The Philosophy of Georges Bastide pp 50-67 | Cite as
Philosophies of Reflection and Philosophy of Spirit
Chapter
Abstract
Authentic philosophy reflects the age in which it is rooted as project as well as the past from which it is born. The search for truth will necessarily concern itself, in a special way, with the philosophical problems that define the particular “kairos” of the times. For the true philosopher will strive to meet the challenge which each age brings, to pass on the historical heritage new-formed, so that the future might reap the results of his own work.
Keywords
Historical Perspective Moral Idealism Existential Philosophy Transcendental Idealism Spiritual Personalism
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References
- 1.Cf. G. Bastide, La condition humaine, p. 3.Google Scholar
- 2.Cf. G. Bastide, La condition humaine, p. 3.Google Scholar
- 3.Thus is it an attempt to ground subjectivity in metaphysics. Cf. J. Robert, “Descartes,” p. 378 where he notes the influence of Descartes and before him Plotinus and St. Augustine.Google Scholar
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- 10.Cf. F. Copleston, Contemporary Philosophy, London, 1963 (4th ed.), p. 139.Google Scholar
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- 12.G. Bastide, Traité, p. 138.Google Scholar
- 13.Cf. J. Robert, “Descartes,” p. 381.Google Scholar
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- 16.Cf. Georges Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, p. 70.Google Scholar
- 17.A. Forest, “La signification,” p. 19.08-10. Also Cf. Madinier, Conscience, pp. 29, 30, 46.Google Scholar
- 18.Cf. A. Forest, “La signification,” op. cit., p. 19.08-11.Google Scholar
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- 33.“Without going so far, as some, to deny too easily the distinction of the two orders, we admit, that for our part, the spiritual conversion and transfiguration of values characterizing the person can give us the key to this twofold register, empirical and prereflexive on one hand, idealist and spiritual on the other; in such a way that, keeping the fundamental insight of Kant, namely, the reflexive connection between duty conceived as universal law and freedom conceived as autonomy, we can translate the interior moral life of the person without giving occasion to the criticisms so often addressed to Kant when he was accused of rationalism in the pejorative sense of the word, of formalism, rigorism or fideism.” G. Bastide, Traité, p. 151; cf. also pp. 149–163.Google Scholar
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- 35.“The work of reflection is not to leave outside one another the interiority of consciousness and the universality of reason.” J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.04-16.Google Scholar
- 36.Cf. for example the interpretation of Descartes in the Grands thèmes, pp. 140–141 where Bastide speaks of his “speculative voluntarism and his practical intellectualism,” which becomes the model for his own philosophy. Cf. also La condition humaine, pp. 274 ss. and Traité, p. 152.Google Scholar
- 37.Cf. A. Etcheverry, Idéalisme, pp. 22–37.Google Scholar
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- 40.Cf. I. Alain, Souvenirs concernant Jules Lagneau, p. 136 cited by J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.04-16.Google Scholar
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- 51.Id., p. 306: “... it cannot be grasped except from within, in its very own life.”Google Scholar
- 52.G. Bastide, “Nature, situation et condition humaine,” in Existence et Nature, Paris, 1962, pp. 51–64.Google Scholar
- 53.We will discuss this in detail in part two. For a brief summary cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 87 ss. Also chapters II and III of La conversion spirituelle.Google Scholar
- 54.Cf. G. Madinier, Conscience, p. 40–41.Google Scholar
- 55.Cf. J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.05-16.Google Scholar
- 56.Id., p. 19.06-1.Google Scholar
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- 65.J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.06-1.Google Scholar
- 66.J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.06-1.Google Scholar
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- 68.Cf. G. Madinier, Conscience, p. 6 and passim.Google Scholar
- 69.Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, esp. the eight and ninth meditations.Google Scholar
- 70.J. Nabert, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.06-2.Google Scholar
- 71.Cf. G. Bastide, “De la situation de l’homme et des fonctions de la philosophie,” in Les Philosophes français d’aujourd’hui, textes collected and presented by G. Deledalle et D. Huisman, France, 1963, p. 256.Google Scholar
- 72.Cf. R. Le Senne, “De la philosophie de l’esprit,” in L’activité philosophique, pp. 116–121.Google Scholar
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- 74.Cf. E. Morot-Sir, “La philosophie de l’esprit,” in Encyclopédie française, p. 19.06-11.Google Scholar
- 75.Cf. R. Le Senne, Introduction à la Philosophie (Coll. “Logos”) Paris, P.U.F., 1939, p. 3.Google Scholar
- 76.Cf. A. Forest, “De l’idéalisme au spiritualisme,” Giomale metafisica, 1955 (10), p. 438: “Spiritualism finds itself in accord with this vision (philosophy of value) of philosophy and it finds in it its final justification.”Google Scholar
- 77.Cf. Chapter I.Google Scholar
- 78.Cf. G. Bastide, Le moment historique de Socrate, Paris, 1939, p. 87.Google Scholar
- 79.Cf. G. Bastide, Le moment, Paris, 1939, p. 192; also: Les grands thèmes, p. 140.Google Scholar
- 80.“It is not a question of knowing things, but realizing ideas.” G. Bastide, La condition humaine, p. 375.Google Scholar
- 81.Cf. J. Lacroix, Encyclopédie française, p. 19.04-3.Google Scholar
- 82.Cf. G. Bastide, “La nature, la conscience et la Vie de l’esprit,” in Actes du VII Congrès des sociétés de philosophie de langue française, Paris, P.U.F., 1954, pp. 25–33.Google Scholar
- 83.“A mediation of the paradoxes in regards to the object of metaphysics leads us to propose that the object of metaphysics resides: in freedom, which presides over the opposition between Being and Nothing; in the constituting act of consciousness which manifests this freedom; in value which endows the act with authenticity.” G. Bastide in Les philosophes, p. 256, op. cit. Cf. also Traité, p. 356 and La condition humaine, p. 323.Google Scholar
- 84.Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, p. 172; Traité, pp. 229–235.Google Scholar
- 85.“... idealism seems to us to be the intellectual mediation by which philosophy is able to become a spiritualism, a philosophy of Spirit.” R. Le Senne, Introduction à la philosophie, p. 87; Cf. also A. Forest, “De l’idéalisme au spiritualisme,” p. 433.Google Scholar
- 86.Cf. Chapter II.Google Scholar
- 87.Cf. A. Forest, “De l’idéalisme au spiritualisme,” p. 437.Google Scholar
- 88.“Man is the one who can take a stand for authentic existence.” G. Bastide, Méditations, p. 157Google Scholar
- 89.Cf. G. Bastide, Le moment, p. 208; Méditations, pp. 60ss.Google Scholar
- 90.Cf. A. Forest, “De l’idéalisme,” p. 438.Google Scholar
- 91.Cf. G. Bastide, Méditations, I, pp. 1–17. These points will be treated in detail in the following sections.Google Scholar
- 92.Cf. A. Forest, “De l’idéalisme,” p. 439.Google Scholar
- 93.Cf. Chapter III, p. 111. Cf. also E. Morot-Sir: “De l’idéalisme à l’axiologie,” Giornale de Metafisica, 1955 (10), p. 463.Google Scholar
- 94.Cf. E. Morot-Sir, “De l’idéalisme,” p. 463–464.Google Scholar
- 95.Cf., E. Morot-Sir, “De l’idéalisme,” p. 465.Google Scholar
- 96.Cf. La conversion spirituelle, pp. 70–85.Google Scholar
- 97.Cf. G. Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, p. 70.Google Scholar
- 98.Cf. La condition humaine, pp. 375–382 and La conversion spirituelle, pp. 71–72.Google Scholar
- 99.“Spiritual personalism is the normal and unequivocal outcome of moral idealism...,” G. Bastide, La conversion spirituelle, p. 86. For Bastide’s relationship to other personalisms see pp. 125–127 of his Traité. He identifies himself with the personalisms in the tradition of J. Nabert and G. Madinier.Google Scholar
- 100.Cf. G. Bastide, Les grands thèmes, p. 140 and La conversion, p. 78.Google Scholar
- 101.G. Bastide, Les philosophes, p. 256.Google Scholar
- 102.Cf. G. Bastide, Traité, p. 357.Google Scholar
- 103.Id., p. 379.Google Scholar
- 104.Id., pp. 382–386.Google Scholar
- 105.Id., p. 443. Cf. also Les philosophes, p. 256. In short, we can say that there are two dynamics of the human situation — one of alienation and one of authentic freedom, one which ascends to the realization of the person and one which descends towards moral decay.Google Scholar
- 106.We have in the philosophies of spirit the same effort to escape the notion of spirit as structure. It is an attempt to surpass in moral philosophy the formalism of the categorical imperative by describing the human situation as tension rather than dialectics or structure. For both Le Senne and Bastide it is the effort of the will which can restore at any moment the actuality of consciousness and authentic reflection. As Bastide puts it, spiritual conversion admits of varying degrees and is dependent on an effort of the will as well as the light of reflexion (Cf. G. Bastide, “Esquisse d’une Axiologie de la Personne,” Revue de métaphysique et de morale, 1944 (2), p. 106).Google Scholar
- 107.Cf. especially G. Bastide, Méditations, pp. 117–193.Google Scholar
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© Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands 1971