which are only

imagination

Besides

relations with past eras

mind This empathic relation but

uses in older to

the conceptual outfit of the

that this attitude cannot be completel)

leconsti notion

in

impeifectly developed, the aesthetic acts are

the foiegiound

in

consists

be bound up with factuil material and mental

laws which are embodied in the iindei standing, aches art

in those

the desciiptive sciences

is,

drawing a pictuie (leprcsentation) which

history

only empathic

the single instance not the starting point but

In them the geueial (namely

fine

context)

it is

‘soul’

aim of then endeivoi, that

rathei the

and

cl

make

sciences which

foi

though

the aesthetic tjqie

elated to

)

is

this,

histoiy

must enter

and then unique

states of

not indicative of aesthetic enjoyment,

a necessaij foundation for the specific geistcsivissenscliaftliclie

‘)

Of

W

V Humboldt’s

historian in bis

Ofterdmgen I 5

Hedcueho ,

also

Geschichischi eibers schrift vol 100

und

my

famous comparison of the poet and the Aufgahe des Gescluchtbchieiheis and Novalis essay TF v J3 ’s Eede uehei die Aufgahe des

die

die Schellmgsche Ehilosojdiie

Indicative of the aesthetic attitude

is

Histonsche Zeitthe interweaving

of the particular ivith the general, so that the seemingly individual cases of history illustiate

a general law This attitude is expressed again and again in Eanke's solemn phrase ‘And here I believe I see a general law

of life’

117 cognitive acts whicli

no

call concrete

is,

therefore,

undeistandmg The histoiian moio subjective in these achievements than il ho weic tiying to understand tiiangles and circles A student of

hoivever,

18 ,

oiilj

Geisicstoissenschaft

alwajs less theoretic than the

investigator of cognate objects

which cannot he value subjects in The pnic theoiist appeals more clearly when special methods which have been developed to explain natural objects

thcmsohcs

applied to geistesiussenschafiliche objects

arc artificiallj

Lot us non turn to the social out

where we

field

iking fact, nimely, that the thcoiist

sti

Despite the ideational general validity of

mil, the will la

distinctlj

attitude

antithetical

lb

to

He

minds

uanon

be interested

public

in

meetings

Family

Lscape his observation

IVi

neithci

Not

the

biotlicrhood of icseirch, truth,

others

'I

ties

contemplating

he onh kind of community which that of convictions held in

is

attitude

understood he feels at home

18

differentiated

as

now an

invisible

cien thinkers of different nations not plastic

IS

mankind

seem to him unimportant

No

matter

It is

how

human

is

When

academy

Wherever his science was not

of thought united

based upon a onesided knowledge

to generalize his obseivations

The

his

dominant abilities

indiiiduality

and

Approach the p 175

attitude

and tends iriationality

any single ocouirence which can only be grasped by

Theaitetos

of

caicfully the theorist studies men, his

Everj where ho finds intellectual motives and

>)

to

in accordance with

common

This form of social relation

powers of undcistandiug arc limited bj

arc beyond him

ties

soul, but

and knowledge unites him

his natuie

of

The

In

aesthetic enjojment of the

to

also

the

man

i)

blood lelahQji nor an altimstic desuc to help

mankind

him

so

in

wise

illnstiates

Thcaetot distint

tbe occasional and haphazaid in his immediate environment

cl'‘rniij,

m'”,

Plato

as

man in how

no matter

eteinal

the

in

or empathic relations with

but alwajs stiongly subjective

cares neither foi his ancestors nor his neighbors, noi

beautiful interlude on the wise lives

is

His coolly objective mental

8^mpathctlc

with their bioad or

otliors,

critical

every intellectnalism

This explains whj the pure

cannot be a social natuie

llieori't

IS

personal, that

an individualism

tln.rcforc perforce

knowledge, the

all

autonomous lethmlnng of naive convictions,

to the

something so

at once observe

a complete individualist

is

intuition

theorist for advice in a piactical

118 and he inclines

situation

to

look upon the issue from the stand-

and

or definite laws

human espeiience

point of all

The

the subtle and individualizing points

oveilook

to

consolation which he

‘This offeis will probably be based on some such generality as In regard to single instances of everyday often happens in life’ This explains perhaps life he has more wisdom than shiewdness

why we have no

which deal adequately with artist is

fields the

In these

life

moie keen than that

The same phenomena It

or moial philosophies

satisfactory psychologies

of the scholar

are repeated

the

in

cannot be denied that the theonst has

Bupenoiity because

of

sphere

political

decided feeling

a

of

But he cannot

mental achievements

bis

of the

ey^e

lacks the interest in the concrete

which

comprehends the individual peculiaiities of any given case

The

make use

of

it

because he

knowledge

dictum

power, should thus be qualified

is

one knows how to use specifically

But

it

The

theoretic type

consciousness

expressed instead in the vague feeling

he has no desire

deny the central age

‘But I

knows’’,

insofar as

executive ability is lacking in the

power

of

I could if I

is

here

would

But

do so since in that very moment he would

to

Kanke, who cried in his old

interest of his life

cannot die yet,

I

know

so

who compiehended

and Hegel,

much

that

noone

else

tumultuous period

his

from an almost eschatological point of view that the woild not only was as

it

was, but must be so and signified a mental apex,

are very similar natures

For him

Fichte

is

a totally

difteient character

all science points to a formative ait of

Vamnfthimsi)

The

theorist’s

will to

leason (gestaltende

act usually

spends

itself

and polemics

These are his weapons Once he has shown that a curient opinion is false he does not know what

in criticism

remains to be done

His entiie ambition can be centered in the

Eiasmus could not understand how anyone found Luthei’s Geiman translation of the New Testament

solution of a limited problem

moie important than the

scholar

is

immediate recognition

engage the

eyes

is

due

in isolating leseaich,

sacrifice

of

own Latin

his

pioverbial

of

others

Pei haps to

need

great pioblems and

is

seized

of

conciete

and

the fact that minoi scholais

who

want

his

foi

lecompensed

at least to be

then immediate neainess to

upon them

The ambition

translation

life,

foi

by having the

But anyone who investigates tiuly

by the passion

foi

knowledge needs

119 no other blessedness than he finds in quiet activity, and his unremarked existence is solaced by the conviction that the truth

make its own way after his death Neveitheless it is striking that so few scholars love the anonymity into which all really general truth must finally sink Apparently every'body likes to be comwill

pensated for his expenditure of eneigy

Wherevei the actively IS

theorist,

misappiehending his own nature, does

enter politics, his limitations die immediately seen

inclined to think that education is the only

All

from Condorcet to

positivists

He

road to progress

Buckle and those

today

of

represent this intellectnalistic IS

of positive value only'

relation with

dogma They forget that knowledge when it has been brought into organic its possessoi Human And even though we may all human intelligence

the other mental pouors of

beings arc not mere creatures of leason

paidon the

onoi in looking upon

theorist’s

as equal because the results of coircct thinking are equally valid,

we must plernnl

that the nomntdleotnal

insist

obstacle to their equality

structure

of

man

wo

b>

means of

And

chemistry

it

It is true that

mathematical

nature

phjsics

ind

man and

cannot be denied that

inteirelated uith socalled natural contexts

intellect aic closelj

The bonndaij must

therefore bo lerj

not our task

obvious without further investigation that the

It

is

carefulh

drawn, but tins

is

feeling for psjchio life and mental contexts presupposes a whollj difleient strnctnre

bj

than

is

necessitated

by obscnation and

arrangement and intcrpietation of material objects

collection

llTiether one

speaks here of an ‘inner and outer imagination or of ‘understanding

and explaining’ the are diSerentlj

fact remains that these arc

oiganizcd

The

‘nsion’

that for instance, Jiuman beings

who or

interpret the external bj

vice versa,

who

treat

two lipcs nhich

is dilteicnt in

and the difference reaches so far back into the

total

the two cases

mental structure

and epochs appear again and again

means of psvchic meaning

contexts,

mental achievements according to the

scheme of mere external causal explanations There results therefore, as an insight into the plasticiti of total life, the far-reaching difference between the tjpe who apprehends mankind as a region of

mechanical legal necessitj

and the other l>pe who deduces

everything from meaningful value motives and spontaneous purpose striving

The more

distinction

to the

between analj tic and

formal side of cognition

sj nthetic direction

The importance

belongs

for science

127 of these predominating tendencies

is

minds which are principally directed unravel

continuous

in

life

well

known

Theie are some

to the differences of phenomena

Others chiefly notice the identities

Correspondingly, some people

reflection

and others,

because

thej

constantly recurring traits, elevate life into the spheie

realize its

of generally valid contexts

For the

classical logician theic existed a characteiistic equa-

between generality

lisation

and law) and

And

that which is according to species

e

(i

Foi them species

totality

law was so

oi

to

speak

out of which the special differentiated itself oi emanated

the unit}

indeed logically both are related

For,

anyone who has

grasped the general law also includes an entire region of phenomena, but

a

onl}

region and not

bo cognized and thonght

tile

There

whole cosmos of that which can is,

another difference

theiefoie,

between specialising and nnivorsalising thinkers

who,

people

like

Robert Mayei

devote then

the

essence

of

leal

lives

to the

others, howcvei,

appears as a sjstematic whole which one

cognitive problem

must master in order really to understand the the

There are some

whole

To

intensive investigation of one special problem

science

paiticiilar

Theiefore

includes a tendency not only to the

but also to the whole Whore this tendency is lacking or enh partiallj developed ue are at the border of real science The meic aphorist foi instance, like Nietzsche voices aesthetic

goiicial

imptrcsions rather than thecietically founded and identical contexts

hand has a comprehensive vision in phenomenon is no longer strictly differentiated which is bom from the leligious diive to

Tlic mcinph3Eician on the other

which

llie

individual

or thought through and

the Absolute

from the aesthetic uige to foim

or

speaks reverently of the ‘general’, that which

and that which

is

is

When

Hegel

according to species

accoiding to totality (the Geneial and the Total)

flows together to form an undifferentiated unity distinction of partial

and comprehensivo thinkers

If

one applies the

to the theoi etical

typo in the widest sense, one finds, beside the specialists

again sec and think thiongh one side of for

whom

existence

is

essentiall}

thej

not

satisfied

until

thought

on the

totality

are

life,

who

the univeisal theorists

one tremendous problem and who

have erected a monistic structure of Thej live their lives in one

of life

dominating thought or one comprehensive Logos whose manysidedness issues

from an Absolute Unitj

126

make a

Let n 3

the

of

diherentiation

final

of

and reasoning

classification,

On

is

For, even the

open, often with enormous

difficulty

thinking

all real

achievement

productiie

a

activity',

Xoone can

creative

the contrary

a difference between the theorist

is

who breaks

nen roads in understanding

,

and conquers new land, and the other who ‘thinks himself

an accepted

of thought and cannot go beyond

line

Fichte

into’ is

a

though he accomplished nothing which could

crcatii e thinker

really

the

and the receptive

not mutnallj exclusive

is

an inner

is

productire

peoples’ thoughts

other

nnderetand by merely adopting

Kei crthelC'S there

regard to

in

theoretically

This antithesis, however, appreciation

point

But noone had a stronger feeling

be termed a mental discovery

than ho for the activity of thought, and he would certainly' have

phrase

the

transl ited

il

dQ/ij t^r

onh

justified

6 ^oyog ‘In the beginnmg

was the deed*

there

V Finally nliich

we

,

are

a hidden inner

Scepticism

16

opposed

18

1

elated

m

lives

The

affinity

theoretical sceptic

is

the

the only

ty

pe

npon such

This sccpjticism presupposes the experience of the theoretic

contrast ideal

discussing here

in

antithetical to the theorist if the contrast is b"scd

IS

to

is

it

only'

meaningful

if

the thing which

has buried an ideal and it

One can be a

one of harsh pride

is

renounces

In this way' the sceptic

He

the quiet tcais which he weeps for

demeanor

it

ns a scientific thought

the scientific fanatic

to

even

if

his

outward

sceptic for diticrcnt

reasons, from religions veneiation, wcilth of aesthetic imagination, desire

for

action

"Wlicn

the

\icw that of every valid, ty

cognitive it

constantly

theorist

he only

bi

means

of a

that

prov'es

new

it

an

•'ttitudc

it

is

m

tlis

form

it

is

this

point of

held generally*

its

psv chologic limits

The negation

may seem

illogical,

a very interesting and possible structure

which may be subjectively understood appears

it

he himself belongs to the theoretic

pc w ithoiil hav mg understood

IS

to

denied the possibility*

theory which

of science because of certain scientific experiences

but

of these

scientific ciitical leasons

objects

was inconsequential because

theory

Kone

But one can also be a theoretical sceptic

may be based upon

scepticism

IS,

politics or industry*

in socicts,

attitudes concern ns here

That

Although scepticism rarely

characteristic of the theoretic type since

129 it

repiesents this t>pe

self-criticism

Feihaps

with the wildest expectations and keenest

Hume was

truthfulness, however, finally It

sounds p.iradoxical when

type

13

the most religions

such a man His honest}' and made even his scepticism productive we declare that a ceitain atheistic

But theie

is

some foundation

of truth

for this statement, because the puie atheist is so only because of

a disappointed religions impulse

In the same

way we might say

that the sjstematic sceptic is in a certain sense the purest form of theorist because he transcends himself

Sprnnffcr, Typen of

9

2

THE ECONOMIC ATTITUDE I

M apt

pieservation of

depends upon natural piodncts and forces which are

life

to

These needs are not constant but

man’s needs

satisfy

Even

mciease with his development

have been

satisfied

point

this

The

an and nature aie cloaoly interwoven

wants glow until he

liis

is finally

The

seldom or ncvei reached

IS

the most urgent needs

aftei

But

satiated

capacity of natural

pioducts to satisfy needs (by maintaining and developing physical life)

IS

means the

The

called their utility

We

to satisfy needs

that

fact

adjustments

the

conditions

value quality of this aim

is

is

thus always a physical

shall accept without further discussion

maiutainance

given

to

useful

of is

by means of appiopnate

life

The

the aim of this process

lepieseuted in expeiience not only by

the feeling of ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’, but on the higher mental levels 01

by the terms

harmful

measuied

is

But whatever

‘useful’ oi ‘haimfiil’ first

is

useful

of all in regard to the value of the

mere pieseivation of biological

life

and the

instincts

which regulate

the satisfaction of needs Utilities aie then,

Even purely

and forces

pioducts

in geneial,

goods in the form of physical intellectual

achievements are

of objectivation

A

painting, for instance, cannot be cierted without canvas, color

and

only mediated by the

wood its

A

aid of physical

means

certain technical skill in line

production

and coloi plays a pait

physical processes are involved in the publi-

A

speech fatigues the speaker and his heaiers

cation of a book

unless a certain economy of eneigy and time the physical

it is

material aspect

it is

Thus

is

observed

In a woid,

and physiological forces enter even the intellectual

realm, because

goods

in

Many

based upon a certain technique and with this

connected with economic values and exchangeable

the useful can also serve the realization of the non-

131 woild of objects which we have mentioned above

physical

the

and transcendental woild And in this respect mental woik can be economically evaluated Physical energy, time and mateiial aie used But the inner value of cognition, imaginative

ideational,

of

a work of art or a religious manifestation

They

preseivativo units view, which

m

m

in teims of self-

are luxuries fiom the economic point of

a favoiable economic period aie highly valued and

times of dearth

constant

incommensuiable

is

Such value cannot be expiessed

economically

difficulty

may of

sink to the zero point

epochs

cultural

all

m

This explains the

measuring the value

nariow economic sense

of intellectual pioducts in a

In the following pages our discussion will be confined

economy which takes place goods and natuial forces

Such

(i

purposive behwior)

e

utilities

minimum

aie there even enough foi is

This

the

to

if

diffeient

forms

as

and simultaneously both

deteimme which inner

his

pioducer

man might

appeal

consumei

This

as

oi

For, every

i

man

will only be mentioned

A

economic tjpe)

man

abundant subsistence and goods suited limit hia ecouomic

is

m two is,

of

necessaiily

His economic enviionment and his needs

(The influence

of these natuies shall predominate

structure

diffeientiate the

economic only

is

the economic piocess extends over generations

see theiefore that the economic

course, only a designation a

of

work and

is

oveibalances the expenditure of eneigy

po^^el

in

tiuo even

is

We \eiy

gam

Rational activity

bung goods fiom difierent application of known natm al

necessaij

This expenditure of energy

when

aie not unlimited, nor

satisfaction

places and to transform them by the

laws

to that

in the region of life-preserving physical

when we begin

to

with few wants or with an

may

to his individual needs,

activity almost solely to

He

consumption

then

is

an enjoyer even though ho must feed himself and thus accomplish The economic phenomenon la more a minimum of pioductive woik expiessed,

cleaily

m

a

however, by the individual who

certam line in older

to

be able

to

is

pioductive

consume these

oi

other

goods

In him the balance between utility and disutility can be

clearly

seen

strives 18

to

to

But even he,

free himselt

misundeistand

lecognize this

impulse

the

background of

his

activity,

fiom the piessuie of immediate wants

the

longing

m

entue psychology of economics not

foi

fieedom

One must lemember

that

of

action

human

as

wants,

its

if

It

to

fundamental

the individual

132 IS

unrestrained

average

but

his economic drive,

in

economic stnving even

an

constantly

infinite

do not cense at a definite

glow beyond the given point of if

All

satisfaction

confined to the compass of nature, has re-creating

self

On

power

one hand this

might appear as a hopeless eircle of ever unsatisfied endeavor, on the other, however,

by means

might be considered as the pou erfnl impulse

it

and technical behavior grow beyond

of which economic

the isolated individual and become objectivb meaningful

Our

We

must,

*it

phenomena

and idealising method must solve two

isolating

difficulties

present, disregard the special economic forms which

correspond to changing cultural epochs

We

cannot dwell onesidedl}

on agriculture or trade and industiy, natural, money, or credit economy but only on the etemil economic motive as a constant

and

function between the subject

both of

Furthermore

despite the variability of

utilities

n e must disregard the special historical forms

which production, exchange and consumption arc We must carry oiu method of isolation to the point

society

in

earned on

wheie a single man could

subsist,

only work in definite social and

even though in

reality

My

lcg.il relations

people

opinion

is

economic type shows only one mental attitude no matter whether he carries on independent or city, national or world that the purely

economy

We

And did

it is

only the type that interests us

not find the theoretic type limited to scholars

It

developed as a unique structure of the soul which might appear

The same

apart from pure science

structure need not necessarily

daily bread in

On

many phases

is

The economic men who earn their

true here

be confined

to

the contrary, the basic motive of utility appears of personality,

dominates regions in which

we

should really expect to find different attitudes and even becomes the decisive ethics of existence

Conversely, people

who

constantly

emphasize the economic factor as their last word need not necessarily

be

bom

utilitarians

The

Marxists for instance are predominantly

Their theory' does not correspond to their This fact might be utilized in a critique of the economic

theorists or pobticians

practice

inteipretation of history if the latter did not apply a psychology

of unconscious determination

which

is

pure constructive metaphysics

and no longei descnption

The economic man

in general, he

who

of life prefers utility to all other values

He

is,

m

all the lelations

sees every'thing as

133 a means for self-preservation,

an aid in the natural struggle fox existence and a possibility to render life pleasant He economizes

goods and forces, time and space in order

to gain the maximnm As moderns we might call this the because (as we shall later see) the entire

of useful effect for himself *

practical type’, partly

technical

field

included in the

is

economic point of view

But

the value of practical activity lies not in the depths of a value

determining disposition

The Greeks would

the doer (TtQdrTorza)

m

but

call this

the wholly external useful result

type the maker (jrotofiira) hut nevei

0 II

Thus the economic type

sees

cognition from

his purposive

type asks

The theorist seeks truth for itself but the economic ‘How can this fact be used^’ He interprets Goethe’s

expicssion

‘Anything that

viewpoint

utilitarian sense

ballast

and,

disregarding its

not useful

Unapplied knowledge

The economic t}pe

according to

is

its

a burden’, 2 ) in a narrow

for

him meiely unnecessary

seeks only wisdom that can be utilized

pure objective context combines knowledge

Thus we have

application

technical knowledge,

is

is

who

the type embodying

organizes everything by

its

practical use

This attitude gave birth to pragmatism which does not allow any special law

of cognition but calls whatever

or harmful,

true

Tiuth

or false

is

to

worth reflected back upon the theoretical act IS

all

mdicatu e

of this evaluation of science

knowledge accoiding

to the degree

the self-preservation of the knower, (or

biologically useful

is

them nothing but pioved

He

m

Spencer’s pedagogy

attempts to summarize

which

maybe

it

contributes to

to the preservation

of the species)

^*) Herbert Schnek in Dc? ‘iaiwmle Bcgnff des Wnischafismoischen^ Jnhrbnecher fuer l^^atioualoekonoinie und Statistik, vol 122 (1924) p 439 gives a \alnnhle and strictly methodological survey of the different forms in winch the doctrine of the ‘homo oeconomicus’ appears in the history

of economics

In another essay

Der

irraUojiale

Begnjf des Wtitschafts-

p 192 he discusses the historical nctuahsatioiis of the An general type which arise by its being cro'^sed with other motives Alfred Ruehl by developed illustration is special out excellently worked

mcnschcn op

cit

Die Wirtschaftsjpsychologie des Spanios, Zeitschnft der Erdknnde zu Berlin 1922 5)

‘Was man

nicht nutzt,

1 st

eine schwere Last’

Gesellschaft fuel

Goethe’s Faust,

131

Even on that

thongli

of

seems that the ^^lne of theory

it

utility

it

may

is

dependent

neveitheless often be interwoven with

economic bchavioi as a subordinate act Civilized man lives upon a level where sclf-presenation is no longer regulated purely bj

He

instinct

of

is

aided in his struggle for existence by the knowledge

and their causal relations

quality of objects

the

Utilitarian

knowledge more and more outbalances pure wisdom With increasing complexitj of economic methods greater intellectual capacity is

demanded

of

man

He no longer needs

to

know merely the economic man t) Such

value of things but also the economic essence of

man

reaches

onesided

study

considers

only economic usefulness

of

general foimula nothing

is

climax in Taylorism which

its

Of conrse according

No

economically insignificant

to our

span of

time or space, or object, no intellectual product oi charactcrological

economically unimpoitant

trait is

have a 'business head'

It is

The economic man must

therefore

no longer possible on higher levels common sense which is sufficient

to get along with nothing but that

on lowei

The

levels

ideal goal

of

the

economic tjpe

is

an

economic rationalism, the tiansformation of the whole process of life into

The

On

a compiehensive calculation in which no cognition

of

limits

unknown

*)

always set also the limits of economics

the other hand the irrationality of natural

wholly be abolished by any 'forwaidlooking finds its natural limits at this point

phenomena cannot

attitude’, paitly

unique future circumstances cannot be predicted

end

f ictor is

because

Intellectual ability

and calculation and i ationalisation

Consequently another quality

is

needed which

is

not purely

intellectual but is lather a matter of imaginative intuition or belief

the willingness to take a chance

may have the

calculated,

element of

or based

Howevei well economic buhai lor

some factois aie always lacking

And

here

chance enters in either supported by imagination

upon a

belief in ‘luck’

And

thus the economic type

touches the region of aesthetics and religion

*)

This

IS

earned so far that the art of stimulating new needs is The psychology of ad-

practiced, instead of satisfying existing ones

vertising has recently been developed into a separate hianch of science

Of Werner Sombart,

Der Bourgeois, Muenchen 1920 on the calAnd further Max Weber, l)ie Wirtschaft vnd (he Oidmmgen wid Maechte (Grnndnss der Sozialoekonomik

culation of capitalism gesellscJiaflhchen

HI, 1 p 35} § 4 on the typical measures of rational economics

135

The

component

aesthetic

is

chaiaeteiized by the fact, that

has a psychic- expel lental but not a utilitarian value regions

mutuaUg

are

to the beautiful

The

exclusive

have no lOom

to

happy moods spoiled

beaut}’'

Barth

and haimony can afford

existence which develops his

But

certain onesided lines

mnei

foi

to enter the struggle foi

power along

the aesthetically impoitant

if

from an economic point of view

may

The two

as a rule inimical

both side by side, neithei does the

foi

Noone who staves

soul

la

it

Splendid landscapes aie destroyed from economic

motives, woiks of ait demolished and

seems

useful

i)

it is

regarded as luxury

2)

is

viewed

Luxuries

become economically necessary goods through i refanement of wants Cultured people have a ceitain need for aitistic smiouudings Then imagination demands stimulation and satisf iction especiall} it by vocation they aie put undei course

of

graduall}

the pressure of some division of labor

be wholly separated fiom the economic

economic natuies

of

This explains the desire in many

be patrons of

to

but fail to

elevation

social

makeup

nairow needs have been outdistanced

that

signifies

It

and luxuiies can be afforded of

the aesthetic cannot aesthetic

becomes in social relations a factoi wJiich increases

possessions prestige

Thus The

They

art

appieciate

utilize art as a

its

means

inner significances

Anothei point of contact between the aesthetic and the economic seems

to

he

in the fact that scarcity goods (gold

(the

woik

of

high exchange value of luxuries

A

his

own

It

18

of

his

life

highly

own

will

fiec

ud

is

always a sign of luxui}

he icgaids

Everybody atypical

of couise also included in the class

is

to the social region

egotistical since

IS

have

gieat master for instance) have a very

a

This

gold stand

Let US now turn type

silvei)

Then again articles which can never be

an aesthetic significance replaced

and

else

in foi

is

it

as his

first

duty to preserve

consequently of lessei impoitance

the economic the

The puiely economic

man

to

sike of others

i

enounce anything

Only egoism and

is not intended to deny that the aesthetic and the have some developmental factors in common It is (1) the preparation and *) Luxuiy has heie a double meaning consumption of a surplus of goods beyond purely economic needs, and (2)

This statement

biologically useful

everything which

is

not immediately useful but belonging to the othei may he designated as luxury

regions of value, especially the aesthetic,

In both cases determination

we

are dealing with a unique category of economic value

136 mutualism

economic forms of the social attitude

pnmaiil)

are

Wberover altruism, as the principle of renunciation of goods in favor of someone else, appears, it must bo born from some motive A consistent economic system has no other than economic ones place for

beings

The economic man’s interest in lie secs man purely from

charitj

utilitarian

onli

18

view of economy, that help

accepts

cicn this mutual relation

but

economic point of view in

Such an

favor

his

human

the point of

He

included in the

is

There mnst always be a positive balance can be earned

attitude

economic exploitation which from the rentability

other

as a piodnccr, consumer or a bu} cr

is,

as

strict point of

would be perfectlj logical ‘)

as

far

pure

view of economic

Economic calculation must

also consider moral qualities, but only insofar as they arc economically important, such as

thrift, indnstrj', cffieioncy, order, reliability,

Anj man

in short the vocational-economic abilities

deserves credit

qualities

That

credit is

‘The man

men

is

good

One should observe

make

for

relations

good business

busmees expression

the wai in which business

All forms of honorarv demonstration,

create social relations

of good will or sjmpath}

enter into the economic relation

Tho\

But with the pure economic tjpc such

do not go beyond business interests

economic point of

possessing such

a moral cmpliasis

onl}

of economic qualities is testified bj the current

Mew man

is

necessarily onlj

From a

the pnrel>

means

to

an end

and can be evaluated according to his ability to work, his capital

power*)

or his purchasing

The

fact that there arc real business

friendships and mutual interests is not a contradiction of just

been said

Foi, the economic subject

is

what has

not nccessarilj a

Bndolf Goldscheid has lately introduced into sociology the principle as an ethico -political point of There are of course such considerations in politics One should, however, avoid such a term where really ‘social’ purposes are in question For, in economic relations man can only be considered ns an economic means or as the subject of economic values This principle does not lead us into higher value contexts >)

of

human economy {Menschcnoelonomie)

view

s)

means

Dcr

‘Man

This

p 711

man

IS

regarded only ns a unit of work and nature only ns a All life is one huge business relation ’ Sombart,

of production

lapitahsUscJie UnUniehmer, Archiv fuer Sozialwissenschaft IB

IS often

vol 29

true not only of the capitalist but of every purely economic

Conversely, capitalism too, ns

dominated by other motives.

an economic phenomenon

in histoiy,

137 single

individual

but often a collective subject

a family, two or

more partneiB, a corporation, a nation or a group of nations But of each collective subject the same can be said as of the individual

The

in regard to economic egoism

The

associations

specific

unit has meiely been enlarged

As

structure than the purely economic

Wealth to

IS

This

control

its

extension

material,

forces,

power again has

a

form of compeiiiwn

power over people

implies

also

is

monei

b\

money

with

toda}

power appears

for

economic motive

tlic

based upon

is

owner and

the

this is

always a desire to own more than

motivating

its

And

again presupposes economic natmes point,

But

the type

if

m

the

This attitude dominates even the lowest level

and can be extirpated onl} of

however

and the technical means necessary

Thus economic stnving

other people

power

another

of

pronounced economic character

The dominant attitude

pure

course

collective entities

make themselves felt in an economic-egoisfic sense power The economic man has power overnatnre,

their activities

its

have

themselves

in

gives piestige even is

The

itself

influence,

which

as if to emphasize this

if

it

has not been earned

connected neither with his industr} nor his

shrewdness

But

all this IS

based upon an assumption which

is

no longer

purely economical, namely the validity of the legal order which guarantees

the

rights

of

The

piopcrty

private

principle of the

own

natural right that private proper^ must be the result of one’s

could only be

exertion,

m

of inheritance it

etrictl}

the economic sjstem

principle itself

onl>

an

if

is

there were no law

question

But even here

incomplete, for savings become ‘possession’

ovenndmdnal

correctly seen

social

such a legal status

motives

makes

and

is

itself felt

man should have

Private property

is

(as It is

a special interest

the result of economic

m

isolated economic egoism all

Thus wherevei the

economic claims are given prefeience

appears then as the social normative form in which economics

taken

as

the

material of social

life

Such a conception

course vciy narrow and ns abstract as the type of whicli

A

claim

all other competitors

only the legal recognition of that attitude which

economic type legislates

Law

recognizes this

will

by Fichte) by excluding

Tight howcvei tliat the economic

IS

m

if

could not be enforced on account of cconomico-teehmcal reasons

The

in

earned out

purely

economic conception of the

state

is

of

we speak

would coirespond to

po and indeed Ibc slate appears to many people as nothing more than the snpcnndividnal oiganisation of economic life, as a sort of higher pioducti\c commnnity, a corporation or a stoch company We ha\o no right here to tike np a position against sncli a conception from the normatiio point of vicn and mnet tins tj

satisfy

with

ouiselves

economic tvpo

irhioh

observation

the

gives rise

This same type nonld judge

powci

that

this

to

it

again the pure

is

relation

to

questions of

all social vocations

accoiding

Vocation and earning-powei aic in fact

to their earning capacity

for liim absolutely identical concepts It

cannot surprise us fhoicforc that

cialuation not only

tlie

human beings but also of the entire norld is seen from this point of Mew The economic \alnc is for this t\pc the highest of

value to

1

In a religious sense

elate

it

to a liighei

c

Its tolalitj

I

the ownci

of

as

it

is,

thciefore, no longer ncccssari

meaning, bnt

it

world-embracing aalne

all wealth,

must onlj be posited in

God appears then

>)

leligion which tries to interpret the

racming of

such a factor, foi, without daili bread

life

life

as

Everj

as the giver of all useful gifts

of course contains

would bo impossible

The deepest mj stories of the world seem to begin with bicad and its life giMng power One can imagine a religion bom from pnrclj ^ economic motives, when the economic religious mcwb and cnlts naturally reflect the special sjstem of economics

herdsman

is

different

from that of the

tradei again different fiom that of the

but a passion for it IS

weiUb without

Mammon

acquired,

is

If

which thej This

1

elation

of

lliat

tlie

nothing remains

consideration of the waj in which

The

the highest god

religio-superstitions

concepts of the stockbrokers and speculators curious beliefs in fate and chance

Tlie god of tbe

agiicnltnralist,

miner

Thej

aic

dominated bi

sccretlv woiehip a powci

imagine to be in control of the great world-lottery

between economics and icligion has been histoncallj Ma\ Weber and Troeltsch One should, as far as

investigated bj

possible tij definitelj

to

differentiate

between religious concepts which are

determined by economic motives, and converseh

,

those

economic forms of behavior which are determined b\ leligio-cthical views which existed independently of the economic region *) The

ethii.

>)

Gf Werner Sombart,

")

Max Weber

Dcr Bowrgeots, p

137ft

‘sacred economics’

in the introdnction to his treatises on

Her WeUrehtjiontn

Die

Wtrlscliafts-

(Gesanunelte Aufsaetze znr Eeligionssoziologie

139

m

two factors could however hardly be separated reciprocal ment

such a narrow

To look upon economic

relation

il

m

a gift from God, oi to stiive for economic success

prospeiity as oidei visibly

to justify

such glace does not wholly belong to the economic point

of view

For, here the desue

to

to

God seems

obtain the grace of

We

supercede the economic motuc

are only concerned with

the deification of utilit> as such, the birth of deities out of economic

-God as giver, as protectoi

Intel ests

of the fields, as incieasei

etc-

m

lathei

of

ram

the sheep, as safe guide on the sea, as giver of the sun and

short of all useful gifts which enrich the physical-desiimg

than the

spiiitiial

doubt that an auahsis

would lead

a

to

part of

We

man

have not the slightest of primitive

of leligious (especially

m

or hope, in the desire and will to live, and

ones)

m

wealih of such symbols which originated

fear

the psychology

of

woik and enjoyment 111

Economic motives can be distinguished from theoretic ones because then deciding vilucs arc not the logical ones of ordination

The useful is not identical with mere moment iiy feeling-effect which

but those of utility

The

lattei

a

is

though

even

it

may

be dangeious

m

the pleasant is

the long run

enjoyable

The

useful

alwiys presupposes a ccitain degree of theoretic insight into the practicil

and psychological conditions

ments of useful or useless the economic this

ire built

on

i

But neveithcless theoietic

motivation

rooted

m

the

of

foim

specific

m

by the

take place in

goods

01

satisfying

of

which he

two ways which

habits which

pliy

a

diffei

contraiy,

expcueuces

this

m

is

utilitarian is

This deteimination

lolo

of

aie not decisive in

the

externally

definite

Also

instinctive

Economic bchavioi

needs

judg-

the fust pirt

we s ud

as

is

On

values, as wants and their satisf ictiou

motivated

m

factors

economic man

the

all

rational foundation

which we developed

\olume, the piinciple of least action,

rationality

the

principle

Therefoie

of life

thus

may

there are useful

a whole

life

and

there aie, on the other hind, puiposive endeavois which aie only called foith by a specific and sometimes entiiely tiausitoiy situation

Vol I

Tuebingen 1922

p 240 265ft) also emphasizes this necessity

He

primarily investigated the functional relations between the structures of This context leads to historic types and thus touches society anil religion

more complicated phenomena than we have here

in

mind

140 speaking, vre might differentiate between constant con'

Biologically of

ditions

which must be met with a peimanent adaptation,

life

and momentary needs to which one mnst react situation is the motivating

first

of

man and

specifically

power we have the

we have

the second case

in

the type

If the

foresigTited type

who

is

readily

adaptable to mergeneies

The motive There

foresight

of

the

is

group of virtues

this

The motives

built

carry out

to

practical ability

We

suit

Therefore

thrift

up from the motive

of foresight

any purpose

an unexpected purpose demand a

call lesonrcefnlness that

which quickly

adaptability for

is

and

to

does necessitate

emergency necessitated by the need to choose a

of

means snitable

it

work

of

versatility

But

of purpose, strength of will, ordei

constancy

motive

constant

no special demand for an unusual

is

cnstomaiy satisfactions to customary' needs

finds the

If this resourcefulness is

giasp of single instances then

it

form of mdividual

most suitable causal means based on the imagmative

resembles aesthetic intuition

If,

however, general and practical causal means (technical rules) and their

application

considered then

aie

we have

the leflective and

Keen judgment, presence of mind, invenmake quick decisions and versatility are the this type of motivation To act according

rational resourcefulness tiveness,

to

ability

to

which belong to

virtues

maxims,

general

wisdom

into

which one has developed in contemplative

a system of life,

entuely different from

obviously

is

simply facing every particular instance with practical resourcefulness

and suitable means case,

This distinction of motives

choice of means to

aim in each case for the useful

hero discuss the ethical value of this type that

we

and external adaptation

is

to

values

a specific value in

And noone

work there

is

shall not

In any case

we

are

is

not

For, the aim of self-preservation

itself

a specific kind of value which

colors all the utilitarian values which subserve

utilitarian values

may

This

We

aie dealing here with a value region that

wholly unimportant for ethics

belong

in the first

economic motive which gmdes the intelligent

become the central foice of a person’s makeup certain

is,

But in the second case the primary

an intellectual one

directive factor is the

it

Because

we subsume them under

a narrow sense,

i

e

they'

the head of

the primarily

economic

will deny that at least in the ethics of economic

a specifically moral factor

141

The man

by economic motives

gtiided

He

related to reality than the theorist

obviously moie closely

is

also

must

reflect

but in the

end he takes an active part in the development of actuality

^The

painless conception of a thought does not result in an economic act

The unique

side of business r^hich

unknov?n

is

to mtellectuabsts is

the knitting up of thought with reality and thiough this connection

thought crystallize into reality

letting

that the motives should alwa)

m

the case

practical life

Every decided

attitude

form of genius

if

problem

m

its

unconscious creativity

ability

we must

any other the extent

mind the

to the

m

acts

Sombart emphasizes

of motivation

is

seldom

m

way

‘In regard to the

this

investigate

Even the

individual

his

this case as well as

which conscious reasons are the real

to

capitalistic entrepreneur

economic type as such

On

cit

Sombart has

p 699)

but this sentence also applies

the primitive level the utilitarian

On

tendency acts with the certainty of an instinct it

This

and can become a

elemental power

has

one stresses

not necessary

is

it

least of all in active natures

driving forces of economic activity’ (op in

But

be fully conscious

s

and perhaps

economic man of exceptional because he ‘must’

’t)

often becomes such a passion that

higher levels

must have unlimited scope

it

Quite regardless of the fact that big capitalists often act not from

purely economic motives but from social and political ones, the abstract

economic tendency

rises

personal advantage

striving foi

m It

many mstances above mere so to speak, the idea of

is,

the nseful and of the productive which becomes a daemonic passion

But the net return, the

rentability

and

profit

the decisive

are

factors even in undertakmgs of supermdmdual dimensions and thus

deteimme the

limit of the

working with a

constantly

doing so but he 18

is

economic type deficit

special reasons foi

no longei a puiely economic type

sometimes an undeitakmg

also true

Anyone who can stand

may have

the interest of the public,

yet there

hidden desire for purely personal

is

is

gam

2)

The converse

supposed to be only in nothing behind I

it

but a

add here an excerpt

from the Harabuig prospectus of the re-creation of the German

W schaft

Eathenan cited by Werner Sombart, Archiv p 728

fixer

Sozialwissen-

vol 29

if a capitahstic Shoe Factory were an inIn connection with manufacture shoes (instead of profit)’ Jena 1925 ed 2 also E Ehrenberg, Grasse Yermoegen^ I

Werner Sombart, 'As stitution to this topic cf

142 Foreign Service (Hambuig, April 1918, p 4) ivliicli expic^scs with incisive clearness wliat, in many cases, acts only as a half conscious

‘As

motive

everything

fai

as the general attitndo of foreign tiadc

not wish to force anything on

For

them

Our

ruled by motives of utility

is

this

of other nations

reason trade

This

is

its

adapted

is

is

concerned

foreign tiado docs

enstomers but rather to to the desires

satisf)

and needs

not done in order to please or to

moral conquests but to achieve

and

utility

to

make

acqnire a steady

customer

IV

A type

striking contiast

attracted onr attention in the beginning of this

already

lias

chapter

between differentiated forms of the economic

makes a greit

It

goods himself (even additional work)

if

difference

whether a man pioduccs

increasing their value tliiough some

onI> b}

The

mereh consumes them

or whether ho

first

The The

t\pe has the siipciiority which comes with eficctiie actiiity the

other faces

economic world with some embarnssment

and

terms worker

enjojer

m

themsehes embody

judgment whoso purely external emphasis

is

most people consider that'onlj phi sical labor or 18

prodnetne and do not fully appreciate the

and mental pow er for intellectual productivity even the consumer may

sense

commands a wealth

of

goods

occupy

which

ethic

attitude

On

a

direct

In a

cmplo} ment

strict

ir

Gott

'

If

more

saver,

uses

to

tho

according to Luther

Should tho consumer, however, be limited

down

smallest possible

is

to

amount

to

itself

Thus we have the

of consumption

whose constant endeavor the

to

spiritual

a small amount of goods then the economic principle shows onesidedly as a cutting

he

higher plane he approaches the aesthetic

and in a lower form he no longer lues in a

Bauch,

economic

lanons positions

can be used without any

context but leads instead a brutish existence, ‘Ir

value

utilization ofplijsical t)

productive retuin on his part he scarcely belongs any

economic type

il

how ci ci appaient since

the goods which ho

limit

Many

educated spinsters

(and bachelors also at the present time) spend their lives in such

a painfnl, because reallv negative, existence

W

Though

the productive

Eliasberg in the Archiv fuer Sozinlwissensobaft, vol 50 (1922) p 87 treats in general of Psychology and Wbrl from the point of view of a psTcliology of meaning contexts »)

143 saver

forced

to live a sad ascetic life unless he ennobles his by aims which are rooted in some other value context Different employments give rise to othei special foims of the la

existence

economic type

Pei haps no power

is

m

The whole

stiongly as his vocation

man

adult life moulds a

so

mentality of the agricultui alist

entirely diffeient from that of the stock raisei

the aitisan differs

,

from the clerk and the fisherman from the mmei

Natuie seems

to

stamp the sonl with the special conditions under which he wrests from

livelihood

his

economic

The

hex

because of the unpioductive

he

an essential place

fills

who

tiadei

unique place in

a

finds

partly through his manysided activities and paitly

life

which clings

trait

him even though

to

economic 8}atem

in the

The

publisher,

and science with economic endeavoi, presents a combination of mental motives which nevertheless centei

unites

curious

ait

These economicallv determined vocational

in the economic region

types have long been utilized by wiiteis in psychological studies

Gustav Fro}tig has drawn the diffeient foims of the mei chant

m

und Hdben, peasants have been made litei ary subjects by Gotthelf, G Kellei and the lecent HeimatdicMei like Roseggei, Hansjakob, Fienssen and Ganghofer Not until the artisan became a social pioblem, however, did he find his poets Of late, sociology which giew out of national economy, has made his Soil

Pcstalozzi,

The

psychological studies of vocational types hclie is

work

um elated

at present

is

to vocational

geisteswissenscliaft-

ps}cholog}

which

a blanch of the psychology of elements and has not ^et fully

developed

methods

its

remind the leader of the masterful

I here

treatment of peasant tjpes by Pestalozzi

m

(published at piesent by Seyffait 1901

The methods employed jects of

m

economic endeavoi

Vol 6

economics

It

makes

diffei

we have

to

pp 30

of 1782

— 54)

according to the sub-

a radical difference whether

the economic tjpe appears in a natural,

In the second case

his Scliiveize)l)latt

money

or credit econom\

deal also with the psychology

of

raonev and a beginning of an extensive pathology of the economic

type which of

money

I

cannot develop in this outline

is

highly developed people

In the thud case

of the banker and the speculator *)

man

Compare

in Platons

The piopei

appieciation

often beyond the chaiacter and undeistandmg even of

The

we have

the psychology

basic outline of the economic

^vlth this attitude the depreciatory treatment of the

Republic

II

372 etc

working

114 t\pc

nniiui--,

bccmsc

inmetl ‘‘picnHtion’

On

1 be called mental tjpes But nnfortnniteh such tjpes arc cacn essential to the mcebanism of And tins exhibits the our compile ited modern economic sistcin

arc at the border of what

‘soullcssncss’ to which the historical development of economics its

constant separation from indiMdual will and

and

power has led

The problem becomes even more complex when we add

to

the subject of onr discussion (the object and inctbod of economics) the

extent of economic opcriltons action

in the refle-'

onlj

We

arc mlercsted of course

upon the soul It makes a great dificicncc owns one cow or two hundred, whether

psv chologicallv whether one

one

one acre or cmploj s laborers to cultivate hundreds, whether

tills

one

retails

soap or supplies the world with nncliincrj,

whether

one works on a handloom or simplj tends the lever of an niitomatic

A

loom

must trace

psjchologj

ffcistcsK issenscJiaflhclte

all

psjchic influences winch correspond to these economic forms

have been some contrasted with onl>

attempts in a

factorj

the psvchologv

worker

of

(lie

which

IS

We

a whollj

strnctnral

different sort of relationship

we have a

psjchologj

economic level

Whether n

mcc}nnica11>

creates

themselves absolute] v meaningless, establishes

in

In this comparison

and

must be content here with an observation

taken from the midpoint of the discnssion

man works in a meaningful whole or onlj parts which are

as

This includes of course not

the isolitcd economic motive but also social, political

religions contexts

the

TJieie

artisan

A

and

repetition of the antithesis between

the

psjchologj

relations of life could

have

between a man and his work

onlj-

psjcbologj

of

elements

on

the

which neglected the meaningful been developed

m a period where

the division of labor had split up the meaningful whole to such

an extent that the single worker no longer comprehended

it

(at

145 cconomicilly)

I'-’-t

For, the factory workers on one hand nd

longer grasp

the significance of the system in which they are engaged while the directors of such mass production transcend the

m

mdnidnal relations to economic goods Even the days Rousseau the farmer seemed the only complete man, for he is in touch with the meaning of economics, a veiy essential

finer

of

closcl)

side in

For him, as for the artisan, there is some meaning work because he deals directly with the consumer The mere cogs in a machine which although it masters nature

of life

his

others are to

an extent never dreamed

in former times has as a totality

ojf

developed a domination over the mass of mankind almost more

power of natnre This already touches upon the

terrible than the

some importance for the though

IS

it

not in

of

the social form of economy

known and

If

differences

visible

final point of view,

which has

economic type even a purely economic natnre This is

differentiation of the

itself

we emphasize

it

is

only the most well

clear that the

man

of house

economv is nearest to the total economic problem of life He is much nearer and perhaps more powerful than the individual of a greatlj differentiated territorial economy And if finally the national economy becomes so complicated as world econom}--,

man might

to

be utterly dependent on

well feel in regard to this veiy complex

B>stem like the magician’s apprentice over

had formerly been

his servants,

whom

the spints,

who

had gained a fateful power With is a more complex division of

increasing social interrelation there

labor

And

this introduces into the soul structure of the individual

an overindividual factor which mechanizes rather than organizes

him of

Economically

we

are a more dependent people than those

any previous epoch

We

have been stimulated from

can no longer control needs which The means for then

earliest infancy

make us dependent upon people whom wo have never who are as indifferent to us as human beings as we are to them Thus economy is more and moie interwoven into the present legal and political system until we reach a point where its satisfaction

seen and

individual natnre objective

is

strnctnies

completely blotted out

have

Enormously complicated

come between the

man and

living

the

economic process so that the simple personal economic structure has almost become unrecog;nizeable As an organized humanity we are to an incredible degree masters of natnre, but have become Spran^rer, Types

joI

men

'

10

60 interdependent

And

noone of ns can now stand on Ins own

tlint

yet economic self-snffiucnc> is perhaps

complete

man

can

as long as

oifei

more necessary

feet to a

than all the wealth which a world-wide organisation it

functions properly *)

V In some people the economic sense seems to have died, not

hecausc

different motive (sociil

i

or aesthetic) has become pre-

dominant, bnt because the single motive of economic behavior

earned

to

extreme

a ridiculous

If

the

economic

is

originally

is

rooted in the balance of cneigy between the individual and the objective woild of goods

md

meaning cannot be achieved

any

utilitarian result,

whcie 1

it

oi

can be nsed

if

their purposive utilisation, then this if

the cxpenditnre of eneigy exceeds

cncigy

In the

the unproductive consumer,

e

the economic tjpc

stored np

instance

beyond the point

we ha\c

the waster,

and in the other the miser, the

uneconomic acquirer and savei

Bnt

is

first

Both types aio perversions of

Their decisive value experience

is

golden mean

mcahing of economy which can only be found

to

grasp everything they lose the real meaning of their

0

in the

Both types arc thus structurally not only perversions

but also extieme exaggerations of the economic typo

have

economic

in their cndeavoi fully to enjoy the value of this region they

lose the real

own

blissful

moments

—

life

By

trying

But they

the glorious thrill of extremes

I remind the reader that all these remarks should only be interThey do not however refer only to the psychology

preted psychologically

of specifically economic ethics bnt also to the psychology of chance 18 at present

very

which

much neglected

’) For the psychology of the miser cf Scheler, Her Fonmhsmits tn der Etlith und die matenale WerteUuk p 239 Herbert Schnek op cit p 200

3

THE AESTHETIC ATTITUDE I

Tn Jl.

the in

section

first

attempted to reduce the aesthetic factor

natnie and the various forms of ait to one foim of mental

endowment

of

of aestheticism

meaning

we

If

we wished

should say

to

summarize the essence

the formed expression of an

‘it is

Herein are contained three stages, (l)^there

impression’

is

the

mpiession, a sensuous concrete objective picture given in reality or created

by the imagination, and which

in t(s emotional significance,

mp

presentation of

is

psychically expeiienced

(2) the enpiession, a sensuous-concrete

psychological content enlarged by imagination

a physical or imagined material, (3) this form as the pioduct of the mutual interfusion of impression and expression whicli is

in

achieved in or

factors

most pronounced sense

its

harmony

established

is

Since

we hnow

if

a condition of equilibnnm

between the objective and subjective

that theoretic acts are alwajs present in

our comprehension of the given, and since the object usually has

no soul of its own, we generally deal in giving or experiencing form with a fusion of conceptual and empathic acts Theoietic constitutive acts

and those of psychic empathy participate in every

aesthetic experience

The problem

of aesthetics

is

to

investigate

moie accurately

the border-line between tho object as such and the attiibntes with

which

my

soul endows

it

By

first

purely theoretical standpoint the object

defining the object from is

a

necessarily brought into a

conceptual isolation which is unknown to the naive aesthetic enjoj er

>)

elevates this unsafe positivistic procedure ‘} Joseph Strzygowshi to a fundamental methodological pnnciple whenever he wants stnctly to differentiate between SacHiforscktmg and Beschmerforschimg in aesthetics

(Die Knsts der Geisteswissenschaflen,

Wien 1923 ) Even

science finds the

bald ‘fact’ problematic, and as for art

1fW

148

The

latter,

on the contrary

m

lives, as it were,

the aesthetic objects

If in this and simultancoush experiences both them and himself condition he is conscions of n manifold, free and nniqno psychic

impulse ho experiences ‘form’

We

generally look for this process in an artist or an artlovor

however, we look more closely we find that really wo have

If,

before us only a derived, \crj' limited and occasional appearance of

the

As

tjpe

aesthetic

of something

radiations

deeper the

is called foith by a work of art, jiist as mind created the work of ait The process When one says that itself may take place u holly internally Saphael uonld have been a great painter eien if he had been

mind

aesthetic state of

same

that

of

stito

born withont hands one means that ho understood things like a

He always looked

painter

when he

did not

periences

aestheticall}

at the world with a painter’s cj e even

his impression in the roundabout technical

fix

In a word,

procedure of painting ,

works of

art

only from a soul that exare

inner vision grows the externally visible,

rh}thm of the soul docs music art

a derived phenomenon so also

18

which

calls

it

To

forth

born,

out of the

onl>

only as a result of inner

But

arise

the

just ns

work

of

the aesthetic appreciation

is

approach the

ongm

aesthetics

of

most describe aesthetic experience as compared with the

we

theoretic,

economic and religious attitudes

We state

know

that all aesthetic condnet

a

of pure contemplation,

letting oneself

nature of actual or imagined objects is

nndesirous

It

is

a

go in the manifold

Beal contact with the world

alwa> s passionate and teems with the struggle for material and

But there

spiritual existence IB

is

just as

welcome as

joj

This second experience

is

,

is

a further experience

and transforming powers of emotion this peculiar transmutation

in

which pain

suffering just as blessed as happiness

the imaginative grasp,

We

are

i

all

e

the forming familiar with

which in the acts of our memoiy

lifts

the toiments of the past into the plane of enjojable contemplation

And we know veil of

some people always shroud themselves with a imagination through which they see themselves and daily that

experience

The same

factors

experience which

take part in this all-animating form of

we have analyzed above

creation or enjoyment

in the process of artistic

Fate and environment provide the impression,

149 the individual supplies the unique qualit} feeling completel)

When

of feeling

this

embraces the impressions ^hey are transfomed

into expressions of ps\chic impulse and are a'isimilated as personal

The

possessions

m

feelings

t\pc

aesthetic

cherishes

He

a very characteristic waj

and pcrccptinl abundance nith a minimum

An

tendenev

erotic

attraction

if

reflection

that

there

and albo

desire,

at

reflection

loses its singular

the

theoretical

first

hnndreds of thonsands have loved thus and that

nothing unusual about

is

of logical

instance, immcdiateh

for

,

becomes mere

it

Only

it

aesthetic

expcnence brings

out the mcomparability of the situation’s emotional content there

If

the whole

soul

acts

as a forming

define

to expressions

of these spiritual

be

on)>

bom The

structure

we

powers

An

objective

interest,

into

desire

and

an

is

there

is

immediate action

not reflecting,

of art

(which can

In

its

work of

art its

or a formed

always a peculiar kind

but

contact

it

with

cmpatliically

that at the

reality

enjoyment,

They do not which

awakens

moving picture

contemplating

what winch

Bound up with of self

were second hand

They look on

it,

personality

phenomenon

aesthetic

wholly

accentuated form we call

For, even though all tjpes establish

because these natures Inc as

come

work

aesthetic soul shares with a

generally call ‘individuahtj

aestheticism

We

the aesthetic t}pe

from such a soul) most clearly icvcals the souls

indniduilitj

arouses

But

bit of life,

cannot approach an) more closely the mastery

concrete and perceptual shape tins

in ever^

nature as one which forms all impressions

its

Wc

power

wc have

(giving color, mood, rhjthm) then

can bnefl}

0

nothing but the fanciful en 30 >mcnt of a single

is

have onl> a poetic mood, or an aestlutic whim

situation ere if

and

expeiiences

his

lives in their concreteness

and

of life

enjoying

According as to which of the three aspects of experience predominant, wo can

differentiate

three

aesthetic

ty^pes

it

is

Some

people give themselves up to external ‘impressions’ with intense They are hungry for ‘experience’ and therefore enjoyment 5)

Schiller’s central concept of ‘aesthetic determinabihty

used in his

2l8t letter on aesthetic education refers to tins p'^ychic structure and thus

According to him wc must denotes the condition of highest formativity regard *tbe power which is given back to man in the aesthetic mood as the highest of all gifts, as the gift of humanity (of being human)’ must be understood here in the aesthetic and not in 5*) ‘Impression’ the theoretic or practical utilitarian sense

150 If the inner becomes an c\perience for them binding and forming power is lacking no have the Itnp) csswmsis of life who hurry from one impression to the other shimming

c\crj thing easily

only the surface from each in

Othcis, however, live so intensely

i)

emotional woild that they meet and eolor every

inner

their

These

impression with a subjective tint natures, the

of

) C£ Kierkegaard, Either- Or Jiaipdlpata Bichard Hnmann, Eer Impresswmsmus tn Lebcn vnd Kvnsl, Koeln 1907 especiallj p 143ff In this brilliant book much is classed as specifically impressionistic which is true of the aesthetic type in general I (Diederichs) p 165 One compare in general Hegel, =) Philosoplne der Geschtchte ('the forms of beautiful individuality’}, Jakob Burckhardt, EiiUiir der Eenatssance, Eduard Spranger, WiOiclm v JTiimboldt ttnd die Himamtaeisidee, Christian Weiser, Shaftesbury mid das deutsche Getsleslebcii Cf the seldom remarked book of K. Bonnski, Balthasar Graeian und die HofliteraUir tn Deutschland, Halle 1894 on the historj of the concept of inner form which goes back to Cicero and is best known under the term ‘the beautiful soul’ See further v Waldberg, Studien und Quellen utr Geschtchte des Bomans I The devdopmental history of the beautiful sold in Sxmnt^ mysticism (Literarhistonscbe Forschnngen, Heft 41 1910)

—

WW

—

—

161

In’'

the advantage

'n\

form, (colors, tones, poetic pictnres)

of being able to project bis experiences into

e

i

the

power

of self-

nhich

is not identical with the innei foiming power and Hnmboldt wore aesthetic natures but without creative powers objective ‘sensible’ 1 ah They struggled in vain Tor expression, since they were at bottom onl> self-creators Con-

cxprc'JSion,

i:

PIi Moritz*)

lersch

the disadvantage of the artist

n

he

that

who can

create exteimally

forced by this very fact to linger over some single

is

(he

creation

creates

a Zens,

dr ima, a dance or a song)

or an Aphrodite,

Thus

a lyiic poem, a

his vital energy is so concentrated

on a single point that he nevei quite reaches, or

Therefore genuine

the inner form nliollj

to

V ho like Goethe carry a

Most

artists

now

which

work through

their

works signify rather a stiuggle for innei

ci cations

&om

that form

type

we

its

its

draw only the most decided

shall

mental

tries to strike a

subjective penetiation lines so

main outline will not be blurred by the variations

should have to write a whole Aesthetics the

^)

on the innei forming power which

balance between objective experience and this

the

In some

shall consider the aesthetic typo only insofar as

structure rests

now

occasion)

element (the inner world) predominates

creative artists successive

that the

lose

but only a few,

whole growth succeed

element (the

the impressionistic

foim than actual

Within

may even

have an insatiable longing

do not go beyond single or limited expressions, in

cxpressionistic

We

artists

express themselves in a masterpiece,

if

we wished

We

manifold forms of the external artistic world

interested in the inner artist,

he whose inward

We

to describe

are only

life is aesthetically

organized

n

-

The

various regions of value into which

are, for the aesthetic type, *)

What

I

mean

here,

human

life is

organized

wholly illuminated by aesthetic standards

E

Ph Montz, staitmg from

the background

of an aesthetically determined metaphysics of the universal relation in

creative nature, called ‘the capacity of the

logy

orgamsm

which

implanted in the finer texture a beginning of a structural psychois

This is to develop’ Of extracts from his wntings in Goethe’s Italiemscher Beise, and

my lecture Goethe und die Metamorphose des Menschen, Goethejahrbuch 1924 Gerhart Hauptmann in a speech on the celebration of his

birthday

in the university of Leipzig, spoke in this sense of 'eternal beginning’

and

of 'the productive scepticism’

— Conseqnentlj

lie

sees c%cr>

Knowledge

forming power

—

152

where that which enlirges

cm

add but

own inner

liis

einco

little

destroys

it

the perceptual and classifies e\cr> thing according to concepts of

This c\pl>ims the nrcrsion of the truly aesthetic

gencial validity

tjpo to the conceptual a lack of plasticitj

One

the

of

It

seems to him to have a certain

and color and to be an almost

liberating

teaching us to question the conventional

its

and traditional picture of reality and to see animated

e

1

of

(bcscelt schen)

Konrad Fiedler

husk

of art and indeed also of artistic

cftects

experience, is found in

paiicit},

lifeless

it

again 'originally*,

This factor dominates the aesthetics

In the impicssionistic

there

acstlictician

is

Dilthoy, as a historian, was

usually a leaning toward relativism

so organized that although he made, in visualizing his characters,

conceptual determinations the final presentation

of

them, he eliminated them in

all of

did not satisfy his need

because the}

He

pictorial individiialit}

But

called this 'caution*

it

rcall}

for

was

an aesthetic factor in his mind which led sometimes to a fear of generalisations and forced veil

which

IS

nltimatcl}

him

to leave his figures shrouded in the

characteiistic of life itself

been untiring in visualizing actual historical figures shows that

scientific reflection is for

the study of anatomy

is foi

But he had This example

man what

the purely aesthetic

the creative artist, or the philosophic

anal} SIS of art for a Schiller or a Goethe, an intcrmcdiar} stage,

through which he struggles to full

Thus the

of life

factor

the

in

man

eternal laws in his

of life’s

plasticit}

theoretic attitude

aesthetic

t)

,

color and individuality

mav be found

But his goal

own

is

as a subordinated

the presentation

concrete individualit}

,

and the

formation of his personality so that the gcneial radiates through the specific

To

do this he must make a certain choice between different

sciences

At

first

only the Getsiesiotsscnscltaffcn (language, literature

0 What Womuger colled 'abstraction* in his Abstraction «iid EtnfvMung Jena 1911 is at bottom not an independent phenomenon A mathematically organized soul feels mathematics into and out of forms

Counter-

point IS an example in music of this high degree of rationality stdl remains audible mathematics just as the mathematics which

is visible

in the formative arts

although the form Beiousstsetn

same way

p 74

is

But

it

It contains the fundamental factor of aesthetics,

here highly rationalized

criticises

Womngcr*8

Volkelt

Das

aestlicUsche

conception of abstracbon in the

—

158 ltd ’

•

seemed dnectly to serve the creation of an inner

liistor})

Because of their eminently educational content they were

rid

c»He(l bj

the aesthetic

r itiiTC, since the} it

well

IS

Frenchmen

''belles

also aid the foimation of the inner life

known how much

The

aesthetic

m

rcl itcd life

And to

man’s conception of the essence of Nature

is

and culture

wholly different fiom that of the theoretic with the

>)

meant

jnst these natnial sciences

f^octhc in hiB longing for form

nffiiut}

Heidei was the

letbes'

apply this conception to all sciences, inclnding those of

to

man

He

has a close

mythological method of thought which feels a

For, there

nature

an aspect of nature which

is

cannot be grasped except by' an aesthetic sense, since in nature, too, creative to

form seems to play a pait

Everything organic appears

bo guided by an inner urge for development so immanently

teleological that one

might almost ascribe a soul to

it

Aristotle,

though no poet Ins nevertheless made the conception of entelechy the center of his system

He was a

a highei sense of form than

law

the

of

Greek, and the Greeks had

any other nation

So inner form (the

purposive organic development of the inner being)

became for him, and for long centuries of the socalled middle ages, the main explanatory principle of nature,

even though such an

indiMdnalizing law (similar to the character of a single man) can

bo grasped only by

Modem

aesthetic intnition

natural science

has attempted to destroy these formae substantiales, but they always

crop up again

It is

comprehensible that a

man

like Goethe,

who

experienced himself as an oiganic developmental process, a lawful

metamorphosis, saw in nature the same forming power, the

since

Leibnitz,

He

17^^

century and

its

later

offspring,

especially

Shaftesbury and

determined the intellectual woild from which he came

possessed the power of organic thought in the same astonishing

degree

as

the

power of organic

vision

s)

The same

intellectual

trend ruled the philosophy of Schelling and Froebel and was again

who could

not be satisfied with the ‘night-

of nature, but agaiu called

upon the soul as an explanatory

expressed by Fechner

new’

m

a dry moraliBing manner has also drawn a borderline >) between the sciences, those which enable an aesthetic presentation of the world and those which only reproduce the necessity of fate Herbart

’)

Cf Schiller

*)

Cf

my

JDte Freundschaft

lecture cited above

1S4

The

principle

of nature

We

conflict of the organic

human we find

as eternal as the

is

must make

it

clear that

and mechanical conceptions tjpes which he behind them ourselves at the limit of exact

For, the soul of nature, and the individual souls or types

science living in

tbiough cmpitby

can be grasped only

it,

neither kernel nor shell, bnt c\ cry thing at the

same

is

true

of

individuality of a

historical

man

if reality

all

Here

and

art borders on science,

could only bo more deeply penetrated

if

seems

theoretical

Insofar, therefore, the aesthetic type has

(conceptual)

it

grasped by

mind over and abo\o tho purely

the forces of the

is

*

or an epoch can only be discerned by such

an empnthic foim sense as

‘Nature

The The psychic

same time

Geistmoissaiscliaficn

its

special

organ for understanding tho woild (a soit of ‘hunch’), an cmpathic intuition

For tho pure

with such a tendency

For the

i)

only an extravagant romanticist

man

a

theorist,

theorist,

nature

is

is

a

system of functional equations, or a complexity of conceptuallydefined energies

But

let

us beai

in mind

that Plato

believed

moderation to be tho factor which made the world, (the cosmos)

and the soul bcantiful

Thus

a ital

too, the source of experiences of

Now

let

economic values in

sharp contrast

object be

enjoyment, indifferent life

it

empathy may find in mathematics, form and beauty

us turn to the relations of the aesthetic typo with

The practical and aesthetic points of view are Anyone who ascribes a use to an aesthetic

technical or moral,

destroys

its

a value, either for education or

pure being

The

aesthetic

as the theorist

(Here the above mentioned points

even in view of the apparent contradictions) as he

who develops himself would

life if

he subscribed all his eneigies to

life

man

is

as

and helpless in the face of tho practical demands of

destroy' his

The

is

hold

artist as

well

whole position toward

To comprehend

utility

with a forming and enjoying fancy

still

quite

different

from

Anyone who comprehends his own life as an organic developmental process, which is dominated by a constant form an attitude which does not seem to have existed before Goethe understands himself aesthetically ») Even the practical everyday things are too much for the aesthetic ’)

—

mmd

—

I see in my mind’s eye the picture of these natures who take life are always frightened by real life because they are always looking formed echo and are unused to so much matenal I also see, however, others who treat the heavy material of life as if it were only chimencal, as if the whole world were only an aesthetic ‘phenomenon’

hard,

who

for the

155 mg’

Mroi] '

oner him

I lie

I

not

of

all

hnman

developmental novel ends with the

this

individual limitation, piofession

But

contradiction of the aforesaid

-i

which the stage seemed

life

So he wanted to develop himselE in the woild of

Even though

on

pi iise

Meister hoped to achieve completion hy an

participation in

-iip'ihic

i' (

TVillielin

it

ideal of a contemplative self- development,

that

totally misguided

it IS

had real

could not become

because his

not in his aim but in the mateiial

a narrow

compiehcnsive that he had to

Thus Goethe thought,

complete personality*) the

universal indefiniteness

life,

and

he,

who

the aesthetic form

to fiee himself

lift

himself

from mere mattei

powei of imagination, the plaj impulse

limitations, sought

its

and aesthetic cultivation*) it

of

above them a moie potent

In a far different way, Schiller, who had to

above the necessities of

He

worker, in spite of his limitations

purpose was so

life

straggled from

and

though not in the sense

It

of life to another in older to create

form

the pure

means instead that one must have experiences before one can work them over into form

IVilliclm Mcister eried,

icinjin a

it is

means that he planned

For, Goethe certainly would not have

a mere businessman

gloiificd

and useful woik,

of the mere cnit of aesthetic illusion,

here a rejection

Devotion to the purely useful, when

And it (m agieement

becomes a ruling urge, destioys the aesthetic attitude

seems strange at

first

tha*^

Goethe

m

his

old age

with the classic Ealokagathie) should designate the purely piactical

Susanna,

at the

end of his Wandetjahie, as ‘Good and Beautiful’

(die Gute-Schoene)

But

this strangeness disappears if

ourselves that even in the

first part,

we remind

he had called the expressions

of a purely religio-erotic type the Confessions of a beautiful soul

Cf Jonas Cohn,

0

Her

Ccist dei -Emelurnff 1919 p 91

I cannot agree

that a desire for vocational education is particularly strongly felt by artists

we have

—

Schiller here instead the conquest of mere artistry too was impressed in this way by Meister, 'that he achieved determination without losing his beautiful flexibihty, that he learned to control himself

Perhaps

hut found in this hmitation the passage through form to the infinite’ (Letter to Goethe July 8t*», 1796) Schiller’s conception of aesthetic determination (see above) represents what we have called the aesthetic type ) The impulse to form means for Schiller something different than for us, namely the purely rational forming capacity of Beason in the Kantian sense

Cf

and p 281 appearance

my hook Wilhelm v Humboldt und die Bumamtaetsidee 341 fi What we call form, Schiller called living form or freedom in

1S6 His inner nssimilatire and formative power was so universal that it

This greatest

united all other types in a comprehensive form

had, to nse a Bomantic expression, such an

of all self-creators

allround ‘sensormm’ that his aesthetic attitude toward life included the others

all

The

stming

nnclcns, howoicr, remains his

for

inner form, or better, the formation of his entelechy with the aid of everj thing

The

which

life

brought to him in the uay of mateiial

item in the principles of aesthetic foim

In every art

an economy of medinm, applied not onij

medium

also to the intensity of the IS

to the

we observe

magnitude but

E\cry gradation and tension

measured according to the ps> cho-phj sical energy of the enjoying

subject IS

>)

practical factor also necessarily appears as a subordinate

Similar to this

is

the formation of

Here economy

life itself

shown bj not desiring anj thing unattainable and b} restnctiug

the power of imagination

man

the purely aesthetic

It

appears further in the fact that for

periods of depression must necessarily

The

follow upon those of enthusiasm

aesthetic type differs from

the severelj stoic in striving for abundant and

manj sided experience

and in not being content with a pure intellcctnaluing of everj aesthetic enthusiasm

life But demands a subsequent quietude, every act

of expansion one of limitation

And

thus a stoic

belongs to the aesthetic

limitation, neccssarilj

tj

trait,

pe

the pathos of

It is introduced

by the factor of power economy which enters into every mental act The aesthetic man is bj no means an unsocial tjpe But since individuality is a part of his nature,

he tends in social relations

toward eccentricity and self-importance In other words, individualism

and not self-denial

Where desire

this

to

tjpe

is

is

characteristic of the aesthetic tj'po sociallj

strongly

marked the man

is

not ruled by a

help otheis in the practical or spnitual needs of

life,

but they become like all of

life,

and

This aesthetic factor appears very

differentiating

empathy

clearly in social relations association of people in

There

is

objects

of aesthetic enjoyment

an easj -going, mostly

superficial

which neither personal needs nor professional manner of receptivitj and self-expression

interests but the peculiar is

enjojed

People here come in contact through the medinm of

expression and impression, temporariij there arises a sjnthesis or fusion of souls, but

it

canies with

reminds one of the play of «)

‘From

utility

it

butterflies

no sense of obligation and

The charm

through truth to beauty

’

of such social

(TFanderjuAre)

157 'rfiMtics

fiom the tree and easy contact of indiTidnalides

aiises

Hint are mutually inteicstmg,

but in a pure case without any real

Dinding of Intel ests

Eroticism illustrates a higher and more enduring form of this

We mean

•'(>=thetico-social relation

dctei mined

th

if

the

form of love

human body

by

this the frankly aesthetically

is

rooted primarily in the fact

Eroticism

operates as a symbol of a pure, free, natural,

forming power of the soul

It appears as

an expression of something

psichological, which the enjoying subject expeiiences as longing

The body

here considered the adequate symbol of a truly valuable

is

may be

Eioticism

soul

reciprocal but that

In higher stages the bodily aspects

nature

may

act of love

Pci haps Plato

not essential to

showed the way is

0 uthfal, 2) while the naive

to this kind of eroticism

markedly

the eroticism of a refiecting soul

is

And

erotic

attracted

eroticism

on the contrary

with sexuality

is

The

is

A is

may be

appearance in consciousness

its

and usually

)

4th ed. Ch 4

Youthful eroticism

What we

m

called the female pnnciple

the female soul

spirit

'(V'ho

She

is

most clearly realized

the necessary complement to the male

is

He

staves for inner form

only matures through empathy

‘The eternal feminine leads us upward

with her

relation of the

two sexes

is,

is

spiritual

The meaning

does not take the upper hand, an aesthetic one true marriage

The

’

therefore, insofar as phj steal sexuality

of

neither physical nor practical hut a mutual spiritual

completion, development, in the highest sense of the word, of inner

For this reason only earlj mamage can fulfill this highest But the real meaning of such a union finally surpasses aesthetic factor which is only a preliminary symbol, and leads into a total life nnit> which culminates in religions

form

purpose

the merely'

values

*)

K its

we

turn back to social relations,

aesthetic

the sexes,

charactei

it

is

now

explicable

why

spiritual contact of

a union which

The pure

stimulating to the imagination

much

it is

on the

rests especially

only that there

is

temporary and

aesthetic tjpe allows too

imagination to entei into his social relations

He

has no under-

standing of the active lojalty which helps another person even soul 18

his

feeling

devoid

at all

of charm

for 'the

and

attraction

if

Aesthetes have no

practical side of solidarity

Because they

have no real comprehension of mankind they interpret socialism, for instance, in a peculiar of

political

socialism,

way

which, seen from the point of view

can only be called a miscomprehension

on Sociahsm and ihe Soul of Man by the aesthete Oscar Wilde Socialism is for him onlj a means and is valuable only because it leads to that and to a most complete life This most complete life however man can only find in the sphere of artistic imagination

Illustrative of this is the essay

of aesthetic individualism,

of individualism known Only in is man beautiful, although his purpose is to The proper duties of the state are the useful, those individual, the beautiful The aesthetic socialism of Oscar

the most intensive kind

It IB

voluntary associations

be beautiful of the

Wilde and Gustav Landauer impressions,

The

is

thus a protection

agamst ugly

a spiritual insurance against distressing experiences

leal value of life is only achieved

if

everyone lets his whole

*) On the difference between the vital feebng of oneness which I call Eros or aesthetic love and the real understanding personal love cf Scheler

irescH

und Formen der Summihte

Bonn 1923

rg

t

veil np from within and lives, a complete individual, creating

cn]o\

'Tid

mg

ir.

1)

now proceed

].ct IIS

to the political sphere

Like the theorist

knowledge, so the aesthetic man in his consciousness of

his

and personality has a feeling of power

individu ility

This

of

is

coarse the characteristic inner powei, which even Nietzsche never

trmscended

power Tins

in his

aesthetic

sphere, that

by

decorative appearance,

suggestion

rhetorical

type naturally finds outer means to the effects of artistic creation

is,

language by which he

the

is

The own

etc

tries to influence people,

aesthetic beauty of clothes

But when ambition predominates we

po-s over into the political type

The

aesthetic

man

and an individualist withdraws fiom mankind and as his position is thieatened

soon

as

iulfjus ct aiceo

'

And

realization that ho

power

If

paiticipates

the in

is

2)

by

and house,

heie he

is

by

others,

as an aristocrat

is self-sufficient,

'Odi ptofanum

unconsciously influenced by the

unable to cope mentally with the world of

aesthetic type does

not practise this reserve but

he finds that he has no aptitude for it by himself Now nothing is moie fundamentally

politics^

Tie judges everything

crippling to the aesthete than subordination to overindividnal social

which

forces

He

real

demand from him something

definite,

conceives even the state aesthetically

s)

limited

and

Under favorable

‘) Oscar Wilde, Ser So'zlahmm und die Seele des Menschen usw Translated by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer Berlin 1904 Gnstav Landauer, Aufnif sum Sostaltsmus Berlin ed 2, 1919 (Page for page IS evidence of the type developed above) 'We are poets, and shall do away with the scientific swindlers, the Marxists, the frigid, the hollow and mindless ones so -that poetic vision, the artistically concentrated creativity, the enthusiasm and prophetic power finds a place where they may in future work, create and build, in life, with human bodies, for the achievements and social Me of groups, communities and peoples ’ p 34

—

*}

The

feeling of

power projected on

aesthetic presentations creates

As Kant has already shown, According to our differentiation it is to he understood ns the appearance of another type, namely that of moral elevation above nature which is made the object of aesthetic refiection and enjoyment Monologen III ‘Where ') Cf Schleiermacher in his romantic stage are the old legends of the state told by the wise men? Where is the power which this highest stage of existence should give, to each man, where the consciousness each should have, to he part of its reason,

the phenomenon of sublimity and heroism it

IS

not purely aesthetic

imagination

(

Even the

in

classic

man, the complete pcrsonalih, would prefer to li\o according to the pure law of his own nature, to liavo room for his own growth nnd unfolding, His creed to

to

find

through organic self-development

libcrt>

tho liberalism of harmonious mankind, which

is

strong

contrast

Hoclderliu’s terrible to

of

tho

and

political

nestlictic points

men near Alabanda

Hjperion, the

Wo Tho

now ipproach

(m

— which

contrast to pnrelj

higiicst

A

nine

is

1a

not the

view in

appear so activity

po to religion

I call the beautiful

harmonious bcantj)

His creed

is

find

*)

tho relation of tho aesthetic

aestheticallj important,

sense

of

that

him are onlj politicians and propagandists for

Bnt Hjperion dreams of a theocracy of bcantj

the

We

be confused with Kantian liberalism of dntj

—

m

a wider

has for him

a religion of beauty

For

this

reason, the harsh dualism betAvecn life licrc and in Heaven, tho

devaluation of the phjsical, seems to him intolerable, likewise tho

Hnenclien 1925 gives a masterly psychological analysis of the romantic For type of mind which he too subordinates to the aesthetic type ‘It gives n political tins reason must romanticism deform real politics

romanticism ns well ns a political Lytic’ (ed 1 p 115) *) Cf Oscar Wilde’s antagonism to every kind of anthoritative sociabsm,

'Where there is no spirit and no ’ is external power, regulation and the state ‘The state never resides in the inner individual, it has never become a of individuality nor will’ quality of free etc v Humboldt, Itlccn en cinem VersucU, die Gremen der ITtrAsatnleit des Staales bcstminen, especially the three first chapters Works (Akademieansgabe) I p 117

and Gustav Landauer op mt. p 19 ff inner necessitj, there

—W

‘Therefore the interesting

man

therefore he flowers into

m

nU occupations and positions, rapturous heanty in n manner of life ivhich is interesting in

comcides with his character’ (i e outside of the state in freedom) Leopold T Wiese, Dcr Liberahsmm Vergangcnbcit vnd Ziikunfl Berlin Die romantischen MetapoUtiker 1917, above all p 155 ff

m

»)

EwUtir

Cf

md

my

essay Eoelderhn

und das

deutsche Nattonalbetcusslsetn, in

Ersttdnmg ed 3 Leipzig 1925

eifion

f

'

I

of

i‘

tliought

by

in then

}onth

The

for

IS

and Shaftesbury, ScheUing and Goethe them a union with this harmony

Biaino, Leibniz

Religion

>)

is to

acsthetico-religions conception of the world is

Animism

2)

It

must bo remembered that Schlei'ermacher’s analysis of religion, in the first edition of his JRcden uher dte Schgion, shows a pronounced ae'-tlictico

-religions

type

It

is

remarkable how

little

description

of the bridal

souls,

which

IS

consciousness

a fusion of

oi

wicstling for the

fiom God,

sin,

a sense of disparity, of

dungeon of individuality and a desperate

imprisonment in the

Lord have no place in this religion Later up more histoiico-Chnstian factors in

took

Schlciermachei

A

very .characteristic of the aesthetic process

of distance

thcor>

of leligion

realm

of

the

embrace in which we become one with

thionghont the form of empathy

the universe has

space ho

And

gives to the factor of moialifj, to the noimative value

But

the-

Men

cxpeiience

pme like

aesthete has

little

on, his

use for this

Humboldt and Goethe

in

their

>onth have not found in themselves this consciousness of duality

which the conception of transcendency

of

HoelderLn they is

felt

the love of beauty’

IS also

the

is

only a reflex

borne up by the beauty of the world

the most holy

’

(Hoeldeilin

(W

I 72)

metaphysical woild piinciplo

Like

‘Religion

W

‘The most beautiful I 105) For them the aesthetic becomes But to aU. Platonists it is no

longer merely appearance, veil, illusion, segment, but esseutially ’) ‘What other point of companson for genuine beauty is there except the inclusive concept of all the harmonious relations of the entirety of Nature, which cannot he grasped by any thought’’ Goethe ItahemscJie

m

Eetse, cited hei ’)

Montz

Scheler in his

aesthetic

empathy the

much quoted book on sympathy still

difierentintes

beyond

deeper vital feeling of oneness which can grow (op cit p 16ff p 84ff p 90ff)

into a feeling of unity with cosmic life

I incline to classify both feelmg^ as aesthetic insofar as they are mental Of section IV i Schelcr adds another sphere of vital values

Sprnngcr, Types

of

men

11

162 ftorld

stnicluie,

the

most valid meaning that

phenomena

behind

lies

Even

of the world

tinged foi them

nnd (fiom a religious point of mow)

final,

all crude,

unformed and ugly

death and sichncss are

suffering,

The

with a delicate poetic tint

interpretation of

icsthctic t>pc is cleirh

Clmstianify peculiar to the

illustrated in

Oscar Wilde's icfeicncc to Christ as the ‘Aesthete of the soul’i)

While the beaiitj

piiio theorist or purelj

is

concealed,

There

who

very

diflionlt

differentiation of

At

The

mental

any

in

find

to

just

life

which

is

meaning and

was no philosophy

appears on this level

not alwav s given historically

man’s notion of the u orld influenced bj

If a

markedlj

an objective

m this

context

it

wishes to express something

that has been purel} aesthetically expcnenced and visualized

was a

striking

the sensibly

ages was

mind

aesthetic

will certainlj choose the available fignrative

it

language, oien though

who

presupposes a

It

of religion there was no art,

that ontside

tradition

as there

with an acstheticall}

case

specific

the height of the middle ages ei erj

and

of life

between the two, howcvci,

borderline

as well as of the self was so stronglj leligion

man

treats materials nith a religious

or composes

upon

meaning

of the productive artist, or a religious type

the point of vien

IS

final

becomes for the aesthetic t}pe the

a great difference between a

is

organized soul

paints

it

and the real value

fulfilment of sense itself,

then, looks

element in which the

as a preliminarj

onli

of the world

man

religions

example of

The

this

Dante

very complex relation between

perceptible and the snpcr-scnsible during the middle

first

Max Dvonik

stmctnrally

interpreted

The uniqnc

desire

for the formative arts by

and problem of

this art

was

to

transform the spiritual which could only be grasped subjectively, into the sensibly perceptible

‘The uniqueness of the development

of mediaeval art lies not only in the religions character which familiar

to

everyone

—

equally religions and y different

which

art

of the counter -reformation

despite the

—

from the Gothic)

many

points in

lies

depreciate *}

is

was very

but in this omnipotence of a mental

bey^ond

experience in spiritual things (comparable to our to

common

material expenence and whose was so great that every immediate reference to sensible

constiuction influence

(the

et,

the

Schiller in

a ennons

modem

impulse

was conceived as a meaningless and

same)

Goethe also designates Chnsbanity (August 1795)

letter to

as ‘the only aesthetic rebgiou

’

1

163 .."’rable -r{

1

Mn

against

'"P'r-scnbiblc explanation of life 1

and the consequent reaction

to

sensible

.

A

soul structure which is closer to the natni al-sensible and

moie free from leligions hadition has the

’ts

characterize

religion

whether one considers not

possibility of letting

inner aesthetic oiganisation develop toward the infinite relations

o1iic.li

as religious oi

the widei

in

aestlietic

upon a doctrine but

pnm.iril\ 1

'Tbns Gotliic

only attempt to strike a balance between the

tho

epi ("(cnts

and hnman leason*')

trnth

latliei

sense

pantheism (which

Regardless reallj

is

upon an oiganisation

aesthetic,

of

based

of the soul)

the creations of such a mind

line, without any historico-ieligions sjmbolism, a leligious

ill

oignificmce which expresses Sohleieimachers

Uunasum'

(^'hl3 is especially

in poetij

^Snm

tind

hue, of conise,

if

Geschmacl

they choose

There are innumerable examples

nature for their object)

Oskar Beyer has developed

mative art very biilliantlv

m

this point of

of this

view for for-

writing and illustration

But here

re reach the point wlieie these stmetnres cannot be further explained and one must rely upon spintnal insight (besceltes Sehen) *) Tins

infinite

expansion of the aesthetic oigan has been con-

formulated

sciouslj

feeling of natnie

by

in

a

description

Gottfried Keller

of *)

renewed

„E$ wai

and deepened die

Imgehcnde

Liche an alles Gewoidene Htnd JBestehendc, wclclie das JRecM tind die

Bedeuiwig jeglichen Emges ehrt und den 2!usammenJiang tind

die Tiefe

der Welt enipfindet

lucnstleiiscJie

Biese Liebe sieht

lioeJier

als

das

Eei aiisstehlen des einselnen eu eigenmietsigem

Zioccle,

tmmei eu KleinhcJikeit und Lattne fueJnt,

sie stelit

uclcJies indefst

aucli hoelier als das Gentessen und Ahsondeni nacli Sfmmungen und iomantischen Lieblidbaeien, und nur sie allem vennag cine eu geben" And again „Die Welt tst innahch ruing und still, und so muss es auch dir Mann scin, dei sie verstelien und als em wirTeendei Tcil von tin sie tvidcrspiegeln will Bulie eielit das Lehen an, Unrulie vet sclieuelit es, Gott liaelt sicli maeusclienstiU, danon bewegt stch die Welt um tlin

gleichmaessige, daueinde Glut

1)

Max Dvorak, KunsigesdhtcMe

als Geistesgesclitchtc

Muenohen 192i

p 60 ’)

malem •)

Oskar Beyer, Die tmendltche Landscliaft Vbet reltgtoese Naturund Hire Meistci With 34 reprodnctions Fiircheverlag, Berlin 1922 Oruenet Heinndi III 1 11 *

l64

Mcnwhen nun wacrc dies sicli eha leidcnd und cutchend lahaltcn tortichaziclicn lassen, ah thnen nachjaacn

I^le)

den

dass

c)

an

sicJt

7iUensilci itcJicn

amxmenden,

so

itnd die JDingc

Zuqc miUichl, lann demcTbcn

niclit

am Wegc

damn

uclchci

del,

und muessig, und

flucssiq

Diescr

^(chf

dei

SeJiei

isi

denn tro

soil,

?n eincm fcsihclictt

me

so herein ctbcn,

mchi

uchci-

as! das gance Jjclcn des

tsl

Gcselicncn “ III

All these d

life)

tjpc

form of motnntion chnrnctcristic

specific

m

It

determined

the deeper aitnirs of

(in

not bj general liers nor iitilitnrnn considerations but b}

will to form

not reach

This, alas,

is

Self-realization,

The

self-enjovmcnt arc aesthetic aims

and Oscar

Ibsen

or

But c\cn these nnsuccccsful attempts arc motivated

a desire to develop one’s imagined self

fulfilment,

the

often a misdirected impulse uhicli docs

goal, but gets side-tracked in biassed subjectivity

its

impicsBionism by

show the

ita

of the ncsthctic

"SAildc

is

‘Be

v

final

self-

gospel of

But such inner form-

ourself’

development results not from rational considciation but rather from unconscious this

follow

of action, not because

lacks style

it is

fitness

(For this reason those

who

because

it

Sgmposion, represents

confuses in

decorum with purity Phaedra

is

find this aesthetic

in Cicero’s

the

In all actions

and moderation

They would

this

(Heddn Gablcr)

cl

their

Bnt the Socrates described hero

We

discoverer of real spiritual beauty

honestuni',

in

somewhat

life,

w ith Baltasar Gracian, Shaftesbury, Herder, Goethe,

Humboldt, Heinsc and Hocldcrlin

v

ague

the ‘widrc’ of conventional

knighthood, in the whole Renaissance as the style of finally

And

Pansanias,

type on a lower plane, and

moral code in diiicrcnt degrees

'dccouim

it

talk most of this generilly

form of

distorts their faces

wish would be to die beautifully

in Plato’s

and

flute

taste*,

reject a course

life)

.icsthctic

they arc led by a sense of beauty

avoid plaving the

They

dangerous or inconsistent but because

remain in the vestibule of the

last

often confnsc

young people,

especially

But the moio moderate arc guided by ‘good

and a sense of decorum or

tact

of the type

Some,

which, unfortunately, often reacts into stoic

enthusiasm,

resignation

by

The bunglers

iiispintion

with riotous living

creed

and

Schiller,

>)

We

>) Cf Herder’s