The Measure of Things Humanism, Humility, and Mystery

by Cooper, David E.

• ISBN13: 9780199235988
• ISBN10: 0199235988
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Philosophers, both western and eastern, have long been divided between 'humanists', for whom 'man is the measure of things', and their opponents, who claim that there is a way, in principle knowable and describable, that the world anyway is, independent of human perspectives and interests. The early chapters of The Measure of Things chart the development of humanism from medieval times, through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, to its most sophisticated, twentieth-century form, 'existential humanism'. Cooper does not identify this final position with that of anyparticular philosopher, though it is closely related to those of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and the later Wittgenstein. Among the earlier figures discussed are William of Ockham, Kant, Herder, Nietzsche and William James.Having rejected attempts by contemporary advocates of modest or non-metaphysical realism to dissolve the opposition between humanism and its 'absolutist' rival, Cooper moves on to an adjudication of that rivality. Prompted by the pervasive rhetoric of hubris that the rivals direct against oneanother, he argues, in an original manner, that the rival positions are indeed guilty of lack of humility. Absolutists - whether defenders of 'The Given' or scientific realists - exaggerate our capacity to ascend out of our 'engaged' perspectives to an objective account of the world. Humanists,conversely, exaggerate our capacity to live without a sense of our subjection to a measure independent of our own perspectives.The only escape, Cooper maintains, from the impasse reached when humanism and absolutism are both rejected, lies in a doctrine of mystery. There is a reality independent of 'the human contribution', but it is necessarily ineffable. Drawing in a novel way upon the Buddhist conception of 'emptiness'and Heidegger's later writings, the final chapters defend the notion of mystery, distinguish the doctrine advanced from that of transcendental idealism, and propose that it is only through appreciation of mystery that measure and warrant may be provided for our beliefs and conduct.

Author Biography

David E. Cooper is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Durham

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
A Human World?	p. 1
'Humility' and 'Vital' Matters	p. 10
Preview	p. 17
'Self-Assertion': From 'Ockhamism' to Renaissance Humanism	p. 21
History and Humanism	p. 21
'Ockhamism'	p. 24
'Self-Assertion'	p. 32
Renaissance Humanism	p. 40
Reason and Agency: Enlightenment, Kant, and Romanticism	p. 51
'Self-Assertion' in Abeyance	p. 51
Enlightenment	p. 58
Humanism Revived?	p. 64
Agency Restored	p. 71
Prometheanism: Marx, Nietzsche, Pragmatism, and 'Reactionary Modernism'	p. 78
Production and Power	p. 78
Life, Power, and Meaning	p. 88
Existential Humanism	p. 99
Prometheanism, Naturalism, and Humanism	p. 99
The Language Analogy	p. 106
Meaning and Practice	p. 111
A 'Realist' Alternative?	p. 119
Concepts, World, and Life	p. 128
Interlude: Rival Humanisms	p. 113
Humility	p. 144
Authenticity and 'Dis-incumbence'	p. 144
Hubris: Charge and Countercharge	p. 153
Two Modes of Humility	p. 161
Diagnosing the Charges	p. 168
The Hubris of Absolutism	p. 173
Ascent and Descent	p. 173
'The Myth of the Given'	p. 177
Science and Society	p. 186
Scientific Realism and Humility	p. 193
'Atypical' Absolutism	p. 202
The Hubris of Humanism (1)	p. 210
Truth and Objectivity	p. 210
'Dis-incumbence': Some Rival Approaches	p. 220
Philosophical Moods	p. 231
The Hubris of Humanism (2)	p. 238
Dis-incumbence and 'Compensation': Three Experiences	p. 238
Answerability	p. 252
Measure and Purpose	p. 260
Beyond the Human	p. 266
Mystery	p. 277
Impasse?	p. 277
Impugning Mystery	p. 281
Ineffability and Mystery	p. 286
Emptiness	p. 296
'The World is Empty'	p. 296
Problems of Interpretation	p. 303
Metaphors of Emptiness	p. 308
Doctrines of Mystery: Desiderata and a Failed Attempt	p. 315
Transparency, Grace, and Epiphany	p. 321
Mystery, Measure, and Humility	p. 332
The Issue of Measure	p. 332
Disconsonant Conceptions (1): Confrontation and Degradation	p. 337
Disconsonant Conceptions (2): Occlusion	p. 339
Consonance and Comportment	p. 352
Humilities	p. 360
Index	p. 365
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