Schl - speech 2 Flashcards
1
Q
summary
A
- emphasis on piety
- religion = affection, revelation of infinite
- feeling = above error, piety
- distinction between religion and knowledge about religion
- religion moves us towards spiritual unity
- truth is found immediately – consciousness of infinity
- religion requires man to surrender to universe and yet maintain contact with feeling in order to achieve unity
- path to consciousness of infinite
o start with empiricism
o ego vanishes into nothingness
o whole becomes clear
o realise that your ego is immortalised in human nature - history = prophecy when it comes to religion
- in setting the finite alongside the infinite, harmony is restored
- miracle = any event, even the most natural and unusual
- revelation = proceeds from intuition
- inspiration = the feeling of true morality and freedom
- prophecy = religious anticipation of other half of religious event
- grace = revelation and inspiration
- drive to feeling = God
- religion = desire to be one with the infinite
2
Q
1 - defining religion
A
- religion cannot be easily defined/categorised
o ‘I wish I could present religion to you in some well-known form so that you might immediately remember its features…but I would deceive you’. (18-9)
o interdependency and diversity across dispositions = religion is no longer distinct
3
Q
2 - relationship between ethics and religion (link to Kant)
A
- religion is often compared to metaphysics and morals as they all are concerned with the universe and man’s relationship to it
o metaphysics classifies the universe
o metaphysics and morals should not be mixed with religion
♣ separating himself from Kant
4
Q
3 - interaction with audience
A
- ‘therefore it is time to take up the subject from the other end and to start with the sharp opposition in which religion is found against morals and metaphysics. That was what I wanted. You distracted me with our ordinary concept; I hope it is now settled and you will interrupt me no more’ (22)
5
Q
4 - religion as feeling
A
(compare to metaphysics)
- ‘religion’s essence is neither thinking nor acting, but intuition and feeling’ (22)
- metaphysics is concerned with the finite – it wants to define finite human nature
o metaphysical stance alludes to Kant’s reduction of metaphysics to the realm of finite human experience in the Critique of Pure Reason
- religion deals with the ‘infinite nature of totality’ (23)
- feeling = one’s fundamental existential orientation – prior to subject/object distinction
o link to Kant and noumenal vs. phenomenal
6
Q
5 - importance of intuition
A
- the fruitless nature of speculation can be explained by the absence of religion
o the infinite is an animating force
o ‘everything must proceed from intuition, and those who lack the desire to intuit the infinite have no touchstone and indeed none in order to know whether they have given any respectable thought to the matter’ (24) - intuition of universe = key to S
o ‘it is the highest and most universal formula of religion on the basis of which you should be able to find every place in religion, from which you may determine its essence and its limits’ (24) - I entreat you to become familiar with this concept: intuition of the universe. It is the hinge of my whole speech; it is the highest and most universal formula of religion on the basis of which you should be able to find every place in religion’ (24)
7
Q
6 - ode to Spinoza and criticism of liberalism
A
o ‘Idealism will destroy the universe by appearing to fashion it; it will degrade it to a mere allegory…Respectfully offer up with me a lock of hair to the names of the holy rejected Spinoza!…He was full of religion and full of holy spirit’ (24)
8
Q
7 - religion as an intuition of the whole
A
- ‘What you know or believe about the nature of things lies far beyond the realm of intuition. The same is true of religion…to accept everything individual as part of the whole and everything limited as a representation of the infinite is religion’ (25)
- but anything that attempts to go further into the whole is not religion anymore and is mere mythology
- religion = animating force, encourages intuition
o e.g. the ancients ‘regarded every unique type of life throughout the whole world as the work of an omnipresent being. They had intuited a unique mode of acting of the universe in its unity, and designated this intuition accordingly’ (25) - recalls Spinoza – idea of inherency and harmony of the universe
o inherency = things cannot be separate from the infinite as they form part of the whole
o however, Schl diverges from Spinoza as he does not consider finite understanding of the infinite as one-sided
o link to role of human agents in bringing others to knowledge of infinite. We are not passive receptors but should be active, divine agents
9
Q
8 - varying nature of intuition
A
- intuition = individual
- same with religion, which ‘stops with the immediate experiences of the existence and action of the universe, with the individual intuitions and feelings’ (26)
- everyone’s intuitions are different
o ‘individual persons may have their own arrangement and their own rubrics; the particular can thereby neither win nor lose. Those who truly know about their religion and its essence will utterly subordinate to the particular every apparent connection and will not sacrifice the smallest part of the particular to it. The realm of intuition is so infinite precisely because of this independent particularity’ (27) - makes religion tolerant
10
Q
9 - religion as connected to feeling/subject-object distinction
A
- the senses mediate
- feeling can be so intense that you forget object/subject distinction
- ‘in religion…intuition never predominates so much that feeling is almost extinguished’ (29)
- ‘just as the particular manner in which the universe presents itself to you in your intuitions and determines the uniqueness of your individual religion, so the strength of these feelings determines the degree of religiousness’ (29)
11
Q
10 - ineffability of religion
A
- ‘the finest spirit of religion is thereby lost for my speech, and I can disclose its innermost secret only unsteadily and uncertainly’
- thinking about the divine involves contemplation
- cannot separate intuition from feeling
o but, it is separated when we attempt to contemplate – ‘even when we merely turn it into material for contemplation within ourselves and wish to raise it to lucid consciousness, this unavoidable separation immediately occcurs’ (31) - hence why he often uses poetic language to describe fleeting nature of experience of the divine
12
Q
11 - pre-rational subject/object union as fleeting
A
- ‘but I wish that you were able to hold on to it and also to recognise it again in the higher and divine religious activity of the mind’ (32)
- uses literary language to describe feeling – ‘it is as fleeting and transparent as the first scent with which the dew gently caresses the waking flowers’ (32)
o cannot help but describe it in literary terms
o engages in metaphor as experience transcends the realm of human language
o it is inexpressible yet of the deepest significance – reminiscent of myth of the soul in Phaedrus, where sexual imagery expresses the union of passion an intellectual eros. S views Phaedrus as the programmatic statement of the Platonic corpus - ‘even as the beloved and ever-sought-for form fashions itself, my soul flees toward it; I embrace it, not as a shadow, but as the holy essence itself. I lie on the bosom of the infinite world. At this moment I am its soul, for I feel all its powers and its infinite life as my own’ (32)
o involves the soul – union of intuition and feeling is ultimately spiritual
o Platonic idea that you know essence through finite form
13
Q
12 - how we intuit the universe
A
- need to intuit the infinity in the universe – should not do this through space and mass
- can perceive the order in the universe – the individual aspects of the world are beautiful. This indicates a higher unity
- nature = key to idea of religion
- interdependency and connection between different aspects of life
- ‘that is the spirit of the world that reveals itself in the smallest things just as perfectly and visibly as in the greatest’ (36-7)
- looks at bible story of Genesis 2 where peopled garden = substituted for natural garden
o human’s self-discovery reflects desire to look at interhuman aspect of experience
o it was in discovering humanity through Eve that Adam was able to hear and respond to God
o ‘in order to intuit the world and to have religion, man must first have found humanity, and he finds it only in love and through love’ (38)
o must repair the world and fill it with love in order for religion to be enjoyed and rediscovered
o they had to discover humanity in order to come to God – suggests importance of human history. God becomes a type of religious intuition
14
Q
13 - people try and improve the world but fail to recognise individuality
A
- you are displeased by looking at the individual since not every individual conforms with your expectations and desires – reality is that individuals are varied and complex
- solution = ‘act on the individuals, but with your contemplation rise higher on the wings of religion to an infinite, undivided humanity’ (38)
- there would be no point to having identical individuals. Everything is unique
- The flaw is in seeing the world too individually – need to realise that we form part of a whole. It is important to recognise harmony in the world in order to perceive divine signs
15
Q
14 - human experience as a journey
A
- ‘you must intuit humanity not only in its being but also in its becoming; it too has a larger course that it does not retrace but on which it progresses’ (41)
- religion limits itself to let this process happen
- ‘history, in the most proper sense, is the highest object of religion. It begins and ends with religion – for in religion’s eyes prophecy is also history’ (42)
- within history are the highest intuitions of religion
- link to idea of human growth necessary to seek knowledge of the divine
o Link to later ‘Christian Faith’, where he mentions teleology of religion - But…
o He emphasises human experience yet does not explain how to know if it is valid
o Feeling = universal but not universally efficacious, not all people can attend to it
