Linguistique de l’écrit

Revue internationale en libre accès

Livre | Chapitre

182050

Idealism and our experience of nature

Charles Hartshorne

pp. 70-80

Résumé

When I arrived at Harvard in 1919, entering as a junior, I was already persuaded on two philosophical points: (1) the notion of mere matter, irreducible to mind in some broad sense, was absurd or meaningless; and (2) all minds are included in a universal or divine mind. My reasons for these views were my own, derived from reflection during my two years as orderly in a military hospital. I had no particular philosophical authority for the beliefs; they were conclusions of chains of reasoning starting from what seemed direct insights into the essence of all experience. Later, much later, I found that my reason for asserting the reducibility of the concept of matter was about the same as Croce's: the essentially aesthetic character of immediate experience. (Similar contentions are found in Rickert, Heidegger, Whitehead, and others.) I still find the argument valid. As for my reasons for believing in an all-inclusive deity, they were perhaps most like those of Royce, whose Problem of Christianity was the only technical philosophical work I recall having previously read.

Détails de la publication

Publié dans:

Rouner Leroy (1966) Philosophy, religion, and the coming world civilization: essays in honor of William Ernest Hocking. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 70-80

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-3532-3_6

Citation complète:

Hartshorne Charles, 1966, Idealism and our experience of nature. In L. Rouner (ed.) Philosophy, religion, and the coming world civilization (70-80). Dordrecht, Springer.