qu'est-ce que fonder? is a seminar by deleuzedeleuze
gilles deleuze (18 january 1925 - 4 november 1995) was a french philosopher and, to me, the philosopher's philosopher and a sage. his work grapples with difference, creativity, though... from 1956-7. 'ground' means the sufficient reason for concrete entities as well as the point of departure for philosophy.
the point of the investigation is to decide between 'method' and 'system.' philosophy as method would focus on our experienceexperience
experience is related to consciousness.
of reality (epistemology Private or Broken Links
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or phenomenologyphenomenology
Phenomenology (Greek for the study of appearances of things) is a discipline in philosophy that looks at consciousness as experienced. The key thinkers are Husserl, heidegger, Merleau-P...). philosophy as system would focus on things (ontologyontology
ontology is the philosophical study of being.
). deleuze won't pass judgement, but he prefers the system view.
1. from myth to philosophy
1.1 natural ends and infinite tasks
we have natural ends we'd like to pursue (see laborlabor
labor is an activity discussed by hannah arendt.
). but we transform our natural ends with ceremonies and rituals that raise nature to the level of history and so we realize natural ends in indirect ways. example: the family shares food, sexuality, sleep, and death.
transforming a natural end into a cultural end renders it infinite. example: "i love you" rather than "i desire you" is an infinite task. in mythmyth
myth is the visionary literature of the spirit, stories of a symbolic past, neither science nor metaphor. Some myths are etiological, serving as an explanation of some kind. The..., we are presented the state of infinite tasks, but the point is that they cannot be realized. for example, the gods are immortal because they always drink ambrosia or amrita, etc.
why should we create infinite tasks? they allow us to realize natural ends in a way that is no longer simply direct. for this reason, cynics are anti-philosophical; they deny natural ends can be transformed into infinite ones. The issue here is that natural ends are not yet ends of reason but values or sentiments to be felt and lived. the proper end of reason, when thought commits to realizing itself, is realizing infinite tasks.
we have indirect means (by way of rituals and ceremonies), natural ends (biological necessities), felt cultural ends (the ritualized end), cutural ends of reason (infinite tasks).
1.2 will, value, ground
hegelhegel
die eule der minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden dämmerung ihren flug.
georg wilhelm friedrich hegel (1770-1831) was a german philosopher. he was influenced by kant.
unlike kant, h... proposes that the realization of the infinite task (of being reasonable in the will to freedom) takes place in history. the grounder, then, has to raise nature to history and spirit/mind. grounding becomes philosophical "when the grounder proposes infinite tasks to us as something to be realized in this world itself."
the grounder is one who appeals. but who is this being? when do we appeal to a ground? when do we invoke something else?
philosophy takes up the mantle of mythology by finding a common subject
let's go back to the means by which we pursue natural ends.
what makes such a detour possible? it is that at the same time and elsewhere the ends of nature reverberate in the imagination. they transform into original human values or ends. it is precisely they who present themselves as infinite tasks, but who in themselves are not to be realized. they are to be undergone. they determined a kind of action: the ceremony and the ritual. these are what permit the indirect realization of the ends of nature. the human being is already a grounder. we answer the question: what is grounding for?
these original ends of the human being are not yet those of reason. reason as supreme end could only present itself to the extent that the infinite tasks themselves becomes things to be realized.
submitted to the tribunal of reason, values become the end of the reasonable being.
when the will becomes autonomous, natural ends are converted into values – the rules of an indirect determination of the natural ends. we used to have a lot of values because we had a lot of natural ends. but then the foundation became conceptual, philosophical.
the essential being of a ground or reason
a grounder is somebody who makes a claim in posing a pre-grounded question, presupposing a right. odysseus lays claim to the hand of the girl and to power, a demand to the object from outside. he accepts to submit to the test: slay a dragon, make her fall in love, etc. the ground will or will not give the right.
let's take humehume
david hume was a philosopher of skeptic who was interested in "Logics, Morals, Criticism, and Politics," their connection to human nature. He wanted to bring the approach of empiricism to t.... his problem is of the ground of induction. by what right do i get to say that water boils at 100 degrees? to know is to make a claim of going beyond the given. the answer is the principle of human nature, of habit.
kantkant
immanuel kant (1724 - 1804) was a philosopher from prussia. he was christian. he was inspired by hume. he wrote critique of pure reason, Critique of Practical Reason.
For Kant, there i... picks up the problem, but turns psychology into transcendental subjectivity.