WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

BY

THE

SAME AUTHOR

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WHAT rs

Philosophy?

DIETRICH

von

HILDEB RAND

FRANCISCAN HERALD PRESS

1434 WEST 51st STREET

CHICAGO, 60609

NIHIL OBSTAT:

JoHN A. ScHULIEN, S.T D.

.

Censor librorum

IMPRIMATUR:

+ WILLIAM

E. CousiNs
Archbishop of Milwaukee
Ma rch 20, 1960

CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA:

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-12647

Von Hildebrand, Dietrich, 1889What is philosophy?

Reprint of the 1960 ed. published by Bruce Pub. Co.,
Milwaukee, in series: Impact books.
1. Philosophy-Introductions. I. Title.
73-9988
100
[BD21.V6 1973]
ISBN 0-8199-0467-8

1973 FRANCISCAN HERALD PRESS,

1434 WEST FIFTY-FIRST STREET,

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60609.
MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank wholeheartedly my dear friend and colleague,

Dr. William Marra, Professor of Philosophy at the Fordham
School of Education, for making this publication possible. With
great care and painstaking efforts, he translated a former episte
mological work of mine, written in German and published by
Hanstein, Bonn. Several chapters of this translation were incor
porated in this book, although in a modified form. He also was
very helpful in the elaboration of the new chapters, and more
over, corrected them from a linguistic point of view. I am very
indebted to this outstandingly gifted philosopher, who, I am
proud to say, was once my student.
It is difficult to formulate what I owe to another colleague,
Dr. Alice M. Jourdain of Hunter College, who was for many
years my collaborator in the writing of my books, and who is
today my wife. I dare say there is not one problem dealt with
in this book which I have not discussed with her, and in the
clarification of which she did not have a great share.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction .

1
11

Introductory Remarks

I.

13

Knowledge in General

I. Knowledge as a primary datum. 2. The specific

features of taking cognizance of something.

II.
III.

Basic Forms of Knowledge

26

The Nature of Philosophical Knowledge

in Contrast to Prescientific Knowledge .

38

I. Naive prescientific knowledge. 2. Theoretical

prescientific knowledge.

IV.

The Object of Philosophical Knowledge

63

I. The characteristics of apriori knowledge. 2. The

many meanings of the concepts: apriori and ex

perience. 3. Genuine essences are capable of being grasped intuitively. 4. Epistemological char
acteristics of genuine essences which can be
grasped intuitively. 5. The object of philosophy.

V.
VI.

Objectivity and Independence

152

The Two Basic Themes of Knowledge

172

vii

viii

CONTENTS

VII.

Distinguishing Mark of Philosophical

Knowledge and Inquiry

185

1. The dominant themes of philosophic inquiry.

2. The depth dimension and depragmatization of
the philosophical knowledge of essences. 3. The

positive relation of philosoph

knowledge. 4. The method o
Phenomenology.

VIII.
Index

and scientific
philosophy. 5.

The Meaning of Philosophy for Man

227
239

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

INTRODUCTION

If we consider the philosophy generally predominant in the

universities of today, we are struck by the miserable role that
many philosophers themselves consign to philosophy.
We are thinking of positivistic and relativistic philosophies
of every kind, logical positivism, empirical sensism, and the like.
We are thinking of all those professors of philosophy who look
upon science as something incomparably superior to philosophy,
who have difficulty in proving that philosophy has a right to
exist, who actually betray the very nature and role of philosophy.
Reduced to its essentials, the philosophical creed of such
men, logical positivists and semanticists, for example, actually
amounts to a denial of philosophy. Sometimes this denial con
sists in restricing philosophy to the role of a mere handmaid
to the sciences. Sometimes it involves the dissolution of phi
losophy, and the handing over of its objects to science. Thus
ethics is often made an anthropological or sociological topic, or
even a field for psychoanalysis. Epistemology and aesthetics are
interpreted as parts of experimental psychology. And, as a matter
of course, metaphysics is denied absolutely.
The striking feature about the men who thrive in this phil
osophical climate, when compared with the relativists and
skeptics of former days, is their attitude toward science. The
skepticism of the Greek Sophists extended consistently to all
knowledge, philosophical as well as scientific (insofar as we
can speak of scientific knowledge as distinct from philosophical
knowledge in the fifth century B.C. ) . When the Sophists denied
objective truth, they gave to philosophy a decisive and supreme
1

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

role. It was philosophy which gave the verdict about all kinds
of knowledge; their philosophy, negative though its content may
have been, claimed to be queen in the sphere of knowledge.
If we examine the relativistic or skeptical philosophies in
former times, we find that they did not refuse to grant phi
losophy an important role. They showed no tendency to favor
science at the expense of philosophy. Even Hume's skepticism
was directed just as much against science as it was against
philosophy.
Today, on the contrary, there is a boundless respect for,
and an unwavering faith in, science exhibited by the very
philosophers who deny objective truth and profess, as phi
losophers, complete relativism and subjectivism. Unlike the
skeptics of older times, they have an inferiority complex with
respect to the role and importance of philosophy. Yet strangely,
this does not hinder them from manifesting an arrogant, snob
bish attitude toward all the actual topics of philosophy, toward
all metaphysical realities, toward morality, and toward religion.
But at the same time they look upon science as something
incomparably superior, as something which is not at all affected
by the denial of objective truth which they profess. What are
the reasons for this surprising attitude?
First, we must realize that these men, although they call
themselves philosophers and are recognized as such by their
contemporaries, have abandoned the very method of philo
sophical research. As a matter of fact, positivism in its various
guises is not a wrong philosophy for the simple reason that it
is not a philosophy at all. Positivism borrows the methods of
certain sciences to deal with philosophical topics. Methods and
approaches which are legitimate, and even the only adequate
ones in certain sciences, are applied to the exploration of phil
osophical topics, for which they are absolutely inept.
There are many wrong philosophies, for example, subjective
idealism, or solipsistic psychologism, that can still claim the

INTRODUCTION

name of philosophy, however erroneous, for despite their errors

they are nevertheless the result of philosophical speculation,
construction, and argumentation. The characteristic feature of
positivism, however, is that it attempts to deal with philosophi
cal topics in a radically unphilosophical manner. It approaches
the data of morality, beauty in art and nature, the spiritual life
of the human person, free will, love, and knowledge in a way
which bars any contact with these data from the start and
necessarily leads to overlooking them and replacing them by
something else.
We must realize that all beings are not on one level, that
one kind of object can differ from another to a tremendous
degree, and that completely different intellectual "organs," each
suited to the kind of object in question, must be called into
play if we are to grasp the existence and nature of the many
and varied beings given in experience.
Certain facts and data are readily accessible and may be
grasped by anyone if only he is not absent-minded or slipshod
in his approach. Thus, we may confidently expect that any nor
mal person can give us a correct account about the number
of persons in a room. We may likewise expect that a man will
be able to give us a correct answer about the result of a chemical
experiment if he has learned how to perform it.
But obviously we cannot expect a person to be able to in
form us in the same way about the difference between purity
and the absence of sexual instincts, or between the experiences
of a moral prohibition and a psychological inhibition, or be
tween something merely sad and something tragic. It would
be foolish to expect a true answer, an answer which corresponds
to reality, from a person who is simply attentive and reliable.
Such qualifications are not sufficient here. The person in ques
tion must actualize other intellectual "organs" in order to grasp
the objects about which we inquire. He must, moreover, have
the intellectual courage to stick, in his answer, to what he grasps.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

and he must have the philosophical talent to express and formu

late his discovery adequately.
In order to count the number of red and white corpuscles on
a slide, a man need only look through a microscope and count
accurately. To describe a tissue under a microscope or to per
form a chemical experiment is likewise within the capabilities
of an orderly, attentive person - he can just go ahead. No
special intuition, no specific understanding is required, and still
less a philosophical prise de conscience.
If we expect the difference between a moral prohibition and
a psychological inhibition to reveal itself in the same way as
the number of red corpuscles on a slide, or the number of per
sons in a room, we shall never discover this difference. We have
to realize that a great part of reality, and certainly not the least
important part, is open to us only in a way completely different
from that in which objects such as the number of corpuscles and
the design of a tissue are accessible. To grasp these other reali
ties, to state truths about their existence and nature, we must
actualize, as it were, another intellectual key.
Ernst Mach made a humorous sketch of himself in search
of the "ego." He claimed that after observing without prejudice
everything about himself that was manifest to himself, he could
not find the "ego" but could find only his body. This is symbolic
of the approach to philosophical matters taken by the positivists.
The positivist considers as reliable, serious, and systematic
only that knowledge which has the character of blunt observa
tion. Not only does he identify systematic and critical knowl
edge with scientific knowledge, but he even uses only one part
of scientific knowledge, namely, pure empirical observation,
seeing in this the pattern of knowledge as such. Many things
which, in his nai:ve approach to being, in his existential experi
ence, are the most immediately and undoubtedly given, are
excluded as merely subjective aspects, as illusions, as soon as
the positivist places them under the "microscope" of a so-called

INTRODUCTION

sober, realistic, serious intellectual analysis. Granted his approach

to philosophy, the positivist's exclusion of these realities is un
derstandable. Yet we must realize that this intellectual analysis,
arrogating to itself the name of philosophy, is in reality a bad
copy of certain methods essential to science and implies an
approach which forces us to look in a direction where these
elementary data will never be found. From the very beginning
this approach restricts the given as such to a specific type of
accessibility. It erects an arbitrary frame and summarily denies
the existence of everything not found within this frame.
The positivist confuses this type of accessibility, this form
of tangible verification, with evidence. He overlooks the fact
that something may be unequivocally given, that it may be
a continuously presupposed fact, and that, nevertheless, it may
not be possible to subject it to this tangible type of verification.
The intrinsic evidence of certain principles, of the existence
of moral values, of the difference between an inferiority com
plex and humility, of the difference between mind and brain,
is in no way altered by the fact that all these realities cannot
be recognized by mere, blunt observation, but have to be "under
stood." They presuppose the actualization of another intellectual
"organ" than do the things which can be verified by blunt,
tangible observation.
Philosophy essentially and necessarily implies the actualiza
tion of this higher spiritual "organ," and the realities which
are the very topic of philosophy can only be verified in a
way which, far from being inferior to the tangible, incomparably
surpasses it in its certitude and evidence.
Hand in hand with this unphilosophical or antiphilosophical
way of research and knowledge goes the reduction of one thing
to another, which I mentioned in the Prolegomena of my
Ethics.1 The "nothing else but" formula, which may be legiti1 Cf.

pp.

Dietrich von Hildebrand, Christian Ethics (New York: McKay, 1954),

6, 7 ff.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

mate and adequate in science, is meaningless nonsense when

applied to the inteiiigible data which are the special domain
of philosophy. The main characteristic of positivism, which is
not so much a philosophy as a pseudo philosophy, is the ap
plication of the "nothing else but" formula to all those data
which form the classical topics of philosophy. It thereby reduces
them to beings which are of concern to the sciences.
That certain self-styled philosophers make philosophy an in
tellectual outcast is partly explained, therefore, by their aban
doning the truly philosophical approach in favor of an empirical
method of blunt observation. But there is a second reason why
these men look upon philosophy as a pariah that must beg
crumbs from the table of science. Most of them are very poorly
gifted as philosophers. They lack the talents and gifts indis
pensable for a true philosopher. This does not mean that they
lack intelligence. On the contrary, some of them, especially
logicians and semanticists, possess a very refined type of formal
intelligence. They have a mental sharpness and agility akin to
that required of mathematicians. But they are wanting com
pletely in specifically philosophical powers. As Maritain once
very rightly said, the main difference between one philosophy
and another seems to hinge on this, namely, whether the par
ticular thinker sees certain things or does not see them.
To discover in a philosophical prise de conscience those data
which are not accessible to blunt observation, though they are
most certainly immediately given, to delve into the mysteries
of being, to have the courage to cling steadfastly to the data
reached in a prephilosophical experience, and to penetrate these
data and do justice to their nature - these are the specifically
philosophical gifts. In vain shall we look for this gift in the
average professor of philosophy today.
Yet in facing the contemporary intellectual situation, we are
confronted with a paradox. On the one hand, philosophy is
discredited by reason of the poor and lowly place which the

INTRODUCTION

average philosopher bashfully grants it. On the other hand,

there lives in the soul of modern man a passionate thirst for
the true answers to real philosophical problems.
Positivistic, relativistic, and nominalistic pseudo philosophy
gains more and more influence as an official philosophy in
colleges, implanting an attitude of excessive awe toward science
in the mind of the average man. Paradoxically, an increasing
unrest and longing for true philosophy is engendered by the
fact that this "philosophy" simply ignores all the vital prob
lems of man, his life as a personal being, his happiness, his
destiny. It is engendered by the unrealistic, nonexistential, and
insipid character of this "antiphilosophical" philosophy.
This pseudo philosophy, in which science takes the place of
metaphysics and religion, more and more corrodes the life of
man, making him more and more blind to the real cosmos,
in all its plenitude, depth, and mystery. It imprisons man in
a universe deprived of its true light, of the features which give
meaning to everything, such as good and evil, true and false,
right and wrong; it locks him in a universe which is dehuman
ized, reduced to a "laboratory," stripped of all color, a universe
in which all the great and fundamental realities of a personal
human life are ignored, ousted, or denied. Today we are wit
nessing an inner revolt against the deformation expressed in
this pseudo philosophy, a revolt which dramatically manifests
itself.
The great number of suicides, greater than in any previous
period of history, the great number of mental diseases, the
frightening increase of juvenile delinquency, all eloquently
disclose the inner revolt against positivism, with all its meta
physical boredom and suffocating dullness. Never was the need
for a true philosophy more urgent; and by "true" is meant:
first, a genuine philosophy instead of a philosophy which has
abandoned the very character of philosophical knowledge, and,
second, a philosophy which does justice to reality in its con-

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

tent. Never was philosophy more of an existential vital need,

because never before has the nai:ve approach of man to being
been so corroded by a pseudo philosophy which makes a fetish
of science.
Whatever may have been the philosophy of an earlier day
and its conception of love, for example, never before have men
in their life denied the reality of love between man and woman,
never have the poets ceased to sing about it and praise it. It
is only now that theories reducing love to a sublimated sex in
stinct are beginning to corrode the living approach to love. Not
only love, but truth; not only truth, but beauty, art, authority,
and happiness - all have begun to wither, thanks to the corrod
ing influence of theories which confuse them with other things
or which deny them outright because they are not accessible
to blunt observation and "empirical verification by a community
of neutral observers."
We do not claim, however, that there are lacking today
philosophers in the true and full sense. In the recent past,
thinkers like Bergson, Husserl, Scheler, and Blondel have elo
quently and magnificently demonstrated that the stream of
true philosophy has not run dry. This stream, which runs deeply
through all centuries, appears again in these men. Again, even
if we take no account of the representatives of a Christian phi
losophy and of all those in whom lives the spirit of the phi
losophia perennis, if we prescind from those who constantly
deal with classical problems and enrich the philosophical con
quest of being with rich and valuable insights (we are thinking
of a Marcel ) , we find that those contemporary thinkers who
deal with philosophical topics in a philosophical way merit the
title of philosophers. For instance, Heidegger's works, whatever
be the merit of their content, display a real philosophical
method. They have absolutely no bashfulness about the role
of philosophy in its relation to science. Philosophy holds its
sovereign place and dares to deal with fundamental philosophi-

INTRODUCTION

cal and metaphysical problems. Above all, they fully emphasize

the vitality and dominance of philosophical problems for man.
This book is dedicated to a rehabilitation of philosophy. It
aims to elaborate upon the true nature of philosophical knowl
edge, the true topic of philosophy, its epistemological dignity
and its existential vitality. We also hope that it may become
an efficient weapon in razing the fortress of those who make
a fetish of science, and serve to reopen the gates to the authentic
universe, to the cosmos in all its height, breadth, and depth.
This book will seek to expound the classical role of philosophy
in man's life. The author fully realizes the opposition this book
will encounter. He foresees the ironic smiles on the faces of
many positivists, who will consider this work an expression of
an obsolete reactionary mentality. He expects to be condemned
by those who worship science, who will consider this book as
superannuated, naive, and unscientific.
With this book, I consciously and gladly throw the glove
into the arena. I am fully aware of the insufficiency of my
contributions in comparison with the depth and grandeur of
my topic, and I am under no illusion that this book can do
full justice to the enormous task it undertakes. I am, however,
unshakably convinced of the imperative necessity of fulfilling
a great and timely task by rehabilitating philosophy and declaring
war on positivism and relativism.
It would be a complete misunderstanding to see in this book
any revolt against science as such, or any lack of respect and
full appreciation for its enormous and admirable achievements
in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. No. War is not to
be waged against science. That would be a ridiculous and futile
enterprise. But it is to be waged against those who look upon
science as some sort of a magical charm and attempt to deal
with topics of philosophy in the same way as they proceed
legitimately in science. War is to be waged against replacing,
by a pseudo scientific method, the authentic philosophical analy-

10

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

sis of those topics which are accessible only to the "philosophi

cal organ." We say pseudoscientific, because the same method
which is adequate in the framework of scientific research
is inept and useless when applied to topics which are by their
very nature inaccessible to this method.
Certainly, to convert a champion of positivism or relativism
or logicism, more is needed than strict arguments and convinc
ing proofs. From the start he places himself outside the range
of this discussion. His blindness to reality will blind him also
to the objective validity of our arguments and unambiguous
elaborations.
But all those who, although nourished by these pseudo phi
losophies and perhaps infected by them, have nonetheless pre
served their "anima naturaiiter phiiosophica," who still long
for answers which only true philosophy can give, may find in
this book deliverance from the prejudices of philosophical rela
tivism combined with the fetishism of science.
Militant as this introduction is, we must emphasize, however,
that the main character of this book is neither apologetic nor
polemical. The rehabilitation of philosophy will be accomplished
by a thoroughly objective, sober analysis of the true nature of
philosophy and by an elaboration of the true character of apriori
knowledge, or, as we prefer to say, of the veritates aeternae
the eternal truths.
This book is not concerned with polemics and with refuting
the errors of fashionable pseudo philosophy. Purely positive in
sights concerning the nature of philosophical knowledge and
the topic of philosophy will unmask the betrayers of philosophy.
The main contents of this book are purely positive, and the
author hopes above all that he has contributed new insights
in the field of the theory of knowledge which have value and
importance even when considered apart from the present philo
sophical situation, with its discrediting of philosophy and its
need for the rehabilitation of philosophy.
-

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

There are attitudes in man which disclose quite clearly the

character of his earthly situation as being a status viae. Such
are questioning, longing, and hope. They are not confined
simply to this status viae as are weariness and illness, among
others, in the vital sphere. On the one hand, they show us that
man is a being ordered toward eternity and that his life tran
scends mere animal existence; on the other hand, they manifest
the unfulfillment and incompleteness of his earthly situation.
They simultaneously demonstrate both the finitude of man's
existence and his relation to the infinite. Man in statu viae,
in this earthly journey of existence, is a questioner. This basic,
classical role of questioning, as a component of earthly existence
and the transcendent character of man, reveals itself above all
in the fundamental questions concerning the meaning of the
world, the meaning of life, the destiny of man, and especially
concerning the ultimate root of being, i.e., the absolute ques
tions which live in the heart of every man - however deeply
they may be buried, however much man tries intentionally to
put them out of his way.
The basic questions of every man are thus religious and
philosophical. A philosophical question is not the idle concern
of a sophisticated mind, nor does it possess only a specialized
interest for an academic mind. On the contrary, it is a funda
mental component of the human mind.
We intend to investigate the meaning and nature of philo
sophical inquiry.
11

12

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The meaning and nature of a certain type of questioning

is determined by the very object about which one inquires and,
again, by the kind of knowledge one wants to obtain. An in
vestigation which would treat of the nature of philosophical
inquiry must include, therefore, an analysis of the nature of
the philosophical way of taking cognizance of something, of
the kind of knowledge desired in philosophy, and of the ob
jects of philosophy. Ultimately, philosophical inquiry makes
sense if there is a kind of knowledge which is able to fulfill
this inquiry, i.e., to answer it. If such knowledge is nonexistent,
then philosophical inquiry is meaningless. The main clarifica
tions of the nature of philosophical inquiry will ensue as soon
as we grasp the nature and meaning of taking philosophical
cognizance of something as well as of the object of philosophy.
This being so, not only must we begin the investigation with
an analysis of taking philosophical cognizance of something in
its essential relation and contradistinction to prescientific, extra
scientific, and scientific knowledge, but we also must give it
the broadest position in our discussion because it is most basic.
In such a way we shall advance step by step to the understanding
of the meaning of philosophical questioning itself.

CHAPTER

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

1. Knowledge as a primary datum

The act of knowledge is an ultimate datum which cannot
be reduced to anything else. Therefore, we cannot "define" it;
we can only point to it indirectly. The true nature of knowl
edge can be grasped only in itself and not through anything
else. In order to fix our spiritual eye unequivocally on this
datum we must distinguish the act of knowledge itself from
all neighboring data, such as judging and being convinced.
To deepen our grasp of the nature of knowledge, and to see it
in greater clearness, we must, furthermore, endeavor to behold
its characteristic features. We must, however, avoid the error
of thinking that the apprehension of the special features and
properties of knowledge can replace the direct grasp of the
datum itself. On the contrary, these features can be understood
only on the basis of a living, intuitive contact with the act of
knowledge.
If we consider the human person, we are struck by the funda
mental role that knowledge plays in his life. The unique
capacity for the individual person to partake in the existence
of the entire remainder of the world, which knowledge in all
its forms represents, from a simple perception right up to an
insight into a state of facts, is the basis of our whole spiritual
life. All our willings and strivings, our loves and hates, our
joys and sorrows presuppose knowledge. They presuppose a con13

14

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

sciousness of the object of willing, striving, loving, a knowledge

of it, an understanding grasp of it. Causality links us, as it
does nonpersonal beings such as a stone, a plant, an animal,
to the total world which surrounds us, beginning with the
physical, spatial, colored, sounding world, full of material things
and events, and going on all the way to the people about us.
But in addition we are linked to these in the entirely unique
way of a spiritual grasping of the world, an intentional par
ticipation in it, a spiritual comprehension of it; and this is
knowledge. If we can say that the being of a person cannot be
thought of without including his capacity for knowledge, so,
too, must we say that knowledge cannot be conceived without
including the spiritual person, a conscious being, who has an
intentional structure and a capacity for transcending the limited
sphere of the self. Knowledge is a wholly unique contact in
which one being touches another and possesses the other in an
immaterial manner. This cannot possibly be similar to a merely
causal contact between different objects of any kind. Rather, it
essentially presupposes that one being is a personal subject, a
conscious being.
Knowledge, moreover, is a one-sided contact in which the
object is grasped by the subject, that is to say, a contact which
implies a change only in the subject knowing and not at all
in the object known. But this change in the subject must not
be interpreted to mean that the known object becomes part
of our personal being. Just as the object is not changed in its
own objective being when it is known, so it does not become,
when we know it, a real part of our personal being. Certainly,
knowledge represents a participation of the subject in the object
which is known. When we see the color orange, we truly par
take of orange in a unique way. We possess it spiritually insofar
as we have a consciousness of it. But this intentional contact
must be fully distinguished from a real, physical participation
in the being of the object. We do not "become" orange when

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

15

we see it. The partaking o f our minds i n the being o f the

object which is known is neither the transformation of our
being into that of the object nor a real incorporation of the
known object into our personal being.
When we rejoice we really live this joy; the joy is a real
constituent part of us : we are joyful. Likewise the act of gain
ing knowledge of something is a real constituent part of us,
an act of our person. In such a case, we are perceivers. But the
object which we grasp in the act of gaining knowledge, simply
because we are grasping it, in no way becomes a real part of
our personal being. We remain really and fully distinct from
it, although we "penetrate" it in a very marked way and the
object is -in some way - "incorporated" in us. We embrace
it, as it were, spiritually from above.
The overlooking of this basic fact has been the central error
of the various forms of psychologism. It comes about through
the equivocal use of the notion "content-of-consciousness." It
must certainly be evident that we are concerned with two
wholly different things, when ( 1 ) we have a consciousness of
an object and, when ( 2) something is itself a conscious being,
such as an act which we accomplish, for example, the act itself
of taking cognizance of something.
2.

The specific features of taking cognizance of something

From the start we must understand that taking cognizance in

the widest sense is a unique contact with an object, a contact
which only a spiritual person can accomplish and which is dif
ferent from every real "becoming" on the part of the subject.
Taking cognizance of something is essentially a "receiving."
Every theory of knowledge which sees it as a spiritual "pro
ducing" of something misunderstands taking cognizance of
something in its most essential nature. It belongs to the very
meaning of taking cognizance that an object, such as it really is,
is grasped by the person, becomes understood and known, that

16

WHAT I S PHILOSOPHY?

the object discloses itself and unfolds before our spiritual eyes.
The idealistic interpretation of taking cognizance of some
thing as a spiritual building up out of an amorphous stuff and
as a creation of the object of knowing is, therefore, equivalent
to denying knowledge. Moreover, the misunderstanding of this
basic meaning of taking cognizance of something necessarily
travels in a vicious circle. Let us see why this is true. Transcen
dental idealism interprets taking cognizance of something as a
construction of the object and thereby denies that we are able
to grasp a real object such as it is. Yet it claims that philosophy
describes the real nature of knowledge. It is perfectly clear that
transcendental idealism does not consider its own interpretation
of knowledge as a mere construction and that it claims it to be
the disclosure of the authentic nature of knowledge. With this
claim it tacitly presupposes and silently reintroduces the real
nature and true notion of taking cognizance, namely, the grasp
ing of an object such as it is, and not the constructing of an
object. This intrinsic contradiction in transcendental idealism
is, however, inevitable. For the genuine datum of knowledge and
taking cognizance of something is so elementary that every
attempt to deny it or to interpret it as something else necessarily
leads to a vicious circle. Taking cognizance, as the genuine
receiving and grasping of a being as it is, is really so elementary
and inevitable a fact that it silently comes back into the picture
and regains its rightful place even when a person tries to explain
it away as something else.
Idealism declares that what presents itself to our naive under
standing as knowledge is in reality something completely differ
ent. The failure to distinguish between taking cognizance of
something and the other different theoretical acts, such as
judging and the like, has furthered this principal misunder
standing of the nature of knowledge. For such acts, in contrast
to taking cognizance of something, present us with an out
spokenly active character. By showing the different character of

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

17

the theoretical acts we can expose the nature of knowledge

more sharply and clearly.
Consider an objective body of knowledge, represented, for
example, by a science such as botany. All the statements which
it has so far made about the known plant world are the result
of a specific spiritual act, namely, assertion. An assertion is a
very special kind of act in which, through the medium of a
proposition, we claim that a state of facts exists. It bears an
outspokenly active character and not only a spontaneous one.
Its objects are actual states of facts. We cannot affirm a person,
the color red, a statue, a value, and so forth, but only a state of
facts, a "how-it-is," or a "that-it-is." Hence, we can affirm only
that something exists or is formed in such and such a way. In the
assertion, the state of facts is not given to us. Rather, we our
selves point meaningfully to the fact through the medium of
concepts and words. We cannot affirm a state of facts to be so
without simultaneously formulating a sentence and thereby
positing a unique spiritual entity, the proposition, to which
truth and falsity are primarily attributed. Here we in no way
reach knowledge. Instead, we objectify knowledge which we
already possess.
Affirmation or assertion, which Adolf Reinach in a masterful
way distinguishes from conviction, is the real judgment in the
full, strict sense of the word. Only in the realm of affirmation
do we encounter the peculiar objective entity- the proposition.1
The affirmation, or judgment in the strict sense, forms in a
certain way the classical end point and conclusion in the entire
process of knowledge, an end point, however, which does not
belong to the act of knowledge itself but which rather consti
tutes a new entity beyond it. In affirmation, one fundamental
"intention," immanent to a specific and thematic knowledge,
1 The proposition must be sharply distinguished both from the act of affirming
or judging, and from the state of facts to which we refer in our affirmation. It is
of the proposition that we predicate truth or falsity, depending on whether or
not it corresponds to the state of facts in question.

18

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

finds fulfillment, namely, the "intention" to objectify the truth

grasped, to make it a public affair, to fix it for other persons.
Affirmation belongs to spiritual "acts" in the strict sense. These
include questioning, promising, communicating, commanding,
etc., all of which must be completely distinguished from
responses and, even more, from every form of taking cog
nizance of something.
Taking cognizance, even in its broadest sense, must be dis
tinguished from the judgment. They differ in the following
respects:
1. In every act of taking cognizance, be it a simple percep
tion of red or an insight into a state of facts, an object discloses
itself to me, I receive a knowledge of it. The intention goes, as
it were, from the object to me: I listen. With the judgment, on
the other hand, no object is given to me; but I proclaim, so
to speak, that a certain state of facts exists - that it is so. The
intention clearly goes from me to the object. I speak and the
knowledge of the existence of the "how-it-is" is presupposed.
2. The object of taking cognizance in the widest sense can
be contents of all kinds, things as well as states of facts, qualities
as well as events, spiritual persons as well as values. The object
of judgments, on the contrary, can only be the "how-it-is," the
state of facts.
The basic difference between the judgment and the act of
taking cognizance of something remains the same even though
both are closely knit together psychologically. Often taking
cognizance of something is directly succeeded by a judgment.
The various types of personal acts take place in a psychologically
narrow neighborhood and so closely together in time that one
is at first disposed and tempted to treat them as a single whole.
Thus, for example, the conclusion which so rapidly appears in
connection with some perceptions without any further thought
on our part. For example, we hear the doorbell ring at a certain
time and we conclude that the mail has arrived. Although an

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

19

authentic conclusion is here present, which represents a differ

ent kind of act, in contrast to the perception of the sound,
it takes place so quickly and so readily joins itself to everything
else without a new start or beginning, that one is tempted to
take these two very different experiences for a single whole.
The inner meaningful conjunction of these two experiences,
however, does not take away their essential difference. From
the inte11igence that my friend is coming, the response of joy
not only presents itself directly and readily, but it is also pro
foundly and meaningfu11y linked to this intelligence. The
consciousness of my friend's coming is the necessary presuppo
sition of my joy, which builds itself organica11y and meaning
fu11y upon it. But the difference between the knowledge of a
communication on the one hand and the response of joy on
the other is in no way diminished because of this.
Judging and taking cognizance of something, therefore,
remain essentially different things, however closely linked to
gether they are- however much the judging forms the classical
end point of the theme of knowledge.
Taking cognizance of something must also be distinguished
from yet another neighboring datum, namely, the theoretical
response of conviction, which affirmation presupposes. Convic
tion belongs to the responses2 of a person. In conviction the
person gives an "answer," with specific content, to an object.
As we see3 in the case of veneration, esteem, enthusiasm, or
love, the person directs himself with a specific content to an
object, which represents an answer to the value of the object. It
is, as it were, an inner "word" spoken to the object, a word
meaningfully based upon the value of the object. Something
analogous can be found in the case of conviction. Unlike an
affirmation, it is not an act in the strict sense of the word; nor
is it, like taking cognizance of something, a receptive taking in
2

Christian Ethics
a Ibid.

(New York: McKay, 1954), Chap. 17.

20

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

of something. It is rather a typical response. Only it is a theoreti

cal response, like doubt and conjecture, in contrast to the
affective responses, like j oy, sorrow, enthusiasm, indignation,
and love. In this case the answer does not refer to the positive
or negative importance of an object, but rather to its existence.
The inner "yes" of the conviction refers to the existence of a
state of facts.
Conviction as well as affirmation must be sharply dis
tinguished from taking cognizance of something. Conviction
clearly differs from taking cognizance of something in the fol
lowing ways:
1. Conviction possesses a spontaneous character, whereas
taking cognizance of something, in the widest sense, is recep
tive. In the conviction, I speak, as it were, to the object. In
taking cognizance of something, the object speaks to me. In
conviction, the direction of the intention goes from me to the
object. In taking cognizance, it is vice versa.
2. In conviction, an object does not disclose itself to me.
Instead, I take a stand toward the object. Conviction is not a
"having" of the content of an object, but an answer on my
part to the existence of that content. It is not a "consciousness
of" a content on the object side, whereby I am, as it were, void,
but rather the accomplishment of some specific content in me,
with which I give my answer to an existent.
3. The object of conviction can be only a "how-it-is," i.e.,
a state of facts. I cannot be "convinced" of a red color, a per
son, a value, or a material thing. I can only be convinced that
something is, or that a thing is such and not otherwise. Taking
cognizance, in the widest sense, is not restricted merely to the
"how-it-is."
4. To be sure, conviction does not, like affirmation, aim at
the "how-it-is," the state of facts, through the medium of prop
ositions, but rather reaches it immediately. In conviction,
however, we do not "discover" an object as we do in taking

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

21

cognizance of something. Instead, we give our answer to it.

Consequently, conviction already presupposes knowledge of
the "how-it-is."
We can hardly think of a form of taking cognizance of some
thing to which a conviction in the widest sense is not attached,
either with reference to the existence or the character of the
object in question. Nevertheless, taking cognizance of some
thing and conviction are not identical. Indeed, conviction is
necessarily a fruit of taking cognizance, but in its very nature
it is completely different from taking cognizance itself, in
which the "how-it-is" is grasped as existing. Conviction is essen
tially an epiphenomenon. It is therefore secondary with respect
to taking cognizance. In taking cognizance, the object itself
is the guarantee of its existence. It decides, and not I. In con
viction, the decision rests with me, even though it is completely
rooted in the known object and has in no way a voluntary
character, much less a capricious one. Nevertheless, it is always
the accomplishment of my response to the existence of an
object.4
It is a matter of fundamental importance to distinguish
taking cognizance itself from all those spiritual attitudes which,
on the one hand, precede it as a preparation and, on the other,
are organically rooted in it. The failure to distinguish clearly
between taking cognizance of something on the one hand and
conviction, thinking, and judging on the other, has led to a
misunderstanding of the decisive feature of taking cognizance
as being a "receiving." It leads to the fatal idealistic error of
conceiving our knowledge of an object as a kind of "producing."
Yet even in the case of these other intellectual attitudes
there can be no question of any bringing forth of the object.
We need only consider a case in which we really produce a
spiritual reality, in a promise, for example. With a promise we
create an objective liability on our part to fulfill what we have
' Ibid.

22

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

promised, and an objective claim on the part of the other per

son that we fulfill our promise. This unique, objective, legal
entity, liability, which is to be distinguished fully from any
mere "feeling of being liable," is posited in the world through
our act of promising. Whereas previously it did not exist, now
we have brought it into being. In the case of the spontaneous
intellectual acts there can be no question of a similar produc
tion. In conviction, for example, I respond to a "how-it-is,"
but the "howit-is," the state of facts, is neither brought into
being nor changed as a result of my conviction.
On the contrary, it belongs to the very meaning of conviction
that it turns toward a "howitis" which in its existence is com
pletely independent of the accomplishment of my conviction.
With affirmation one can, it is true, speak at first of a "pro
clueing." But here too it is not the content of the object which
is in question, not the known world of beings, but at the most
the formulating and expressing of the proposition. The proposi
tion constitutes itself through the affirmation. It is produced
by it. But here the relation is quite different from that which
exists between a promise and the liability it produces. Only by
way of a broad analogy can we speak of the "production" of
a proposition.
If we have learned to understand taking cognizance of some
thing in the widest sense as that unique spiritual contact with
being whereby the being in its own nature reveals itself to us
and if we have understood taking cognizance to be a tran
scendent contact with being, which represents neither a real
participation in the being of the known object nor any kind of
production or creating, we must now realize a third essential
feature of taking cognizance of something, in the widest sense
of the word. Even though the thoroughly receptive character
is the decisive feature of taking cognizance in the broadest
sense, nevertheless it is not a purely passive affair. Every case
of taking cognizance has also an active component, which we

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

23

can refer to as a spiritual "going with" the object and its nature.
I am thinking here not only of the preparatory acts, like atten
tiveness, that explicit turning of the mind toward the object
which displays itself in so many gradations. This is rather a
presupposition for taking cognizance of something, not an ele
ment of taking cognizance itself. It merely effects a contact
with the object on the part of the knower. If a person sees a
house, another person, or an event, without being attentive
to it, his mind is "absent," and consequently it does not linger
before the seen object. There is no real contact with the
knower's mind. But by the active, spiritual "going with" which
we have in mind here, we mean something which is an element
in the process of taking cognizance itself. It is, as it were, the
intentional echoing of the being of the object, the consumma
tion of the "understanding" of the actual momentary object, the
full, explicit, spiritual reception of the object.
This "going with" that belongs to taking cognizance of some
thing, this spiritual penetration, plays quite different roles in
the perception of the different kinds of objects. The higher and
more complicated the object and the more meaningful it is, the
more prominent becomes this "concerting" with the object
and the more essential is its part in the whole process of taking
cognizance. In the simple perception of a color it has not the
same meaning and depth as in the perception of another person
or even of an essence.
This active component in taking cognizance of something
in no way implies a contradiction to the basically receptive char
acter of knowing. The active component not only does not
cancel the receptive character, it does not even imply a limita
tion of it, for it may not in any sense be understood as any
kind of production of the object of knowledge. This "going
with" is only an active co-operation with the self-disclosure of
the object. It is not a production of the object. Neither is it a
"copy" of the object, not even in the broadest sense in which

24

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

we can call a formulation of a sentence a "copy" of the intended

state of facts. It is, furthermore, a spiritual "infiltration" into
the object, which does not produce a second spiritual object,
but explicitly executes the intentional participation in the
object or the spiritual possession of it.
This "going with" is a typical starting point for the idealistic
misinterpretation of taking cognizance of something as a pro
ducing of the object. Taking cognizance of essences, above all
else, is easily mistaken for a spiritual "creating" of these from
the material of the perceived, concrete object. This mistake is
all the easier in the case of taking cognizance of essences because
the active element in taking cognizance plays a much more
important role here than in taking cognizance of concrete
existents. In truth, however, it is as little a creating of an object
as are the other types of taking cognizance. Here, as anywhere,
it is a receiving of an objective being. This receiving, when
taking cognizance of essences is in question, only requires a
much more active, spiritual "going with" and "concerting"
with the object. The activity in taking cognizance of something
is simply an active accomplishing of the receiving. In no way
does it cancel out the basis of all taking cognizance as consist
ing in a self-revealing of the object.
We may speak in a twofold way, therefore, of the active ele
ments in taking cognizance of something: ( 1 ) with respect to
the preparatory turning of attention toward the object and the
focusing upon it of a gaze corresponding to the depth and
meaningfulness of the object; ( 2) with respect to the spiritual
"going with" of the object. This "going with" is embedded in
taking cognizance itself and is the alert and active taking-in of
the object, which gains in importance with the increasing pro
fundity and meaningfulness of theobject. Neither the activity
which precedes taking cognizance nor the activity involved in
it has the character of creating or producing the object itself
or a new spiritual structure, such as the proposition, which

KNOWLEDGE IN GENERAL

25

might be conceived of as the "copy" of the state of facts. The

element of "going with," embedded in taking cognizance, is an
activity in the passivity, an activity which is indispensable for
full receiving.
To summarize briefly, then, taking cognizance of something
represents first a unique spiritual contact with a being, in which
the being displays itself to us in its specific nature. This tran
scendent spiritual contact represents an intentional participation
in a being which must be sharply distinguished from a real or
physical partaking. It is even more correct to call it a spiritual
possession. St. Augustine calls it "habere quoddarn." Second,
taking cognizance is in no way a production of the object
known, but a receptive grasping of it. It does not even possess
the spontaneity of conviction or, still less, of affirming, for it is
to be distinguished sharply and altogether from the sphere of
judging in the strict sense of the term. Third, the receiving,
in which the object discloses itself, is even then not a purely
passive thing. It contains as such an active component also, the
spiritual "going with" the ratio or essential nature of the
object known.

CHAPTER

II

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

In its widest meaning knowledge includes all those acts

in which directly or indirectly an object is disclosed to us in its
nature and its existence. Obviously knowledge in this broad
sense manifests itself in many different ways, for instance,
in perception, inference, intellectual intuition, and learning
from other persons, through the spoken or written word. In
the previous chapter we used the expression "taking cognizance
of something" as synonymous with "gaining knowledge of some
thing." Here we intend to call attention to a distinction which
will throw more precisely into relief the nature of "taking
cognizance of something," and show how this act differs from
simple "knowing."
When someone tells us of a train accident, we learn some
thing new. Previously we did not know that this accident took
place. Such learning is one of the many forms of taking cog
nizance of something, of appropriating something new to our
mind. It has a dynamic character. It includes a process, becom
ing acquainted with something, a change.
If we then meet a second person who also tells us that this
accident has occurred, we do not acquire any new knowledge,
since we already know the fact he is relating. We will answer,
"Yes, I know it already."
The type of knowledge to which we refer when we say "I
know it," clearly differs from the type of knowledge which forms
26

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

27

the subject of taking cognizance. This knowing, in which, as it

were, we possess the object, has a static, not a dynamic, char
acter. It is not a process of appropriation involving a change,
but a static possession.
This static knowing is the result of learning; learning aims
at the establishment of knowing. Thus we may also reply to a
man who tells us something that we know, "Yes, I have learned
it already." In mentioning that it has been told to us, we imply
that this information succeeded in creating a knowing, and
thus, we can no longer learn it because we know it already.
These two types of knowledge, namely, taking cognizance
and knowing, differ even in a more formal and fundamental
way from each other than perception does from inference.
Yet in distinguishing taking cognizance from knowing, we in
no way mean to deny their essential and most intimate connec
tion. But in themselves they represent not only different stages
of knowledge, but two definitely different acts of knowledge.
The one is the dynamic process of learning, of acquiring knowl
edge; the other, the static possession of the object. This differ
ence pervades the entire sphere of knowledge independently of
the specific nature of taking cognizance. Suppose someone
makes the acquaintance of another person and perceives his
face for the first time. He grasps that be has blue eyes, blond
hair, an aquiline nose, and so on. He learns many things
through perception. Upon seeing him a second time, although
he again perceives all these things, he does not learn them again,
because he already knows them. What happened in perceiving
him for the first time cannot be repeated, provided that he does
not forget that the man has blue eyes, blond hair, and so on.
Learning leads to knowing, but once knowing has been estab
lished, learning in the same respect cannot take place.
Here, as in the case of learning something through other per
sons, the learning, with its dynamic character, clearly differs
from the act of knowing, with its static character.

28

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The same applies if we reach a form of knowing through

deduction or induction. Taking cognizance, or the acquiring
of knowledge - the "learning" - is always definitely an act dif
ferent from the knowing which results from it. Taking cog
nizance and knowing are distinguished by the following marks.
First: taking cognizance has, as we mentioned before, a
dynamic character, whereas knowing is static.
Second : taking cognizance is an appropriation; knowing is a
possession resulting from this appropriation.
Third : taking cognizance takes place in a certain moment
of time, more or less limited, and it belongs to the type of
attitudes which are essentially restricted, in their existence, to
a concrete period of time; knowing, on the other hand, can also
subsist superactually;1 that is, it perdures in us in such a way
that it can be immediately actualized within us.
Once we know something we continue to possess it super
actually even if we are concerned with other things. This rela
tion to the object which is implied in knowing, this spiritual
possession, subsists even when we are focused on other objects.
The conserving power of man's intellect - present in all
knowledge, and indispensable for every case of taking cognizance
of something - as distinguished from the intellect's receptive
and appropriating power, manifests itself in a special way in
the superactual character of knowing.
The superactual existence of knowing discloses itself in the
fact that the static possession, the awareness of the object, can
always be actualized again. Only when the object has been for
gotten does the knowing cease to exist. We shall understand
better this third difference between taking cognizance and know
ing after we make some distinctions in the realm of know
ing itself.
1 In Christian Ethics, Chapter 17, we called attention to the superactual char
acter of many personal attitudes, faith and love, for example, and we noted the
importance of superactual existence for the depth and CO'ltinuity of personal life.

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

29

In the process of inferring, which is itself a form of taking

cognizance, the premises are present to our mind as actualized.
We must actualize our knowledge of the premises in order to
make the inference. But there are many other cases in addition
to inference when our "knowing" is fully actualized. If some
thing preoccupies us, if we always think of an event which has
great importance for us, we have present in our mind something
which is already known and which is now actualized; in other
words, there is a question here of actualized knowing. Yet our
spiritual possession of the object is not restricted to those
moments in which our mind is consciously focused on it.
The things we know in a superactual manner form a con
tinuous basis for all the other things on which we concentrate
at any particular moment. The implicit awareness of the reali
ties we know superactually modifies those varying situations in
which we focus our attention on this or that object.
Knowing implies a relation between us and an object, and
this relation subsists superactually as long as we do not forget
what we know. Many facts constitute the superactual basis of
our life. Thus the Christian, no matter what he may actually
be doing here and now, knows in a superactual way that Christ
was born, that He died on the cross, that He is risen, that He
is divine, and that He redeemed the world.
When we say that we know some facts superactually and
that this superactual knowing subsists along with all other
activities of our mind, we do not merely mean that the knowl
edge of something is, as it were, stored in our mind, and that
we can draw it out of this reservoir of memory, or that it
comes into our mind by some association or by our being
reminded of it by others. By superactual subsistence we mean
that we never lose some kind of implicit awareness of it. It lives
as a basis in our mind in such a way that every concrete actual
moment of our life would be radically changed if we did not
know it.

30

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

This superactual knowing in the strict sense is possible only

with respect to certain kinds of facts and objects.
The fact or object must be of decisive metaphysical impor
tance. It must concern the most existential and fundamental
questions, such as relate to all the basic elements of a Welt
anschauung. Thus it is above all in the sphere of religion
that we encounter superactual knowing.
The fact or object must at least have a high value, and thus
be inserted into the world of goods in which our life displays
itself. Knowledge of the existence and of the personalities of
beloved persons certainly forms a continual existential basis of
our life, even when we are concentrating on completely differ
ent objects. Just as our love subsists superactually, coloring and
forming every situation, so does our "knowing" of the beloved
subsist. Again, we may have superactual knowing of great works
of art, the beauty of which we have fully grasped and which
have become parts of the caeiurn ernpyreum. The same applies
to beautiful countries. In brief, every good endowed with high
values, a good which plays such an existential role in life that
without a knowledge of it our life would be different, is an
object of superactual knowing. Or, to put the matter in other
words, any object is an object of superactual knowing if the
knowledge of it radically affects life.
In an analogous fashion, the great evils connected with man's
situation on earth are objects of superactual knowing.2 We know
superactually that we must die. We know that we are exposed
to all kinds of dangers at every moment. Man's metaphysical
situation, expressed by Pascal when he calls man a "thinking
reed," is an object of superactual knowing. We also are always
2 The superactual knowing of great evils is especially obvious in the case of a
metaphysical pessimist. That this pessimism is at bottom false, since it rests on
a misunderstanding of the sovereign position of values, does not prevent such
knowledge from existing superactually and coloring the entire conscious life of
the pessimist. The reader is referred to Christian Ethics, Chapters 5 and 6, for
our discussion of a metaphysical optimism based on the autonomous character of
all genuine values.

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

31

aware that every beloved person i s surrounded by dangers which

threaten his health, life, and earthly happiness. In short, the
fact that this earth is a valley of tears is superactually known
by man. The same applies to single great evils, which change the
shape of our entire life, such as the death of the person most
beloved.
It would be a great error to believe that the only beings
present to the mind are those actually encountered in that small
section of reality upon which the mind happens to be focused
at the present moment. There is much more than this present
to our minds at any given time. The world which, as it were,
we carry with us, in which we live, the spiritual firmament
under which we move and the sun of which illuminates our
life, forms the implicit background against which the concrete
content of our perceptions, thoughts, and activities appear.
Thus we see that one area of superactual knowing embraces
those goods and evils which play a constitutive role in our lives,
either because of their supreme metaphysical importance or
because of their high value. But there are other goods and evils
which can be the objects of superactual knowing, at least for
a certain period of time, even though they do not play this
constitutive role. I do not simply know the death of a dear
friend and then push this knowledge aside. It lingers in my
superactual consciousness, coloring my thoughts and activities
for weeks, perhaps months. So, too, the expected arrival of a
beloved person superactually preoccupies me although at any
given time I am actually attending to some other object. Again,
I know superactually that a war is going on just as long as
the war lasts.
The realm of the superactual includes, finally, all those facts
which have a structural function in the exterior frame of our
life. Among such facts may be included the country we are in
at a given moment, or, more important, the country in which
we reside, as well as the town in which we live. If we were not

32

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

implicitly aware of these facts, our lives would certainly be

changed. These facts form a background for all the changing
objects of our consciousness.
In contrast to all these beings and facts, there are many things
which cannot be the object of superactual knowing. Thus, our
knowledge of how a substantive is declined in Latin or in
German has not the character of superactual knowing. Knowl
edge of such matters certainly remains a spiritual possession
even when our mind is directed to other things. But it subsists
merely potentially. It does not influence all the actual situations
of our day. It does not form a background for our actual experi
ences. Rather, it is conserved in a reservoir, out of which it may
be drawn. During the times it is not actualized, it is merely at
our disposal so that it can be actualized whenever it becomes,
for one or another reason, thematic. It is evident that the
distinction made here between superactual knowing, on the
one hand, and, on the other, potential knowing, whereby many
facts are kept in the reservoir of our memory, points to a differ
ence not only in the known objects in question but also in the
very nature of the knowing itself.
Thus we see that there are three basic forms in which know
ing can occur: first, in the actual form, when we actualize the
spiritual possession of an object and when the known object
is fully and consciously present to our mind; second, in the
authentic superactual form, when the implicit awareness of
certain facts and objects forms a continuous background for
other experiences; third, in the form of memory, wherein the
knowledge subsists merely potentially.8
We do not, of course, pretend that this brief analysis has
said all there is to be said about the differences in knowing
a We prescind here from the profound difference which Bergson, in his
Matiere et Memoire, has discovered between the technical memory, which deals
with names and words, and intellectual memory, which deals with former experi
ences. Our third form of knowing refers to technical memory. The specific modi
fications of knowing implied in intellectual memory is not our topic here.

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

33

which result from the varying importance of objects - all the

way from the supreme metaphysical importance of certain goods
to the merely technical importance of certain others. Still, we
have said enough to throw the three basic forms of knowledge
into relief. We must now tum to distinctions of another kind
within the sphere of knowing.
For example, there are two basically different types of know
ing which in German are called kennen and wissen.
They are definitely two species of the genus of knowing.
They are both static and both can occur in any of the three
forms of knowing we have discussed thus far. They differ, first
of all, in regard to their object, and, second, in their status as
spiritual possessions of an object. The type of knowing desig
nated by the German term wissen refers exclusively to states of
facts. It is always expressed in sentences such as : "I know that
the moon is round, that Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.c.,
or that 2 plus 2 is 4." Only facts or states of facts ( the reality
to which a proposition refers ) are objects of this type of
knowing.
On the other hand, that type of knowing which is called
kennen in German refers to every type of being that is not a
state of facts. We express this type of knowing when we say,
for example, "I know this melody; I know this person, this
country, this town, this color." In short, kennen refers to any
object whatsoever, substance or accident, everything except
states of facts.
Hereafter we shall use the English term knowing to signify
what the German means by wissen, and the English phrase
having knowledge of to represent the German kennen. We
fully realize, of course, that in ordinary usage these English
expressions in no way clearly indicate the difference in ques
tion. Hence, these terms are introduced artificially as pure
termini technici, because there are no genuine terms in English
to indicate this important difference.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

Knowing in general, as introduced above, that is to say, static

spiritual possession, in contrast to the dynamic taking cog
nizance of something, has thus two subdivisions. The first, in
which the objects of knowing are states of facts, has been
called knowing in a more limited sense. The second, wherein
all types of being which are not states of facts are known,
has been called having knowledge of something.
The difference between knowing and having knowledge of
something is not restricted to the formal and structural differ
ence of their respective objects. Both are characterized by a
different act of knowing. Knowing in the narrower sense has
a more linear character; that is, it is more direct and clear-cut.
If we are asked, "Do you know that a war has broken out?"
or "that a train has been derailed?" or "that the Queen of Siam
had a child?" we answer with a clear "yes" or "no." If now
we are asked whether we have knowledge of a person or of a
work of art, for instance, King Lear or the Fourth Symphony
of Beethoven, we may also answer with a simple, "no," to indi
cate the fact that we are totally unacquainted with the object
in question.
But if we answer a question like this affirmatively, instead
of a simple "yes," we may say, "only superficially," or "to a
certain extent," or "well," or "through and through." In short,
a large scale of a more or less intimate knowledge is possible
here. There are many gradations.
Having knowledge of a person or of a book or of a work of art
can, therefore, be more or less complete. It refers not to the
existence of something, but to its "such-being," in all parts
and elements.
If a primitive stage of having knowledge of something is
reached by taking cognizance of it in a perception, new acts of
taking cognizance of the same object will lead, step by step,
to a more adequate and complete possession of it.

BASIC FORMS OF KN'OWLEDGE

35

Suppose we perceive a house for the first time. We become

acquainted with it and gain a superficial knowledge of it. When
we see it several times more, our knowledge of it is increased
in different directions. For example, we become aware of many
details of its faade, and thereby our knowledge of the house
is increased in the direction of a greater differentiation. When
we also see the back of the house and its interior, our knowledge
of the house is increased in a different direction, that of com
pleteness, for we are now increasing our knowledge of the whole
object by becoming acquainted with all its parts. And when
we grasp more and more the artistic beauty of the house, our
knowledge of it will be increased in the dimension of depth.
We can distinguish different stages of knowledge even with
respect to objects simpler than a house. In the realm of knowl
edge there are degrees of intimacy as well as degrees of under
standing. In the area of knowing in its limited sense, however,
the objects of which are exclusively states of facts, we find no
similar gradations. Yet here we can speak of degrees of certi
tude, whereas we cannot do so with regard to having knowl
edge of an object.
For instance, if someone is asked in a trial: "Did this man
tell you what he has done?" he may answer: "It seems to me
that he did, but I'm not certain." Again, someone in a process
of research, after having discovered an important fact, but not
yet having ascertained it fully, may say, "I do not yet know
with certitude whether it is so or not."
The certitude of knowing may sometimes refer to my recol
lection, and then it is independent of the certitude of taking
cognizance of something which led to the knowing. It refers
simply to the perfection or imperfection of static possession. I
may thus not know with certainty what I grasped before with
full certitude. This certitude of recollection refers only to the
act of knowing and thus is restricted to an individual person.

36

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

But the degree of certitude of knowing may also be an immedi

ate result of the degree of certitude of taking cognizance. If
someone simply told me a fact, I may say that I do not know
it with the same certitude as if I had seen it with my own eyes.
Here the degree of certitude is a consequence of the certitude of
the taking cognizance of something, but it still may be restricted
to my own person. Others may know it with certitude. Finally,
the degree of certitude of knowing may refer not only to the
way I took cognizance of it but also to the objective possibility
of taking cognizance of it by any man. It refers, for instance, to
the question of how well a given historical fact is ascertained
or to the question whether the state of facts has an empirical
or an apriori character.
Though we must distinguish these two types of knowing in
the larger sense, they interpenetrate each other continually.
With every stage of knowledge of an object, knowing (in the
narrower sense) of a certain state of facts goes necessarily hand
in hand.
The same applies m utatis mutandis to taking cognizance and
knowing in the larger sense. We have already mentioned that
taking cognizance and knowing in the larger sense, embracing
the two above-mentioned species, though forming two definitely
different acts which are distinguished by several marks, are never
theless closely connected. Every case of taking cognizance neces
sarily gives birth to static knowing. Moreover, both the dynamic
taking cognizance and the static knowing have the same theme.
Taking cognizance answers the question "How is it?" Its theme
is that something is so and so. This theme has a dramatic
character corresponding to the dynamic structure of this act.
In knowing, the theme of "it is so" no longer has the dramatic
note, for it now assumes the character of peaceful fulfillment,
according to the static structure of this act. Nevertheless the
same theme is present. This theme, which both types have in
common, we shall call the "notional" theme. It is concerned

BASIC FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE

37

with the very core of knowledge, with the specific appropria

tion of something, with the unique relation to the object which
knowledge embodies, with the penetration of the object by our
intellect, with the understanding it. We stress that taking cog
nizance and knowing are both dominated by this "notional"
theme, because there is still another theme in the sphere of
knowledge, which we may call the contemplative theme.
Later on, in Chapter V, we shall elaborate the differences
between these two themes and the implications connected with
these differences.

CHAPTER

Ill

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL

KNOWLEDGE IN CONTRAST TO
PRESCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Thus far we have treated of knowledge in general and have

distinguished the basic forms of knowledge from each other.
Now we shall seek to show in some detail the difference between
philosophical and prescientific knowledge.
The contact with things gained through prescientific knowl
edge falls into two basic types. First, there is the naive contact
with being, in which the world with its numerous regions of
being simply discloses itself to a person's mind during the
course of life. Second, there is the more or less theoretical
knowledge of being, in which one uncritically and unsystemati
cally, although reflectively and basing himself on some prin
ciple, strives to know certain strata of being.

1. Naive prescientiEc knowledge

We turn first to the naive type of prescientific knowledge,
which has a very important function for philosophical knowl
edge. For the present, however, our concern is to show how
this nai've form of taking cognizance of something differs from
the philosophical.
Philosophical taking cognizance of something is always dis
tinctly thematic. This means that contact with the object is
decisively ruled by the theme of appropriating some knowledge
38

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

39

about it. The mind is clearly directed to the object as to

something-to-be-known. This form of taking cognizance pos
sesses an inner dramatic character which is pregnant with the
desire of appropriating knowledge about the object. If we look
at naive knowing we find, at first, cases in which taking cog
nizance is completely unthematic. This is always true, for
example, when we perceive something casually, without clearly
directing our attention to it. Thus, we are expecting a friend
and we casually perceive the surroundings while our attention
is wholly taken up by the expectation of his arrival. Such casual
perceptions certainly lead us to a knowledge of different con
tents, but not only is there no explicit appropriation involved,
there is not even present here the theme of taking cognizance.
The essential theme of this situation is primarily not theoretical.
An affective or practical theme dominates the situation,
namely, the desire to meet a friend. A secondary theme also
present here consists in a conscious wondering about the arrival
of the friend. To this belongs the perception of all sigps which
could point to this arrival - of all that happens at the place
where we believe he will come. Far beyond this theme, however,
lies the casual perception of a house, a group of trees which I
see standing somewhere, the song of a bird in the trees, and
the like.
Needless to say, we do not have in mind here those cases in
which we are so distracted that no act of taking cognizance
occurs, even though our senses are affected by external stimuli.
What we have in mind is a real grasping, but one which pro
ceeds completely unthematically. In the situations which we
have in mind ? ere, casual impressions take place whereby we
take cognizance of something, but in them neither the object
known nor knowledge about the object is thematic.
This completely unthematic, naive contact with being is very
far removed from philosophical taking cognizance of some
thing. It is so precisely because it lacks the thematic touch.

40

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

We might add that this naive grasping it a fortiori completely

uncritical. Whenever taking cognizance is in no way thematic
we reach the climax of uncritical, naive acceptance of the
aspects of an object.
Another type of naive taking cognizance is ordinary acquaint
ance with a content, as when one sees a color for the first
time or meets another person for the first time. Here knowledge
is tacitly thematic, but, in opposition to a philosophical con
tact with being, there is no explicit awareness that knowledge
is thematic, there is no tension between the "how-is-it" and
the "it-is-so." It is a simple naive acquaintance with a content.
Yet, in comparison to those situations wherein objects are only
casually perceived, the content of knowledge is here a matter of
conscious grasping.
When someone sees a landscape for the first time, it is
usually not with the explicit intention to get acquainted with
it, but rather with the attitude of a child whom we take for a
walk. He grasps certain features of the landscape, acquiring a
knowledge about it, but all this without the inner question:
"How is it?" and likewise without the answer: "It is so." There
is only the naive taking in of the existence of an object together
with its nature.
Such naive knowledge is clearly different from philosophical
knowledge. First, the explicit theme of knowledge is absent;
second, there is no critical attitude which seeks to push forward
an ascertained identification of a being in its true essence and
which, consequently, questions the aspect given in perception.
There are, furthermore, far-reaching areas of naive knowledge
which differ from philosophical knowledge because of their
pragmatic character. Very often our naive grasp of something
is closely linked with the accomplishment of practical pur
poses. As we search for ways and means to reach a practical
goal, we frequently make various observations and perceive
different aspects of an object. A prisoner, for example, discovers

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

41

a window through which he hopes to escape. The window as

such is not too interesting to him. It is only a means for his
escape. The knowledge of the nature of the room is not in
itself thematic for him. In a secondary way, however, it is,
because an eminently practical feature, which as such lies
completely beyond the theme of knowledge, coincides with a
certain part of the nature of the room, inasmuch as the very
possibility of escape depends upon the character of the room.
Again, a thirsty man is seeking water and suddenly perceives
a well. The perception of the state of facts, namely, "Here is
a well," is even accomplished with acute attention. It has a
distinctly thematic quality, not, however, in itself, but only
secondarily for the sake of quenching his thirst.
If a cook notices that "the water is now boiling," this fact
is distinctly perceived. Nevertheless, it is not only completely
imbedded in the accomplishment of a practical purpose, but
the actuality of this state of affairs has interest and importance
only insofar as it is a means for a practical end. The knowledge
of this state of affairs has, therefore, only a secondary thematic
character.
Philosophical taking cognizance of something differs in a
twofold way from all naive knowledge that bears a pragmatic
character. First, in the latter, the knowledge in question is only
secondarily thematic. The question: "How is it?" is not the
matic as such, but only insofar as it is an indispensable pre
requisite for the accomplishment of a practical end. This implies
an essentially different attitude toward the object than is found
in a philosophical approach to it. The object in itself is not
taken with full seriousness. It is purely secondary to my inter
est. Second, and more important, pragmatic taking cognizance
of something is necessarily one-sided. It favors the knowledge
of those characteristics of the object in question which are
important for a practical purpose. One perceives only what is
important from the standpoint of practical application.

42

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The cook does not ask what kind of process is involved in

boiling water. He is interested only in finding out when the
water will boil, how he can make it boil, what he can do with
it in the preparation of foods, and so forth. The thirsty man
perceives only that "there is water which is drinkable." Many
other aspects of the object are unconsciously or, perhaps, even
consciously passed over. If, before going outside, we observe
the weather in order to dress properly, only so much of the
situation discloses itself to our spiritual glance as is required
for us to determine what clothes to wear. The beautiful light
ing of the sky, the special formation of the clouds - these are
very easily overlooked at this moment.
The pragmatic attitude is, on the one hand, a classical stimu
lus which leads to certain discoveries; on the other hand, how
ever, it necessarily leads to a prejudiced limitation of our
knowledge, in that it limits our perception to only one small
section of a being. It lets us see only so much of the object as
is necessary for a specific practical end. This one-sidedness,
moreover, is dictated chiefly by relatively subjective points of
view, and the preference of certain elements is by no means
determined by that which constitutes the main theme of the
object as such. This pragmatic deformation is particularly
opposed to philosophical cognizance, which seeks to under
stand the object in its own, deepest sense. Furthermore, phi
losophy aims to understand the object in its objective relation
to other objects. Hence, it is not limited by subjective practical
intentions. The prerequisite for all philosophical taking cog
nizance of something is a full interest in the object as such
and in the knowing contact with it. Pragmatic nai:ve perception
does indeed possess a certain explicit thematicity, in contrast
to the two forms of nai:ve perception mentioned previously.
Nonetheless, it is equally distant from philosophical taking
cognizance of something, perhaps even more so.
When we speak of the thematicity of knowledge we have

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

43

to distinguish, furthermore, between two different aspects,

namely, the thematicity of the object itself, and the thematicity
of knowledge itself. The latter, which makes the process of
knowledge to be thematic, implies that our interest is focused
on the acquiring of knowledge as such, that we aim for a most
complete, most certain, and most accurate knowledge. This
thematicity of knowledge may display itself in different ways.
Not only may it embrace the perfection of the knowledge, it
may also look in the direction of a sound and lasting knowledge.
Consider, for example, those learning experiences in which we
intend to acquire knowledge of a language, of a history, or of
any science. In these cases, the gaining of knowledge as such is
the theme, and the theme goes in the direction of a sound and
lasting possession of the object through knowledge.
It is evident, of course, that no knowledge can exist unless
the object also exercises a certain thematic role. By its very
nature knowledge is directed toward the object and is con
cerned with the object. The very character of an intentional
partaking of the nature of the object, of a spiritual possession
of it, excludes the possibility of a knowledge in which the
object is in no way thematic.
Nevertheless, this object-thematicity covers a wide range. In
some cases it is all but subdued and, in others, it is all impor
tant. When we want to know whether or not a person whom
we love is sick, the object of our knowledge is dramatically
thematic, far surpassing the thematic character of the knowl
edge itself. But, in contrast to a situation like this, the thematic
nature of the object is relatively small compared with that of
knowledge in the case of a philologist when he examines
minutely the authenticity of a passage which has little inter
est in itself.
Later on we shall return to this distinction between object
thematicity and knowledge-thematicity. We have mentioned
this distinction here, although briefly, because of the important

44

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

role it plays in distinguishing naive knowledge from scientific

knowledge.
In the naive type of cognizance which is purely inattentive
and nonexplicit, neither the object itself nor knowledge of the
object is thematic. In the second form of naive knowledge, that
exemplified by the simple acquaintance with an object, there
is no explicit thematicity either of the object or the knowledge.
At most we can speak of a tacit thematicity. In pragmatic,
naive perception, the object, as we have seen, is not itself
thematic, but is so only secondarily, that is, as a means for
achieving some purpose which is more or less explicitly the
matic. To an even greater degree is knowledge of the object
only secondarily thematic in such pragmatic perceptions. It is
secondary not merely in the sense of being knowledge which
serves as a handmaid for something else, but it is also secondary
in the sense that such knowledge is merely a prerequisite for
an extratheoretical theme, namely, the purpose we have in mind.
Everything is subordinated to the practical goal which is of pri
mary importance.
There is, however, another form of naive perception in which
the object about which knowledge is sought is independently
thematic, although there is n o independent knowledge-thema
ticity. This is always the case when we deal with the perception
of a fact which, because it possesses either an importance
in itself or an importance for me, implies an active intervention
on my part.
For example, we see a man whose life is in danger. As soon
as we have grasped this fact we rush to help him. In taking
cognizance of such a fact, however, there is no thematicity
of knowledge, and thus such cognizance is very different from
scientific and, even more so, philosophical knowledge. But the
perceived state of facts is highly thematic in itself. It dominates
the whole situation. Its existence is grasped, therefore, with the
highest emphasis, and it interests us entirely as such. It is taken

THE NATIJRE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

45

completely seriously and plays a role very different from that of

a mere means. To be sure, there is also a question of means
here. We are also concerned with the distance between the
man and ourselves and with the availability of life preservers,
ropes, and the like, which we might throw out to him - in
short, with the different means to help him. Taking cognizance
of these possible means is specifically pragmatic and clearly
differs from the original grasping of the fact that the man's
life is in danger.
In cases of pragmatic knowledge, there is no independent
thematicity either of object or of knowledge. In taking cog
nizance of a fact such as that exemplified by the man whose
life is in danger, however, only the knowledge has no inde
pendent thematicity. The object, on the other hand, possesses
a full and dramatic thematicity. This difference has far-reaching
consequences for the completeness of the disclosure of the
object. Here, in the case of the drowning man, there is no
pragmatic deformation of the knowledge of the object. Like
wise, there is no artificial limitation of those elements within
the object to include only those features which are significant
for my special purpose. It is true that in the case of the drown
ing man, the object is perceived only to the extent that its
decisive importance is understood in its full actuality. After this,
the mind is entirely absorbed in taking active measures to help
the man. Nevertheless, the decisive importance of the object is
the meaningful center of the whole situation. Here the the
maticity of the object prejudices the completeness but not the
depth of the cognition. Furthermore, this limit on completeness
is rooted in the objective meaning of the thing and is not sub
jectively imposed as it was in the case of purely pragmatic
knowledge. On the other hand, we must sharply distinguish
philosophical knowledge even from this form of naive percep
tion, which, although not imbedded in the basically practical
attitude, engenders it and transforms us from one who simply

46

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

takes cognizance of something to one who acts. For here there

is no thematicity of knowledge itself. In other words, we are
not here primarily concerned with acquiring knowledge; knowl
edge as such is not of principal importance.
In this example, it is true, we discuss an extraordinary case.
Even so, this type of a nonpragmatic, but practical, attitude,
which is engendered by taking cognizance of the matter in
volved, plays a great role in our nai've contact with objects. For
it need not always be a situation of such gravity and such
intense actuality. In principle the same type of taking cog
nizance exists when I grasp any fact endowed with a value or
a disvalue, which suggests, according to its meaning, an action
on my part.
All of these forms of nai've taking cognizance of something
differ from philosophical knowing in many respects, although
the difference is not everywhere the same.
They differ in that, first, they lack the explicit thematicity
of taking cognizance; second, they are uncritical; and, third,
they are unsystematic.
Another form of nai've taking cognizance is present when we
want to gain an explicit acquaintance with something, perhaps
to enjoy it or to enter into any relation with it having a con
templative character not rooted in knowledge.
Suppose we are traveling to a country in order to get ac
quainted with it. Unlike the explorer, we do not consider the
country primarily as an object of knowledge for us. For the
explorer, taking cognizance as such is thematic. For us, how
ever, the object and the contemplative possession of it are
primarily the themes. Again, we are happy to make the acquaint
ance of a man about whom we have heard much. We finally
get the chance to meet him. We get acquainted with him and
gaze into his face with interest. We note his behavior, his
whole personality. Taking cognizance of him is clearly intended
and is to a certain extent explicit. Nor is it pragmatic, as when

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

47

a judge or detective seeks to get acquainted with a man, in

order to "see through" him. Furthermore, it is not limited to
grasping a certain important content which at once tends
toward a practical intervention. Finally, it is not a matter-of
course knowing, but a grasping born out of a man's interest.
At times it entails a wondering awareness of the other man's
personality. Even if the thematicity of the object prevails, there
is not lacking here a certain thematicity of knowledge. And
yet this form of na'ive taking cognizance is also quite different
from that proper to philosophical knowledge.
The difference should be apparent. This form of na'ive taking
cognizance already differs from the merely historical investiga
tion into a personality since it is marked by a lesser thematicity
of knowledge and the lack of a systematic and critical method.
But when we contrast it to philosophical knowledge there is
the added difference that it lacks both the depth-dimension
and the focal direction of philosophy. Philosophy looks toward
the general and essential. Philosophy is different because of its
completely different object of knowledge and because its start
ing position has emerged from the whirl of actual life. As we
shall see later on, this emerging from the whirl of actual life
in no way prejudices or contradicts the existential contact with
being which philosophy presupposes.
There is, however, in na'ive knowledge, a still higher form of
taking cognizance. We refer to those rare cases in which, at
a special moment, the essence of something becomes crystal
clear to us. Thus, in a certain situation we may behold with
marvelous clarity the very character of a personality, or the
genius of a nation or of a work of art, or an ethical value like
fidelity and veracity, or the essence of love, or an essential fact
like the transient character of all things earthly. Such rare
moments occur when there is a fertile contact of our mind with
being, when being speaks to us as from its very depth, when we
touch reality in the liveliest and most organic manner. Obviously

48

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

these moments are not given to every man in his lifetime. They
occur only in the life of a spiritually awake and deep person
ality. In addition, these moments in naive experience refer
exclusively to important objects, possessing a high content of
meaning and value. They may be found in the lives of great
artists and ethical personalities and likewise in the prephilo
sophical contact of genuine philosophers with being. This
superior form of nai've taking cognizance is by far the nearest
thing to philosophical taking cognizance. It is even more related
to it than all strictly scientific knowledge. These moments we
might call the philosophical moments in life. In the case of this
kind of taking cognizance there is a high thematicity of the ob
ject as well as of knowledge itself. The latter is here completely
unpragmatic. Indeed, it is even lifted above the actuality of fleet
ing, temporal existence. In it we momentarily gain, as it were,
the contemplative place of pure philosophical knowledge, a
place related to eternity. The insight given in this rare moment
might bear the character of an essential truth. In any case it
always takes a direction toward depth. Despite these similarities,
however, it still differs from philosophical knowledge because
it is uncritical and unsystematic.
We may summarize our results thus far. We have seen how
philosophical knowledge is distinguished from prescientific,
nai've knowledge in all its forms. The first type of nai've knowl
edge is completely casual and unthematic, whereas philosophi
cal cognition is always thematic. The second type of nai've
cognition, the ordinary acquaintance with an object, is only
implicitly thematic, whereas philosophical knowledge is always
explicitly so. In the third type of nai've taking cognizance of
something, the goal is always some pragmatic end, which com
pletely dominates and rules the situation, with the result that
the knowledge gained is always partial and one-sided, whereas
philosophical knowledge is completely unpragmatic and is con
cerned with the totality of the object. A fourth type of nai've

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

49

knowledge entails a situation of practical and immediate impor

tance; in it the object to be known is of immense value, either
in itself or to us, and hence there is present here a thematicity
of the object, but there is no explicit or independent thematicity
of knowledge itself; philosophy, on the other hand, entails
the highest thematicity both of the object and of the knowledge
itself. Besides this, philosophical knowledge differs from all
these forms by reason of its critical and systematic character.
The fifth type of naive taking cognizance of something entails
the thematicity of the object and also a certain thematicity of
knowledge, but the latter is imbedded only in a concrete,
existential situation and it thereby lacks the direction toward
the general and the typical/ and also the direction toward
depth. Philosophical knowledge, on the contrary, always im
plies a certain spiritual distance from the concrete, existential
objects of experience. It is directed always toward the general
and the typical, and it aims at delving into the depth of the
object. Moreover, contrary to naive knowledge, it is always
critical and systematic. 2 Finally, it may be that a form of naive
taking cognizance of something has the full thematicity both.
of the object and of knowledge, and aims also at the depth
dimension and the position of distance from the actuality of
life, and can even be directed toward the general and the
typical, but it is still uncritical and unsystematic. By way of
contrast, philosophical knowledge not only has the highest
thematicity both of the object and of knowledge, not only is
completely unpragmatic, not only aims in the direction of depth
1 The term typical is used here to translate the German principiell. Thus, to
know something principiell is to know it in principle - to know its "type" or
"logos."
2 In claiming that philosophical knowledge is essentially systematical, we do
not mean to imply that the philosopher must aim at building up a system. On
the contrary, in the Prolegomena to Christian Ethics, we stressed the danger of
premature systematization. We mean by systematical knowledge a knowledge
which displays itself not in aphorisms, in the formulation of an occasional and
special truth, but one which proceeds step by step in the exploration of a topic,
in a conscious, ordered manner, confronting every new insight with the former.

50

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

and toward the general and typical, not only possesses the per
fection of a standpoint related to eternity, and not only is more
distant from the existential situations of actual living, but it
is also always critical and always systematic.
2.

Theoretical prescienti:6.c knowledge

Prescientific and prephilosophical knowledge is, however, as

we have already seen, not limited to a naive existential contact
with an object. It includes also a reflective and cognitive rela
tion to an object, and this we can no longer call naive in the
full sense of the word. If we think about a saying or a phrase
of a wise man or a poet, or about a conviction concerning the
validity of certain rules of life, or about the conscious views of
the average man and his theoretical sayings about the world, we
find that the genesis of these convictions and judgments is
completely different from a naive taking cognizance of an
object. Here we have not only knowledge which is directed
exclusively to a state of facts but which has also grown out
of thinking and inferences, instead of perceptions. In addition,
we deliberately leave out of consideration here the appropria
tion of views from authoritative or hypnotizing influential per
sonalities, from tradition and from public opinion. Despite
the great role of such appropriation in the accomplishment of
this prescientific and prephilosophical world-picture, there is in
it no real knowledge and least of all philosophical knowledge.
Within the framework of prescientific and prephilosophical
knowledge are, therefore, two world-views, the one nai:ve and
the other theoretical. If we now limit ourselves to the knowledge
which gives rise to a theoretical world-view, we can appreciate
that the position it takes toward being is completely different
from that of a naive contact. One here remains no longer within
the sphere of a natural contact that comes as a matter of course.
Rather, one approaches reality with a theoretical attitude. One
does not allow the object itself to speak. Instead, one tries to

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

51

acquire a quasi-systematical knowledge of it by observations,

reflections, and inferences.
If we think of such a proverb as, "Pride goeth before a fall,"
or of the words of Ovid, "Donee eris felix, multos numerabis
arnicas," or of what people formulate as their views about life
and morality, or of what men say theoretically about women,
we can easily see the difference between such sayings and theories
and the various naive forms of taking cognizance. Such state
ments are, first, of a general and typical nature, and, second,
they spring from an attitude of theoretical knowledge. Man
presses upon a new spiritual key, as it were, a key radically
different from that of naive taking cognizance of something.
He steps toward the object with an intention to gain theoretical
knowledge. Finally, there is the natural concomitant to this
attitude which gives rise to a third difference: an explicit
thematicity of knowledge dominates the situation.
In this respect, therefore, theoretical prescientific knowledge
is more similar than naive knowledge to philosophical knowl
edge. We will see, however, that in another respect it is more
different from philosophical knowledge than are certain forms
of naive cognition.
It differs most of all from philosophical knowledge by its
lack of systematic and critical characteristics. It always bears
the character of a mere aphorism, despite its direction toward
the general and typical. Such general sentences are "scattered
around," and they stand without being embedded in a system
atic sequence of objects and proofs. It is uncritical, inasmuch as
one proceeds neither from evident insights nor from a careful,
critical selection of facts. The inferences are not made sharply
and critically. The lack of being critical is far more serious here
than in the case of naive knowledge. The reason why this is
true is that here a claim is made that the knowledge is theoretical
and typical. This demands a more critical caution than does
naive knowledge. Moreover, without such a critical attitude

52

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

here the results are far more dubious, because they are more
distant from the thing in question, because the process of
knowledge is much more complicated, and because the language
of being undergoes greater refraction before it at length becomes
formulated.
Within the framework of this theoretical prescientific knowl
edge, however, we must distinguish between two essentially
different kinds: organic and inorganic knowledge. In proverbs
and sayings of wise men and poets we find the organic theoreti
cal prephilosophical knowledge. There is a relatively organic
path here which leads from naive taking cognizance of some
thing to a more general and theoretical awareness. Perhaps
these sayings and inductive conclusions stem from an incisive
and important experience of one's own life, or they may be
the results of what one often observes here and there. In any
event, they are always an organic outgrowth of a naive taking
cognizance of something. The reflections are consequent upon
it. They are, as it were, the theoretical awareness of impressions
condensed from a naive knowledge.
As long as a person, during times of misfortunes, merely en
dures many disappointments at the hands of his fellow men,
he simply perceives the fact that one is left alone in mis
fortune. He may even infer, on a nontheoretical level, that
this fact is true in general, but still his knowledge remains
on the plane of a naive living contact. As soon, however, as
he wishes to emphasize the general truth, as soon as this fact
takes on the character of a proverb, with its outspoken thema
ticity of knowledge, he quits the level of naive knowledge. A
completely new consciousness begins, which goes far beyond
a naive knowledge-contact with an object. Nevertheless, this
prominent conscious awareness of the general fact is linked in
an organic way to the naive cognizance of it.
If a man "reasons" about life, moral values, art, and so forth,
without relating his mind to the language of the objects he has

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

53

perceived in a naive cognizance, then we are presented with

another, an inorganic, type of prescientific knowledge - or, to
speak more correctly, with what we should call extrascientific
and extraphilosophical knowledge.
Let us think of a man who, in his naive living contact with
reality, grasps dearly the majestic and absolute character of
moral values, and who responds with enthusiasm to positive
values and with indignation to negative ones, with complete
seriousness and decision; who, however, as soon as he speaks
theoretically about the sphere of morality, affirms in sincere
conviction that moral values are relative to time and persons,
or that they are mere projections of subjective feelings. He is
not aware of any contradiction between his naive cognizance
and his theoretical convictions. This shows not only that we
have here different spiritual keys in naive and theoretical cogni
tions, but also that the theoretical key has lost all organic
contact with the naive knowledge and that, consequently, it
draws from sources quite different from those given in the naive
contact.
The wells from which these theoretical views flow are many.
We prescind now from those cases in which we simply repeat
what we have somewhere read or heard about this or that
object, that is to say, what was unconsciously taken over as
public opinion or the common knowledge of an epoch. For
this does not deserve the name of knowledge. We limit our
selves to those cases in which we actually think about an ob
ject, in which we, on the basis of certain premises, infer this
or that about an object, or else have recourse to certain argu
ments which we learned from someone else and which seem
obvious. In fine, we limit ourselves to those cases wherein we
still have knowledge in the broadest sense of the word. This
kind of theoretical knowledge comes either from a certain
scientific or philosophical thesis which has percolated down
into the general common culture and has been taken over

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

unconsciously, or from prejudices of the public mind, or, again,

from so-called personal experiences which here, however, have
a completely different function than in the case of the organic
form of theoretical knowledge. In the organic form, it is true,
a single experience may lead to a generalization. Thus, if a
person is seriously disappointed in one of his fellow men he
may develop an unjustified general mistrust of all men. Be
cause his single experience had such an incisive emotional im
portance, he may cry with full conviction: "Every man is a
liar!" But in the case of the inorganic form of theorizing, a
single experience is simply the starting point for the theoretical
key's coming into play. The experience is made into a generali
zation, not because of the weight it has in naive living contact,
but because of the generalizing tendency of the theoretical
attitude.
"Oh! I know these people!" someone may say of another
nation. "They are superficial." If you ask why, he will answer:
"I once knew a man from this nation and he was very super
ficial." Men who tend toward this type of reasoning allow cer
tain facts, which they know from naive cognition, to fall right
into their theoretical attitude, and they proceed to employ
these facts merely as examples for their uncritical induction.
It is obvious that the link to naive cognition is of an essen
tially different nature here than in the organic type of theoreti
cal knowledge. The language of being, heard in naive cognizance,
is not found at all in the results of theoretical reasoning of
the inorganic kind, even when it proceeds to a generalization
from a so-called fact which has been experienced. For facts like
these are employed completely "from without" in the theory.
They are used in a way similar to that in which an experiment
is employed to verify a theory, but uncritically. The close con
tact with the things themselves, which is an integral part of
naive cognizance, is absent here. We grasp here only so much
of the object as can satisfy the capacity of this theoretical key.

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

55

All statements, even those made in the presence of the object,

have an analogous character. They are already at a theoretical
distance from the object. They are laid down by a "reason"
starting from an arrogantly superior, and at the same time, very
uncritical position. It is apparent that this theoretical knowl
edge is inorganic. Not linked to the original nai've cognition,
it sovereignly disregards it. This inorganic knowledge approaches
the object only "from without" and with no direct contact
with the object. In the case of this kind of extrascientific and
extraphilosophical theoretical knowledge, either the nai've con
tact is consciously omitted - and this is falsely believed by some
people to be especially critical - or the nai've contact is un
consciously ignored, and this is characteristic of the man who
always proceeds from general, apparently evident, facts and
deduces everything from them.
Someone might argue as follows: "All ethical values are
relative, for different people and different epochs have often
held wholly opposite views on the goodness and badness of
one and the same moral datum." Here, ignoring completely
the aspect of value present in the nai've contact with the object,
one reasons in a wholly uncritical way from a premise that
is taken over from another person with no profound under
standing of the real meaning of the statement. For, in truth,
the differences over what is good and bad do not as such pre
judge anything about the relativity of value. Again, someone
may argue: "All values are relative, for we cannot know more
than what appears to be so. But insofar as we know anything
it is always relative to our subjective ability of knowing." Here
an allegedly self-evident proposition, born of a false philosophy,
is accepted as a premise without any spirit of criticism by one
who thinks he is especially critical in that he has lifted himself
above the aspect present in the nai've contact with the object.
In one moment he might be indignant about the moral actions
of a man, and, by being indignant, he actually deals with moral

56

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

values as something objective. In the very next moment, how

ever, he either does not consider his former indignation or,
if he does, he believes it to be of little consequence. This type
of man is essentially committed to the belief that his theoretical
knowledge, concluded from loose reasoning and unexamined
premises, is much more worthy of trust than is his nai:ve
cognizance of something.
This inorganic, theoretical prescientific knowledge is the
home of all dilettantism, all apparently self-evident propositions,
all "short cuts" to knowledge, all shabby rationalistic theorizing.
The lack of being critical has here an essentially more disastrous
effect than in the case of nai:ve cognition and even than in
the case of organic theoretical knowledge. For we actualize here
an intellectual key, the importance of which stands or falls
with the degree of genuine criticism attached to it. The nai:ve
cognizance of something possesses the classic note of a real
contact with being, and as such retains a certain interest even
when it includes a delusion or error. It still reflects something
of the nature of the object, even though in a form that needs
mending and refining. The organic type of theoretical knowl
edge has, of course, a much better opportunity to reach a truth
than does the inorganic type. But even apart from this im
portant superiority, we must notice that the organic type pos
sesses, as such, a real interest in that it is not only knowledge
but it is also a reflection of a genuine personality. For in it
still lives something of the nai:ve contact with the object, some
thing of its classic note, even though in a much more refracted
form than in the nai:ve cognizance of the object. The up
rooted form, however, of the knowing contact with the object,
in which the mind emancipates itself from all nai:ve existential
contacts and relies completely upon its theoretical ability of
knowing, becomes a caricature of genuine knowledge because
it lacks genuine criticism and system. It commands no interest
at all.

TIIE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

57

As long as someone really gives back what he grasps in his

naive cognition or, if he at least utters general convictions which
are linked organically to a naive form of knowledge, then what
he says is of interest and may be taken seriously. As soon, how
ever, as someone starts to reason theoretically about the world
and about different spheres of being with complete elimina
tion of the naive, lived contact with reality, and, furthermore,
proceeds uncritically and unsystematically, his utterances lose
every objective interest. The actual lack of criticism convicts
this "knowledge" in a damaging way because of its inner pre
tension to be critical. In naive cognition also this "reasoning"
often creeps in suddenly. For example, someone may try to
prove or substantiate his naive impression of a thing. By his
intention to prove or substantiate he initiates an attitude which
cuts off the naive contact with being and which switches him,
as it were, to the theorizing key. He reverts to simply known
general facts and from these he sweepingly draws conclusions
over the voice that speaks to him in the naive contact with
being. This vain attempt to ground or prove a theoretical truth
destroys all real contact with the object and plunges the mind
down to the unfertile level of reasoning without criticism.
The difference separating both these forms of extraphilosoph
ical theoretical knowledge from philosophy is apparent. They
lack all criticism and system. But the lack of criticism is of a
different kind in each case and it differs according to the form
of the extrascientific and extraphilosophical knowledge.
a ) In the organic form, the uncritical note lies in that one
fails to test the theoretical generalization against the naive con
tact with being, and thereby fails to reach the unequivocal
concrete "givenness" of the object, as is done in real philosoph
ical knowledge. Instead, what is given in the naive living con
tact, with all its subjective and pragmatic limitations and its
accidental one-sidedness, is simply raised to the plane of the
theoretical and typical. In the case of philosophical knowledge,

58

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

the thing experienced itself, brought to a pure and fertile in

tuition, is the decisive factor determining all the aspects which
flow from the naive cognizance of that thing. In this way, by
joining such an attitude to the highest form of naive cognition,
we accomplish an essential, luminous contact with the object
and we allow only the unequivocally self-identical object to
decide upon the true state of facts.
Philosophical knowledge points to an evident "given" in
reality. The critical character of philosophical knowledge is
decisively marked by its clear distinction between evidence and
non-evidence and its clarity about the respective stages of "given
ness." The deciding point lies here. Certainty is granted to the
extent that knowledge of a respective state of facts coincides
either with the degree to which this state is "given" or with the
strictness of its indirect disclosure - its deduction.
When it is a question of the organic form of prescientific
theoretical knowledge, on the other hand, the activity of the
theoretical key does not involve a fresh draught from the thing
itself, purified and luminous, but only a higher stage of gener
ality of the aspect which crystallizes out of the naive cognition.
The validity of such knowledge is, moreover, always something
of an accident. The premises are not evident nor are the conclu
sions drawn strictly. Even if the conclusion derived in a particu
lar case is objectively strict, this strictness is not the result of a
methodical principle vf this knowledge. The transition from a
naive cognition to a theoretical insight is completely unmethodi
cal and uncritical. Philosophical knowledge, however, explicitly
includes the methodological principle that we proceed only from
well-founded and, if possible, evident premises, and that we infer
only strict conclusions. The awareness of this method need not,
however, imply that in every concrete case a philosopher is fully
conscious of the specific process of knowledge which he uses.
Thus, in the opinions of the great philosophers, we often

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

59

find that they claim to have deduced something when in truth

they have grasped it directly and intuitively. This is certainly
an imperfection - not, however, one which takes away from
the knowledge its philosophical character.
In the case of genuine philosophical knowledge there must
always be a methodical consciousness; that is the questions of
the degree of givenness and of the strictness of conclusion must
be explicitly posed. Moreover, one must be fully conscious of
the degree he has reached.
The examination of th givenness of a state of facts and
the strictness of a conclusion is an outspoken methodical prin
ciple of any scientific and, even more so, of any philosophical
knowledge.
b ) Lack of criticism in the inorganic form of extrascientific
theoretical knowledge goes much further. It is first represented
by the completely vague basis from which the hoped-for knowl
edge is to be gained. This already signifies a lack of criticism
of the worst sort. In place of a naive living contact" with the
object are more or less undigested general philosophical and
scientific propositions, or even arbitrary generalizations of single
observations. For the most part here we are dealing with the
unperceived influences of certain philosophical or scientific
theses, which impregnate, as it were, the intellectual atmos
phere and pervade the Zeitgeist and which now, because they
have been taken over unconsciously, are confused with the in
disputable, self-evident, ultimate points of departure, that is,
with principles in the strict sense of the word.
The allegedly self-evident fund on which we draw does not
derive from the language of the object afforded by naive knowl
edge, however inadequate, nor even from an object that is prag
matically deformed for the most part. It is rather a maze of
theoretical theses which in their structure appeal to a conscious
critical understanding in a totally different way. Their accep-

60

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

tance as indisputable, self-evident, and settled points of depar

ture, therefore, represents a lack of criticism of a completely new
and even more fateful kind.
Even when general propositions are taken over consciously,
without, however, an examination of the object, because of a
certain apparent self-evidence, there is a complete lack of
criticism displayed. They are consciously declared to be axioms,
and the pretension is that these general propositions are self
evident. The lack of criticism here is unpardonable because
one is here deliberately theoretical and yet takes over, as self
evident, propositions which are snatched from their context and
which are definitely not self-evident. One intends to begin with
no presuppositions and, at the same time, one actually pre
supposes an entire philosophical theory, in addition to many
scientific theses which are wrongly relegated to the metaphysical
plane as absolutely certain axioms. One fails to see that these
so-called axioms are not evident facts, but are rather the com
plicated results of a certain theory. The utter lack of oriticism
is particularly manifest in the perfect self-delusion represented
by this knowledge.
Philosophical knowledge, which does not take over as self
evident even those aspects of the object which present them
selves to us in naive cognition, never tacitly relies on such gen
eral propositions, which can say nothing more for their validity
than that they seem to be familiar and also that, because of
custom, they seem to be too self-evident to be examined
critically. True philosophy intends to tolerate neither conscious
nor unconscious presuppositions which do not place their
credentials before the tribunal of knowledge. It is linked, more
over, in an entirely different way to a naive contact with the
object. Unlike inorganic theoretical knowledge, philosophy does
not eliminate naive contact with the object. On the contrary,
it deepens and purifies it. Philosophy, therefore, is linked to
the highest form of naive cognition insofar as it seeks to pene-

THE NATURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

61

trate to an even deeper and more unequivocal givenness of

the object than is present in naive cognizance of it. Extra philo
sophical reasoning, on the other hand, either consciously or
unconsciously gives up all contact with the object.
The difference, then, between philosophical knowledge and
both forms of theoretical prescientific knowledge, the organic
and the inorganic, is apparent. The former is a critical, methodi
cal, and systematic knowledge proceeding from the full but
purified nonpragmatic contact with the object.
In passing we might mention, as a supplement to our criti
cism of inorganic extrascientific knowledge, that it lacks a real
link to genuine tradition. The seriousness of this will appear
later on when we discuss the nature of the link to tradition.
Certain general theses of dubious philosophies percolate into
the world-view of the unphilosophical average man. These
doubtful theses often figure as points of departure for that
inorganic reasoning about life and the world which we dis
cussed above. To be sharply distinguished from this, however,
is the classical penetration by philosophical elements into a
naive world-view. For this indeed belongs to the very meaning
and task of philosophy. The infiltrations differ in the kind of
influence they exert on world-views and likewise in the organ
with which the unphilosophical man accepts the results. Only
the relatively unconscious process of accepting these views is
common, for in each case there is a marked absence of autono
mous, critical knowledge. Yet, even if we prescind from the
content-character of what is passed along, we perceive a thor
oughgoing formal difference between the diffusion of the
genuine tradition of philosophical results into the public mind
and the illegitimate infiltration of pseudo-philosophical theories.
And this difference is manifest as much in the type of transfer
of the thing taken over as in the kind of accepting it on the
part of the unphilosophical man.
Philosophical knowledge, then, is sharply distinguished from

62

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

each form of prescientific and extrascientific knowledge. We are

now faced with the difficult problem of separating philosophical
knowledge from the knowledge embodied in all the other true
sciences. Before we turn to this theme, however, we must
delve further into the question concerning the object of phi
losophy. For the nature of philosophical inquiry and knowl
edge is understandable only in the light of the nature of the
object of philosophy. In what follows we have the twofold
task of pointing out the object of philosophy and of pointing
out the nature of philosophizing, in contrast to all other forms
of scientific knowledge.

CHAPTER

IV

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL

KNOWLEDGE

The object of philosophy is primarily of an apriori nature.

A specific characteristic of philosophical knowledge is its prin
cipal aim, namely, to discover apriori and not empirical states
of facts. This brings us face to face with a very decisive point,
forcing us to give a detailed account of two classical conceptions,
namely, the apriori and the empirical. For in truth, each of these
concepts is ambiguous.
Even if all the meanings of apriori and empirical rest on
some common note, since both are used to refer to a point
of departure, still they ordinarily include other elements. In
general, the meaning of the apriori and the empirical is not
only equivocal but confused. It often happens that certain ele
ments usually associated with these terms are considered to
be necessarily connected with them, although in reality they
are completely independent. We must, therefore, attach a clear
meaning to each of these concepts.

1. The characteristics of apriori knowledge

Classical examples of apriori knowledge are taken mostly
from the sphere of Euclidean mathematics or else from logic.
Apriori knowledge in the genuine sense, however, is by no means
limited to mathematics and logic. We shall not, therefore,
63

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

64

restrict ourselves to these spheres in our examples of apriori

truths, but from the very start we shall introduce the most
striking types taken from other areas. Propositions such as "Jus
tice cannot be attributed to impersonal beings" or "One and
the same thing cannot exist and not exist simultaneously" are
set apart by three unmistakable marks : ( 1 ) their strict intrinsic
necessity, ( 2) their incomparable intelligibility, and ( 3 ) their
absolute certainty. For these reasons, they possess a special
dignity in knowledge. The note of strict necessity is related to
the very nature of the state of facts. The note of high intelligi
bility also characterizes the state of facts, yet it also includes a
relation to a possible knowledge. The note of absolute cer
tainty, however, is related to the way in which the state of
facts is given, to the manner in which the object presents its
credentials to our mind. All three characteristics, the necessity
of the state of facts, its intelligibility, and the absolute certainty
of its existence, point to a knowledge of the highest dignity.
Facts which can be seen with absolute certainty in their neces
sity and intelligibility are an ideal case for knowledge. Herein
lies the decisive point of departure for the deep abyss which
separates apriori from empirical knowledge.
The great achievement of Plato in his Meno was the dis
covery that within the sphere of knowledge there are cases in
which we grasp with absolute certainty a necessary and highly
intelligible state of facts. He saw how these cases differed pro
foundly from all other kinds of knowledge, and he appreciated
the decisive importance of this distinction within the total
sphere of knowledge.
A.

Strict Necessity

In order to separate apriori from empirical knowledge, we

shall examine the first characteristic of the former, i.e., its strict
necessity. We shall try to point out, first, the necessity as such
and, second, the strict intrinsic necessity as rooted in essences.

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

65

a ) As such, necessity transcends the accidental, merely factual

sphere. Although not identical with the notion of the general,
it possesses a kind of generality. It can mean either a formal or
a structural moment. If we are confronted with two such prop
ositions as "Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.c. " and "Moral
values cannot be embodied in impersonal beings," we realize
that the state of facts in the first proposition is accidental; in
the second, however, it is necessary. One difference between
these two states of facts is that one represents an individual
event and the other, a general state of facts. But besides this
difference we must note a further one. In the fact, "Caesar
crossed the Rubicon," the link between "Caesar" and "crossing
the Rubicon" is a factual one; in the fact that "Moral values
can be embodied only in persons," the link between "Moral
values" and "persons" is a necessary one. This moment of neces
sity is an ultimate datum. It cannot be deduced from something
else and, therefore, it cannot be "explained." We can only point
unequivocally to it, isolating it from all neighboring moments in
order to see it in itself. When there is question of a necessary
state of facts, such as "Moral values can be embodied only in
persons" or "Something cannot exist and not exist at the same
time," the relation between the two elements within the state
of facts is of a completely different nature than the merely
factual, accidental relation in such facts as "Caesar crossed the
Rubicon" or "The sun is shining here today." There is an inner
necessity joining the elements of the former state of facts
together. In instances of merely contingent states of facts this
is not so. This necessity, which cannot be overlooked by any
unbiased person, is, of course, essentially bound up with the
generality of the state of facts, but it is not identical with it.
The accidental state of facts is a single, individual matter. The
necessary state of facts, on the other hand, is always of a general
nature. It is rootd in the ideal sphere of essences and not in
the concrete sphere of individuals, although it is naturally found

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

in all concrete individuals insofar as they partake of a certain

essence. Every concrete willing, for example, necessarily pre
supposes a consciousness of the intended state of facts, but this
is simply an individual concretization of the general fact that
Nil volitum quin praecognitum (No willing without thinking) .
This truth exists in the sphere of essences and, specifically, in
the essences of willing and of "consciousness of" something.
As we said above, even though every necessary state of facts
bears a general character, the moment of necessity is not identi
cal with that of generality. Its meaning, its content is uniquely
different from that of generality. Above all, necessity must not
be confused with the formal dominion of the general over the
individual and single cases which are subordinated to it. Let us
illustrate this. We might say, for example, that the truth, "The
table in my dining room is round," is merely factual or acci
dental, whereas the proposition, "No willing without thinking,"
is necessary. And we might assign the following reasons for
our statement; the proposition about the table is merely factual,
for there are other tables which are eight-cornered or square;
the proposition about willing, however, is necessary because
every concrete act of willing must be based upon some knowl
edge about the intended state of facts. This is true enough,
but still this analysis of the two different propositions combines
two different moments without distinguishing between them.
There is, first of all, the necessity which is rooted in the formal
dominion of a type or universal over the individual cases sub
sumed under it, and second, there is the other and different
necessity which establishes the necessary character of a certain
state of facts and which signifies necessity both in the state
of facts considered universally and in the particular, individual in
stances of this state of facts.
These two kinds of necessity must be sharply distinguished.
The formal necessity grounded in the relation between a genus
or species and the individual is, as it were, the basis for the

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67

spiritual step which is accomplished in any deduction. This

formal necessity is completely limited to the relation between
the genus or species and the individuals falling under that
genus or species. On the other hand, the much richer and far
more profound necessity to which we refer here characterizes
the general state of facts as such, prior to any consideration
relating the general truth to an individual, concrete case ex
emplifying it. The truth, "No willing without thinking," is
necessary in itself before we think about the fact that this is
necessarily true in every concrete instance of willing.
Here, when we say, "It is necessarily so," we do not simply
mean that it must be so in an individual case because it is
true in general. Here we are referring to the entirely unique
structure of a general state of facts as such. Naturally this
necessary structure can be found equally in every individual
concretization of the general state of facts. This structural inner
necessity, which is characteristic of the apriori, is much more
primal and fundamental than the formal necessity, which is
found in the dominion of the general over the individual
case. It is, moreover, the foundation of this formal necessity.
For only when there is a structural, inner necessity in a general
state of facts is the individual case strictly subordinated to it.
b) After this analysis of "necessity" as such, we shall now
consider in detail the intrinsic, stringent necessity that is rooted
in essences. We shall find how important are the differences
between the stringent necessity rooted in essences and the neces
sity of what may be termed "laws of nature."
We have said that such states of facts as "Moral values pre
suppose a person" or "The color orange lies between red and
yellow" or "Seven plus five equal twelve" are necessarily dis
tinguished from such merely accidental, factual, individual states
of facts as "Mont Blanc is fifteen thousand, seven hundred
eighty-two feet high" or "The weather is fine today." We must
add now that the necessary states of facts are likewise distin-

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

guished from the facts treated in physics and chemistry, even

though the latter possess a kind of necessity.1 The fact, "Heat
causes a body to expand," is not a merely individual, concrete
fact, but a general one. With respect to its "members," more
over, it differs profoundly from such a fact as, "Caesar crossed
the Rubicon." For there is here a quality of necessity which goes
well beyond a factual togetherness. The causal link between
heating and expansion is not merely a factual bond but it has,
moreover, its general and necessary foundation in the nature of
heat and expansion. Such necessity, however, is manifestly dif
ferent from that found in such facts as "Moral values presup
pose a person" or "Seven plus five equal twelve." First of all,
its necessity is not absolute, and, second, it is not intelligibly
grounded in the essence2 of the objects in question. Thus, for
example, it would not be nonsensical to conceive of them as
being suspended and made inoperative by an act of God - as
indeed is the case with a miracle. But it would be nonsensical to
conceive this of a state of facts which is necessary by its very
essence. The suspension of a state of facts necessarily rooted in
the essence of a being lies absolutely and essentially beyond the
scope of the notion of a miracle. We may, therefore, contrast
these essential states of facts to the "laws of nature."
This difference between the two is rooted in the realities
themselves. It exists between the necessity of essence and the
necessity of natural laws, which we may term the necessity of
1 In this epistemological analysis, we prescind from the question of whether in
reality these facts have the character of laws in the Newtonian sense or have a
mere statistical character, as modern physics claims, because the difference be
tween a mere statistical statement and an apriori necessary truth is obvious. The
statistic interpretation of laws of physics denies precisely their character of
necessity.
It would thus be of no interest to oppose our characteristic of the necessity
proper to apriori truths to this statistical interpretation. And, on the other hand,
whatever may be the true character of these laws of science, the comparison be
tween apriori truths and the Newtonian conception of scientific laws retains its
significance in our elaboration of the character of absolute necessity.
2 Later on, we shall see that a specific type of intelligible essence is required
as basis of these strictly necessary facts.

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69

nature. The necessity of essence is absolute. It has its strict

foundation in the essence of the thing as such. On the other
hand, the necessity of nature is somehow relative to the con
tingency of the world. It is not impossible to assume that a body
is not expanded even though it has been heated. To assume,
however, that an impersonal being such as a stone could be
endowed with a moral value, justice or humility for example,
is - though not contradictory - intrinsically impossible.
B.

Incomparable Intelligibility

The second principal character of apriori facts, namely, their

incomparable intelligibility, is closely linked to their intrinsic
necessity. When compared to any empirical facts, whether
purely individual or a general "law of nature," an intrinsically
necessary fact is seen to possess an incomparable intelligibility.
We "understand" that these necessary facts are such as they
are. We grasp not only that something is such, but also why
it is. It is only with respect to these facts that we can speak
of having an "insight" in the full sense.
Compared to this full intellectual penetration into a neces
sary state, the grasp of any individual fact, for instance, "Today
the sun is shining" or "This table is brown," is merely a blunt
observation.
There is an analogous difference between the "insight" into
a necessary fact and the grasp of a law of nature which is the
result of an inductive inference. We can, to be sure, reach
the knowledge of the fact that "heat expands bodies," but a
fact of this kind does not possess the luminous intelligibility
proper to a truth such as "Moral values presuppose persons"
which enables me to "understand" it to accomplish a real
intelligere.
This intelligere, this understanding from within, is possible
only when the knowledge of an essentially necessary fact is at
stake. This "intelligibility," which allows us to grasp the fact

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

in its inner logos, necessarily presupposes the essential necessity

of the fact; it is even deeply rooted in it.3
This feature of intelligibility is, of course, related to the
question of knowability, and is not purely a characteristic of
the state of facts alone, as is the necessity. Nevertheless, as we
said above, this intelligibility is deeply rooted in the absolute
and essential necessity.
If we compare a state of facts such as "heat expands bodies"
with an essentially necessary one, we see that the former lacks
entirely the inner rationality and inherent meaningfulness and,
consequently, the intelligibility of the latter. The naturally
necessary fact is, therefore, simply what our minds can grasp
"from without." We are unable to penetrate it "from within."
Our minds are not able to have an insight in the full sense of
the word. In contrast t o the essentially necessary facts, with
their inner meaningfulness and their luminous character, the
laws of nature possess something of the bluntness of the merely
contingent, accidental facts.
C. Absolute Certainty
A third characteristic of apriori knowledge is its absolute
certainty.
Absolute certainty, as we saw, is not a mark of the state of
facts as such, but rather of the relation between the state of
facts and the knowledge about it. Again let us compare the
propositions, "Moral values presuppose a person" and "A color
presupposes extension for its existence," with the proposition,
"Heat expands a body." We have absolute certainty that the
first two propositions are true, whereas we regard the truth of
the last one as, at best, very highly probable. Although it is
improbable to the highest degree, it is nonetheless possible that
one might someday discover that no causal connection really
a This does not imply, however, that every absolutely necessary fact is intelli
gible for us.

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71

exists between heat and the expansion of a body, and that in

all the observed cases, in which bodies do actually expand after
being heated, another, so far hidden, cause can truly account
for the expansion. The high degree of nonprobability that this
should be the case must not blind us to the fact that it is, in
principle, possible. Thus, in propositions involving a "law of
nature" we do not have absolute and indubitable certainty.
Matters are quite different with apriori propositions such as
"Moral values presuppose a person" and "A color can never be
present without extension." It is nonsense to assume that some
day we may discover that these propositions are not true. Here
the state of facts is unequivocally and absolutely intelligible.
Here there remains no gap concerning the credentials of its
reality; its reality is undoubtedly and absolutely certain. There
is no possibility of any eventual "disappointment" or refutation,
for the state of facts in its necessity is laid completely and abso
lutely bare before our mind.
This decisive difference between apriori and empirical states
of facts, and the apriori and empirical propositions corresponding
to them, is, of course, intimately tied up with the manner in
which these types of facts can become known. Apriori knowl
edge is achieved by way of immediate insight into essential
states of facts. This very important statement must be further
proved, for it calls attention to a special characteristic which
defines apriori knowledge and distinguishes it from every other
type of knowledge. In addition, it shows in a special way the
difference between the knowledge of the existence of an object
and the knowledge of the "such-being" or essence of an object.
Above all, it clarifies the difference between insight into es
sences and the mere observation of the existence of something.
The causal nexus between heat and the expansion of a body
is not in itself "given." Only the two facts, namely, heat and
the expansion of a body, which follow each other in time,
are given as such. The causal connection, the "through" between

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

both, the dependence of the expansion on the heat, is only

inferred. We make this inference because we observe that, under
various conditions, under artificial and controlled variations of
all pertinent factors, expansion regularly follows the application
of heat. The step we make in inferring this causal bond between
heat and expansion is, however, not absolutely strict and without
a gap. There is still room, in principle, for the possibility of
error - for a hitherto unsuspected addition. We affirm that the
truth of the inferred conclusion is only probable, although, in
ideal cases, we regard it with the highest probability.
This is the fate of all inductive conclusions in the precise
sense of the word. There may be cases involving no hidden
states of facts, but still the generality and necessity of such
states is simply not given. In these cases, we base our con
elusion on the observation of a great many, perhaps all, factual
instances, casting our conclusion in a general and "necessary"
proposition. But still our conclusion is not absolutely strict, and
the precise connection between the observed facts remains un
known. This is true, for example, in the case of the proposition :
"No man is taller than ten feet." Although the height of any
individual man is, as such, an apparently given fact, the general
ity of such a proposition and, above all, its dependence on the
nature of man, are not given. Our conclusion, although it has
been made only after a great many observations, possesses at
best only a very high probability. Knowledge of these empirical,
general states of facts, having the character of a contingent
necessity, lacks absolute strictness; because it is attained by
induction, it is not without a gap.
The knowledge of simple individual facts, such as "This table
is brown" and "Today the sun is shining," does not result from
induction and consequently is exempt from the gap inevitable
in any induction. Yet even this type of knowledge does not
possess the absolute certitude which is proper to an insight
into an apriori truth. When an individual fact is grasped in

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73

isolation from the rest of experience, there is always the pos

sibility that we may be prey of an hallucination or of a dream.
This possibility of deception exists, however, only so long as a
concrete fact is grasped either for the first time or as it occurs
here and now.
There is no possibility of deception with respect to a fact
confirmed by the continuous stream of experience. As soon
as an individual fact, such as the existence of a friend or brother
or of the house in which we live, is inserted into the totality
of our experience of reality, and confirmed time after time, it
no longer makes any sense to say that we may be deceived
about it, that we meet it only in a dream or an hallucination.
Our knowledge of such reality possesses, not a mere high prob
ability, but full certainty, if it is confirmed by and integrated
with the full network of our experience of reality. The famous
Cartesian doubt applies only to the isolated experience of a
single concrete fact.
Yet it remains true that such confirmation is required to reach
absolute certainty about contingent facts. This illustrates the
difference in certainty between apriori knowledge and all empiri
cal knowledge of individual concrete facts.
Essentially necessary and incomparably intelligible states of
facts, such as "Moral values can be embodied only in a person,"
can be grasped with absolute certitude without recourse to con
firmation by the stream of experience. Even when we consider
them by themselves, isolating them from the rest of our experi
ence, even when we restrict ourselves completely t o an insight
into them, we still attain an absolute certitude, a truth beyond
any possible doubt.
The incomparable intelligibility of these essentially neces
sary facts is intimately bound up with the absolute certainty we
have regarding them. They disclose themselves to our minds
in their meaningful intrinsic necessity, thereby enabling us to
penetrate them with our intellect. This provides an absolute

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

certainty, an intelligible certitude, which no other knowledge

possesses.
In our appreciation of the absolute certitude of apriori facts,
we must also realize that these absolute, certain facts have a
general character. Consequently, our certitude concerning them
differs profoundly from the certitude we have with respect to
any individual concrete fact. Only in one unique case, in the
frame of concrete individual facts or of real individual existence,
can we reach a similar absolute certitude. It is the case of the
Augustinian "Si fallor, sum" or the Cartesian "Cogito ergo
sum." Here alone our knowledge of a concrete individual
possesses the same absolute certainty as does our apriori knowl
edge, even without the confirmation of the total network of
experiences.
Knowledge of apriori facts proceeds in a direction differing
basically from empirical knowledge of contingent facts. Some
apriori propositions are seen intuitively as rooted in the essence;
for example, the proposition "Being and not-being exclude
each other" or "Moral values cannot be embodied by a non
personal being." Others are deductive conclusions, like most
of the geometric and arithmetical propositions. It is not neces
sary to prove here that such deductive conclusions are not
weakened by the incompleteness which is proper and essential
to conclusions gained through inductive reasoning. A deduc
tion can lead with absolute strictness to a conclusion and
afford us absolute certainty. The conclusion derived through
deductive reasoning possesses the same certainty proper to
the premises. The deductive process as such does not lessen
certitude. The certitude of its conclusion depends upon the
certitude of the premises. The insight into intelligible and
necessary facts, in which immediately grasped states of facts
are given, is the primary reason for the absolute certainty
of apriori propositions, both deductive conclusions and, afortiori,
facts immediately grasped. Of course, the "givenness" referred

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75

to here must be free from all the imperfections which are proper
to the observation of merely contingent facts. Only a "given
ness" completely different from that of observation and induc
tion can support and truly give absolute certainty.
If there is an insight into an essentially necessary and abso
lutely certain state of facts, there is no question of observa
tion of actual being. Whether or not I am the victim of fantasy
or hallucination or whether I am dreaming or truly perceiving,
is strictly irrelevant to the reality of a necessary state of facts.
Let us assume, for example, that I perceive the color orange
on the fruit of the same name. In this perception I realize
that this color lies, according to the order of similarity, be
tween red and yellow. The reality of this fact is in no way
jeopardized by the realization that I may later on discover
that my "perception" was not a genuine perception of an actual
object, but rather an hallucination. For the question, whether
or not the orange color is here and now present in real
ity, is irrelevant to the reality of the state of facts that
"Orange lies between red and yellow." To grasp the truth of
the state of facts, the "such-being," the essence of the color
orange must be given to me. The real, actual existence of the
color orange, however, need not be given to me. The fact in
question is grounded exclusively in the such-being of red,
orange, and yellow. Its reality, therefore, is independent of
the validity of my grasping real beings endowed with these
three colors. This does away with the possibility of dis
appointment, to which all mere observations are open. It
also erases any question as to the incapacity of beings to grant
us absolute certainty. Here the perception has only the func
tion of affording me the opportunity, by the unfolding of a
certain such-being before my spiritual eye, to gain an insight
into the truth of the state of facts. But the perception, insofar
as it is an observation of an actually existing being, does not
act as a proof for the knowledge of the existence of this essential

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

state of facts. In the case of the necess ity of natural laws, that
is, of the merely though highly probable propositions of chemis
try and physics, perception actually does take on this role of
proving the truth and reality of states of facts.
If the observation that "Hydrogen and oxygen in a specific
compound yield water" should be an hallucination, then the
general state of facts concerning the chemical make-up of
water would hang in the air. Again, if a physicist should find
that the observations reporting that a body expanded when
heated were all made in a dream, then the inductive conclusion
affirming a causal relation between heat and the expansion
of a body would not be verified. He could not then lay it down
as a law of nature that "Heat expands a body."
On the other hand, the truth of an essentially necessary state
of facts in no way depends on mere observations. For ex
ample, take the proposition, "An object cannot be willed unless
I am conscious of it." The truth of this proposition does not
depend on whether my grasp and clarification of willing con
cerned a real willing or simply an imagined one. It does not
matter whether I realized this truth in a dream or while I
was awake. If in a dream I clearly and distinctly grasp will
ing in its such-being, so that I grasp as evident this state of
facts to be essentially rooted in the such-being, then my knowl
edge is as valid and as certain as it would have been if I
had been awake all the time. For, whether awake or sleep
ing, I have grasped a necessary fact which I understand to be
rooted in the essence of willing and not in the actual, here
and-now existence of this or that act of willing.
States of facts which are essentially necessary and immedi
ately understood are in reality completely independent of actual
existence here and now. An essence is given to me. In it are
grounded necessary states of facts, and in it, in the "givenness"
of the essence, I understand these necessary facts. In other
words, facts of this kind require only the "givenness" of a

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77

such-being, and not an existential status to be grasped. And for

precisely this reason, they are knowable with absolute certainty,
for they transcend the essential possibility of deception and
disappointment which attaches to existentially situated objects.
At the same time, moreover, we also know, when we have
perceived such essentially necessary states of facts, that they
are binding for each instance in which a real, concrete object
of this type may be found in reality; that is, we know that
each case will verify the general truth. A single example, per
haps even a merely imagined example, can afford us certain
insight into the truth of an essentially necessary state of facts.
This single example is enough to give us the absolutely certain
knowledge that in all possible cases wherein we are confronted
by a real fact of this kind, this state of facts will inevitably
and unfailingly be found.
The existence, within the total sphere of knowledge, of this
fundamental difference between absolutely certain and essen
tially necessary propositions on the one hand and, on the
other, merely probable and nonessentially necessary proposi
tions, is one of the most decisive insights of genuine philosophy.
As we have previously mentioned, it may be found in all truly
great philosophers. Empiricisms of various kinds have attempted
to deny the apriori, to deny the reality of absolutely certain
and essentially necessary propositions. This attempt, as we shall
presently see, necessarily leads to an absolute contradiction.
One of the main attempts to deny apriori knowledge pro
ceeds from confusing propositions which are certain with merely
tautological statements. It was Kant's great merit to elaborate
for the first time an essential and most important difference
in the realm of propositions, namely that between tautologi
cal and nontautological propositions. He termed the tautologi
cal propositions analytical, and the nontautological synthetic.
When we say, "Every son descends from parents," the predi
cate of this proposition merely repeats what was already and

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

explicitly present in the concept of the subject. For, by defini

tion, the concept "son" already includes a relation to parents.
The proposition, therefore, is purely tautological. If, however,
we say, "Every man has had parents," we affirm something
new, since the concept "man" does not explicitly contain the
note of a relation to parents.
This distinction of Kant has meaning and importance inde
pendently of his theory of knowledge. One need not accept
any other element of Kant's doctrine, and especially not his
idealism, in order to see that this distinction between analytical
and synthetic propositions is of the utmost importance. It is
a classic example of a first philosophical prise de conscience
of an elementary difference which is, in itself, obvious. All
propositions in which the predicate repeats that which has
been included, by definition, in the concept of the subject,
are tautological, void, empty, without any interest. Kant has
also proved convincingly that the propositions of Euclidean
geometry and of arithmetic possess, not an analytical, but a
synthetic nature. The proposition, "Seven plus five equals
twelve," is not tautological, for neither in the concept of
"twelve" nor in the concept of "7" and "5" is there to be
found an explicit relation to the state of facts which is ex
pressed by this proposition. This synthetic character obtains
not only in the example given by Kant, but in all propositions
stating absolutely necessary, intelligible, and certain facts. In
saying, for example, that "an impersonal being cannot embody
a moral value, e.g., humility," we in no way imply by the very
definition of the concept of humility that it can be found only
in persons. We certainly grasp humility in persons, but we
also grasp aesthetic values in persons. Yet we cannot therefore
say that only persons embody aesthetic values. Thus we see
that the proposition, "Moral values essentially presuppose a
person," is in no way tautological, but rather expresses a new
and imp ortant insight into the nature of moral value.

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79

Again, the proposition, "Orange lies between red and yellow,"

is completely synthetic in the above-mentioned sense. For
"orange" is a definitely specific type of color, the essence of
which is not primarily derived from the fact that it lies midway
between red and yellow. What we learn in this proposition
is something completely new and full of content. It goes
beyond what we already know when we simply think of
"orange."
We must, therefore, keep ourselves completely free from the
misunderstanding which would regard absolutely certain and
essentially necessary propositions as merely analytical or tauto
logical. This error strips such propositions of their epistemologi
cal dignity. In truth, they are so far removed from tautology
that in a certain sense they represent the prototype of fullness
of content within the sphere of knowledge, and surpass all
empirical propositions in their expression of worthwhile and
new content.
It is, above all, necessary to understand that what makes a
proposition analytical and tautological is decidedly not the objectively necessary relation between the being referred to by the
subject of the proposition and the being referred to by the
predicate. In any true proposition, the fact that it is true implies
that there is a real connection between the predicate and the
subject. This relation also underlies every purely empirical prop
osition. But even when the relation between the two beings
referred to as subject and predicate is necessary, for instance,
such as that between moral values and a personal being, when
the very nature of moral values requires a personal being as
the only possible bearer, even then the proposition "Moral
values necessarily presuppose a personal being" is in no way
analytical. The necessary relation between two objects, the
fact that something is necessarily rooted in the essence of an
other, does not make the proposition stating such a relation
tautological. On the contrary, only when the subject by its
.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

very definition implies the relation to the predicate can we

speak of a tautology. The analytical character of a proposi
tion implies that the reference to the predicate is already
included in the concept of the subject. But the concept of
the subject is emphatically not the same thing as the essence
to which the subject refers. Concept and essence must, there
fore, be sharply distinguished. Although the state of facts in
question is necessarily rooted in the essence of the being to
which the subject refers, this in no way indicates that the
proposition is analytical; it indicates rather that the proposition
is true. A tautology exists only when the concept, as opposed
to the essence of the subject, explicitly includes the predicate.
The statement, "Every effect presupposes a cause," is an analy
tical proposition. In the very concept of "effect," the relation
to a cause is included. But if we say, "Every becoming or every
change presupposes a cause," the proposition is in no way
analytical or tautological, because the concept "becoming" or
"change" includes by definition no reference to a cause. It has
a full meaning even if we prescind from its relation to cause.
The fact that the objective relation between becoming and
a cause is an essential and necessary one in no way renders the
proposition tautological. We must, moreover, realize that the
notion, "by definition," can be understood in different senses.
In traditional philosophy, "by definition" is sometimes used as
equivalent to "belonging to" the essence, or "being rooted in"
the essence of a being. For instance, one may say that the
character of "rational animal" belongs by definition to a hu
man being. But it is evident that the concept of man does not
explicitly include the notion of a rational animal. The proposi
tion, "Man is a rational animal," is far from being tautological.
We learn something new when Aristotle "defines" man as a
rational animal. His statement is an answer to the question :
What are the very characteristics of the being which we call
man, the being which we know by experience in our own

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81

person as well as in other persons? Whether or not this answer

is adequate or satisfactory is not our problem here. We are
interested only in the fact that the proposition, "Man is a
rational animal," is not tautological.
Thus, "by definition" here means exclusively that something
belongs, in reality, essentially and constitutively, to the essence
of a being. We, on the contrary, intend a very different meaning
when we say, "by definition." Thus, we would say that in the
statement, "Every rational animal possesses reason," the predi
cate is contained by definition in the subject. Here not only
does the real being essentially include what is said in the predi
cate, but the concept which forms the subject in this proposi
tion explicitly includes the predicate.
It is the explicit inclusion of the predicate in the concept
of the subject which makes a proposition tautological. In short,
when knowledge of the state of facts which the proposition
affirms is already used to build up the very concept which func
tions as subject, the proposition is then a mere repetition of
what has been already explicitly said by the subject. Such a
proposition is, of course, analytical, that is, a tautological
proposition.
The proposition, "Moral values can be embodied only in
a person," is not tautological. In saying, "moral values," we
refer to a certain type of values, such as justice, generosity,
purity. What underlies our concept, "moral values," is the
specific quality of these values, and not their exclusively per
sonal character. Obviously, we cannot form the concept of
moral values unless we have already perceived them. And in
our perception, of course, they were grasped as qualities of
human acts. But even if a reference to a human person is in
cluded in the notion of moral values, this in no way implies that
moral values are exclusively found in personal beings. To dis
cover that they are in fact exclusively found in personal beings is
a genuine insight, and to state it is far from being tautological.

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When we use the term, "moral values," we are indeed think

ing of values which we witnessed in human beings. Yet this
in no way indicates the impossibility of impersonal things (such
as a stone or a tree) being the bearers of moral values. Neither
does it in any way indicate that moral values may be embodied
in all personal beings and not just in human persons.
We can, thus, clearly see that the role which the reference
to human beings plays in the concept of moral values does
not give the slightest ground to call the proposition, "Moral
values are embodied exclusively in persons," tautological. The
state of facts expressed in this proposition is something com
pletely new, adding something important and decisive to our
knowledge of moral values. It is emphatically not a mere repeti
tion of something which had to be known already in order
to form the notion of moral values.
The same applies to propositions such as, "Moral guilt pre
supposes responsibility" or "A color presupposes spatial exten
sion." All these propositions are antithetically opposed to
merely tautological ones.
To grasp an apriori state of facts, it suffices to delve into
the nature of the being to which the subject refers; and
to draw out, as it were, the state of facts in question. This
process must be clearly distinguished from what takes place
in the formation of analytical propositions. In the latter, the
predicate is explicitly included, by definition, in the concept
of the subject and can be "drawn out" of it by attending to
the concept of the subject alone. In the apriori proposition,
on the other hand, what we "draw out" is completely new in
comparison to the concept of the subject. It is something
which has been found by contemplating the nature of the being
to which the concept of the subject refers. An unbridgeable gap
lies between these two types of proposition. In order to formu
late an analytical proposition I need only attend to the meaning
of the concept. For synthetic apriori propositions, on the con-

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83

trary, I must contemplate the being in question. I cannot re

main within the immanent framework of the proposition, but
must transcend mere "logical" correctness to draw out from
being some of its fertile plenitude.
There is, however, still another confusion which must be
eliminated. As I pointed out in the Prolegomena of Christian
Ethics, all philosophical discoveries differ radically from dis
coveries in science. They consist, not in making us acquainted
with beings, nor in showing us beings which were completely
unknown in prescientific experience, but in a prise de conscience
of facts which are in some way familiar to us and which in great
part are constantly presupposed by us in our life. Aristotle's
discovery of the nature and rules of the syllogism does not imply
that the rules of the syllogism were totally unfamiliar to man
and that they were never used in drawing conclusions until
Aristotle's works were published. On the contrary, these rules
were in some way known by all men, at least implicitly.
This characteristic of philosophy, which applies precisely to
apriori knowledge, i.e., knowledge of absolute, necessary, in
telligible, and certain facts, may also be confused at times
with the character of tautology.
The fact that the apriori proposition is a prise de conscience
of something which was in some way already familiar to us,
does in no way render it tautological. In reaching an insight
into such a state of facts as, "Love includes a desire for union,"
we have the consciousness: "yes, that is it; that is the true
nature of love." Still the fact that we confront it with the
voice of the being of love given in our prephilosophical, lived
experience, in no way denies the synthetic character of this
proposition.
Kant committed a fundamental error in overlooking the
synthetic character of metaphysics, and in restricting synthetic
apriori propositions to the sphere of arithmetic and geometry.
It is difficult to understand how the very man who discovered

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the difference between analytic and synthetic propositions is

the same man who overlooked the synthetic apriori character of
propositions in ethics, metaphysics, and the other fields of
philosophy. It becomes understandable, however, when we con
sider that Kant approached these problems from his theory of
knowledge, which denies intellectual intuition any role apart
from the two forms of intuition, time and space. Nevertheless it
must be emphasized that the distinction between analytic and
synthetic propositions retains its meaning and significance in
dependently of Kant's entire theory of knowledge.
Closely linked to this fundamental error is Kant's opinion
that the propositions of general logic and, therefore, the prin
ciple of noncontradiction, are analytic. In reality, the principle
of noncontradiction is anything but analytic. It is true that
analytic propositions have no content other than their being
grounded on the principle of noncontradiction (since they are
nourished by nothing else than by the truth of this principle) .
This does not, however, imply that the principle itself is analy
tic. In brief, if the principle of noncontradiction itself were
analytic, a mere repetition which says nothing about the reali
ties to which it refers, it would be impossible to determine
whether any proposition is tautological. For instance, let us
take the proposition, "All rational animals are rational." The
analytic character of this and all tautologies depends precisely
on the fact that the principle of noncontradiction is not analy
tic, but rather a basic, meaningful truth really applicable to
beings, and really stating an important fact about them.
There is yet one more point to consider. The principle of
noncontradiction is of such an elementary nature that it is
not only silently presupposed in every grasp of a state of facts,
but it is also luminous with elementary self-evidence. In the
case of an explicit contemplation of being as such, this principle
is perceived to be true without reference to anything else. Now
this elementary self-evidence of a state of facts must not be

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confused with the formal, explicit containment of the predicate

in the subject of tautological propositions.
That being and not-being exclude each other, that something
cannot simultaneously exist and not exist is a prototype for
all synthetic propositions. It owns an immense, decisive fullness
of meaning and content. What we grasp here is the polar oppo
site to the spiritual idling which is represented in the tauto
logical proposition. To call the foundation of all the things
in the world tautological and contentless is, in effect, to erect
the gigantic edifice of being and truth on air.
From all that we have said above, the following may be ascer
tained. Within the total sphere of knowledge, there are proposi
tions which specify themselves as essentially necessary, highly
intelligible, and absolutely certain, in contrast to all other kinds
of propositions. At the same time, these necessary propositions
have a distinctly synthetic character in our sense, i.e., non
tautological. There are, then, states of facts which are full of
content, that is to say, not at all tautological, and which can
be understood simultaneously as absolutely certain and neces
sary. It is these which we distinguish as apriori in contrast to
the empirical, be this the mere "accidental" single state of
facts or, instead, the general and "necessary" laws of nature,
which at best can be understood only as highly probable and
never as absolutely certain. We saw, moreover, that all states
of facts which are grasped through observation and induction
are of an empirical nature. The path leading us to the apriori
is essentially different. It lies beyond the world of single ob
servations and inductions. The knowledge gained from it is
well out of reach of the essential and inevitable faults affecting
the certitude of induction. We grasp an apriori truth in focusing
on the essence or "such-being" of the object. Hence, there is
no possible room for the question whether or not the object,
brought to a state of "givenness," really exists here and now.
The knowledge that there are absolutely certain and essen-

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tially necessary truths which are not tautological is indeed a

common possession shared by all the truly great philosophers.
No such common accord exists in answer to the question:
"What are the grounds that explain why apriori knowledge
is possible?" On the contrary, a wide diversity of answers exists
with regard to this question. What is even more important,
very diversified elements, having nothing to do with each other,
are dragged into the consideration of the apriori problem. That
is to say, the question of the existence of apriori knowledge has
been loaded with many elements completely foreign to it. This
is easily perceived when we examine closely in what sense apriori
knowledge is said to be "independent of experience." Apriori
propositions are characterized as being independent of experi
ence - as is implied by the very term, "apriori." We have seen
that they are indeed independent, in the sense that they do
not require blunt observations or inductions. For the most part,
however, the term "experience" has a much broader meaning.
Independence of experience, in thi broader meaning, has also
been demanded as a characteristic of apriori knowledge. In
what follows we shall attempt to expose this equivocation of
the term experience - an equivocation which must be resolved
if we are to gain a right understanding of the apriori.
2.

The many meanings of the concepts: apriori and experience

A. The Meanings of Experience

The term "experience" has at least two meanings. If some

one says, "I cannot talk about love. I do not know what it is
because I have never experienced it," the sense of "experience"
here is evidently quite different from mere blunt observation.
Here it means that something has never disclosed itself in its
essence to my mind, that it was never given to me in a con
crete moment which would have enabled me to grasp it in its
essence. Failure to "experience" in this sense means, to be sure,
that there has never been an observation of the existence of a

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definite type of reality, but above all it here signifies the com
plete lack of knowledge of the such-being in question. We may
call this experience the "experience of such-being," in opposi
tion to blunt, empirical observation.
Perception is the starting point for each of these two kinds
of experience. Still this should not make us unaware of the
essential difference between them. It is true that, when an
object is given to us, when it stands in its self-presence
before our minds, it gives us an original knowledge of its such
being and also a knowledge of its real existence. Both go hand
in hand in perception. Nevertheless, these two kinds of taking
cognizance of something are different one from the other. We
have already seen the proof of this, for we have seen that even
when an observation is invalidated because the "perception"
later on turns out to be an hallucination, still taking cognizance
of the such-being remains untouched. Thus if someone be
comes acquainted with the color red through an hallucination,
the result is that he had no experience of an actually existing
red thing, but he most certainly had a genuine experience of
its such-being.
At this point it is legitimate to ask: Are there contents
which need never be given to us in their such-being at least
once? Are there contents which we know independently of
every concrete perception of such-being? A blind person does
not know what colors look like. Not only can he not grasp
the real existence of a color, he also does not know the such
being of the colors red, yellow, blue, and so forth. These
singular qualities have not disclosed themselves to his mind
in their essence. Evidently, in the case of colors we are deal
ing with contents which, before they can be known, must
have been presented to the human mind in their such-being
at least once in a concrete instance. But is this true of con
tents like "unity," or of the basic ethical values, "good" and
"bad"? Is it necessary that unity, which plays such a funda-

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

mental role in the knowledge of every some-thing, should

have disclosed itself to us in a concrete perception, in a concrete
meeting of our mind with the object? Or do we, as spiritual
persons, receive its essence in some other way? Do we perhaps
know unity "innately"? Is knowledge of it given to us in the
same way as the capability of thinking or of loving is given?
In brief, are there any contents which we know independently
of every experience, in the broadest sense of the word - experi
ence of such-being as well as of existence? Are there contents
which need not be grasped by us even once in a concrete and
somewhat qualitative perception in order to be known by us?
This is a classic problem of philosophy. We meet it in Plato's
teaching of reminiscence, of Descartes's innate ideas, and in
Kant's categories and forms of intuition. This problem also can
be termed "the problem of the apriori." That is to say, one can
choose to call apriori only those contents which are said to be
independent of every experience, including the experience of
such-being. But at the same time one must clearly understand
that this question is entirely different from the question: "How
is the absolutely certain knowledge of necessary states of facts
possible?"
There are two completely different concepts of experience.
The one refers to observation of actual singular beings and to
induction. The other refers to every concrete disclosure of a
such-being. Corresponding to these two different meanings of
experience there are two equally different meanings of what is
signified by the thesis, "the apriori is independent of experi
ence." Apriori means something different in each case. As far
as knowledge of an absolutely certain and essentially necessary
state of facts is concerned, all that is necessary is independence
from experience in the sense of observation and induction. It is
by no means necessary that such knowledge be independent of
experience in the sense of the experience of such-being. Two
different questions can be raised. One asks : Is there an abso-

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lutely certain knowledge of essentially necessary states of facts :

if so, how is it possible? The other asks : Are there contents
which we know (innately or otherwise) independently of any
acquaintance with a such-being, even once? Whether the
second question is answered yes or no, nothing is decided
thereby with respect to the first. These are two completely
distinct problems, although both may be appropriately called
"the problem of the apriori." But apriori has a different
meaning in each of the two questions. We are not, of course,
interested in the question of terminology. We are simply
concerned with the fact that we are dealing here with two
entirely different and independent classical problems of phi
losophy. Unfortunately, very often in the history of philoso
phy these two distinct questions have been confused and treated
as a single problem about the possibility of apriori knowledge.
Only the first apriori problem, which asks about the existence
and possibility of absolutely certain knowledge of highly in
telligible and essentially necessary states of facts, will occupy
us here. Although both problems may fittingly be called classi
cal, the first is incomparably more important than the second,
which asks whether there are contents which we can know
independently of every possible experience.
We go so far as to say that the question which asks whether
apriori knowledge exists, in the sense of an absolutely cer
tain knowledge of highly intelligible and essentially neces
sary facts, is the epistemological question. It is the cardinal
question, whose answer decides the stage of dignity which our
knowledge can attain. It is such a fundamental question that
its decisive import reaches even to the most detailed and remote
philosophical problems.
It is not difficult to understand how much the confusion
of this question with the other question concerning apriori
knowledge has stood in the way of an answer to it. This con
fusion makes the unequivocal givenness of absolutely certain

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and essentially necessary facts dependent upon the answer to

the relatively obscure question: whether there is knowledge
independent of all such-being experience.
There is the tacit presupposition that knowledge of abso
lutely certain and essentially necessary propositions is possible
only if it is possible to know, anterior to every concrete per
ception, the essence or such-being of certain states of facts.
This presupposition is not only false, but it also results in
artificially limiting apriori propositions to those few contents
which can meaningfully support the question of whether we
can have an innate knowledge of their such-beings without
having even made their acquaintance in a concrete perception.
Moreover, no form of innatism can in any way explain the
possibility of apriori knowledge. Why should the essence of
a being, by the fact that it is known without any experience of
its such-being, render this essence more intelligible? Why should
it enable us to grasp with an absolute certainty necessary facts
rooted in this essence? This independence of any experience
of essence is not required for apriori knowledge. Furthermore,
even if we had such innate knowledge, its innate character
would in no way increase the possibility of apriori knowledge.
It is impossible to see why innate knowledge should possess
this intelligibility and enable us to gain insight into necessary
absolute facts with an absolute certainty. Why should our
knowledge of a state of facts rooted in a being possess the
character of absolute certainty by reason of our being born
with this knowledge? Certainly such a knowledge would be
independent of observation and induction, and thus would not
be corroded by the imperfections concerning certainty which,
as we saw, empirical knowledge inevitably carries with it. But
this independence as such is not equivalent to the intelligibility
of apriori facts. Nor, again, does innate knowledge imply any
guarantee of the truth of a proposition. The innate character
could also be linked to a human insufficiency and thus be invalid.

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In truth, apriori knowledge is independent of observation and

induction because of its incomparable intelligibility. The con
verse statement, that it possesses its intelligibility thanks to its
independence of observation and induction, is false. The self
evident truth of these facts, the truth which elevates us above
observation and induction, would not be guaranteed if the in
dependence of observation and induction were the result of
innatism. Compared with the theory of innate ideas, Plato's
theory of reminiscence would, relatively speaking, serve as a
better explanation for the absolute certitude and intelligibility
of apriori knowledge. In presuming that a perfect intuition into
the ideas was granted to us in a preexistence, Plato at least
tries to trace this intelligible knowledge to a previous higher
experience.
His explanation is superior to innatism in that it traces the
source of apriori knowledge back to a perfect experience, and
includes the disclosure to our mind in a most perfect intuition
of the being in question. The contact with reality, as well as
the intelligible character of this reality, is here implied. To
this extent, therefore, Plato's theory does justice to the facts.
But apart from the erroneous assumption of a previous exist
ence, his explanation has other great weaknesses. It does not
at all explain why an apriori knowledge is possible with respect
to certain objects and impossible with respect to others. Why
does such a reminiscence occur in the case of geometrical figures
and not in the case of a dog or of an oak?
Moreover, though an experience of such-being is here ad
mitted, why deny that an experience of this kind could take
place in our present life? Why not see that an experience of
such-being in our present life may grant us an intelligible in
sight and that dependence upon an experience of this kind is
in no way incompatible with apriori knowledge?
In order for propositions to have the highest dignity of
knowledge, that is, for them to be absolutely certain, incom-

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

parably intelligible, and essentially necessary, they need be in

dependent of experience only in the sense of the observation
of actual singular beings and of induction. This does not mean
that such knowledge must be independent of experience in the
sense of a such-being experience. It is apparent that we cannot
know colors without becoming acquainted with them at least
once through a perception. Does this dependence on the ex
perience of such-being impair and frustrate the possibility of
an apriori knowledge about colors? Not at all. The proposition,
"Orange lies between red and yellow;" is a classic example of a
valid apriori proposition, for it is absolutely certain and essen
tially necessary. The apriori character of this proposition de
mands only that, for an insight into this state of facts, there is no
need for observations about actually existing colors and no need
for induction. This condition, when fulfilled, gains for the
apriori an immunity from the inevitable possibility of decep
tion which is characteristic of observations about existents and
of induction. Hence it is necessary to keep the concept of the
apriori free from every pretention toward an independence of
experience in the widest sense of the term, that is, including
the experience of such-beings. For this experience in no way
excludes absolute certainty, intelligibility, and essential necessity.
B. The Apriori vs. Presuppositions
The apriori in our sense, furthermore, must be kept free
from yet another element which has played a great role in
the history of the problem of the apriori, especially in Kant.
This is the confusion of the problem of the apriori with that
of presuppositions, in which the problem is to see how certain
states of facts serve as the basis for further knowledge.
This latter is another classic philosophical problem, namely,
to examine what are the most general and most basic princi
ples which are presupposed for all further states of facts. This
involves an examination of the architectonic structure of be-

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ing to find out which elements are formal prerequisites for

others. It is a problem that plays a decisive role in the meaning
of the two concepts : formal and material.
For example, the propositions of logic are a formal pre
requisite for arithmetic; and the proposition of mathematics
are a formal prerequisite for physics. This pair of opposing con
cepts, formal and material, has a relative, and not an absolute,
nature. Thus, formal refers to a function of one state of facts
or one object in its relation to another proposition. The prin
ciple of noncontradiction is in itself a material truth. In both
logic and ontology, the incompatibility of truth with falsity
and being with nonbeing is a material principle. But in all
the other areas of knowledge, like mathematics, physical science,
ethics, aesthetics, ontology of the person, and so forth, the
principle of noncontradiction possesses a formal character, inas
much as it is grounded not in the specific nature of the objects
which make up the respective themes of these areas, but rather
in the content of being which is already tacitly presupposed
by all these objects. This is true in an analogous way of many
less general principles. Although they are material in them
selves, they exercise a formal function for a certain field of
knowledge.
Sometimes, the term apriori is used to signify a formal pre
supposition for experience. In this sense of the term, apriori
facts are those which are presupposed for any experience.
Kant, of course, was especially preoccupied with this struc
tural problem. When he asks, "What makes experience possible
at all?" he does so with a view to discovering the apriori ele
ments of knowledge. In Kant, to be independent from experi
ence assumes the meaning to be presupposed for experience.
For him, the apriori character of space and time is given by
the fact that we, as he alleges, presuppose space for all our
external perceptions and time for all our internal ones. In
other words, he thought that they were apriori forms because

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

they play a fonnal and foundational role for the objects of

both internal and external experience. The same is true with
respect to the categories which, according to Kant, are already
presupposed in every perception.
This formal, foundational role which certain contents and
states of facts play in relation to other objects, however, has
no necessary connection with the apriori character in the sense
in which the apriori refers to absolutely certain, intelligible,
and essentially necessary truths. Absolute and essential neces
sity is a characteristic which certain states of facts possess of
themselves, without regard to their relations to other states
of facts. Likewise their intelligibility and their absolute cer
tainty characterize them in relation to their knowability, and
not in regard to their structural relation to other objects.
A state of facts may be structurally constituted in such a
way that it is a fonnal presupposition for other objects without
being absolutely certain, intelligible, and essentially necessary.
The one is not a consequence of the other. So long as I
merely notice that a state of facts is necessarily presupposed in
all the remaining areas of knowledge, I have not yet proved
its essential necessity. The fact that it is so widespread a pre
supposition argues only that I have gained a concept of rela
tion. The fact, moreover, that it is an indispensable presupposi
tion simply attests to its functional importance for other states
of facts. But it says nothing about its own inner essential neces
sity, its intelligibility, and its absolute certainty. Suppose that
the only thing we could say about the propositions "A is not
non-A" and "Being and not-being exclude each other," is that
they are indispensable presuppositions for all other states of
facts. Then we should not have established their apriori charac
ter in our sense. We can and we do tenn these propositions
apriori in our sense only because we can understand them with
absolute certainty and intelligibility as essentially necessary in
themselves. Indeed, the mere fact that a proposition is an

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indispensable presupposition for other facts is not even a proof

for its truth, and much less a proof, therefore, for its apriori
character in the sense of absolutely necessary, highly intelligible
facts. And, on the other hand, there are genuinely apriori states
of facts which possess only a slight formal function with respect
to other facts, for example, "Orange lies between red and yel
low'' or "Willing presupposes knowledge." The first proposition
is of such a concrete nature that we cannot say it is the formal
presupposition for much further knowledge, much less for ex
perience in general. A self-evident consequence of its absolute
certainty, intelligibility, and essential necessity is that it must
be found confirmed in every single case of orange. But this
is only a consequence and not the proper content of being
absolutely certain and essentially necessary. But even this "con
sequence" of the apriori character is distinctly different from
the "formal'' character which is included as an essential charac
teristic of the Kantian apriori.
Here we can also see how an element is included within
the concept of the apriori which does not belong there. In
other words, the problem : "Which states of facts function as
the formal presuppositions for all remaining objects or for broad
areas of knowledge?" is confused with the genuine problem of
the apriori, the question about absolutely certain and essentially
necessary states of facts. This confusion exists despite the fact
that the problems not only are different but also are completely
independent of each other. Much closer to the "formal-pre
supposition" problem is that classical structure-problem, dis
cussed above, which asks whether there are contents which can
be known independently of experience in the broad sense. It is,
however, completely independent of the apriori problem which,
from the standpoint of absolutely certainty, intelligibility, and
essential necessity, inquires into the extent to which certain
states of facts can7 as knowledge, possess varying degrees of
dignity.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

The Apriori and Experience

A final mark of an apriori state of facts in our sense of the
term is that it is not essential that it be knowable for every
man. Universally available knowledge is not, therefore, as Kant
believes, inseparably connected or even identical with the apriori.
As noted previously, apriori knowledge in our sense must be
independent only of experience in the sense of blunt observa
tion and induction, but not of every experience in the broad
sense that includes the experience of such-being. Since this is
so, a truth can be apriori and still the possibility remains that
a person cannot understand it so long as he lacks an experi
ence of the such-being in question. A blind man, therefore, can
not be expected to understand the apriori proposition about the
order of similarity of orange, red, and yellow. There is, of course,
the possibility of asking whether a certain content is such that it
must unfailingly and without difficulty be known somehow to
every man. This would apply to contents like time, personal
being, or, indeed, being in general. The question might be asked
whether there are insights which demand a more specific percep
tion in order to be understood. But these questions are not
decisive for the problem of determining whether or not we can
understand this content as an essentially necessary, highly intel
ligible, and absolutely certain state of facts.
Thus far we have seen that apriori knowledge is in no way
incompatible with such-being experience. We have seen,
furthermore, that knowledge is empirical, if it is rooted in
experience as taken to signify blunt observation and induc
tion, not in experience in the larger sense of the term in which
it embraces as well the experience of such-being. With even
greater force, then, the question arises: Why is it possible to
have knowledge of essentially necessary and absolutely certain
states of facts in some areas, whereas it is not possible to have
such knowledge in others? The experience of such-being is
present in the case of all objects. Why, then, is this experience
C.

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sufficient in some cases to give us an absolutely certain under

standing of a state of facts, whereas in other cases it is valueless
unless supported by empirical observation? In brief, if it is
enough to appeal to an experience of such-being in order to
attain insight into an apriori state of facts, why is not apriori
knowledge possible with respect to all objects? To answer this
problem, we must now examine what it is that affords the
possibility of knowledge of such dignity on the mere basis of
a such-being experience. Our attention now turns to the central
problem having to do with the radical difference between
apriori and empirical knowledge.
3.

Genuine essences are capable of being grasped intuitively

To discover the radical difference between apriori and em

pirical knowledge, it is first necessary to see how apriori knowl
edge depends upon a certain kind of essence structure. In the
case of absolutely certain and essentially necessary states of
facts, as we have seen already, our attention is centered on the
such-being of the object, not its actual existence.
For example, when we understand that moral values neces
sarily presuppose a person, we contemplate the such-being of
moral values and persons. There is no need to ask whether
the moral value which we focus upon, in order to make clear
to ourselves the essential characteristics of moral values, is
actually present in reality or whether it is only something which
we have imagined or dreamt.
On the other hand, when we are interested in knowing the
nature of a metal, gold, for example, its actual existence is
profoundly important. We cannot possibly eliminate the ques
tion whether the perceived thing actually exists or is the
product of dreams and hallucinations. If here we should look
only to the such-being of gold and put, as it were, its existence
into brackets, a number of awkward consequences would result.
First of all, there would be no genuine interest in knowing

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

an object such as gold if it did not actually exist. Any interest

we might have in the specific essence of gold is entirely de
pendent on the fact that, in a perception of this kind, we are
dealing with the perception of a real, actually existing object.
Second, a such-being of this kind would resist all attempts of
our intellect to discover any truths necessarily grounded in it,
as is the case when we contemplate the such-being of moral
values. We may, indeed, in the contemplation of gold as such,
grasp a much more general fact, such as "This thing cannot
exist and not exist at one and the same time." But this fact is
rooted, not in the specific essence of gold, but in the nature of
being as such. Again, it is possible for us to understand, as we
contemplate the such-being of gold, certain essential facts, such
as spatial extension, which are valid for material things in gen
eral. But this does not in any way affect our thesis that we can
not derive any essentially necessary, luminously intelligible, and
absolutely certain states of facts from the bare contemplation of
an object such as gold. For these apriori propositions are rooted,
not in the being of gold as such, but in the being of gold only
insofar as it is at the same time a material thing. By perceiving
merely these general necessary states of facts we do not grasp
the specific content of gold as distinguished from silver or lead.
Even more, we must not confuse certain essential unities
which lie in the aesthetic appearance of gold, its beauty for
example, with the constitutive essence of the metal, gold. When
we delve into the such-being of willing and obtain the insight
that there is no willing unless there is knowledge, we deal
throughout with a constitutive state of facts for the willing as
such, and not merely for the aesthetic appearance of willing.
But all possible focusing upon the such-being of gold can
never lead us to a state of facts grounded in the constitutive
essence of gold. Gold does not tum its constitutive such-being,
its essence, toward us. Willing, on the other hand, does. We
learn som ething about the such-being of gold only "from with-

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out," in a roundabout way, only in a detour, only through

"observations." We refer to single observations, such as the
measurement of its specific gravity, melting point, and the
like. This way (i.e., induction ) , according to its very nature,
ends in only empirical states of facts. It is apparent, moreover,
that everything we learn about the directly perceivable proper
ties of gold must be stripped of all knowledge interest as soon
as we suspend the actual reality of the perceived object, that
is, as soon as we prescind from the actually existing gold.
For the knowledge interest in this such-being is entirely de
pendent upon the fact that, in this kind of perception from
which the knowledge proceeds, we deal with a real object, that
we deal with the perception of a real, actually existing thing
and not with an hallucination. We should be accused of simply
playing around if we claimed that we were examining descrip

tively an imagined kind of metal or an imagined type of

beetle. i t is, therefore, clearly up to the kind of such-being
of an object whether or not a delving into it, puttiqg aside
any consideration of its real existence, possesses any knowledge
interest at all, and whether it yields the knowledge of absolutely
certain and essentially necessary states of facts.
To sum up : The possibility of apriori knowledge depends
upon the kind of object known. To gain an absolutely certain
and essentially necessary insight, it is not enough that we have
an experience of such-being and that we prescind from the
question of actual existence and induction:' We must have also
a very special kind of such-being and a givenness which is possi' Husserl stressed this prescinding from existence in his term : "putting exis
tence into brackets." He erroneously believed that this would suffice to guarantee
apriori knowledge independently of the nature of the object. It is the basic
weakness of Father Lauer's critique of Husserl ( cf. his Triumph of Subjectivity
[New York, 1958] ) that he never singles out the main error in Husserl's
"bracketing theory," namely, the failure to see that, except for necessary essences,
all objects of knowledge lose their interest as soon as we prescind from their
concrete, real existence, and that they yield no apriori knowledge, no matter how
much we bracket them. It is this failure which led Husser! to transcendent
idealism, a position radically opposed to the one set down here.

1 00

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

ble only with this type of such-being. The ability of objects to

become known exists in a variety of basically different ways.
In order to understand this variety within the sphere of the
such-beings of objects1 we must discuss different basic types of
such-beings.
Thus1 in order to shed additional light on apriori and em
pirical knowledge1 we shall inquire into the stages of mean
ingfulness which are found in the realm of such-being. A
tremendous gradation of meaningfulness is at once apparent
when we look at reality in its broad outlines. Every existing
thing is a unity1 and its such-being must in some way be
characterized as a unity. This unity is flanked by two oppo
site poles: the first is intrinsic impossibility, and the second
is the chaotic1 amorphous object devoid of all content. The
intrinsic impossibility1 which is the antithesis to unity, i
either something contradictory in itsel1 such as a wooden iron1
or a square circle, or some nonsensical thing such as a blue
number1 or a square joy1 and the like. Since such things contain
incompatible elements1 they thereby militate against unity. Such
pseudo notions are radically opposed to1 and are the complete
negation of1 unity.
Advancing from the lower to the higher, we shall present the
various stages of unity. We shall begin with what is chaotic and
possesses only accidental unity, advance to genuine unity1 and
proceed thence to the necessary unity which represents the
genuine essence1 the Idea.
A. Chaotic and Accidental Unities
The lowest stage of unity is chaotic and accidental.
A completely amorphous and chaotic mass is the opposite of
a real unity1 not with respect to the inner connection of ele
11
ments, but rather with respect to its failure to be a "something
that is thrown into relief as distinct from surrounding beings.
It is in conflict, as it were1 with the "external sideu of unity,

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101

whereas what is intrinsically impossible opposes the "inner side"

of unity. The more shapeless and the more formless something
is, the more it approaches the "non-being" of chaos, until at
last it reaches a point where it ceases to be a "something." Thus,
concerning the antithesis to the chaotic, there is an enormous
gradation in the realm of possible things. No such gradation
is to be found in the sphere of possible things with respect to
the impossible. There is rather only the decisive alternative of
possible or not-possible.
Within the realm of the possible, however, there are many
levels or gradations, beginning with the chaotic and merely
accidental unity and proceeding to intrinsically necessary unities.
As long as we say of a unity only that it is possible, nothing
is stated about its stage of positive meaning. If a unity is under
stood simply as possible in principle, this merely means that
there are no self-contradictory elements within it and that it is,
therefore, not excluded from reality. But this knowledge does
not give us the slightest hint how far this unity is opposed to
chaos, or how organically meaningful and, it may be, even
necessary, the inner connection of the elements of this unity is.
There are unities which are indeed possible, but which, with
respect to the connection of their elements, are impoverished
in meaning - purely accidental, like a heap of stones or a group
of random tones which do not make up a melody. From the
point of view of meaning, this is the lowest stage of unity.
There is no inner coherence of elements, but merely a factual
coherence. Unity is maintained only because it is found in some
thing really existing or, in the case of an imagined unity, only
because we happen to be considering it here and now. As a
such-being, it does not stand on its own feet at all. We are not
able to attach any objective meaningfulness to this unity; it has
no real eidos, no genuine form. Only an external element keeps
it from falling apart and dissolving into the world of the chaotic.
It lives only by reason of a blunt facticity, which may come

102

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

about because it happens to be thought of, or represented, or

imagined by someone, or occurring in reality.
Let us take an example. We are able to draw geometric figures
which lack every principle of form yet constitute a unity, al
though a unity that is arbitrary, accidental, and almost senseless,
in contrast to the unity of a triangle, quadrangle, trapezoid, and
the like; nothing objective is struck with this unity. It has no
such-being which stands autonomously. It is kept together as a
unity only by our arbitrary act of construction. Intrinsic consis
tency is even less in the case of a heap of heterogenous objects,
such as a pile of junk or rubble. The unity present here is purely
factual, born only out of the contingent time-space environ
ment. The single elements which happen to be parts of this
purely factual unity might, if taken separately, have a meaning
ful unity. But their togetherness forms no meaningful unity.
Instead of being intrinsically united, they are kept together only
externally. A unity of this kind lacks any real inner consistency.
What unity there is is due only to a factual grouping.5
This is the lowest stage of unity from the standpoint of
meaningfulness. Since the such-being of a unity of this kind
is so poor in meaning, it is turned in the direction of the
chaotic. Furthermore, by contemplating the nature of a unity
of this kind we cannot rise to the knowledge of anything
authentically generic in the sense of a "type."
B. Unities of a Genuine Type
A higher stage of meaningfulness, basically different from
that discovered in the impoverished unity just discussed, is
found in those beings whose unity stands for a genuine type.
We encounter this higher level of unity in the such-being of
objects such as gold, metal, stone, or water. These objects have
a meaningful nature, a quiddity which justifies our speaking
6 Of course, this implies that the parts have a quite general ontological
affinity, e.g., that each of these parts is a corporeal thing.

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

103

of them as real types. Their unity forms the basis for a true
universality. Here there is not a generic character which im
plies exclusively an opposition to the single existing individual.
Rather a certain stage of generality is to be found here which
allows many possible future differentiations (from species to
sub-species) .
Moreover, the stage of generality is not an arbitrary one,
but is grounded in the meaningful unity of the such-being.
The "suchness" of a scribbled geometric figure or of a heap of
junk is completely arbitrary in its generality. We cannot, fur
thermore, form a concept of this unity but we must content
ourselves with a description of the such-being as a whole.
The such-being present in a genuine type evidently has
an inner consistency that is quite different. It is something
objectively meaningful, standing in sharp contrast to what is
purely accidental and factual. It is not simply held together
from "without," but rather possesses a unity from the "center,"
and its elements are combined, not accidentally, but intrinsically
and meaningfully.
Compared with beings possessing an impoverished, radically
contingent unity, genuine types have a further dignity. They
are, in a completely new sense, serious "somethings." What
ever has only a meaningless, impoverished such-being is not a
species nor can it ever be a serious object for science. In addi
tion, whatever is held together exclusively by de facto accidental
existence has, from the point of view of existence, a nonserious
character.
We must, however, distinguish two strata in those beings
whose such-being has the character of a true type. In the
one stratum we find the such-being of appearances, e.g., the
appearance of gold, of metal, of water. This "type," which the
appearance offers to us, and which is the starting point for
naive concepts, we may call its "face," its outer or "appearance"
unity. We must distinguish it from the second stratum, which

1 04

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

is the nature of the type of matter possessing this "face." If

science deals with these objects, it does not limit itself to
describing the appearance or the "face" of these beings. Rather,
science seeks a nature more fundamental than the one situated
in the stratum of appearance. It wants to know the constitutive
marks of this kind of being possessing this appearance. To be
sure, if we seek to know the nature of gold, for example, its
distinctive color is one characteristic. But its specific gravity, its
chemical composition, and so on, are more decisive for deter
mining its constitutive nature. The scientific question, "What
is gold?" clearly leads us beyond those characteristics of gold
which play a role in our life, such as its unique attractiveness
which determines its role as adornment, and its use as money;
in short, this question leads us beyond the "face" of gold.
The constitutive nature, which is what science is chiefly inter
ested in, is not accessible to our mind in the same way as is the
outer nature, the face. In order to investigate the former we
need a more complicated research. In many cases it is not dis
closed by a merely descriptive observation, but requires instru
ments of all kinds.
Sometimes scientific research may prove that the constitutive
nature of two or more objects is the same, even though their
appearances exhibit great differences. In short, there is the possi
bility here of showing that beings which, because of their differ
ent appearances, claim to belong to two different species, have
in fact the same constitutive nature. A familiar example of this
reduction is the scientific discovery that coal has at bottom the
same constitutive nature as a diamond.
Let us first consider the such-being unity of appearances.
The unity of gold or of water, though definitely the unity of
a genuine type, is contingent in character. If we prescind from
the real existence of such objects, they lose their interest as
serious objects of knowledge. If I dream of a new type of metal
and state upon awakening that this type of metal was only

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

105

the product of a dream, then this type would be of no interest

to science, even though the non-existing metal offered m e a
typical appearance unity.
Moreover, in contemplating the unity displayed by appear
ances, we cannot grasp any necessary states of facts essentially
rooted in it. A unity of this kind is not so luminously intelligible
as to allow us, by delving into it, to grasp various facts with
absolute certainty. A mere contemplation would lead us no
further in our knowledge. Unity of this kind calls for descrip
tion. To enrich our knowledge we must proceed by describing
the appearance - a procedure which clearly and typically differs
from intuitive insight.6 Description goes around the object and
accumulates all the observations concerning it. Description is a
typically empirical way of knowledge.
Afortiori, new observations are required to answer our ques
tions about such contingent realities as water and gold. What
is water's effect on other beings? What use can we make of it?
The answers to these questions can never be drawn out of
its outer, "appearance" unity, but demand fresh observations.
What is the freezing point of water? What is the degree at
which water begins to boil? The correct answers to these ques
tions cannot be grasped by delving into the "appearance" unity
of water. Nor can I, from the contemplation of water, know the
laws of hydraulics. A being of this kind lacks the full intelligi
bility of apriori states of facts and receives the character of a
serious object of our knowledge only when the being having
this appearance unity really exists. Though we can grasp here,
as mentioned above, that certain features are unessential, still
we can never absolutely know whether an observed feature is
essential or not. Consequently, our concept of these beings is
either artificially closed or else is open to eventual correction.
The same applies with even greater force to the constitutive
e We shall see later on that certain "appearance such-beings," that is, the
outer faces presented to us by some realities, are open to other types of knowl
edge than description, though never to an apriori knowledge.

106

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

structure, the inner such-being. The unity of the species, the

structure which science aims to elaborate, is not only not intui
tively given, but it is also in some way hidden. In contrast to
the "face" of these beings, the inner constitutive unity can be
reached only through complicated experiments, such as we find
in chemistry, and through the use of instruments like the micro
scope. Thus this "unity" is so far from being accessible to an
intuitive contact that we rather "compose" it, as it were, out
of the single elements that we grasp experimentally. Here,
the states of facts which we want to learn are not disclosed by
intuiting the such-being of the respective object; for, on the
contrary, we can only reach a notion of the constitutive
such-being by grasping, through experiments, several states of
facts concerning this being. The knowledge of these beings
with regard to what concerns their constitutive nature is typi
cally a knowledge "from without." A such-being hidden in this
way lacks real intelligibility, though it is certainly a true type, a
genuine species. It lacks the character of intrinsic necessity and
presupposes the real existence of the being in order to be a seri
ous object of our knowledge. Thus we see that neither the
"face" of water or of gold, nor their constitutive such-being
unity can be a basis for apriori knowledge.
An analogous situation obtains for beings like an oak tree, a
pine tree, a lion, a dog, and so on. It must, however, be stressed
tha:t the relationship between a being's apparent unity, its
"face," and its constitutive such-being varies very much accord
ing to the nature of the being in question. The gap between the
chemical formula of water and water itself, such as it presents
itself to our immediate experience, is quite different from that
between the appearance of a tree or an animal and the scientific
notion of the respective species. In the case of inanimate,
corporeal bodies, the difference between appearance unity
and constitutive such-being entitles us to speak of two com
pletely different levels, not to say different worlds. In the case of

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

1 07

an animal or a plant, on the contrary, outer unity is closely

linked to constitutive unity. Although they do not coincide
to such an extent that the naive concept of these beings as
grasped through their "appearance" unity in prescientific obser
vations must not be corrected, they never lose their significance
for the constitutive being. Even in stating that the dolphin is
not a fish, but a mammal, it remains an essential feature of
this animal that it lives in water, looks like a fish, and so on.
AU these important differences cannot be discussed here, as
our interest is exclusively focused on the difference between
apriori and empirical knowledge. We only want to state that
the difference between "appearance" unity and the constitutive
such-being is analogous, not univocal.
The "face," or the appearance unity, plays a greater role for
the species of these beings and is in general a characteristic
manifestation of their essence. In many other epistemological
respects, moreover, the unity of essential structure involved here
differs from that discovered in water and gold. Nonetheless, it
shares the same contingent character.
The outer, appearance unity of a lion or of a horse, which is
at the basis of our naive concept of them, is also the result of
several observations. It is not intuitively given, as is the such
being of love or of justice. It has not the intelligibility which
would enable us to draw out of it states of facts. Here, too, we
can proceed only by observation. Moreover, the outer unity
never informs us strictly about those features which belong
necessarily to these species and those which are more or less
accidental. It may be that in one case a color is typical for a
species, for instance lions; and in another case, for instance cats,
no specific color is typical. Although we find that a certain color
is typical for the species lion, it is always possible, in principle,
that we may discover a lion which is black or white. Only ex
perience, in the sense of observation, can decide whether or not
a lion of another color de facto exists. And even if experience

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

should never show us an existing lion which has a white color,

we should not be entitled to say that a white lion is strictly
impossible. For this type of such-being unity is neither in
telligible nor necessary. When we ask what essentially be
longs to this species - what characterizes it, we never aim
at elements rooted with absolute necessity in the essence.
The contingent character of this such-being clearly discloses
itself when we realize that "essential" here means what is
de facto constitutive for a species, and not what is intrin
sically necessary and what is absolutely to be included in
the essence in question. That a quality or property is "essen
tial" to a such-being of this type ultimately rests on whether or
not the individuals of the type exist in this manner, whether
or not the property is supported by real concrete existence. All
this applies equally to the constitutive such-being of the species,
including those elements of a physiological and anatomical
nature, which are accessible only through experiments and by
the help of instruments. Afortiori, these elements are knowable
only through empirical observation. The physiological and ana
tomical aspects of a species have the contingent character of an
outer, appearance unity and lack the full intelligibility of
apriori states of facts.
Certain outer unities, however, may offer a still more mean
ingful essence than that of being simply the valid "face" of
hidden constitutive such-beings. Let us consider the appearances
of gold, water, and lions from a different standpoint. We can
say of a man that he is "like a lion." What we really do here
is to focus on a certain appearance, which we may call "lion
ness." In the same way we can speak of "water-ness" and of
"gold-ness." In speaking in this way, we call attention to a kind
of aesthetic essence which has meaning independently of the
real beings possessing the character in question. We thus deal
with a purely qualitative "essence." In the case of lion-ness,
we refer to such aesthetic features as majestic strength, dignity,

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

1 09

ferociousness. In the case of gold-ness, we point to radiant

beauty, preciousness, and splendor. In the case of water-ness,
we refer to fleeting flexibility, to the refreshing character of
water, to the purifying character of ablution, and so on. This
aesthetic essence is indeed to be found in the appearances of
water, gold, lions, and no doubt other beings. But in no way
can we say that all contingent types possess this aesthetic
essence. When it is found, however, it has a more intuitive
character and a higher intelligibility than does the "face" of
other objects.1
But this aesthetic essence, which plays a predominant role
in poetry, and is often at the basis of epitheta ormmtia and
comparisons in poetry, is in no way an object for science. As
significant as it is in poetry, as precious as it is for characterizing
the nature of certain things by an analogical use of these "aes
thetic essences," it offers no key to an exploration of the real
beings possessing this note.
In order to belong in reality to the species "lion," an animal
need not possess this "aesthetic" quality of lion-ness. As a
matter of fact, the female lion possesses it much less than the
male.
Ice, though the same species as water, does not possess the
aesthetic essence of "water-ness"; in fact, its aesthetic character
is outspokenly different. These aesthetic essences, which play a
great role in the beauty of nature, have an important and signifi
cant role in the real world. They do not, however, have the kind
of intelligibility which would enable us to reach insights into
necessary facts by contemplating them. We can, to be sure,
draw characteristic features out of the aesthetic essence simply
by focusing on it without any need for establishing empirical
observations. Nevertheless, these aesthetic essences have a con1

Only those "faces" which have an aesthetic essence lend themselves to a

kind of understanding which transcends mere description. But even this under
standing is in no way an apriori knowledge.

IIO

WHAT I S PHILOSOPHY?

tingency which bars them from providing a basis for apriori

knowledge. Our knowledge of the aesthetic essence has a "de
scriptive" character which, to some extent, is intelligible. Still
it is a description, and not an "insight" into necessary states
of facts.
Thus we see that the constitutive such-being of these genuine
types as well as both their "face" and their aesthetic essences,
though meaningful and typical, bear the character of contin
gencies, of "inventions." Though certainly beyond the power
of man, they are, as it were, inventions of God. Because of
this contingency, they in no way lend themselves to an apriori
knowledge.
C.

Necessary Essential Unity

When, on the other hand, we deal with objects like a triangle,

a person, will, love, and so forth, we are confronted with a
totally new and different type of unity. These objects bring us
to the stage of necessary unity. It is sharply distinguished from
the impoverished type of unity and also from the very mean
ingful but nevertheless contingent unity just discussed. It can
be grasped clearly through a series of characteristics.
Here the high point of inner consistency is reached. Here
is the polar opposite to a unity held together merely from
"without." The essential, constitutive unity found here is not
hidden, but is intuitively accessible. Yet it is not the such
being unity of an appearance, the mere outer appearance unity.
It is the very constitutive essence of the object itself.
For example, the unity intuitively given to me when I con
template the essence of red is not only the characteristic of
the "face" of this being, or even a mere "aesthetic" essence. It
is the constitutive essence of the quality red. The duality of
"appearance-unity" and "constitutive unity" is canceled here.
This cancellation is due, not to the fact that we deal here with
a mere quality, but to the fact that red has a necessary unity.

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

Ill

This duality is also canceled when we contemplate the such

being of a spiritual person. We can grasp that the being of a
spiritual person is not extended in space and that the spiritual
person alone can be the bearer of moral values. What we have
before us when we understand these facts is the constitutive
essence of the person itself. This is directly and intuitively ac
cessible to us and we grasp it as a necessary unity.
In cases like these, it would be completely senseless to invoke
the above-mentioned distinction between appearance-unity and
constitutive such-being and to pretend that a constitutive struc
ture, hidden up to now, could be discovered which might con
tradict these truths. Here the constitutive such-being itself is
not only not withdrawn from our immediate experience but is
also intuitively given.
An authentic genus or species is given in a unity of this kind.
Not only is there no arbitrariness, but also the limits of the
genus and species are unequivocally given. The essence of red
is clearly given in opposition to all the nuances of red. The
same is true of the essence of the triangle in opposition to all
types of triangles, or of the living being in opposition to animals
and plants.
When we think of the constitutive nature of a lion, the line
which defines one specific kind from all the others is not un
ambiguous. It is unambiguous, however, in the case of the
triangle or the color red.
When we deal with a necessary, such-being unity, we find
that the difference between merely accidental elements and ele
ments which are constitutive for the genus is unambiguously
given. Whether the brown color and the mane are merely acci
dental elements, or whether, instead, they are typical character
istics of a lion, can be apprehended only by experience, in the
sense of a blunt observation and induction. Nor can the con
templation of the "appearance" unity of the lion teach me any
thing about it. But in the case of a single triangle, I can at

1 12

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

once understand that the size of the triangle is not constitutive

for the essence, triangle. The size of a triangle is intuitively
seen to be an accidental element standing outside its necessary
such-being unity.
Moreover, the authentic generic such-being offers itself to our
minds completely by itself. We need only glance at an indi
vidual concrete example. We can "read the such-being" right
off the object. In the case of meaningful but nonnecessary uni
ties, we obtain the species by an abstraction and we gain a
knowledge of the constitutive such-being through the observa
tion of many single cases. On the other hand, with respect to
the necessary unities, the species stands out on its own. Far
from being the result of combining several experiences, far from
being something "built up" by them, a generic feature of a
necessary unity imposes itself as such upon our minds. The
object alone is totally responsible for the generic character of
the species which we perceive. In short, we are given the species
concretely in the single thing.
We must emphasize the fact that the necessary essence is
given in its generic character when we perceive a concrete indi
vidual being possessing that essence. When we see a triangle
for the first time, we grasp not only this concrete triangle, but
also the genus "triangle." The necessary such-being in its generic
character discloses itself intuitively in the concrete individual
triangle which we perceive. This genus or species is not reached
by abstraction, as in the case of morphic unities. No specific
intellectual process on our part, comparable to the building
up of a concept, is required to reach the generic. But thanks to
the very nature of the necessary essence, the generic imposes
itself on our mind when we perceive the concrete individual.
The genus or species is given in the perception of the concrete
being.
That the genus is given does not, of course, imply a philo
sophical prise de conscience of the nature of the genus. Nor

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113

does the awareness of it resulting from the perception suffice for

grasping apriori facts which are rooted in it.8 But even when a
philosophical prise de conscience is present, it does not imply
any abstraction, unless, of course, abstraction is defined to mean
a focusing on the necessary essence and on the genus and species
and a prescinding from all accidental features of the concrete
example. Only when abstraction is so defined can we speak of
abstraction here.
This disclosure of the species and genus in the concrete being
belonging to the species is a specific mark of necessary essences.
The intelligibility of the species and genus implies here its
manifestation in the concrete individual being. Yet we must
again stress that this apprehension of the essence of the species
and the genus is decidedly not equivalent to a philosophical
prise de conscience of it and still less to a complete knowledge
of it.
The disclosure of the species or genus in the perception of an
individual concrete being possessing a necessary unity is not
only fully possible, but it is in fact the only possible way for us
to be acquainted with the such-being of the species. We do not
make the acquaintance of a species by perceiving it independ
ently of a perception of a concrete individual example. It is
true that in the case of a philosophical intellectual intuition,
which patently presupposes that we are already acquainted with
a species through the perception of an individual example be
longing to this species, we can delve directly into the species
without considering the concrete individual. In this case the
focusing on a concrete example has a different, rather auxiliary
role.
Plato, who in his Meno discovered the difference between
apriori and empirical knowledge, did not grasp this fact. He
takes it for granted that the species of a triangle does not diss This does not apply to the most general states of facts, such as "Something
cannot be and not be simultaneously." In these cases, the naive experience of a
being allows us to grasp these general truths, albeit not philosophically.

1 14

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

close itself when we focus on a concrete individual triangle.

He therefore postulated an immediate intuition of the species
in a previous existence, an intuition in which no individual
example of this species intervenes.
Instead of seeing that in the case of these necessary essences,
the species intuitively discloses itself in the perception of the
individual example, Plato reduces the role of the perception of
the concrete individual to that of merely evoking in us a
memory of the previous, pure intuition. This error, of course,
goes hand in hand with Plato's failure to grasp that the differ
ence between apriori and empirical knowledge is rooted in the
such-being of the object.
We must now consider another feature of these necessary
essential unities and establish the following thesis : It is essential
for this kind of unity that we deal with a "potent" such-being,
that with respect to its content it stands completely on its own
feet, and that it does not cease to remain a thoroughly serious
object for our knowledge even on the assumption that there
exists no actual object of this kind. As a matter of fact, these
classical necessary unities are so potent that in a certain sense
they are, even if no examples of their kind happen to exist.
We cannot banish a genuine eidos into the kingdom of fantasy,
fiction, hallucination, or dreams. In whatever way these unities
disclose themselves to our mind, they stand to such an extent
on their own feet, thanks to an inner potency and the plenitude
of their necessary meaningfulness, that the complete autonomy
of their being is untouchable. For their full validity, they re
quire the support neither of presence in an existing object nor
of being thought of by us. They alone possess an ideal existence
in the full sense, a kind of existence which they possess by
reason of the solidity and necessity of their such-being. They
cannot be touched by any relativity in the act in which they
become present to us.
These "necessary" intelligible unities are so filled with ratio

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and with intelligibility that their objective validity no longer

depends upon the act in which we grasp them. We saw
before that if in a dream the such-being of a triangle, of red,
or of willing were clearly and unequivocally given to me, the
essence itself would not be merely dreamed. Although an
essence, a such-being, comes in a dream, it has meaning of itself
and thus in no way would it be discredited. On the other
hand, if we should dream of a certain metal unknown to per
ception, or of a new kind of beetle, the dream index would
touch not only the existence of these contents but also their
such-being. The such-being also would be simply a dreamed-of
content. For this reason it would forfeit all serious knowledge
interest. But in the case of such-beings possessing a necessary
unity, the dream index is completely external to them and
can not rob them of their validity and meaningfulness.
We must now advance still further. With respect to the
evident states of fact, which are necessarily rooted in these
essences, any possibility of an invalidation through a distortion,
or insufficiency of our mind, is excluded. Here it would be
senseless to say, "Perhaps all these states of facts are not valid,
perhaps the insight that moral values presuppose a personal
being as bearer is only due to a distortion of our intellect,
such as craziness or idiocy."
Nor would it make any sense to apply the Cartesian doubt
to the insight into the fact that "Something cannot be and
not be simultaneously," or "Responsibility presupposes free
dom." For the luminous intelligibility and rationality of such
insights precisely proves that we are neither crazy nor idiots.
Indeed the extreme form of insanity would be to affirm that
dogs are just, or that stones are charitable, or that Mars both
exists and does not exist.
We do not mean, of course, that the capacity to have these
insights into necessary facts excludes any kind of distortion
of mind, or guarantees mental sanity. We mean only that in

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WHAT I S PHILOSOPHY?

the accomplishing of these insights, any distortion of a person's

mind cannot manifest itself. He may be affected by a distortion
of mind with respect to other things. But when he accomplishes
these insights, to this extent at least is he sane, for the very
lucidity and rationality of these facts exclude any negative
influence of a distorted mind on them.
We are playing with words if we assume that the insight
into the fact that "Something cannot be and not be simultane
ously," or that "Moral values presuppose a person," could be
the result of a distortion of our mind. When we prescind from
the luminous intelligibility of these apriori truths, as we do
in the fiction that they might be the results of a distorted mind,
then the very notion of "distortion of mind" loses all sense.
The unities in which these necessary states of facts are
grounded stand entirely on their own feet. All attempts to make
these insights relative are dashed to pieces by the meaning
fulness and power of the such-being in which they are rooted.
If they are unequivocally and clearly given, they do not need
any criterion for the integrity of the act that grasps them,
but, on the contrary, they themselves justify the grasping act
as not contaminated by error.
These necessary unities are the only genuine "essences." They
are the "Ideas" toward which Plato primarily aimed in his dis
covery of the world of Ideas. They are the original source of
all ratio, the highpoint of intelligibility. With respect to them
our mind is in a unique position.
We saw that these necessary and highly intelligible essences
exclude any assumption that they are mere fictions or illusions.
Even if we suspend the question as to whether any just man
truly exists, the essence of justice clearly excludes the possibility
that it is a mere fiction or illusion. It could never be the mere
product of a human mind.
It is in any case something objective, possessing an autonomy
of being. It is. We have only to compare it with the such-being

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of a horse o r a mountain i n order t o grasp the "ideal existence"

which justice as such possesses, independently of its concrete
realization in a man, an ideal existence which the such-being of
a subspecies of beetles, for example, in no way possesses.
The very fact of this "ideal existence" reveals itself especially
when we consider that all the states of facts rooted necessarily
in these essences are an eminent object of synthetic proposi
tions, full of plenitude and importance. The most classical
domain of truth comprises the propositions referring to these
necessary states of facts, to these eternal verities.
As we shall see later on, these eternal verities apply to all
possible reality and thus contain a fundamental insight into
reality. When we grasp the full validity of these states of facts,
their intrinsic impact and import, then we understand that
it is impossible to deny the "ideal existence" of these beings.
The fact that we have not yet a metaphysical place at hand
in which to locate these necessary such-beings does not permit
us to deny the ideal existence which justice, love, the number 3,
color, etc., clearly reveal as their property. By screaming in
horror "That is Platonism!" instead of admitting, free from
any prejudice, an unambiguously given feature, we act like
Procrustes who cut off the feet of men because they did not
fit into the bed he had made.
Instead of accepting a fact such as it is, independently of
all questions concerning the difficult problems which may arise
from this fact, one feels entitled to discard the fact.
We, on the contrary, must accept the difficult problem im
posed by this undeniable feature of beings which possess a
necessary and highly intelligible essence, the feature, namely,
of "ideal" existence. And starting with this very feature which
is given to us as an undeniable reality, we must analyze its
metaphysical implications. A serious analysis of these necessary
essences may bring us to the knowledge that they exist in
God in a way different from the divine "inventions," as we

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called the morphic unities, the meaningful yet contingent types.

Without broaching metaphysical problems in this epistemologi
cal context, we may still hint at the fact that this "existence"
in God obviously can have many different meanings, according
to the necessary essence in question.
In the case of being, truth, justice, charity (love) , we can say
that God embodies these "essences" in the sense that He Him
self is absolute Being, Truth, Justice, Infinite Charity; whereas
in the case of necessary essences like the number 3, or the color
red, existence in God has a completely different meaning.
In speaking of "ideal existence" we must, however, make
still another fundamental distinction. We find necessary in
telligible unities not only among beings which have a real in
dividual existence, or which could really exist, but also among
those entities which by their very nature cannot form a part
of the real world in the full sense of the word. I am thinking
of entities like the proposition and the concept, entities which
have been called entia rationis, "beings o the mind." A propo
sition definitely has a true necessary essence, and all states of
facts rooted in the nature of propositions are necessary and
intelligible, and can be grasped with absolute certainty. Logic
deals with the nature of propositions, and the kind of knowledge
in question is indubitably apriori.
On the other hand, the entity, "proposition," is of such a
nature that we can never predicate real existence of it in the
full sense. Concerning this entity we can never raise the ques
tion which we can raise concerning a person, a house, an animal,
love, justice, and so on, the question, namely: "Can it be found
in the real world?" "Does there exist a real person?" "Does a
just act ever take place?'' "Can we find true love in existing
men?" A similar question would make no sense in the case
of a concept or a proposition. We can only ask: "Are the con
cepts adequate or the propositions true?" We cannot ask
whetlier they are to be found in reality or not. But, on the

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1 19

other hand, they are certainly something. They are a serious

object of knowledge and clearly differ from fictions like a
centaur or a nymph.
Patently we are here thinking of the entity, "proposition,"
which consists of a subject, a predicate, and a copula, and not
of acts of judging, in which these propositions are formulated
and uttered. The acts of judging are, of course, beings which
claim a full individual real existence. Yet, judgments, in the
sense of propositions, must be radically distinguished from
these acts of judging. Again, with respect to propositions, we
encounter the attempt to escape from the problem concerning
the kind of being of these entities. Either they are confused
with acts of judging, or they are reduced to a mere combination
of words, whereby again words are interpreted in a completely
nominalistic manner. In either case, the problem of the kind of
existence these things have has been evaded.
We prescind of course from the "escapism" accomplished by
the famous "nothing but" formula. We are interested in the
real nature of entities like propositions and concepts. They
have a "necessary" intelligible essence and are serious objects
for our apriori knowledge; they are excluded, however, from
individual existence in the real world. In attributing "ideal"
existence to them, we may refer either to their character of
intrinsic necessity which separates them from all mere fictions
or illusions, or to the fact that such beings are excluded from
reality, and are incompatible with full, real existence.
Clearly the two meanings of ideal existence are different. In
one sense it refers to a special kind of perfection and, in the
other sense, to an imperfection, an ontological "thinness." We
want to retain the first meaning in our analysis. Thus, when we
study the relation between ideal existence and real existence, we
mean to use "ideal existence" in the sense of a specific perfection
of a being possessing a necessary unity, and not in the privative
sense of essentially not-real entities.

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It would, however, be a complete misunderstanding to believe

that, by admitting the ideal existence of these necessary and
highly intelligible essences, one is led to posit a kind of "two
world" system, one of real individual existents, and the other
of "ideal" existents. The link between individual, real existents
and these realities which possess, thanks to their necessary
essence, an "ideal existence," is a very deep and close one.
We do not intend to broach the entire problem of the rela
tion between this "ideal existence" and "concrete individual
existence." Still less do we intend here to offer a solution to
this extremely difficult and mysterious problem. We only want
to add some hints which may insure a more precise formulation
of this problem and a sharper appreciation of its complexity.
First, we have to realize that any question about the real
existence of a being involves, on our part, an understanding of
the kind of existence which the essence in question "calls for."
We have already mentioned entities, such as propositions or
concepts, which by their very nature can never become real
in the full sense. These important entities, of which we predi
cate truth and falsity, have exclusively an "ideal existence" in
the privative sense of this term. We thus can prescind from
them in this context because the question of real existence does
not even pose itself.
In the case of numbers, however, such as two or three, we
are confronted with entities which are in no way excluded from
the real world. Certainly we do not find them as we do sub
stances such as a piece of matter, or a plant, or an animal, or
certain accidents, such as a movement of a corporeal body or
a quality pertaining to it. Nevertheless, when I state that two
and not three persons are in my room, I refer to a concrete real
fact. Without attempting to analyze the kind of reality num
bers have, we can state that they enter in a specific way into
the real world, although they do not have the kind of reality
possessed by substances and by many accidents.

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Colors present us with still another and different type of

real existence. First of all, they can assume a full individual
existence as qualities of corporeal things. Whether or not the
things possess the quality of being colored independently of
our mind is not decisive here. In any case, the colors assume
an individual concrete existence as real aspects of these things.9
If, however, the object having a red color exists only in an
hallucination of which we are victims, evidently the color red
would not have the same real existence as it has in objectively
existent things.
However, even the hallucinated color would not sink to the
same level of nonexistence as that of a merely hallucinated
house. For the house claims to have a fuller existence in the
exterior world than does the color, and thus the gap between
the real house and the merely hallucinated one is much greater
than in the case of the color. But on the other hand, the color
red, because of its "ideal existence," retains still a higher reality
even if it is merely hallucinated. Because of the necessary in
telligible unity of red, the "being-perceived" means here an
other degree of reality than in the case of the house. For the
"reality" of an hallucinated house is the void and minimal
existence of something merely "perceived." Closely linked to
this feature of ideal existence possessed by colors is the fact that
there are many gradations between the two extremes of the
existence of the color as a property of a corporeal thing and
as an hallucinated color. We need only think of the fact that
a green mountain seen from afar presents us with a blue color.
Again, objects assume different colors in a certain light, e.g.,
the rosy color of a cloud at sunset. Or again under the influence
of certain drugs, we might "see" yellow. In every case the
color itself is something serious, something definitely "there,"
although in each case it has a different kind of foothold in
reality.
D

In our next chapter, we shall deal in detail with the reality of this aspect.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

There is again another existence in question when we in

quire about the reality of moral values. Here the "ideal
existence" already implies a full reality. The truth of the state
ment, "There is an objective moral good and evil," is fully
verified by the "ideal existence" of moral values. The ideal
existence of moral values is certainly of an incomparably greater
weight and impact than that of colors. The validity of moral
values already guarantees their full metaphysical impact. They
are for that reason the true and real norm for judging personal
attitudes. We have already mentioned that this "ideal existence"
entitles us to speak of a real existence in God.
The "ideal existence" of moral values implies also that they
belong to certain attitudes to such an extent that, with the
reality of these attitudes, they too will become realized in an
individual concrete case. Their "ideal existence" provides, as
it were, for their place in the concrete individual existing
world, as values embodied in certain acts.
When a morally good act takes place in this world, some
thing new takes place with respect to all those kinds of "reach
ing down" into reality credited to things having an ideal
existence. The real existence of a moral value is obviously a
completely new stage, for it implies that a moral good has been
concretely realized. But it is nonetheless secondary when com
pared with the reality which the moral values already possess
thanks to their ideal existence. The metaphysical role and
fathomless reality of moral values are not increased by this
concrete realization, as important and decisive as this realiza
tion may be from other points of view. The "oughtness"
proper to moral values reveals their deep significance for reality.
The fact that human attitudes should be morally good shows
that the reality of moral values is guaranteed by their "ideal
existence."
We are confronted with still another situation concerning
real existence when we think of entities possessing a necessary

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123

essence like person, willing, love, or contrition. The real exist

ence of person implies that a concrete individual person exists,
or has once existed. Here the fullest type of existence is in
question and the difference between "ideal existence" and real
individual existence is the most outspoken and far reaching.
The same applies analogously to personal acts such as love,
will, knowledge, contrition. Real individual existence implies
that these acts have really taken place in individual persons.
A clearly marked gap separates their ideal from their real
existence. After this brief sketch of the different types of real
existences which are at stake according to the nature of the
being in question, we want briefly to indicate how the respective
real existences manifest themselves from a philosophical point
of view.
In the case of numbers, no special manifestation of their
role for the real world is needed. They intervene everywhere:
two perceptions, two trees, two headaches, two paintings, and
so on. The thought of any real world in which numbers would
have no place, or to which they would not apply, is obviously
an impossible fiction.
Color manifests its real existence in every perception of the
colored world surrounding us. Colors have a different kind of
real existence than do numbers, so that we are here in another
situation. For the ideal existence of colors does not guarantee
their role in the real existing world, as it does for numbers.
But, as we saw above, the very fact that the exterior world
presents itself to us as colored guarantees the real existence
of colors. Whether or not the color is a property of corporeal
things, independent of our minds, does not affect its real
existence, as long as it is the real aspect of the exterior world.10
We saw above that even the mere "being-perceived" assumes
in color another dignity and objectivity, because of its ideal
existence.
10 We shall discuss the objectivity of aspects in the next chapter.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

We have already mentioned the way in which moral values

manifest their reality, how their ideal existence as norms for
the validity of moral actions implies a certain real existence.
The specific realization of a moral value in a concrete act
of an individual person manifests itself only empirically in
the concrete perception of such an act. My certainty that a
moral value has been realized depends upon my certainty of
the reality of the act as an act and its specific nature. Thus,
the question here no longer concerns the manifestation of the
realization of a moral value, but the manifestation of a human
act in its specific nature, an act of love or contrition. In short,
that contrition is morally good is absolutely certain. But that
I have here and now witnessed a genuine act of contrition this alone is open to question and doubt in any concrete case.
When we tum to the real existence of persons, an incom
parably fuller and more authentic existence, the problem of
reality receives unique support from another source. We said
before that here the gap between "ideal existence" and real
existence is most outspoken and far-reaching. For this reason
we may know that the essence of a person is so potent
that it rules out the possibility that this essence is a mere
illusion or fiction, such as a centaur or a nymph. But this
knowledge does not offer us any guarantee of the concrete
existence of an individual person.
Nevertheless, in the case of the reality of a person, we are
in a unique epistemological position because of the fundamental
fact referred to by both the Augustinian "Si failor, sum" and the
Cartesian "Cogito, ergo sum."
The absolute certainty with which we grasp here the real
existence of our own person, the fact that every possible error
and deception necessarily presuppose this real existence and
affirm it as indubitably certain, gives a unique position to
the knowledge of the existence of a person, a knowledge of
a full, metaphysical, objective existence.

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Thus i n this unique case o f the person, the intrinsic neces

sity and intelligibility of the essence, which is the basis for all
apriori knowledge concerning the person, converges with an
absolute certainty about the real individual existence.
After these hints concerning the relation between ideal
existence and real existence, we must emphasize the fact that
these essences, so powerful that they do not need the support
of existence in order to distinguish them from mere inventions
of fantasy, have a unique reign over existing things. Their rela
tion to existing things exceeds by far that of the merely "pos
sible" thing. When its such-being is not nonsensical or self-con
tradictory, when, therefore, it is not essentially excluded from
the world of real things, then an object is said to be possible.
A such-being of this kind, insofar as it simply grants a possibil
ity for existing, need not be necessary. It can, in fact, be even
impoverished in meaning and even purely accidental. Its rela
tion to existing things, moreover, is only negatively defined.
It implies that a possible instance of this such-being is not ex
cluded from the world of real things. Necessary and essential
unities, on the other hand, not only are not excluded from the
existing world but also stand in a more positive relation to it.
We might say that they are basic classic components of the
existing world. Nothing arbitrary, nothing accidental is found
in the concrete existence of their respective objects insofar as
the essence-kernel is concerned. They are, as it were, in a
classical way, destined to become real.
On the one hand, it is totally inadequate, as we saw above,
to classify as mere "possibles" those beings possessing a neces
sary intelligible such-being; on the other hand, this inadequate
term, "possible," undoubtedly hints at an impurtant fact. It
expresses, though insufficiently, the classical meaningful rela
tion which these beings have to real existence, independently
of whether or not they actually have been realized. The import
of "ideal existence" and its deep link to real existence are hidden

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

in this term. This dawns on us when we realize that meta

physics is defined as the philosophy of real being, both possible
and actually existing. The term "possible" obviously does not
refer here to beings which simply are not excluded from being.
No, the possible which is here taken as part of reality, and as
such a topic of metaphysics, obviously includes something deeper
than flying oxen or golden mountains. Whether or not an
object possesses dignity enough to be a topic for metaphysics
depends, not on its being a "possible thing" in the sense of
the not-impossible in principle, but on the deep inner direction
toward real existence. Only this notion of possible justifies our
calling possible things a part of reality, together with individ
ually existing things.
It must, however, be emphasized that on no account may
we construe this to mean that the real existence of these objects
is itself grounded in a necessary such-being. There is no essen
tially necessary real existence present in these cases. Their real
existence remains contingent in contrast to their ideal existence.
A necessary real existence is present only in the case of the
absolute being, namely, God. Even here, however, we are
unable to know the real existence from the essence of God
alone.
Let us now summarize the different stages of such-being unity
and inquire into the consequences these stages have for the
knowledge of the difference between apriori and empirical
knowledge.
In the world of objects known to us we find a large gradation
in the meaning of various such-beings, beginning with the purely
accidental and impoverished, then those unities which, although
meaningful, are yet contingent, all the way to the necessary and
essential unities. Not every object has a necessary and highly
intelligible unity, and even some objects which do have a
necessary unity are not immediately and intuitively accessible
to us. Here lies the decisive line dividing apriori from empirical

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knowledge. Insofar as we deal with impoverished objects, an

essential and general knowledge is impossible. At most they
form the object of a purely empirical description. Insofar as
we deal with objects having a meaningful but not a necessary
unity, especially those whose constitutive such-being unity
is partly hidden, as in the case of different kinds of material
things or single species of animals and plants, these objects
are accessible only through empirical knowledge, in the sense
of observation and induction. On the other hand, insofar as
we deal with objects having a necessary and concretely and
intuitively revealed unity of essence, we deal with objects that
are accessible through apriori knowledge. That is to say, we
are able to understand apriori truths as being necessarily
grounded in them. By this we do not mean to say that what
ever is knowable in them is of an apriori nature. In short,
we do not say that whatever is characteristic of them can be
understood as necessarily grounded in their essence. Above all,
the knowledge of the real existence of these objects is very
definitely empirical. But also of an empirical character are
those various laws which deal with the genesis and "natural
history" of an object endowed with a true essence. In short,
everything which can be rightly predicated of such an object
without being rooted in its essence is of an empirical nature.
Such empirical knowledge includes, for example, all the psycho
physical laws of human beings. It is true, of course, that in
being a spiritual person, man possesses a necessary essence
which can be intuitively grasped and in which we can under
stand apriori essence-relations as necessarily grounded in the
essence. The proposition, "No willing without understanding,"
is an example of such a necessary essence-relation.
Thus we see that the possibility of apriori knowledge, that
is, absolutely certain knowledge of essentially necessary states
of facts, is grounded in the type of such-beings of certain ob
jects. It is grounded in an object's constitutive unity which has

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

been intuitively revealed to our mind. We understand that

apriori knowledge cannot be adequately or correctly conceived,
as Husser! believed, by saying that it results simply from looking
at the such-being of any object and bracketing its real existence.
Husserl's method leads to an insight into absolutely necessary
and intelligible facts only when we deal with certain kinds
of objects, namely, those which intuitively reveal to us an
essential unity that is necessary and possesses high intelligibility.
That which irrevocably divides apriori from empirical knowl
edge is dependent upon the essentially profound difference in
the objects themselves, the difference, namely, between objects
which possess an intuitively revealed, intelligibly necessary unity,
and others possessing either a contingent but meaningful unity
or even a merely accidental such-being unity that is impover
ished in meaning. For essentially necessary states of facts are
grounded only in the necessary and highly intelligible unities.
The necessity of the such-being is presupposed whenever the
members of a state of facts are joined by a necessary link. When
we deal with objects having meaningful but contingent unities,
the states of facts grounded in these unities can bear at most
the character of contingent necessity. Moreover, only in the
case of intuitively revealed, necessary, and highly intelligible
unities is the necessary grounding of states of facts in the
essence given to our minds. When, however, we deal with
unities that can be known only "from without," by a detour,
when we deal with meaningful but partly hidden and con
tingent constitutive unities, we can never grasp the ground
ing of laws of nature in the such-being unity. Only in our
knowledge of objects, whose highly intelligible, necessary es
sence can be seized intuitively, are we independent of experi
ence in the narrower sense, that is, of blunt observation and
induction. With regard to these objects we are in the unique
position of being able to understand with absolute certitude,
without recourse to observation and induction, the states of

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

1 29

facts which are necessarily grounded in their essence. Each es

sence, furthermore, can be grasped as the necessary ground of
other states of facts which belong to the necessary unity.
Thus independence of experience in the broad sense, that is,
in the sense of an experience of such-being, is by no means
required, as we will now see even more clearly, for the knowl
edge of the apriori. Nor is it required that there be apriori
knowledge only of objects which are presuppositions for the
possibility of experience, whether in a broad or narrow sense.
Apriori knowledge bears upon states of facts which possess
two characteristics. First, they are necessarily grounded in a
necessary such-being unity; second, they can be understood
by us with absolute certainty; either through the intuitive given
ness of the necessary such-being unity or through a deductive
inference from a directly understood necessary state of facts.
The possibility of apriori knowledge, therefore, is provided by
objects having a necessary essence which can be intuitively
seized. Hence, it follows that the circumference of apriori
knowledge is much larger than it is often thought to be. Apriori
knowledge is not only possible, it is also the only possible and
suitable knowledge, not simply in the fields of mathematics and
logic but also in metaphysics, especially the ontology of the
person, in ethics, aesthetics, and many other areas of human
knowledge. Here the facts, propositions, and relations which are
thematic are all of an apriori nature.
It follows, from what we have said above, that the attempt
to explain the difference between apriori and empirical knowl
edge by the degree of abstraction reached cannot be accepted
as satisfactory.
It is true that in ascending to a much higher genus, we can
reach an intelligible and necessary essence which offers us the
possibility of an apriori knowledge. When facing a mouse, we
prescind from the species "mouse," as well as from the genus
"mammal," and focus only on its being a living substance;

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

we certainly reach a necessary and intelligible such-being then.

The same applies to every individual substance when we abstract
from its species, as an oak, or as a silver fox, etc., and focus
exclusively on its character as a "substance" or even only as a
"being."
But it would nevertheless be wrong to believe that the in
telligible, necessary character is only to be found in the most
general genera or even transcendentals. We saw above that not
only has color such a necessary such-being, but even that the
different species of color, such as red, blue, yellow, have this.
We also saw that not only values in general have a necessary,
highly intelligible such-being, but also moral values as such
and even also justice, humility, generosity. We saw that not
only the person has such a necessary such-being unity, not only
the genus, personal act, but also something much more concrete,
such as the species of willing, love, contrition, and so on.
This fact clearly proves that the necessity and intelligibility
of the objects which enable us to attain an apriori knowledge
are not dependent upon the degree of generality of a genus. Nor
are they the result of the degree of generality of a genus.
It is not thanks to the degree of abstraction that we reach
a necessary and highly intelligible object. Rather, the difference
between a merely morphic unity and a necessary, highly in
telligible unity is rooted in the very nature of a being. The
difference between apriori and empirical knowledge depends
upon the intrinsic nature of an essence, a such-being, be it
species, genus, or a transcendental, and not upon the degree
of generality or abstraction, for example, the third degree of
abstraction.
The question might arise: with regard to the limits of apriori
knowledge, how can we know whether or not we are dealing
with an object having a necessary such-being capable of being
grasped intuitively? What criterion is present? We answer that
the criterion presents itself when we contemplate the such-

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being of an object. We do not need here a specific mark prior

to and external to the object. If an object's essential and neces
sary unity can be seen intuitively, we can, by focusing on its
such-being, understand essentially and with complete certainty
that we are dealing with a being of supreme intelligibility and
unity. This is an elementary characteristic of this kind of ob
ject. Errors here are possible, to be sure, but to be safe from
these errors, we do not require an external criterion. The charac
ter of a necessary, intelligible unity is its own criterion, and is
unambiguously given to the degree that we fully grasp the
such-being of the object. Our understanding of it goes hand
in hand with our fully focusing on this such-being.
4.

Epistemological characteristics of genuine essences which

can be grasped intuitively

There is thus a great division among objects, a division ulti

mately based upon the fact that some objects have an essen
tially necessary and highly intelligible unity which can be
intuitively grasped. This division is completely sui generis It
must not be confused with other criteria affecting ontological
dignity. It has, for instance, no relation to the difference be
tween substance and accident.
There are both substances and accidents whose such-being is
necessary, highly intelligible, and open to intuitive insights,
whereas other substances and accidents do not possess such unity.
For example, the substance human person has a necessary, such
being unity, whereas the substance dog does not. In short, the
ontological difference between substance and accident is not
only distinct from our difference between necessary unity and
contingent unity, but it is also independent of it.
What is more, we may not take the difference in question here
and rank it with a region of being. The vital world is a higher
region of being than the world of mere material things, and
the personal world is higher than the merely vital world. These
.

1 32

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

ontological differences in rank or dignity of being are inde

pendent of the question that asks whether or not we are
dealing with objects having a highly intelligible, necessary
essence capable of being grasped intuitively.
Thus, the such-beings of triangle and the color red, which
belong to the material world in the broad sense, are necessary
and intelligible unities. Weariness and blood circulation, al
though they belong to a higher region of being, possess meaning
ful unity, to be sure, but a unity that is merely contingent, not
necessary.
This great division between the apriori and the empirical
is a result of the totally unique element in the condition of
objects. This classical reality of the eidos, this inner power of
certain such-beings, which is significant for necessary and essen
tial unities, crosses other fundamentally important differences
among objects. Whether or not a certain object has a genuine
essence, an eidos, cannot, therefore, be deduced from the pres
ence or absence of other fundamental perfections of being. Nor
should we be puzzled when we find that some objects contain
an intuitively intelligible and necessary unity despite the fact
that in other respects they stand ontologically on a lower stage
than objects which do not reveal any eidos to our minds. The
perfection embodied in the necessary essence is ontologically
only one among several decisively important ones. In relation
to our knowledge, however, and especially to the degree of
certainty of our knowledge, it is a very decisive one. Necessary
essences possess a meaningfulness which makes them the source
of all ratio and elevates them to being a unique counterpart
to the grasping mind. With these necessary essences we reach
the most privileged situation for our mind. The intuitive and
absolutely certain insight into necessary and highly intelligible
facts is indeed a priceless "banquet" for our intellect.
It is especially important that we do not confuse the in
telligibility of these intuitively revealed necessary unities with

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the "transparency" that lies i n the possibility o f a concept to

be defined.
When, for example, we answer the question "What is four?"
with "Four is one plus one plus one plus one," we break down
this essence into its components in a peculiar manner. We
must fully distinguish the intelligibility proper to the necessary
essences as such from this singular transparency possessed by
certain such-beings, which allows them to be broken down
and reduced to other known things and, conversely, to be syn
thesized again from the components. The distinction becomes
still clearer when we think of cases wherein the definition
does not even touch the nerve of the such-being but simply
picks out essential characteristics of the object, as when we
say, "Man is a rational living being." This definition, although
it is only of essential characteristics, yet seems to claim to give
a breakdown of man's authentic such-being, his innermost
essence.
If an object can be broken down and if its real essence can
be represented by a formula, then the object possesses a special
rational clarity. But this is not at all identical with the intelli
gibility of essences. It represents only one form of an intellectual
penetration. Many necessary essences, however, because they
are strictly original data, are not reducible to other known com
ponents. Hence, with respect to them, the form of intellectual
penetration present in objects of rational clarity is not even
possible. What is more, this particular form in no way repre
sents the climax of intellectual penetration.
Above all, this transparency is not at all required to make
apriori knowledge possible. Many necessary essences stand in
their fullness before our minds and are grasped as things which
cannot be broken down or reduced in any way. Such, for ex
ample, are the color red, the essences of love, space, time, and
so forth. Here intelligibility means a unique "meaning-fullness"
which renders it possible for our minds to grasp the object

1 34

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

"from within." Here there is a case of intelligere, in the strict

sense of intus legere intima rei.11 When we put these necessary
essences before our mental eye so that they are able to unfold
themselves in an intuitive plenitude, then we are certainly far
removed from the thin transparency which is broken down in
a definition.
This is likewise true when it is essentially possible to break
down an essence into a definition. For to be able to say that
four is one plus one plus one plus one, we must have had the
essence of four intuitively accessible to us. It is indeed the
original givenness of the essence of four which makes possible
the insight into the fact that four is one plus one plus one plus
one. This intuitive accessibility of the essence and its special
intelligibility, both of them necessary presuppositions for apriori
knowledge, are distinctly different from the transparency of the
definition inasmuch as the possibility of obtaining a genuine
essential definition, in contrast to a mere descriptive definition,
already presupposes on its part the givenness of the essence.
This accessibility of necessary essences, as opposed to the
hiddenness of the constitutive such-being unities, or the mere
descriptive givenness of the appearance unities, does not mean
that we "know" these essences without further exploration.
Focusing, for example, on the essence of person enables us to
understand with absolute certainty a state of facts necessarily
grounded in it even though the essence of person has a mysteri
ous depth and is anything but transparent.
The path to the more profound and inner penetration into
the essence goes beyond the insight into the state of facts
necessarily grounded in it. The further we come, the more
the essence discloses itself to us. Here we must pay attention to
two things. First, in the givenness present in the fruitful, in
tuitive contact with the object, which forms the starting point
11 Even if this etymology of St. Thomas Aquinas is questionable with respect
to the language, the word yet represents a grasping of the object in a classi
cally basic and decisive sense.

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135

for all further insights into the essential facts related to the
essence, the essence is revealed in a way which differs com
pletely from the "transparency" of an essence that makes it
possible for us to define the object. We should fall into a
vicious circle, and, indeed, put the cart before the horse, if
we first demanded the kind of knowledge of an essence which
can be projected into a definition in order to acquire insights
into the state of facts in question. This, of course, is what
actually happens in the case of tautological propositions. Here
an essence is circumscribed in the sense of breaking it down
by a definition. Then the predicate simply repeats the state
of facts which was the ground of the definition in the first
place. Second, if we should know every state of fact pertinent
to an essence, the disclosure of the essence itself would be
completely different from the transparency which provided
the basis for definition. To appreciate this fact we must under
stand that most essences are basic and primal data. This means
that we must perceive each essence if we are to know it. We
cannot deduce it from other data. All essences which are indeed
primal in this sense are, therefore, something more than a "sum
of properties." For this reason they can never be dissolved
into a mere sum of characteristics, into a unity made up of
transparent and definable parts. Out of the knowledge of a!!
necessary states of facts grounded in an essence, a light flows
and illumines the essence itself and reveals it to our minds. But
this light does not dissolve the necessary and essential unity
into components in such a way that a definition cast from
these components could replace the intuitive grasp of the
essence.
There is yet another possible misunderstanding which we
must eliminate. In our elaboration of the specific character of
apriori insights, we have always chosen as examples self-evident
and readily acknowledged facts, such as, "Something cannot
be and not be simultaneously"; "Moral values presuppose a

1 36

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

person as bearer"; 14Colors presuppose extension"; and so on.

We must now insist, however, that apriori knowledge is not
at all restricted to facts like these, which are so self-evident
that the very first glance suffices to allow us to grasp their
truth. We have chosen such facts as examples because they
make it easier for us to grasp the character of apriori knowledge
in contrast to empirical knowledge. But to say that knowledge
is apriori is not to say that it is obvious at first sight. These two
expressions are by no means synonymous. Philosophy, espe
cially, must not be restricted to those facts which are self-evident
at first sight.
We have already mentioned the difference between philo
sophical and scientific discoveries. Philosophical discovery often
consists in a prise de conscience, an acute and fully conscious
awareness of facts which are presupposed and thus in some
way known in our lived contact with being. Such is the princi
ple of noncontradiction, the principles of efficient and final
causality, the laws of the syllogism, and many others.
The way in which certain things are presupposed and in
some way known varies greatly according to the nature of the
being and fact in question. We presuppose, though in a way
different from our presupposing efficient causality, the fact that
moral values cannot be attributed to impersonal beings. We
would be shocked if someone were to speak of an innocent
stone, a just tree, or a generous cat. Again in a different way,
the difference between generosity and purity is familiar to us.
We would, for instance, not attribute purity to someone because
he readily gives part of his income to help a friend, but we
would attribute generosity to him.
But a great abyss yawns between naive awareness, even in
its most conscious form, such as in the case of the principle
of noncontradiction, and the philosophical prise de conscience
of these facts.
It would be a naive, not to say a silly error, to believe that

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

1 37

philosophical statements of the kind, for instance, found in

Aristotle's Organon, are not real discoveries. It was a great
philosophical deed to accomplish this philosophical prise de
conscience and to place, as it were, these facts on a pedestal
where they shine forth in their self-evidence. The fact that
now, after such a philosophical deed has been accomplished,
after the principles of logic have been drawn up into the
region of full light, they are self-evident at first sight must not
let us minimize the philosophical accomplishment. Aristotle's
discoveries in logic are no minor conquests. A prise de con
science with respect to things we take most for granted in
our life experience is often especially difficult. The "distance"
from objects, which is indispensable for a philosophical prise
de conscience, is difficult to achieve in these cases. The objects
are literally too near to us to be seen clearly.
But what has to be stressed is that in most cases the apriori
state of facts can only be reached by delving deeply into the
being in question, after a long and difficult philosophical analy
sis. We shall examine the nature of this philosophical delving
later on when we deal with the method of philosophy. Here it
is sufficient to stress that many necessary and intelligible facts
which philosophy lays bare through an apriori knowledge do
not necessarily have this character of self-evidence. The fact
that love is a value response, essentially implying an intentio
unionis and an intentio benevolentiae, and the fact that there
is a difference between the imago Dei and the similitudo Dei
are all apriori facts and typical topics of philosophy. They have
not, however, the obvious character of "Two plus two equals
four" or "Moral values presuppose a person." Certainly a phi
losopher should lay bare his results in such a way that they be
come either evident or strictly proved by deduction. But this
evidence, which makes it possible for an intellectual intuition
to grasp apriori facts with absolute certainty, often presupposes,
on tne part of the reader or learner in philosophy, another

1 38

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

philosophical gift and another degree of co-operation than does

the understanding of specifically obvious facts such as : "Moral
values presuppose a person."
The very problem we are dealing with here, the nature of
apriori knowledge, is an example of those philosophical topics
which, although ultimately evident, are by no means easy to
explore and obvious at first sight.
Finally, we may not equate the formal rationality of the
deductive conclusion with the unique and lucid intelligibility
of the necessary essences, although the latter causes the intui
tive insight into these essences to be a primal source of ratio.
The kind of knowledge wherein we understand that, because
of such and such a reason, something else has to be, in short,
the "concluding" of something from certain premises, appeals
to many people as the climax of intelligibility and rationality.
As soon as they come to a state of facts which cannot be de
duced from others, they are convinced that this is less luminous
and intelligible. This is a great error.
Here, one form of intelligibility and rationality is confused
with intelligibility and rationality as such. This one form is
thought to be the only contrasting alternative to blunt observa
tion, to the impoverished intelligibility of the mere fact. Com
pletely overlooked is the essentially deeper well of intelligibility
and rationality. With respect to intelligibility and rationality,
the deepest and most decisive difference exists between a di
rectly understandable state of facts that cannot be deduced
from anything else and the mere observation of an actual fact.
Examples of the first are: "Moral values cannot be attributed
to an impersonal being"; "Being and not-being exclude each
other"; "In order to unfold their being existentially, colors re
quire extension"; and "Every value demands an adequate re
sponse on the part of the person to whom it is revealed." Ex
ampls of the mere observations are: "Here stands a tree" or
"Today the sun is shining." When we deal with mere facts

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

1 39

we bump something head on, as it were. Our mind falls

bluntly on something external over which it cannot go. On
the other hand, when we deal with necessary unities which
cannot be deduced from anything else, we deeply penetrate the
object with our mind. The unity discloses itself in a luminous
manner. It becomes evident. We intuit it. This is the pole
diametrically opposite to the mere observation of an actual
fact. It is the insight that something is necessarily grounded in
an intuitively graspable essence. The two really opposite poles
of all our knowledge lie in mere observation and in the direct
grasping of an ultimate, necessary unity. The latter is much
closer to the source of all ratio than is any deduction. Indeed,
we can directly understand the intelligibility of the springs
that feed all deductive reasoning, for they are the nondeducible
essential principles of logic. The real strictness of a deductiqn
depends, moreover, on the essential necessity of the premises
and, therefore, on the element which is given in the highest
potency in the case of the essential facts which cannot be
deduced from anything else. Intelligibility and rationality par
exce1Ience are to be found not only in the direct knowledge of
a necessary state of facts, but also in the wedding of our mind
with the object. This takes place in the intuitive "having" of
the necessary essence, whether it happens in the very beginning
of the essence-analysis or comes only after we have known all
the essential truths grounded in the essence. For this "having"
is not a dark and hidden affair. It is, rather, the most enlight
ened intellectual penetration into the heart of the object. When
the analysis begins, it is present in its budding state and, when
it ends, in its full unfolding.
It is well here to pause and realize a supremely important
fruit of our analysis of apriori knowledge. In pointing to the fact
of apriori knowledge and in proving that man has a capacity
to attain absolutely certain insights into essentially necessary
and highly intelligible states of facts, we have dealt the death

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

blow to all shapes and kinds of subjective idealism. For in

each of our apriori insights we definitely and undoubtedly
transcend the frame of any "relation" to our own mind. In
this kind of knowledge we touch a fully autonomous being. We
are admitted to the world of full objectivity and objective valid
ity. The absolutely certain insights into necessary essences which
are bathed in a luminous intelligibility are the blows that topple
all relativistic theories of knowledge. They once and for all
refute the thesis which would imprison our knowledge in the
realm of our own mind, which claims that we can never
transcend its relativity, and that we are forever cut off from
a knowledge of something fully objective and completely inde
pendent of our mind. Our knowledge of apriori truths is the
real Archimedean point for the evaluation of our knowledge
as a whole. Apriori knowledge is the basis which no methodic
doubt can shake. It is a serene, eternal gate which bars for all
time every form of skepticism, subjectivism, relativism and sub
jective idealism. The force of apriori knowledge even precedes
the si fallor, sum and its heavy armor. Thus, idealism is first
refuted by the fact of apriori knowledge. The second blow is
struck by the arguments of St. Augustine and Descartes: even
the fact of my erring in all things is certain proof that I exist.
This refutes idealism insofar as it tries to bar us from knowledge
of real concrete existents.
5.

The object of philosophy

Returning to our starting point, we can now determine the

object of philosophy.
1. Philosophy deals almost exclusively with apriori knowledge.
It aims at a knowledge taken in the sense of the enlightened
penetration of the object from within, which is possible only
in the case of contents whose luminously intelligible essences
can be seen intuitively. The proper domain of philosophy is,

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141

therefore, that of penetration into necessary essences and the

knowledge of essentially necessary and absolutely certain states
of facts.
2. The realm of philosophy, nevertheless, is not coextensive
with the realm of the apriori in general. For there are apriori
states of facts which lie outside of the object-domain of phi
losophy. Conversely, there are objects of philosophy which lie
outside the territory of the apriori.
An example of the first case is given by mathematics. Such
apriori truths as "Two times two equals four," and the Pytha
gorean theorem are not objects of philosophy. Examples for the
second case are found in questions inquiring about the real
existence of the outer world, the teleological order in the outer
world, or, most important of all, the existence of God.
The realm of the apriori is not coextensive with that of
philosophy, because there are still constitutive characteristics
that determine whether or not something belongs to the object
territory of philosophy. One of these characteristics hinges on
the specific type of intelligibility which an essence possesses.
Our concern up to now has been with the type of essence
demanded by apriori knowledge. We had asked ourselves what
kind of being possessed a such-being which could be the object
of apriori knowledge. We therefore enumerated various exam
ples which fully met the requirements of apriori objects since
they all possessed a necessary, highly intelligible, such-being
unity. Moral values, truth, knowledge, willing, a triangle, the
number two, color in general, the color red: all of these were
seen to be possible objects of apriori knowledge. When we listed
these essences, we meant to point to a difference among ali
the such-beings given in experience and to show that some of
them, namely, the necessary unities, afforded us the opportunity
for an absolutely certain grasp of states of facts rooted in them,
whereas others, the morphic unities for example, like gold,
diamond, water, and so forth, afforded us no such opportunity.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

With these morphic unities we have to be content with only

highly probable "laws" of nature.
We now want to sift the realm of apriori objects and to point
to outstanding differences within this realm. One such differ
ence concerns the intelligibility of objects. The intelligibility
which a number possesses, for example, differs from that of a
color. Numbers are much "thinner'' in their essence. They have
a kind of linear essence. They are much more abstract, and
their intelligibility is also affected by this character, for it has
a specifically transparent nature. The way in which facts such
as two and two equal four are rooted in the nature of two and
four is a specifically formal one. To see it requires no delving
into the nature of the numbers in question. In truth, these
essences are too thin to allow us the opportunity of delving
into them. \Vhen we consider numbers added to numbers, or
numbers otherwise related to other numbers, we are always
confronted with this inevitable thinness which numbers possess
as essences. \Vhen, however, the question shifts from the mere
immanent relations among numbers themselves to the inquiry
into the nature of numbers as such, a new depth is possible.
Thus, the philosophical question: "What is a number?" offers
a real opportunity for delving into a quite mysterious essence.
This philosophical question is completely different from the
mathematical question which asks, "\Vhat is the sum of two
and five?" or "Is it possible to find the exact square root of the
number three?"
Numbers, as employed by mathematicians, have a specific
rational intelligibility, a transparence which leaves no room for
mystery. Furthermore, their abstract character excludes any
kind of knowledge other than an apriori one. Hence, arithmetic
has no empirical characteristics.
Totally different from numbers are the essences of color in
general and the color red. Red has neither the abstract, formal
character of numbers nor the thinness of essence. It has a

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143

qualitative plenitude. It is, therefore, not simply linear like

numbers. Still, it is limited, as it were, to but two dimensions.
It has not the transparent intelligibility of numbers and lends
itself to very few apriori insights. It leaves room, moreover, for
many empirical statements about its nature. Thus colors are
objects both for science with its empirical observations and for
philosophy with its apriori insights.
When we turn from numbers and colors to entities such as
person, love, will, justice, efficient causality, final causality,
promising, and so on, we clearly see that these entities are
completely different from colors and numbers by reason of their
three-dimensional fullness and their depth. Many differences
are to be found among these entities themselves. Still, all of
them have in common a depth and plenitude which clearly
distinguishes them from the type of unity to be found in colors
and numbers.
Apart from both their ontological superiority and their supe
riority in value, these necessary unities possess still another
advantage, this time from the epistemological point of view.
Their intelligibility is neither thin and transparent, such as we
find in numbers, nor two-dimensional like that of colors. Rather,
it combines a mysterious depth with an incomparably richer
and more meaningful intelligibility. Here the depth of the
object offers us the possibility of delving into it, of drawing
from it necessary and essential states of facts, of tapping its
plenitude again and again and always being rewarded with new
and richer insights. And as far as the knowing subject is con
cerned, something completely new in the way of understanding
and penetration is reached thanks to our concerting with these
incomparably more meaningful objects, that embody in a match
less way the luminous rationality of the logos in question.
Let us summarize our results. States of facts which are grasped
as rooted in the essence of a number or a color are similar to
states of facts rooted in necessary unities, such as love or per

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

son, insofar as both are intrinsically necessary and can be grasped

with absolute certainty. In their intelligibility, however, they
differ. Though they all possess an intelligibility, absent in the
morphic unities like gold, water, and carbon which is the
presupposition for a "grasping from within," and therefore
the presupposition for apriori knowledge, nevertheless the in
telligibility of the fact, "Moral values presuppose a person,"
differs from that of the fact, "Two added to two is four," in
respect to depth, plenitude, and type of rational lucidity. Again,
the former fact about moral values is easily seen to differ from
a state of facts such as : "In the order of similarity orange lies
between red and yellow." There is a difference here of depth
and rational lucidity.
As soon as we mention the differences to be found among
apriori objects with respect to their kind of intelligibility, we
realize a sobering fact. There is a vast field here which remains
to be explored philosophically. There are countless problems
which have not yet received any attention, much less the minute
analysis they deserve. Once the frontiers of intelligibility have
been marked off by the all-important and clear-cut distinction
between the morphic unities and the necessary essences, once
we have achieved the separation of empirical from apriori
knowledge, then we are ready to advance into this new field
and to make the decisive and important distinctions within the
framework of the necessary essences themselves. To think of
the magnitude of this projected task is to realize how much
philosophy ( I mean, true and adequate philosophy) is still
only at the threshold of many fields of exploration.
Another characteristic that determines whether or not some
thing belongs to the province of philosophy revolves around a
certain essential significance and central importance to be found
in the contents of some objects. Philosophy is interested only
in those objects which in their essence stand somehow in a

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145

very deep relation to the focus of reality. This relation can be

manifold.
It can originate in the stage of generality of the object in
question, or in the essential importance which is structurally
grounded in the object and which links it to the focal point of
reality. For example, the essence of number in general and the
states of facts necessarily grounded in this general essence per
tain to philosophy. The essence, however, of the number four or
twelve, as well as the facts necessarily grounded in their specific
essence, do not pertain to philosophy. Again, the essence of
space, together with the facts necessarily grounded in space as
such, is indeed an object for philosophy although the essence
of single spatial entities, e.g., triangle, is not. Thus, ontology
embraces all spheres of being in which a necessary unity is to
be found, but only on a high level of generality.
The relation to the central point of reality can also be given
by reason of the depth of content and qualitative meaningful
ness of the object under consideration. This happens in the
fields of ethics and aesthetics and in the philosophy of the
person, among others. To the territory of philosophy belong
also the most concrete essences that may be found in these
fields, as well as the essential facts necessarily grounded in them.
Hence to philosophy belong the essences of faithfulness, joy,
the tragic, and so on. For in these fields the theme is qualita
tively so important that a relation to the central focus of reality
is possessed not only by the high stage of generality and its
structural import, but also by every intuitively graspable and
necessary essence.
With respect to these two kinds of objects which, for very
different reasons, are related to the focus of reality, philosophy is
interested only in what is essentially rooted in necessary, essen
tial unities and thus makes apriori knowledge possible. For only
these elements in the object possess essential import and are

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

intrinsically united with the focus of the cosmos. There are, to

be sure, empirical questions which we may ask about objects of
apriori knowledge. For example, the nature of lying is certainly
an object of apriori knowledge. But the influence of lying on
the body, which is disclosed by the lie detector, is patently of
an empirical nature. These empirical questions and the facts
that answer them lack the prerequisites mentioned above to
become objects for philosophy.
3. Philosophy, however, intends not only to know centrally
important objects, but also to know them in a centrally sig
nificant manner. But only apriori knowledge can grant this kind
of knowledge-contact toward which, as we have already seen,
philosophical knowledge tends.
It would be of no avail to philosophy if the knowledge which
it intends should proceed from without, detouring around cen
trally important objects, as the empirical sciences are forced to
do in their observation and induction. Philosophy intends to
know the essences of its objects. It means to penetrate these
essences from within. For this reason also, with respect to these
objects, philosophy is limited solely to those things which can
be known in an apriori manner.
But because philosophy is so concerned with apriori knowl
edge of necessary and intelligible essences, we are not allowed
to claim that it has no interest in real, concrete existence. On
the contrary, several key questions about real existence are
eminently philosophical topics. First, philosophy analyzes the
knowledge that man has of really existing things and inquires
about the degree of certitude which this knowledge can attain.
The si tailor, sum of St. Augustine, as well as the cogito, ergo
sum of Descartes, are both eminently philosophical truths, or
rather, both are expressions of one completely philosophical
truth : the concrete fact, known with absolute certainty, of the
thinker's real existence. Because this truth concerns real exist
ence, there is no reason to claim it is an "empirical" statement.

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147

No, it is at once highly philosophical and still concerned with

real, concrete existence. Again, the question, "Can we doubt the
real existence of the exterior world?" is a philosophical question.
So too is the question which asks whether we can reach an
adequate knowledge of the world. It is, therefore, a philosophi
cal question to inquire whether Kant is right when he claims
that we cannot know "things-as-they-really-are-in-themselves."
Though all these questions concern existence, which cannot
itself be known apriori, philosophy nonetheless proceeds to
answer them by means of apriori facts, and not by any empirical
or inductive method. It does not use experiments or induction
in trying to answer the question of the real existence of the
exterior world. Indeed, what possible experiment, what possible
"scientific" apparatus, what possible series of observations and
inductions could throw any light on this question?12 In all such
questions about real existence, philosophy proceeds as in the
case of the si fallor, sum. Philosophy shows by means of an
apriori insight that the fact of our own existence can never be
dragged down into the whirl of dethronement which threatens
the content of all our other knowledge of real existence. What
ever may be the chance or error or deception, I am still abso
lutely certain of my own real existence - my fully real existence.
I am absolutely certain that the same "thing" which may possi
bly doubt the existence of all other beings apparently present
to consciousness is a person who knows that his own existence
as a full fact is not a whit shaken by the possibility of error and
deception. My confidence is based on the truth that the real
metaphysical existence of a personal being is always presupposed
and always affirmed anew, even when this being worries about
the possibility of error or deception.
This is without doubt an insight into a necessary and highly
intelligible, as well as absolutely certain, fact. Once we delve
12 Realizing that no scientific experiment can solve such questions, logical
positivism dismisses them as "meaningless" - a rather convenient way to dispose
of many serious problems not susceptible to empirical analysis.

148

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

into this fact, we grasp it as self-evident. We do not proceed

by observation and induction in order to discover its truth. Nor
do we need any confirmation and verification through new ex
periences to establish its truth. It would be shamefully ridiculous
to assert: "In all cases so far examined, it has been observed
that doubt and worry about deception have always existed in
the consciousness of an existing personal being; it is therefore
so far verified, and consequently highly probable from a scien
tific standpoint, that whenever doubt exists, a really existing
and conscious person is also to be found." This is the mock
"scientific" language of the pseudo philosophers, the men whom
we mentioned in our introduction, the men who are so en
amored of the method of science that they declare as meaning
less anything not susceptible to empirical experiment and blunt
observation.
Hence, philosophical insight, not blunt observation, brings to
light the essential and intelligible relation between the possi
bility of deception and the certainty of a person's existence, that
is, the relation which allows me to draw a necessary implica
tion from the possibility of deception. Also philosophical is
the full and intuitive grasp of the reality of the ego - as self
conscious subject of doubts, desires, will-acts, loves, sorrows,
joys, and memories. The question of the real existence of the
exterior world is also answered by philosophical knowledge and
never by any blunt induction or observation. And above all,
the supreme question of all real existence, the question as to
whether or not an infinite Person exists who is the ground and
source of all existence and all essence, the question of God's
existence, which is the very climax of all philosophical inquiry,
is answered by philosophical knowledge and not by empirical
or inductive knowledge.
In all such cases we always aim at insight into essential facts.
Even when, in a special case, we are forced to admit that no
absolute certainty but only a high probability can be found,

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

149

this admission is the result of an insight into the epistemological

character of the object.
The knowledge of real existence, as discussed above, even
though it is not apriori, is likewise not empirical in the ordinary
sense.13 The method of the traditional and classical proofs for
God's existence, especially the cosmological proof, is not empiri
cal in the sense of induction. To be sure, we require as our
starting point the observation of an actually existing being.
Some finite being must be observed as existing. But the infer
ence to God's existence, in the cosmological proof, is based on
the essential relation which every finite being has to the ground
and reason for its existence. Since the stating of any finite reason
only postpones the problem, the positing of an infinite, extra
mundane being is strictly necessary. The conclusion from the
existence of a finite being to the existence of an infinite being
is, therefore, not of an inductive nature. It does not proceed
from many observations. Nor is it marked by the essential gap
which, as we saw before, every inductive conclusion possesses.
It is a strict conclusion, without a gap. The argument rises to its
conclusion because of an apriori and essential relation. It pro
ceeds from the general essence of a being that has been observed
to be an existing being. It proceeds from the essence and is,
therefore, a knowledge "from within" and not, as in the case
of a real induction, a knowledge "from without," based on the
empirical characteristics of many cases. Only the first premise,
the actual existence of a finite being, is empirical in the sense
of being something observed. It is not, however, simply one
common or ordinary observation among others. Rather, it is
concerned with the prime question of the actual existence of
something in general. If for this first premise we make use of
1 s In the case of our knowledge of God, we are concerned with something
that cannot be known apriori only with respect to us. In itself the existence of
God is not contingent, but, on the con trary, is essentially necessary. To use the
classical terminology, quoad nos, the existence of God is contingent in the sense
that it has to be reached through the knowledge of an existing finite being;
quoad se, it is absolutely necessary.

1 50

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

the actual existence of our own selves, as given in the cogito,

then even our first premise is an absolutely certain observation,
and our knowledge of the Absolute Being reaches the same
knowledge dignity as do apriori states of facts, at least with
respect to the degree of certainty.
There is yet one more point to consider about the object of
philosophy. Philosophy may make use of scientific, empirical
results for the analysis of certain problems, such as the relation
between soul and body, between the brain and the mind, and
even indirectly for the problem of the immortality of the soul.
Bergson's extraordinary analysis of memory was based on a series
of thorough and minute empirical observations and resulted in
many important distinctions concerning the general topic of
memory. But even here it is not simply an empirical knowledge
in the ordinary sense. The empirical observations here are not
a starting point for inductions. Rather, a specifically philosophi
cal knowledge begins with the interpretation of these empirical
observations, an interpretation which again makes use of apriori
insights and proceeds by way of a distinctly philosophical
speculation.
Philosophy is also forced to make use of hypotheses from time
to time. None of these hypotheses has the character of apriori
knowledge. Yet they are certainly not empirical either, although
they may be based on empirical statements. The real reason
why these hypotheses are nonempirical, however, is that they
are speculations - instead of being intuitive insights into neces
sary and intelligible states of facts. Not every philosophical prob
lem can be answered by an apriori insight. Sometimes the fact
which philosophy searches for is not accessible to an intuitive
delving into the essence of the things in question. Even if the
fact as such is necessarily rooted in the essence, it may be that
the essence is not accessible to our mind. In all such cases,
philosophy will not be able to reach an absolutely certain answer

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

151

but must content itself with highly plausible and adequate

hypotheses.
Let us not be deceived about these problems which refuse to
yield absolutely certain insights to answer our philosophical
inquiries. The fact that no apriori insight is granted to us con
cerning these problems, some of them very fundamental and
vital, does not eliminate them from the realm of philosophy.
Still less does it transfer them to science's domain. Let us take,
for example, the classical problem, so thoroughly discussed in
the seventeenth century, about the relation between soul and
body. How does extended matter act on the soul, which has no
extension? How explain the fact that a spiritual, nonextended
reality, such as my willing to raise my arm, can influence the
world of extended things and actually cause my arm to be
raised? Apriori knowledge is impossible here. We are granted
no intuitive insight into the relation between soul and body.
But the problem remains in philosophy. This problem and all
similar ones are eminently philosophical because of their con
tent. Although they are not open to apriori solutions, still less
are they fit objects for scientific research. In short, their non
apriori nature does not make them empirical. We cannot attain
to apriori answers because these questions concern things of
which we do not even have a such-being experience. They are
beyond experience and bear the character of opaque mysteries.
So we see how, without prejudice to their distinction, apriori
knowledge and philosophical knowledge are deeply connected
with each other. We see that a knowledge of the nature of
philosophy, its object, its kind of knowledge and type of inquir
ing, is impossible without a thorough clarification of the essence
of apriori knowledge, which we have sketched here in its broad
outlines.

CHAPTER

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

We have seen that man is capable of an objectively valid

knowledge, that he can grasp with an absolute certainty a truth
which is in no way relative to his mind. We saw that the highly
intelligible and absolutely necessary unities, the genuine es
sences, are objective in the fullest sense. Their objectivity im
plies an absolute independence from our mind, not only from
my individual mind, but also from man's mind in general. We
saw that these essences are in no way relative to man's mind.
The question however arises: Does validity in all cases re
quire the same independence from the subject? If a proposition
requires a full independence from man's mind in order to be
objectively true, we may ask ourselves if this is also required for
every aspect.
When we say that a world of real beings objectively exists,
that it includes houses, the soil, animals, other persons, we
of course imply independence from man's mind. When we
claim the objective existence of an animal or another person,
we mean that these things exist autonomously, whether we
know of them or not. In these cases, objectivity necessarily
implies full independence from our mind. If a tree or dog
should exist only for an individual consciousness, in a dream
or an illusion, we would deny it any objectivity and consider
it as completely "subjective" - which in this case means "with
out foundation in objective reality." Again, on the supposition
that all objects are "phenomena" in Kant's sense, that is,
152

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 53

they are "appearances" relative, not to this or that individual

mind, but to the mind of man in general, even on this sup
position, we should deny a full objectivity to such a world of
objects.
Granted, therefore, that in all the cases discussed above ob
jectivity means a full independence from man's mind, the ques
tion remains : Is this independence required for the objectivity
of all data? Would a thing become nonobjective for the reason
that it in some way depends on the mind of man? If a certain
aspect of a real thing presupposes a human mind, must we say
that this aspect is "subjective" in the sense that it has no
validity and no foundation in reality?
Let us take a concrete case. We often speak of things as being
above or below other things. Science tells us that if we prescind
from a human mind there really is no such reality as "above"
or "below." Hence we ask: If we grant that the notions of above
and below presuppose a human mind in order to have meaning,
must we claim that these notions are merely subjective? Are
they semblances which pretend to be valid, like dreams, but
are not? Or again, assume that colors constitute themselves only
for a human mind and that independently of a human mind
and without the co-operation of human senses only vibrations
would exist, must we say that colors are no longer objective and
valid and must we relegate all the colors to the level of a mere
semblance?
Before we begin to analyze this problem we must, however,
clarify the term "subjective" and unearth several equivocations
buried in it. Several meanings of the term "subjective" and its
correlative "objective" exist, and these are often indiscriminately
used, to the prejudice of clarity and truth.
To be subjective may mean, first of all, to pertain to the
personal world, as opposed to the impersonal world; it would
mean something belonging to the personal subject of knowing,
willing, loving, and so forth. In this sense everything which is a

1 54

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

real "part" of a person may be called "subjective." An act of

knowledge, an act of will, an act of love or joy are all subjective
in this sense; a rock or a tree would not be subjective in the
same sense. But let it be clearly marked and known: the acts
of knowing, love, and so forth are fully objective realities. They
are at least as "real" as a stone or a tree. Thus the term "sub
jective" refers to the ontological feature of being a "subject,"
a person, and not to the epistemological feature of being an
appearance for a subject.1
That a being is subjective in this first sense evidently implies
nothing pejorative or restrictive, no lesser degree of validity, no
inferiority to the contrasted nonpersonal beings which in this
context are called "objective." We may go still further and say
that these subjective beings, these personal entities, are superior
in being to the objective, nonpersonal beings. They possess a
higher being and are even more "real." When subjective is used
in this ontological sense of personal, it clearly escapes all the
suspicions attaching to the epistemological use of the term. Un
fortunately, this has not always been clearly understood. For
many people, even for certain philosophers, the term "subjec
tive," even when it refers to such objective realities as acts of
will and joy or the person himself, connotes something less real,
something more suspicious, something which exists only in the
"mind" of a person - a mere reality in mente.
That the term "subjective" should have this unfortunate con
notation rests at bottom on the confusion between the onto
logical and the epistemological sense of the term. We may say
that the house I dreamed about existed only in the mind, that
it is a reality in mente; this means that a real house does not
exist but only pretended to exist in the dream. We may also
say that my joy or sorrow or love is a reality in mente. But by
this we by no means intend to say that the joy only pretends
1 The very term "subjective" is unfortunate because of its inevitable episte
mological flavor; on the other hand, the term "subjectivity" is much clearer
and unambiguous and is easily understood as referring to the person as subject.

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 55

to exist, that it is a fiction, like the house I dreamed about.

Ontologically speaking, houses are destined to be "extramental"
realities - to exist independent of my mind. When an allegedly
existing house has no objective existence in this sense, we
rightly say its presence is "subjective" - that is, due to the ac
tivity of the subject. Here subjective refers to the suspicious
epistemological dignity of something not truly real. The case
is quite different with joy, willing, knowing, and all acts and
parts of the person. These realities, when they are accomplished,
are real "parts" of the ontological reality, the person. They are
destined to be conscious beings whenever they exist. To call
them subjective in the pejorative epistemological sense, to cast
suspicion on them as if they were not fully "real," as if they
were like the house we dreamed about, is clearly to confuse
their ontological status as real parts of a subject with the above
mentioned epistemological deception.
There is a slogan as well known as it is unfortunate, which
abruptly dismisses all personal data like joy, conviction, love,
and so forth. This slogan runs: "These things are merely psycho
logical and no longer metaphysical." Away then with love and
conviction and other such suspicious realities! Let us stick to
the more "real," more "metaphysical" realities like the motion
of a stone, the matter of a pear, the potential being of an oak
tree in an acorn. This sad misunderstanding of personal realities
is based on the pejorative meaning of the term "subjective,"
which leads one to look upon personal acts as embodying lower
degrees of being than a movement in the cosmos. Let us once
and for all state here and clearly grasp that if the term "objec
tive" indicates the dignity and rank of reality, then such "sub
jective" realities as personal acts, joy, love, conviction, faith, and
knowledge are fully objective realities, and are more "meta
physical" than stones and events in the material cosmos.
There is a second meaning of subjective to which we must
now attend. It too concerns human acts, but in a completely

1 56

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

different way. Suppose a man judges a poem and finds fault

with it exclusively because the poet is his rival. We should call
this judgment "subjective," meaning that it is determined by
the personal prejudice of the judge, not by the objective theme,
by the objective reality. The judge has allowed something alien
to the object to interfere with his judgment of it. All prejudices
are subjective in this sense. Again, if a man fails to promote a
very gifted employee because of a personal grudge, we say that
his attitude is typically unobjective: it is not based on objective
grounds, namely, the merits and qualification of the employee.
Here the term "subjective" implies something blameworthy. It
is therefore synonymous with such pejorative terms as non
objective, inadequate, prejudiced, nonvalid.
There is yet a third meaning of subjective which, like the
second, is a pejorative one. It refers to a kind of egocentric
self-reflection. An introvert, a person who is always centered
around himself, who lacks any real interest for anything on the
object side, whether it be persons, nature, art, or science, may
be termed "subjective" in this third sense. The term refers to a
certain perversion or unhealthy distortion in a person's life.2
So far we have discussed three meanings of the term "sub
jective." Each was concerned with acts or attitudes of the
person. There are three additional meanings which concern,
not the acts of the person, but rather the content of a person's
knowledge, the existence of an object of our knowledge, or
the validity of our knowledge. Let us examine these three new
meanings one at a time.
The house that we grasp in an hallucination or a dream is
subjective in this new, fourth sense. For instead of existing in
reality, it is an illusion that exists only in the mind of the
2 We prescind here from the perversion of human acts and attitudes which
is meant when we refer to a sham joy, a sham enthusiasm, a love that rings
false, etc. These are the perversions typical of hysterical people. The invalidity
and sham reality of these acts is adequately indicated by the term "ungenuine"
or "intrinsically false." To call such perversions "subjective" is therefore an
unwarranted extension of the latter term.

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 57

subject, the knower. Whereas it pretends to exist as a real object

in the real world, its entire reality is simply to be the object
of a grasping. It is a mere semblance, a "subjective" thing,
therefore, because it does not stand in the world of real objects.
Here "subjective" points to the nonreality of the object, to the
contradiction between what it claims to be and what it really
is, and to the invalidity of the knowledge or other act whose
object it is. Here too "subjective" means that the object is
relative to my individual mind at a given moment.
When "subjective" is used to refer to the relativity of an
object to the mind of man in general and at all times, as distinct
from relativity to an individual mind at a given moment, we
have a still new sense, the fifth, for the term. It is in this sense
that knowledge is subjective for Kant. The full objective reality,
the so-called "noumenon," the object as it really exists in itself,
is inaccessible to us, according to Kant. All our knowledge is
limited to phenomena, to things insofar as they appear to the
mind of men. For Kant the world which experience offers is,
in all its articulation and form, a product of man's mind. Hence,
it follows that the validity of all the "truth" we can attain is
relative to that mind, not to the mind of this or that individual
at a given time, but to the mind of man as such - to all men
at all time. This is idealistic subjectivity and is the fifth mean
ing for the term "subjective." It clearly differs from the fourth
meaning which refers to things that are mere semblances.
Within the framework of this idealistic subjectivism, the differ
ence between a mere hallucination and a genuine perception
keeps its full place. So too the difference between a merely
"subjective" view of an individual and a generally valid truth.
The difference between a true and a false statement also retains
its full meaning in this idealistic scheme, although all true
statements are true only for man's mind.
But what has no place in the idealistic scheme is the absolute
truth, a proposition which would be true, equally true, and true

1 58

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

in the same sense, whether or not the human mind exists. For
idealism, the proposition refers to objects which would be differ
ent as soon as we prescind from man's mind; moreover, in its very
validity the proposition is relative to a human mind - to the
way men are constructed as opposed to other beings who might
be knowers. From this it follows that all metaphysical facts are
inaccessible to our mind. Man cannot attain eternal verities in
the Augustinian sense. Idealism of this kind has, therefore, by
reason of its doctrine of "subjective" validity, a restrictive and
negative character. Even so, its meaning for "subjective" is not
at all the same as the fourth meaning - that of a mere
semblance.
The sixth and final meaning of "subjective" refers to what is
the topic of this chapter, the fact, namely, that the co-operation
of a human mind is presupposed for certain data, such as the
notions of "above" and "below." This co-operation refers only
to an aspect or appearance of certain objects in the exterior,
extended world. These aspects constitute themselves only for a
human mind and are, therefore, in some sense subjective; for
they cannot be regarded as properties of beings independent of
the human mind. Because this meaning of the term "subjective"
involves the question of how the aspects "actually are," it rightly
includes an epistemological feature.8
In this chapter we simply want to ask: Is this type of depend
ence upon man's mind incompatible with objective validity?
s We prescind here from the extremely important meaning of "subjective" as
referring to all the realities which are constituted for an individual person. The
value which an object has for us because we received it from a beloved one is,
on the one hand, completely valid, but, on the other hand, this value exists only
for me, and not as such, independently of the fact that it was a manifestation
of love of a certain person, whom we love. This meaning of "subjective" is, as
we can easily see, in no way opposed to validity, and has no pejorative connota
tion whatever. Our appreciation of this gift is most objective, i.e., it is the
objectively right attitude toward it. Being a manifestation of the love of a
beloved person, the object really assumes a great preciousness. It is true that this
preciousness exists only for me, but this does not efface its full validity because
objectively it should be precious to me. This meaning of subjective and subjec
tivity. is extremely important and plays a great role in Kierkegaard and existen
tial philosophy.

OBJECTIVI1Y AND INDEPENDENCE

1 59

Must we say that colors, that notions like above and below, are
"subjective" in the sense of "nonobjective" semblances, or in
the sense of "relative to man's mind"? Shall we say that the
blue color of the sky is only a mere semblance, a kind of optical
deception? Shall we thereby deny it any objectivity and validity?
Human experience offers us as aspects of the exterior world a
universe of colorful, sounding, odorous things. Is this world less
objective than the one offered by physics and chemistry? In
the words of Gustav Fechner: "Is the Naclltansicllt ( night
view) more objective and more real than the Tagansicht (day
view)?"
The question of objective validity of aspects depends, of
course, upon the aspects themselves and varies with their specific
nature. For the moment, however, we limit ourselves to this
general question : Is it true that the objective validity and reality
of an :;spect is the same as its independence from man's mind?
It will become clear that this is not true if we start with some
thing that is indeed merely a subjective semblance ana contrast
it with the aspects that are our topic here.
The most radical case of a merely subjective semblance is an
object of a dream. True, if in a dream we grasp the fact, both
necessary and highly intelligible, that "Moral values presuppose
a person as bearer," the truth and validity of this fact are in no
way prejudiced by our having grasped it in a dream instead of
in the waking state. When, however, not a necessary and essen
tial fact, but rather an event, a deed, or a person is given in a
dream, then these things are stripped and deprived of all ob
jective validity and are rightly regarded as mere semblances.
If a person we know suddenly looks different in a dream, has
blond hair instead of black, is tall instead of small, this aspect
is definitely a pure semblance.4 The same applies analogously
to an hallucination.
4

The psychological, symptomatic meaning of dreams obviously goes in

completely different direction.

1 60

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

Something different, though equally invalid, is at stake when

we turn to mere semblances due to an optical or acoustical
deception. Suppose we look at an oar in the water: it seems
broken. Here we are not completely cut off from reality as in
the case of dreaming or hallucination. The oar is an object
which belongs to authentic reality. But it offers an aspect, in
this case the rupture, which does not correspond to reality.
We need only remove it from the water in order to see that
this aspect was deceptive.
In this case, as in the forementioned ones, it is the depend
ence upon our mind that makes these appearances merely in
valid semblances. The difference between this optical deception
and the dream or hallucination consists in the fact that this
semblance is determined by the structure of man's sight and
by certain elements on the side of the object and is not a mere
semblance restricted to an individual person. Every man sees
the oar as broken, whereas the semblances in a dream or hal
lucination vary according to the individual person.
Although this deception is general and rooted in man's
sense-structure, what it presents to us is clearly an invalid
semblance with no claim to reality, a fact which is plainly
manifested by the term deception.
Let us now compare the blue color of mountains seen from
afar with this optical deception. The blue color is also a mere
semblance, insofar as the mountains, on drawing near to them,
are green. One perception of the mountains contradicts the
other, and we do not hesitate to consider the nearer sight
to be more authentic and to assume that green is their real
color. But is the blue color a mere deception? Is this semblance
on the same level as the one of the rupture of the oar? Cer
tainly not.
First, the semblance of an oar in the water contradicts reality
quite different than does the blue color of the mountain. That
an object changes color in a different light is normal. By its very

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161

nature color refers to the way a thing looks, and the fact that
one and the same thing appears differently colored does not
imply a contradiction like that between a broken and an un
broken oar. But there is a still more important difference.
The semblance of the broken oar includes no contribution to
reality. It does not enrich the world, nor does it form a member
in the chain of elements which build up a meaningful aspect
of the exterior world and are bearers of its beauty. But this all
applies to the blue color of the mountains.
The blue color of mountains seen from afar is a great en
richment of the world. It definitely has an important function
in the beauty of nature; it contains a "word" full of significance,
a message frequently the theme of poets. It fits meaningfully
and organically into the general aspect of nature and especially
of the landscape. It includes a specific meaningful message,
whereas the appearance of the broken oar is a mere deception.
The blue color of mountains seen from afar definitely can
not be placed on the level with the appearance of the broken
oar. It would be impossible to consider the former a mere
deception.
The question now arises : What place has this blue color in
reality? It certainly presupposes a human spectator, and does
this fact deprive it of all objectivity and validity, and exile it
from reality?
Are we not here confronted with a case in which the de
pendence of something upon man's mind does not deprive it
of its objective validity and its place in reality?
It seems that we must distinguish between two radically
different types of dependence upon man's mind or two different
types of subjectivity: the first is due to a limitation of man's
mind and consists in a deformation of reality or in semblances
which are completely cut off from reality.
The second is an appearance of reality which implies a
meaningful message directed to man. We could say of the

1 62

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

second type that the object should have this appearance; it

belongs to its very meaning. It is meant to look so, to present
itself to man in this way. And by that it acquires a full validity
and is withdrawn from merely negative subjectivity.
We already saw in Chapter IV that color, because of its
intelligible and necessary essence and its "ideal existence,"
retains its character of objective reality as an aspect of the
exterior world, and that even when it is given in an hallucina
tion it does not sink to the level of a mere "object of our
mind." Afortiori, color possesses a full validity when it is
found, not in an hallucination, but as an element of the real
appearance of the exterior world. Not all aspects, of course,
need possess a necessary, intelligible essence as color does.
Certain aspects may present only a meaningful but nonnecessary
such-being.
Our point is that the existential role in the human universe
of all meaningful aspects, whether necessary essences or not,
prevents us from looking upon them as a kind of deception.
Their value and the meaningful message they contain are
obviously opposed to deception or something which results
from a limitation of man's mind. Furthermore, as we shall see
later on, these aspects clearly differ from all meaningful and
value-endowed fictions and products of human imagination and
phantasy.
The objective validity of these appearances is thrown into
relief in a specific way if we look upon the world as a creation
of God and if we understand the role of man as Lord of
creation.5 Against the background of these two fundamental
5

If we introduce a reference to God as Creator of the world, we do not for

that reason leave the strictly philosophical or phenomenological realm. For the
existence of God is a topic of philosophical exploration and there are, as we
mentioned above, philosophical proofs of God's existence. Thus, in any case, a
reference to God's existence would never imply an abandonment of the level of
rational knowledge and a leap to religion. Furthermore, the "message.character"
of certain appearances in the world exists and can be grasped even if we prescind
from God's existence and from the world as His creation. Our reference to God

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 63

facts, the different objects of this world imply a message from

God to man, and the decisive question which divides reality
from error, which divides deception or mere subjective sem
blances from an objective, valid appearance, is whether or not
such a valid message is at stake.
Here the fact that something looks so for man does not im
ply that the way it is, if we prescind from man's mind, is the
more authentic and more real, the more objectively valid. No,
the appearance it offers to man belongs to its objective meaning,
because God has created "this" world for man.
Wave vibrations are not more real or valid than colors, but
one of the reasons for their existence is to afford a basis for
the appearance of colors. We will understand better the nature
of this "message objectivity," if we think of a work of art. The
artist uses many means in order to bring certain effects into
existence. These effects, the real artistic content, are the raison
d' etre for all the means used to achieve them. If someone does
not grasp the artistic content, he has missed the point; that is,
he has not grasped the real meaning and theme of the work of
art. If someone hears a symphony and pretends that only the
musicians and their instruments and the movements which
they make are real, and that the music is merely a subjective
offshoot, he obviously reverses the entire objective meaning of
the symphony. The movements of the musicians are senseless
and ridiculous if one prescinds from the music which they are
destined to produce. Their raison d'etre is the music. Analo
gously, the aspect of nature which is a meaningful bearer of
values and which implies a specific message to man's mind
as Creator has a twofold function here. First, it should throw into relief what is
already given to us, namely, the messagecharacter of the aspects. We do not
deduce this character from the fact of creation; rather, we grasp it directly. Yet
it shines forth in a specific clarity when looked at in the light of Creation. To
see the world as God's creation makes more visible the validity of certain aspects
which are given to us as such. Second, our reference to God contributes a new
argument for this validity to all those who, on the ground of the philosophical
proofs for God's existence, look upon the world as God's creation.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

is fully valid and belongs to reality, although it presupposes

man's mind in order to be grasped or even to be constituted.
We have to stress that all this applies to an appearance or
aspect of the real world. This dependence on man's mind or
this form of subjectivity in no way refers to a kind of world
in our imagination which could be opposed to the real world
existing independently of us. Someone might argue: "God can
also convey a meaningful message to us through a dream or
any content which we have present in our imagination. Hence,
the fact that a meaningful message is present in a phenomenon
in no way grants to it a place in the real existing world. The
real world which we aim to explore in natural science is one
thing, and the subjective impressions are another world exist
ing only in our mind. God can also use these impressions to
convey a message to us but they do not for this reason assume
the character of elements of the real exterior world surrounding
us."
We say in answer that this is certainly true. But the con
tents in question are not a world apart from the real one; on
the contrary, they are aspects of the real world surrounding
us, pretending to belong to it, presenting themselves as the
appearances of the real objects, their qualitative faces.
And it is in the frame of the appearances of the real world
surrounding us, and existing independently of our mind, that
we have to distinguish between merely subjective semblances,
which are nothing but deceptions, and the valid appearances
which belong to the real objects even though they include a
reference to man's mind.
Here the fact that an appearance is meaningful, that it in
cludes a significant contribution to the cosmos, and has a
definite value - this fact permits us to consider it as a message
of God, not in the sense of a direct word, but as the valid
and authentic aspect of a real object. This message is not an
inspiration, or a presentment; it is not some direct action of

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 65

God in our soul. It is not a message such as the warning to

Joseph, in a dream, to go into Egypt. Message means here
the God-given or God-willed aspect of an object of nature.
In the comparison with the effect of a work of art, given above,
the nature of this message discloses itself. The mountains should
look blue from a distance, even as the perspective in a painting
should give the impression of space, or as the contrast in a
painting should throw certain colors more into relief. If the
natural scientist tells us that the sky in reality is not blue,
but black, it would be wrong to consider the black color as
more authentic and the blue sky as a mere subjective sem
blance, a result of subjective limitations. The blue color of
the sky has a fully objective character. It should look so; it is a
deep, meaningful element in a world view which is classically
human, but precisely for that reason more valid; only here
does the specific message of God to man realize itself. The
same applies to the form of the sky as firmament, as a vault,
with the two dimensions of vertical and horizontal. The natural
scientist may look at this as a mere subjective semblance. But
the philosopher should not believe that this "subjectivity" de
prives these elements of their full place in reality and their
objective validity.
Again, it would be completely wrong to assert that the
dimensions of "above" and "below" are merely subjective sem
blances having no place in reality. These two dimensions con
tain a message of specific depth and importance; they are
analogies of two fundamental metaphysical categories. There
is a deep meaning in the fact that the exterior world presents
itself to man as containing these two dimensions. To look at
them as mere deceptions, like the broken oar in the water, or
as consequences of our merely subjective limitations, such as
our inability to grasp a thing simultaneously on all its sides,
betrays an absolute lack of philosophical understanding. If the
scientist is right in stating that the categories "above" and

1 66

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

"below" lose their meaning in the exterior world when once

we prescind from a human mind, still this fact in no way
prevents these categories from being valid and objective ele
ments of reality. The exterior world should present itself in
this way to man; it is meant to look so, it corresponds to the
aspect of the Creator's intention; it is the valid aspect of the
world. The aspect which is the object of science, far from being
more objective, is only a section of reality.
Sometimes we even encounter the opinion that the micro
scope shows us how a hand is in reality; the way a hand looks
to our naked eye is only a subjective impression, a kind of
illusion. Here it is especially easy to see that there is no reason
whatever to consider that the aspect offered by the micro
scope is more authentic or valid. Why should the aspect of
the details be more authentic than the one which we grasp
with our eyes? But the aspect of a hand disclosed by the micro
scope is not closer to the being of the hand, is not more its
property than the aspect given to the naked eye.
It is of the utmost importance to understand the radical
difference between this kind of dependence upon man's mind
and the one which in subjective idealism applies to all objects
of knowledge. It is not enough to distinguish the subjectivity
of a valid aspect from a mere semblance, such as the object
of an illusion or an hallucination; it is also necessary to dis
tinguish it from the subjectivity of idealism as well. We must
see why, in the case of these aspects, dependence upon our
mind does not invalidate the object and deprive it of a full
place in reality, although dependence on man's mind is pre
cisely the reason why we declare the objects of subjective
idealism to be invalid.
Let us note, first of all, that the subjectivity which is our
topic here concerns only corporeal bodies or at most the whole
spatial exterior world, whereas the subjectivity of Kant's ideal
ism extends to all objects of experience, whether corporeal or

OBJECTIVIIT AND INDEPENDENCE

1 67

spiritual, and likewise to the entire sphere of metaphysical facts

and truths.
Second, the subjectivity in which we are interested implies no
contradiction to full validity; it refers only to aspects of cor
poreal beings ( in the largest sense of the word ) and does not
extend to their entire such-being as does the subjectivity of
idealism. When we say that the aspect of a hand offered to the
naked eye is the valid aspect in comparison with the aspect dis
closed under a microscope, we in no way deny the reality of
what we see under the microscope. The physiological features of
our hand, the pores, tissues, nerve endings, and so forth, are
strictly objective things in our scheme and in no sense depend
upon the mind. Hence the subjectivity of the valid aspect
neither denies the possibility of a knowledge of features of the
exterior world which are independent of our mind, nor does it
imply that the superiority, so far as validity goes, of the subjec
tive aspect excludes the reality of those aspects which a scientific
exploration discloses.
The subjectivity of idealism, on the contrary, declares every
object, whether of experience or of scientific research, to be
subjective. Everything which we can reach with our conscious
ness is to a great extent a product of our mind. We can never
and in no way reach a reality which is completely independent
of our mind; we cannot reach the object such as it is objectively.
Third, the subjectivity of an aspect in our context does not
detach this aspect from the real object which is as such com
pletely independent of our mind. It does not make of this
aspect an accidental, or even a necessary, image which exists
as a "second world" apart from the real one; but it considers
the valid, subjective aspect to be in a deep meaningful rela
tion to the object - to be, indeed, a valid aspect of the real
object.
The difference between our position and that of the idealists
is, therefore, fully clear. Lest, however, our thesis that certain

1 68

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

subjective aspects are fully valid be construed as favoring the

idealistic interpretation of knowledge, we shall now take pains
to outline the sharp and profound difference between our stand
and that of the idealists like Kant. What we shall now say is
merely a new approach and a stronger restatement of what we
have mentioned above.
For the idealist, our knowledge as such cannot reach farther
than objects which are relative to man's mind. Every truth
is valid merely for man. Absolute autonomy and objectivity
and absolute validity find no place in idealistic subjectivity.
On the contrary, we claim the possibility of an absolute knowl
edge, of absolutely certain insight into highly intelligible and
necessary facts. Knowledge of this kind excludes any relativity
whatsoever. This is the first point of our radical difference
from idealism.
We claim, furthermore, the possibility of grasping with an
absolute certainty the real existence of concrete individual be
ings; this subjective idealism denies. We claim, moreover, the
possibility of a knowledge of the exterior world that does jus
tice to its real such-being. At this point we pause, however, to
distinguish different strata in the aspects offered by the cor
_
poreal world. We then claim that the aspect which is de
pendent upon man's mind, and which moreover presents itself
to man in naive experience, is the objectively more valid aspect
- because it is the aspect which the objective being is destined
and is meant to convey to us.
Thus, idealism means to restrict all our knowledge by claim
ing it has only relative, and not absolute, validity. Idealism sees
all knowledge as dependent upon man's mind and, therefore,
as relative to it. We, on the other hand, show that our knowl
edge of essences and of concrete individual beings is absolute.
We then go further. We say that even in those cases where
an aspect really does depend upon man's mind, we refuse to
see in this dependence a reason or symptom of invalidity.

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

1 69

Idealism claims that all objects depend on, and are relative to,
our mind; whereas we concede this dependence and relativity
only for the aspects of the corporeal world. Idealism impairs
the validity of all objects because of their dependence on our
mind; we extend validity even to the aspect which in a certain
way depends on man's mind. Our position is just the opposite
of idealism: in idealism every content of our knowledge is
reduced to a subjectivity which is in marked contrast to ob
jectivity. In our scheme, even certain contents which depend
upon our mind, and are in this sense subjective, share in the
objective validity.
It is clearly impossible, therefore, to gain support for sub
jective idealism by applying our arguments for the objective
validity of the human aspects of the exterior world.6
Let us consider a further argument. When we grant objective
validity to certain aspects of the exterior world, we see that
the very possibility of this validity depends upon the aspect's
being framed against the background of an objective reality
which is in its existence completely independent of our mind
and which can be known by us. Our view does not point to
any grand discrepancy between "things-as-they-really-are" and
"things-as-they-appear-ta-man" in any and all possible experi
ences. This is the axis of Kant's idealism, but it has nothing
to do with our view on the validity of certain subjective aspects.
The discrepancy we notice is a limited and local one: between
the aspect which corporeal beings afford us in a naive experi
ence and the one afforded in a scientific experience. Naive
a The contrast of our position with the idealistic one discloses itself drastically
when once we realize how impossible it would be on idealistic principles to
interpret the aspects of corporeal phenomena as valid messages from God. I f
idealism were true, the merely subjective categories and the entire aspect o f
experience which they afford u s could never b e considered as valid messages from
God. Even more, subjectivistic idealism bars the possibility of our knowing God's
existence since it denies the possibility of our knowing something transcendent.
In such a scheme, therefore, there is no possible ground to state that certain
things dependent upon man's mind are nonetheless valid because they are mes
sages of God.

1 70

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

experience shows us a red rose, an orange marigold. Scientific

experience seems to suggest that underlying both these colors
is a pattern of vibrations. Differences in the wave lengths of
these vibrations seem to account for the differences in the color
perceived in the nai:ve experience.
We have compared this duality of aspects with that of the
artistic content. Just as the painter or composer uses several
means to build up a certain aspect, and just as the raison
d'etre of all the means is precisely this intended aspect, so
too in nature, the reality with which science deals, the vibra
tions in this case, is a means whose true raison d'etre is to offer
an intended aspect to us in a nai:ve experience. Hence the end
product, the aspect offered in nai:ve experience, is the more
valid one since it is the "effect" intended and meant by the
Creator. It conveys an important and meaningful message to
man and is superior in meaning and value to the underlying
reality which is its bearer. But it clearly belongs to the nature
of this aspect that the reality underlying it is independent of
our mind.
The idealist's world cannot in the same way be compared
to a work of art. What sense would there be to the argument
that God constructs man's mind in such a way that all truth,
meaning, and values exist only as products of man's mind and
that man is absolutely cut off from any being that exists inde
pendently of his mind? To assert this is really to deny the
character of a meaningful valid message from God.
We have repeatedly said that the inner meaningfulness and
value of an aspect is an argument for its validity and reality.
Perhaps someone might object: "Imaginations and fictions can
also be meaningful and beautiful without thereby gaining any
reality." This is certainly true. The mere fact that something
is endowed with meaningfulness and is beautiful does not
insert it into reality. But it is easy to see that a fiction or
mere object of our imagination differs completely from an

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

171

aspect of reality. We are not forced to abandon our argument

that meaningful aspects are valid. For this argument does not
imply that anything meaningful is a valid reality. No, it is
limited to meaningful aspects of the real world.
In the way in which they are consciously accomplished,
fictions and imaginations differ from any aspect which imposes
itself upon us. Fictions present themselves to us as products
of our imagination; they are experienced as belonging to a
world of phantasy, which is clearly distinguished from the real
world in which we live. Whether this imaginary content is
beautiful or not, whether or not it has any value, does not alter
the fact that the bearer of these values, in contrast to the values
themselves, is definitely not real and not existent.
If it should happen that a certain man understands fictions,
not in their true nature as being imaginary things, but in a
superstitious way; if he should believe that witches, nymphs,
and centaurs really exist, they nevertheless are still separated
by a world from the aspects of the exterior world which concern
us here.
These fictions are in obvious contrast to the classical aspect
of nature; they bear the seal of the mythical, of the extraor
dinary, of a foreign body. They are often deprived of any
value, and they always lack the character of deep, meaningful
analogies and classical categories of reality. Neither can they
be considered as specific messages from God, nor are they in
any way the aspects of real things in nature.

CHAPTER

VI

THE TWO BASIC THEMES OF

KNOWLEDGE

Before we elaborate upon the difference between philosophi

cal and scientific knowledge, we must first analyze two different
themes of knowledge in general, namely, the notional and
the contemplative. We mentioned these two themes at the
end of Chapter II, in which we dealt with the difference be
tween taking cognizance of something and knowing. They dis
close themselves when we concentrate on perception and take
notice of the two basically different advantages afforded by
perception.
By perception we mean every form of taking cognizance of
something wherein the object is self-present and discloses itself
intuitively to our mind. We thus include in our notion of
perception more than mere sense perception. In our sense of
perception, when we hear the Fourth Symphony of Beethoven
we perceive not only the tones but also the melody, harmonies,
the entire structure of the symphony; above all, we perceive
its beauty. All these contents are given in self-presence and dis
close themselves to our mind while we hear the symphony.
Perception in this precise sense of the term is characterized by
the following three features :
First, the object of which I take cognizance is self-present
and given as such, as itself. It is not reached indirectly by any
172

THE TWO BASIC THEMES OF KNOWLEDGE

171

means of induction or deduction, but it stands, as it were, in

person before my mind. I am in direct, immediate contact with
the very object itself.
Second, the object discloses itself to my mind in its existence
and such-being. It speaks to me; it informs me about itself.
A unique contact with the object is established. The perceived
object fecundates my mind; it bestows a "knowing" on my
mind.
Third, the object is intuitively given, that is, it unfolds its
such-being before my mind. We shall understand more clearly
the nature of these three marks of perception when we compare
perception with other forms of "consciousness of" something.
We have already mentioned that the self-present givenness
of the object distinguishes perception from any kind of in
ferring. In the perception of a fire, the fire is itself given to
me as really present. When I see smoke and infer that there
must be a fire somewhere, only the smoke is given in its self
presence. The fire, on the contrary, is not given in this way.
Again, when I learn something through another person, the
object learned is even still less given as self-present. If someone
tells me that there is a fire around the corner, I perceive the
man who tells me about the fire. I hear his words. I under
stand their meaning. But the fact that there is a fire is not
given in its self-presence.
Again, if I represent the face of a friend in imagination and
actualize my knowledge of it, this face is not self-present. It
is only represented. By means of the prefix "re," our language
expresses the difference between this mere presence to our mind
and the real self-presence of an object. I have the clear con
sciousness that the object I represent is not itself really standing
in front of me.
When we thus contrast perception with other forms of tak
ing cognizance, such as inferring and learning, or with mere
representation, which is a specific type of actualizing our "hav-

1 74

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

ing knowledge of something,"1 we mean to clarify the nature

of the first mark of perception, namely, the self-present given
ness of the object.
The second mark of perception, which we can call the
fecundating contact between the object and my mind, is thrown
into relief especially by comparing perception with representa
tion. An object given in representation does not bestow a new
"knowing" on my mind. The object does not disclose itself.
The contact between the object and the human mind is not
such that the object speaks to me and fecundates my mind.
I do not learn anything new, but I merely actualize in a
specifically intuitive manner my knowledge of the object.
So far the fecundating contact with the object is a mark
which seems to distinguish all forms of taking cognizance from
all forms of actualizing a "knowing" of an object. Thus, in
inferring we learn something new. We take cognizance of a
state of facts and thereby allow the object to fecundate our
mind. Something analogous applies to the case in which we
learn something through another person. Nevertheless, we must
see that the fecundating contact in perception differs from that
in all other forms of taking cognizance of something because
it is an immediate contact, because the object itself speaks to
us and discloses itself to our mind without any intermediate
element. This immediacy gives to the fecundating contact a
unique character. Because the object or state of facts itself
speaks to our mind and engenders a knowing of it in our in
tellect, the fecundation proper to perception has an incom
parable plenitude and intimacy. Thus, the second characteristic
of perception, fecundating contact, though found in an analo
gous sense in all forms of taking cognizance, is a distinguishing
mark of perception by reason of its immediacy.
The third mark of perception, its intuitive character, is thrown
into relief most drastically when we compare perception with
l

Cf. Chap. II.

THE 1WO BASIC THEMES OF KNOWLEDGE

175

the act of meaning. In every declarative sentence that we utter

we are directed toward a state of facts. We refer to it in a very
precise way. Through the concepts of the subject and predicate,
moreover, we refer to certain objects. But the objects are not
given to us. We only direct ourselves in a very precise way
to the objects. We do not perceive them; we mean them.
We mentioned in Chapter I the difference between taking
cognizance and affirming or judging in the strict sense. We
stressed that in taking cognizance the object is in some way
given to us, though not always in self-presence, whereas in the
act of affirmation, the state of facts which we affirm is in no
way given. We pose it, as it were. We affirm it through the
proposition. Affirmation implies the act of meaning whereby
we indicate through words the different members of the state
of facts.
We are now concerned with this act of meaning insofar as it
exemplifies the absence of all intuition. In giving a lecture
we refer meaningfully to a certain object with every word ut
tered in the continuous flow of speech. Though we refer to it
in a very precise and highly rational way, the object is not
thereby unfolded in its such-being. It is reached through the
medium of a concept and circumscribed by it in a most precise
way. If we contrast the situation present in meaning to that
present in a representation of the object, we clearly grasp the
nature of an intuitive givenness. In thinking of a friend we
may try to represent his face. we do this in order to reach
an intuitive contact with him and gain thereby a greater in
timacy, a closer contact with his personality than in the mere
"meaning" him when we refer to him in our thought. Com
pared with the mere meaning, the representation has an intui
tive character, though the meaning has its own advantage in
being more specific and precise.
The intuitive character of perception is evidently incompara
bly more perfect than that pertaining to representation. Yet

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

the contrast between representation and meaning serves to

clarify the nature of this third perfection of perception, its in
tuitive character. We point to the intuitive character of per
ception when we state that representation and imagination
share this intuitive character with it, though in a less perfect
way, whereas the contact with an object in "meaning" it is
radically nonintuitive. Yet not only in meaning, but also in
inferring, is the intuitive character absent. The object whose
knowledge is reached by inference is not thereby disclosed
to my mind in an intuitive manner. Compare the knowledge of
the fire which I see with the one which I possess because I
hear the sirens of the fire engines. Only in the former case
does the object, the real fire, disclose its such-being to my mind.
After this brief look at the nature of perception, we can
now proceed to the topic of this chapter, the two basic themes
of knowledge. To do this we must distinguish two perfections
of perception. The first consists in the fact that perception is
the most original and perfect way of taking cognizance of reality.
The existence of something is disclosed to my mind in the most
direct way when I perceive it. The self-present givenness of the
object informs me in the most immediate way about its existence
and such-being.2 In this respect perception has a privileged posi
tion among all forms of taking cognizance of something. 3
This perfection of perception refers to the appropriation by
the mind of an object. It also applies to the "knowing" which
perception engenders in our mind. It refers to the notional
theme which, as we saw, dominates taking cognizance as weB
as knowing.
But perception has stili another, a second, basic perfection.
2

This does not mean, of course, that the very first perception of an object
suffices to inform m e about its entire such-being. In many cases, as we saw before,
a complicated research alone can inform me about a certain such-being. Yet in
this process of research, in experiments, for instance, perception will always have
a privileged position.
a We shall see later on that with respect to certain objects, intellectual intui
tion is the most privileged form of taking cognizance of their such-being.

THE TWO BASIC THEMES OF KNOWLEDGE

177

It is as such the most intimate contact with the object. Even

if I know an object through and through, so that its perception
could add nothing to my knowledge, nonetheless, to grasp it
in its self-presence, to touch it with my mind, and to "have"
it thereby in an incomparable way, implies an intimacy of
contact which is a perfection of its own. Knowledge as such
is a unique form of spiritual union with the object. But our
point in this chapter is to show that this union implies two
different dimensions. The first one goes in the direction of
the most perfect knowing. The second in the direction of the
intimate real contact of having the object in a most immediate
and full possession, of touching it with our mind, of confronting
the object "face to face."
The first dimension of union displays itself in our appropria
tion of the object. This comes to pass in taking cognizance of
something and subsists in our knowing, whether the knowing
be superactual or actual. This first perfection of perception
consists in its being a privileged source of taking cognizance and
of acquiring knowing thereby. This perfection refers to what we
have called the "notional theme" of perception.
The second dimension of union displays a new perfection of
perception. Even if taking cognizance of something is fully
accomplished, and perfect knowing is attained, the continued
perception of the object results in a special, intimate, and
immediate union with the real object, in contrast to the merely
superactual knowing, which can subsist even when the object
is no longer self-present to the mind.
Knowing, even the most perfect, could never substitute for
the dimension of contact and union with the object that per
ception affords, the "dwelling-in" the object that is thus made
possible.
In this "dwelling-in," we are no longer concerned with the
question, "How is it?" or with the answer, 4'It is so," but
exclusively with union with the object, with the union, face

178

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

to face, which perception affords, above and beyond its capacity

to bestow on us a knowing of the object.
This perfection of perception fulfills another theme, the con
templative theme, a spiritual "wedding" with the object.
In short, there are two basic kinds of spiritual contact with
an object. The first is climaxed in the knowledge of the object
and the other in the spiritual wedding with the self-present ob
ject. There are, consequently, two fundamental directions of
knowledge in the broadest sense, two kinds of spiritual posses
sion of being toward which our mind tends. Perception is the
basis for both. For a "knowing-possession," it is the starting
point. For a wedding with the object, it is the fulfillment.
Perception, therefore, entails two completely different per
fections. It displays two advantages. The first is the ability to
engender a knowledge in the person about the perceived object,
and thereby to produce an entirely unique form of spiritual
possession of the object: "knowing." Second, in the perception
itself, once the unfolding of the object is accomplished, there
is an intimate living contact with the real object, a fully static
possession which cannot be replaced by any other relation to
the object.
Despite the great difference between the notional and the
contemplative themes, they are intimately linked. "Know
ing" plays an important role for the contemplative "having" of
the object. The more perfect our knowledge of a being and
the more we know it, the more intimate will be the spiritual
wedding with the self-present object in perception. For instance,
when we hear a symphony, the union with the self-present
object, though it cannot be replaced by the most perfect know
ing, will evidently be much more perfect the better we know
the symphony. Thus, for a face-to-face contemplative contact
to be ideal, it is necessary to have reached already a per
fect knowledge of the object. To put it differently, we can

THE 1WO BASIC THEMES OF KNOWLEDGE

1 79

say that a perfect contemplative wedding demands a perfect

and prior notional contact.
This contemplative "dwelling-in" the object, this most im
mediate and full possession, has a static character, as does know
ing in contrast to taking cognizance of something. Nevertheless,
it differs radically from the static knowing which we distin
guished in Chapter II from taking cognizance of something. In
truth, contemplative wedding differs both from taking cog
nizance of something and from knowing because it is no longer
dominated by the notional theme which pervades both of them.
There are three things in question here: contemplative hav
ing, static knowing, and dynamic taking cognizance of some
thing. Contemplative having agrees with knowing in that both
have a static character, and with taking cognizance of some
thing in that both are actual and fully conscious. But it radically
differs from both static knowing and taking cognizance by
reason of its theme. Whereas static knowing and taking cogni
zance are dominated by the notional theme, the contemplative
having is dominated by the theme of a spiritual wedding with
the object.
We must now, however, emphasize that the role of con
templation in our cognitive contact with being is restricted to
certain beings.
When we wish to become acquainted with some practical
thing, such as a machine, in order to use it purposefully, we
are interested only in knowing about it, not in a spiritual wed
ding with it which only a perceptive intuition can give us. When
we say this, we mean something different from saying that our
pragmatic interest in the object limits our knowledge of it.
The point at issue here is that, in our learning how to use
the machine, we rightly see as important only the notional con
tact which leads to knowing, and not the contact that is given
in full contemplative "having." When, on the other hand, we

180

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

behold a work of art, the cognitive contact desired with the ob

ject is not given merely in "knowing" it, but instead in the full
"having of" it in its self-presence. For only this cognitive contact,
presupposed for the enjoyment of any work of art, admits of a
wedding in and through knowledge with the object as it unfolds
itself to us. All learning-to-know in cases like these has only
the meaning of making possible the full having of the object,
and the consequent enjoyment4 of the same object. Not all
beings which can be an object of our knowledge can become
the object of contemplative having. The contemplative theme
can refer to persons, even those known only through history,
or to all objects endowed with qualitative values, such as a great
work of art, a beautiful country, a lovely flower. It can also
refer to many of those things which, because of their central
importance, are objects of philosophy. Needless to say, the
role of the contemplative theme reaches its climax in the
religious sphere.
Taking cognizance of something and knowing bear a closer

relation to being convinced and to affirming than does con

templative having, because the notional theme is found in
conviction and affirmation although, it is true, in a totally
different way. Conviction and eventually affirmation organically
follow taking cognizance and knowing; they do not require a
contemplative having of the object. What is given in con
templative having lies beyond what is at stake in conviction
and affirmation. The interest of the notional theme in the
"how-is-it" is the basis for the spontaneous "so-it-is" of con
viction and affirmation - which are the "answers" we ourselves
give. In contemplative having, on the other hand, the theme
of "how-is-it" is very much subdued. The "so-it-is" no longer
has the character of an answer to the question, "How is the
thing?"
The contemplative theme, which is not, as such, concerned
4

The Augustinian frui as opposed to uti.

THE 1WO BASIC THEMES OF KNOWLEDGE

181

with affirmation and conviction, exhibits a new kind of rela

tion to the object; it looks to the unfolding of the value of the
object, beginning with the initial stage wherein the value radi
ates from the object and enters my consciousness, passing
through the stage wherein I am touched or affected by the
value, and ending with affective responses. The climax of this
theme is, therefore, the Augustinian frui - the enjoyment of an
unfolded value.
It will be recalled that we drew attention to perception in
order to elaborate the nature of the contemplative theme in
knowledge. The perfection of self-present givenness in per
ception helped us to throw this theme into relief. Yet it would
be wrong to restrict contemplation to perception. The same
theme can manifest itself in many cognitive acts, although it
finds only a relative fulfillment in them. We have already men
tioned the desire to establish a more intimate contact with a
beloved person by representing his or her face, way of speak
ing, mannerisms. Such a desire is evidently not dominated by
the notional theme. For we are not aiming at an enlargement
of our knowledge of the beloved person, nor could a mere
representation ever contribute anything to such an enlargement.
This desire is exclusively directed to increasing and deepening
our contact with the beloved person in the direction of the con
templative theme. Certainly representation is a very poor fulfill
ment of the contemplative theme when contrasted with per
ception of the beloved person, dwelling in his real presence, and
seeing him face to face.
Between mere representation and seeing face to face, how
ever, there are many stages of fulfillment of the contemplative
theme.
The authentic recall of some past situation with the beloved
person, going back with our mind to former experiences, of
fers us a much more intimate cognitive union with the be
loved than does mere representation. The same applies in the

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

case of a beautiful landscape or a beloved country. When we

try to represent the landscape, we aim at a contemplative
possession, a contact which only perception grants us in a
perfect way. Now, if we recall our former days of dwelling
in this country and seeing this landscape, if we "go back" to
the original perceptions of this landscape, a higher degree of
contemplative having is afforded.
A still higher degree of contemplative having may be reached
when we immerse ourselves with all our mind in the personality
of a beloved person or in the atmosphere of a beloved country.
Certainly, the success of this immersion in establishing an in
timate contact with the object does not depend exclusively on
us. There is an element of gift in this contact. To immerse one
self with one's whole mind in the personality of a beloved
person, or the atmosphere of a beloved country, may or may
not be successful. If successful, it is a deeper fulfillment of the
contemplative theme than mere representation.
It is especially in religious life that the contemplative theme
of knowledge plays a great role and that we may clearly grasp
the difference between this theme and the notional theme.
Thus, if a theologian studies the passion of Christ in order
to learn something about it, the notional theme dominates
his mind. If, on the contrary, he meditates on the passion of
Christ in mental prayer and, still more, if the passion of Christ
is the object of his contemplation in the religious sense of the
term, then the contemplative theme is exclusively at stake. The
longing to see Christ face to face, the great desire of the
Christian which he hopes will be fulfilled in eternity, manifests
itself in religious meditation and contemplation.
To be sure, in one respect the Beatific Vision is also the
fulfillment of the notional theme. When St. Augustine ex
claims : "That I may know Thee, that I may know myself,"
he expresses the desire for a knowledge of God, the fulfillment
of the notional theme. But when the same St. Augustine says:

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183

"There we shall see, and we shall love," or when St. Thomas

in his hymn Adoro Te says :
Jesu quem velatum nunc aspicio;
Oro fiat ilium quod tam sitio
Ut te revelata cernens facie
Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae,
each refers to the fulfillment of the contemplative theme, to
the wedding union afforded in the Vision.
We must, however, stress that a fulfillment of the contempla
tive theme with respect to certain objects can be reached with
out recourse to a perception in the strict sense. Insofar as
necessary and highly intelligible essences are in question, intel
lectual intuition grants us an intimate union analogous to that
granted by perception. This is so because essences enjoy a
kind of self-presence analogous to the givenness of a concrete
individual being. The contemplative having of an intelligible
essence, the nature of justice or love, for example, displays
itself in an intellectual intuition.
As we saw before, these highly intelligible necessary essences
enable us to grasp intuitively the necessary states of facts rooted
in them. Intellectual intuition is the way in which we analyze
objects with these necessary essences. Although at least one
perception of these objects is presupposed if we are to become
acquainted with them, still, when we begin a philosophical
analysis, we need not witness a real act of justice, or a real
forgiving, we need not "perceive" these actual things in order
to establish an immediate intuitive contact with the essence
of justice or forgiveness. \Ve may start with an example offered
by history, or even by a noveL The essences of justice and for
giveness may be intuitively given to our mind even in a kind
of self-presence although the bearers of these essences are not
at the moment perceived. In short, to represent an act of jus
tice is not to perceive it. Nevertheless, this merely represented

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

act of justice, weak as it is, suffices to enable me to have an

intuitive contact with the self-present necessary essence of
justice.
Intellectual intuition into essences can inform us about their
nature in a most direct and immediate way. What matters
here in our context, however, is that the intellectual intuition
is not only the source of fulfilling the notional theme regard
ing justice, not only the way for us to appropriate the nature
of this essence to our mind, not only that which allows us to
accomplish insights into necessary states of facts; it also allows
us to fulfill the contemplative theme with respect to the es
sence. For intellectual intuition can grant us a union with the
essence in question, a wedding contact, face to face. Such a
wedding contact with respect to persons and all other concrete
individual things is possible only in a perception. But with
essences it is possible through an intellectual intuition. This
intuition can grant us a contemplative having of the essences
and a fulfillment, therefore, of the contemplative theme. This
requires, of course, that we be not absorbed in the knowing
process, that we be not preoccupied, so to speak, with the no
tional theme - as we are indeed preoccupied when we under
take a philosophical analysis. Only after we known an essence
deeply, only after we have profoundly penetrated the nature
of an essence and in a way "exhausted" the notional theme,
only then can the contemplative theme rise to its full promi
nence - when we intend to immerse ourselves in the essence, to
repose in its vision.

CHAPTER

VII

DISTINGUISHING MARK OF
PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND
INQ UIRY

When we discussed the object of philosophy, we were al

ready deeply immersed in the singular way in which philosophy
directs its glance and poses questions. Now we shall take up
more fully the nature of philosophic inquiry.

1. The dominant themes of pl1ilosophic inquiry

First of all, philosophy is interested only in certain centrally
significant objects and is almost exclusively directed to knowl
edge of apriori states of facts. Another characteristic of philoso
phy is that it is dominated not only by the theme of knowledge
but also by that of the object. We have seen the difference
between knowledge-thematicity and object-thematicity earlier
in this work. We saw that there are cases of naYve taking cogni
zance of something when there is an explicit thematicity of
the object but none of knowledge. There are also cases, however,
in which the knowledge-thematicity, as in most sciences, by far
exceeds that of the object-thematicity. There is, of course, no
instance in which there is purely interest in knowledge and none
in the object, for knowledge is essentially related to objects and
can never be completely independent of them without losing all
content and seriousness. But it can happen that, in certain
instances, the theme of knowledge has more importance than
185

186

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

that of the object. This is the case in the basic attitude charac
teristic of the sciences.
Someone might object that the pragmatic character of certain
sciences, of a great part of physics for example, contradicts our
statement that in science the object-thematicity is less than
the knowledge-thematicity, for to be pragmatic means to be
concerned with the object much more than with knowledge.
This objection, however, is based on a misunderstanding of
the nature of pragmatic interest. Suppose I am interested in
elevating an enormous weight of several hundred tons and I
desire to exert only a small force to accomplish this. I immerse
myself in the study of hydraulics and I devise a lift that oper
ates on the familiar principle of hydraulics known to every
automobile mechanic who has ever used a hydraulic jack. Is
my interest in the laws of hydraulics pragmatic? Indeed it is.
Is it therefore highly concerned with the object? Am I really
interested in the mysterious fact that liquids may be only
slightly compressed, that pressures on a small area can affect
the entire volume of liquids, and so forth? Does the object
itself draw me to itself and invite me to delve into its depth?
No. Although a pragmatic approach in science means that the
theme of knowledge is not very prominent, this does not there
fore guarantee a full object-thematicity. The truth is that in
such a case of pragmatic interest, the object is looked up
on simply as a means to something else. Hence we are not
preoccupied with it as such : its nature, meaning, and value.
Rather, our interest is fixed on something else, the end for
which the object in question is a means. Thus, the entire
question of hydraulic systems does not interest me in its own
right. I study hydraulics simply to accomplish something else
which does interest me, namely, the elevating of the enormous
weight.
It is true that the pragmatic approach, by putting little value
on knowledge as such stands in sharp contrast to a real knowl-

PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

187

edge-thematicity. But this does not mean that the pragmatic

approach is closer to object-thematicity. It is, rather, antithetical
to it, only it goes in a direction different from that of an ap
proach chiefly dominated by the theme of knowledge. Any
possible object-thematicity is undermined in the pragmatic ap
proach by the fact that the object assumes the character of
a mere means. The pragmatic theme is always interested in
achievement. It is concerned with bringing into existence
something not-yet-real by means of our intelligent activity.
How then can the object be thematic when it interests us only
because of the end we hope to realize by using it? The end,
rather, is thematic, and not the means.
We are faced now with three different themes that may
determine the relation we have toward an object in knowledge.
The first holds the object in high prominence, because of its
value and meaning. The second gives the palm to knowledge
as such and extends a secondary nod to the object. The third
looks at the object only because it desires something else which
can be attained with the aid of the object. The difference
between this third, pragmatic theme, and the first, the object
theme, is much more radical than the difference between the
first and the second themes. For the first two may fully coexist,
and they do fully coexist in genuine philosophical knowledge.
But the third theme is by its nature hostile to the first. The
pragmatic approach inevitably corrodes object-thematicity. It
may, however, coexist with knowledge-thematicity, especially as
a motive for undertaking research. What plainly divides the
first from the third theme is that object-thematicity implies the
presence to a certain extent of the aforementioned contempla
tive theme, whereas the pragmatic approach excludes this theme
from the start.
In science, the desire for knowledge is one jump ahead of any
interest in the object as such. The thoroughness and the sys
tematic and critical character of knowledge about the object

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

stands more in the foreground than does the object itself.

History and philology, for example, attest to the fact that mo
ments which are of relatively slight importance are investigated
with the same seriousness, and treated as of the same weight,
as objects having much more important contents.
With respect to philosophical inquiry and knowledge, how
ever, there is a highpoint of both object-thematicity and knowl
edge-thematicity. Yet, despite the high stress on knowledge in
philosophy, greatly exceeding that in the other sciences, for phi
losophy the object is one jump ahead in thematicity.
The centrally important objects, which alone are the concern
of philosophy, stand with their ontological weight totally before
the spiritual eye of the philosophical searcher and knower. They
always mean more to him than mere objects of knowledge.
Hence, the unique reverence that is found in philosophical
inquiry and also the solemn character of philosophical knowl
edge. Philosophy is essentially not so "neutral" as are the other
sciences with respect to their own proper objects.
A further characteristic of the philosophical attitude stems
from this fact. Whereas the notional theme predominates in
all other scientific knowledge; in the case of philosophy the
contemplative theme plays a decisive role. Philosophical inquir
ing yearns not only for a conscious, explicit, and profound
knowledge of the object, but also for something beyond this
a contemplative possessing of the object, a spiritual wedding
with it. Naturally this is very much graduated, either up or
down, according to the height of meaning of the knowledge
object. The higher the form of God's image in a being, the
greater is the role played by this contemplative theme. Philo
sophical longing, or eros, aims not only at the spiritual possession
of the world of ethical values, for example, which possession is
fulfilled in a clear and deep knowledge about the essential states
of facts of this world, in a profound and thorough knowledge of

PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

189

ethical values, but also at the spiritual wedding of the mind

with this world, which is brought about in the vision of the
world of ethical values. The direction of this eros depends on
the fact that philosophy grasps every object in its relation to
the focus of reality, that philosophy sees in each object its
function of reflecting God in some way. The cognitive glances
of philosophy do not look at reality simply in its breadth. They
do not travel over the world of being step by step until the
entire dimension of breadth is covered. Rather, philosophy looks
at every knowledge-object from the point of view of its depth.
It follows the path which, in the case of every object-territory,
leads to the absolute, to the original ground and source of all
being. This attitude is already displayed in the questions about
essences which philosophy asks. What is space, what is time,
in their essence? What is the essence of faithfulness? of purity?
of beauty? of the person? This is how it inquires. And in the
wonder which is constitutive of its attitude, the wonder about
being, there is always present a thoughtful consideration of the
object sub specie aeternitatis, that is to say, in relation to the
trace of God that is found in the specific content of this or that
object.
Indeed, in the case of other types of scientific research also,
something analogous to this can be found, but it lies com
pletely beyond the respective science and its formal object. The
physicist also can immerse himself contemplatively in the mys
terious world of force. The historian can rest in the world,
present now to his mind, of an epoch of culture, or in the
special character of a great personality. But these contacts with
knowledge-objects go beyond the respective attitudes proper to
the sciences in question. They are extrascientific, in the sense
that they properly come under either philosophy or a lived
contact with being. So far as philosophy itself goes, however,
its longing for a contemplative knowing-wedding with the ob-

190

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

ject belongs to its most basic and ultimate attitude. This long
ing penetrates its entire knowledge process, and it is this which
gives to philosophy its characteristic solemnity.
The contact with truth which philosophy desires is, therefore,
of a nature different from that of the other sciences. The
philosophical seeker intends ultimately to rest in a contempla
tive vision of truth. Philosophical knowledge is, therefore, the
most extreme antithesis to every kind of knowledge which, as
it were, "abandons" the object after having reached a knowledge
of it. It distinguishes itself from the kind of knowledge-attitude
for which knowledge is a sort of conquest of being with the
result that one gains a superior position to the object by having
known it or "seen through it." Of course, every other serious
science likewise disowns this disrespectful knowledge-attitude,
which from the start prohibits any real penetration into the
essence of the object and which advertises its boast of "seeing
through" the object only because it suffers from an illusion.
But the philosophical attitude is the most extreme antithesis to
it. Philosophy does not pretend to assume a position superior
to the being it intends to know. Rather, it considers this being
as a "partner" in which it wants to participate. It seeks to know
the object, not in order to abandon it triumphantly when
conquered, but to be able to be devoted to it more deeply and
authentically. For this reason, a truth that is already known
never becomes old or outdated for philosophy - not even in the
sense in which something true becomes obsolete for the other
genuine sciences. Philosophy is not content with the contact
with the object that is given in the mere knowing of it, but
it seeks also a wedding with the object that is given in the
contemplative having of it. Hence, in the most ideal knowledge
penetration of an object, the object never ceases to possess a
real interest to the knower.
Thus philosophical knowledge is marked by a threefold the
maticity in its ordination to the world of centrally important

PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

191

objects. Philosophy embodies, first, the highest and purest

knowledge-thematicity, in the sense of the "notional" theme;
second, the full object-thematicity; and, third, the thematicity
of a wedding with the object in contemplation.
2.

The depth dimension and depragmatization of the

philosophical knowledge of essences

Philosophical inquiry wants to push forward into an essen

tially deeper layer of the object than is sought after by the other
sciences. If we supposed that all questions and problems of the
other sciences were resolved, still nothing would be asked or
answered with respect to the depth-dimension in which phi
losophy is interested.
This difference in depth is determined by the difference in
approach between philosophy and the other sciences. But it is
also determined by the difference in their respective objects.
We have already seen that the nature of the object in each
case determines the difference between apriori and empirica1
knowledge. Apriori knowledge is possible only with objects
having a necessary, highly intelligible essence. We have also
seen, moreover, that even with respect to an object possessing
a necessary and intelligible essence, not every fact which we
may wish to know is accessible to apriori insight. Joy is a good
example of this. It possesses a necessary and intelligible essence.
We can, consequently, grasp with absolute certainty several
truths rooted in the essence of joy. We can understand that it
is an intentional experience, which presupposes a knowledge of
the object as well as of the importance of the object, and,
likewise, that the object of joy may be a value, an objective
good for the person, or it may be something only subjectively
satisfying. Other facts about joy, however, are not accessible to
apriori knowledge, for example, the influence of joy on the
health and the body of a person.
Again, the object, "man," has a necessary and intelligible

192

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

essence and is thus an eminent object of apriori knowledge. At

the same time, however, many facts about man are in no way
rooted in his intelligible essence as a person. Hence, they cannot
be grasped in an insight. These facts require empirical observa
tion and investigation. All the facts of man's physiological nature
fall into this empirical and nonintelligible category, as well as
an psychophysical and psychological facts.
It follows that apriori knowledge makes a twofold demand.
The object it deals with must have a necessary and intelligible
essence, and the facts it discovers must be essentially and intel
ligibly rooted in this essence. Empirical knowledge, on the other
hand, claims as its object all those beings that have a morphic
unity, and not only these, but also aU those "opaque" facts
which may belong to beings that have a necessary essence. To
put this in another way, we may say that as far as states of facts
are concerned, the object of an apriori knowledge is always
different from the object of empirical knowledge. But as far as
beings and real substances are concerned, one and the same
being may present an inte11igible essence and many intelligible
states of facts rooted in the essence, and present likewise an
opaque such-being which is not inte11igible and which must be
subjected to empirical study. It can happen, therefore, and it is
indeed very often the case, that one and the same substance is
investigated by both apriori and empirical methods. Thus, both
rational and experimental psychology study man.
In a broad sense we may say that "man" is the object of both
these studies and that, therefore, they have the "same" object.
But, strictly speaking, this is false. The real and immediate
object of apriori knowledge is always something different from
the immediate object of empirical knowledge. The results of
these two kinds of knowledge likewise differ. The eternal veri
ties, the luminous insights afforded by apriori knowledge, can
be reached only in this apriori way. They can never be the result

PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

193

of any empirical knowledge. Nor, on the other hand, can empiri

cal truths ever be reached by apriori knowledge.
What obtains between the different objects of apriori and
empirical knowledge obtains in an analogous way between the
objects of philosophy and the sciences. In many cases what
makes a scientific result different from a philosophical one is
exactly equivalent to what makes an empirical object different
from an apriori object. In many cases, but not always. As we
saw previously, for a given being to be an object of philosophical
analysis, it must have other features in addition to the prime
one of possessing an intelligible and necessary essence. Not
every apriori fact is a philosophical one. The fact that two and
two equals four is certainly apriori. It is not philosophical, how
ever, because it lacks the note of central importance which every
object of philosophy must possess.
We have also seen that, although individual numbers and
number combinations fall outside the scope of philosophy be
cause they are not centrally important, the nature of number
in general is a specifically philosophical topic. Now we must
notice that the state of facts in question when philosophy in
quires about the nature of number in general is completely
different from the state of facts at stake when mathematics
analyzes specific numbers and number combinations. The ques
tions asked are different and the results obtained are different.
Philosophy plainly wants to know something different from
what mathematics can offer when philosophy asks, "What is
number?" "What kind of entity is number?" "What is the
relation of number to the real world?" "What is the difference
between ontological unity and oneness in the numerical sense?"
"What is the difference between number and the ontological
'accident' of quantity?"
Even here, therefore, it remains true that the immediate
object of philosophy is always something different from that of

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

the other sciences, no matter how closely related both objects

are to the one being that is approached from the two different
viewpoints. This difference in immediate object must be kept
in mind. It will help us to see how the difference in depth
between philosophy and the other sciences rests on the fact
that philosophy is interested in beings having a necessary essence
only insofar as intelligible and necessary facts are intelligibly
and necessarily rooted in these beings and, moreover, only inso
far as such facts are of a central importance and have a relation
to the universe of being.
In philosophizing, the human mind awakes to a thoroughly
new stage of awareness and is rooted in a "deactualized" stand
point, from which it looks out upon being. Compared to
this, the other sciences move among beings and rub familiar
shoulders, so to speak, with the beings investigated. Not so
philosophy. The philosophical putting of a question confronts
the objects with the light of the absolute, as it were, and,
therefore, considers the being not only from the depragmatized
and deactualized position but also from the point of view which
depends on the main theme of the object and the object
territory.
Most sciences observe their respective objects from a certain
point of view, and it is not necessary that this point of view
be dictated by the main theme of the object in question.
Physics and chemistry consider different cross sections of the
world of material being. Such cross sections imply no de
formation of the object inasmuch as they are made with a
fundamentum in re, and not arbitrarily. But they do imply a
limitation of the object since they depend only on a segment
of it. History likewise considers its object from a certain point
of view, that of the factual order and interconnection of events.
History does not inquire about the essence of heroes and saints
but about the concrete factual appearances of such men, about

PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE AND INQUIRY

195

their lives, works, deeds, and the like. Neither does it ask about
the natural laws which lie at the root of the burial of Hercu
laneum and Pompeii. It asks only about the facts themselves and
their historical importance. Characteristic of the philosophical
attitude is that its point of view not only has a fundamentum
in re, as is true of all other genuine intellectual disciplines, but
also is oriented around the main theme of the object or object
territory. The factual themes around which our knowledge
can be oriented do not simply stand with equal rights, one
beside the other. On the contrary, they have an order of rank,
a hierarchy, according to their relation to the real meaning-axis
of the object. I can look, for example, upon a landscape from
the aesthetic point of view, the economic, the geological, the
zoological, the botanical, the historical, the strategical, and many
others, but always from a special point of view. None of these
points of view is arbitrary, to be sure. It is also true that there
is a difference in the content of the object revealed under
these viewpoints, a content which rests on the fact that some of
these points of view are of purely knowledge-interest, whereas
others have pragmatic interest. Prescinding from this difference,
we still notice that the various themes of pure knowledge-interest
do not stand on the same level. For the question which seeks
the main and the subordinate points of view is given objectively,
independent of our knowledge interests. Thus the strategical
and economic viewpoints, inasmuch as they are pragmatic, are
already much further removed from the fullness of the main
theme. Of the two, the economic is indeed incomparably less
impoverished, arbitrary, and external. For the need it serves is
by far the more classical and it touches a point lying much
closer to the meaning of the object than does the strategical.
Thus, the botanical point of view is more pertinent than the
historical to the full main theme of a landscape. Again, if we
think of a literary work of art, we can consider it aesthetically,

196

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

historically, scientifically, or ethically. Here the main theme of

the object unequivocally dictates that the aesthetic point of
view is primary.
If an object is considered from only one point of view, there
necessarily follows a limitation of the aspects given by the
object. But this limitation will mean one thing when the view
point is centered around the main theme of the object, and
something totally different when the viewpoint is oriented
around a subordinate theme of the object. A strict one-sidedness
is not implied by our considering an object from the viewpoint
of its substantial and primary theme. Strictly speaking, of course,
we can say that a new object comes into focus whenever we
change our point of view. The historical consideration of a
work of art looks upon the origin of the work, the influences
which affected the artist, his subjective intentions, and so forth.
The aesthetic consideration looks upon the work of art itself,
its value, and the like. Although each of these different aspects
of the object belongs to diverse areas of knowledge-interest,
they all are linked in reality, and one aspect is the center and
supporter for all the rest. The extraction in knowledge of an
accidental feature of an object leads, to be sure, to a new object
of knowledge in the strict sense, but it does not eliminate the
central unity underlying all the objects of knowledge which can
be based upon it. Consequently it remains true that the various
possible viewpoints in knowledge can and must be measured by
the relevant weight of the theme upon which the point of view
is based. The philosophical viewpoint is distinguished by the
fact that it not only follows the highest theme within the object
and, therefore, asks only about centrally important things, but
also inquires about the main theme of the object of knowledge
in question. Thus, of all knowledges, philosophical is the least
one-sided, least limited, and least pragmatic. It is the knowledge
most purely and exclusively determined by the complete such
being of an object, for it is always directed toward that essence.

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The attitude of philosophical knowledge is not only com

pletely free from any pragmatic concern, but also from every
limitation and one-sidedness springing from a point of view
oriented around a theme that is not central and principal to
the object. This same characteristic of philosophical knowledge
follows from its spiritual position with respect to its object.
Philosophy occupies a position removed from actuality, whereas,
in comparison, the sciences "move between" many actual, con
crete beings. This position of philosophic knowledge does not
imply, however, that such knowledge is removed from a lived
contact with the object. It means, rather, a distance which
enables us to approach the object in the way objectively de
termined by the main theme. It means, finally, that even in
posing a question about the object, philosophy is completely
concerned with its principal theme.
Philosophy implies a wondering about its object. In philoso
phy one "wakes up" in a special way. When a man embarks
upon a philosophical analysis of the world, he begins to stare
at the world in wonder, instead of taking it for granted. He
emancipates himself, as it were, from the entanglements of
the concrete situation and removes himself a certain distance
from it. He no longer moves among things but places himself,
as it were, at the axis of truth. Now his stand is freed from all
preoccupations which do not originate from the objective mean
ing and essence of the being. His standpoint is free from the
whirl of the actual. It is also unpragmatic. From this standpoint
he looks at the being and takes it seriously for what it is and
means in itself.
The philosophic stand is the very antithesis, however, of
that "distance" from the object which results from our dwell
ing in abstract concepts instead of our delving into the reality
in its full existential flavor. This "conceptual" attitude, although
it can be found in many philosophers, is in itself contrary to
the very meaning and genius of philosophy.

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True and genuine philosophy, as we shall see later on, requires

a continuous and most intimate contact with reality, with all
beings that are accessible to philosophical analysis. We here
merely notice that the "distance" from the object proper to
philosophy is the very opposite of the blind haughtiness of
certain philosophers who neglect all intimate contact with the
objects in question, and who are content to go from concept
to concept. This kind of distance, far from aiding philosophy
by allowing it to see the object in an unpragmatic way, really
serves to kill philosophy. For to remain within the sphere of
already known and defined concepts means that we have severed
the life-giving, life-sustaining, always fruitful link between our
mind and the world of being, soaked in infinite and mysterious
plenitude.
The philosophical stand, with its unpragmatic "objectivity,"
is also the very antithesis to that attitude whereby one looks
at the object from without, in a "disinterested" or "neutral"
manner, in the so-called "laboratory" spirit. This kind of neu
tral attitude, whereby one places the objects in question on
a plate, as it were, and looks at them with the mere curiosity
of knowing, is incompatible with the object-thematicity which,
as we saw before, is proper to philosophy. Because in philosophy
the knowledge-thematicity never surpasses the object-thematic
ity, it is impossible that philosophy could adopt this "neutrality"
toward the object which we find in science.
The philosopher, thanks to his "distance" from the object
and to his freedom from the whirl of actuality, is able to
enjoy a deeper and more intimate contact with the object.
As paradoxical as it may seem, distance in this sense is
an aid to intimate contact. By placing himself at the axis
of truth, by staring at the object in the light of truth, by
his attitude of solemnity and reverent wondering, the phi
losopher frees himself from all obstacles that hinder his mind
from "listening" to the voice of being and that prevent the

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object from disclosing itself in all its plenitude and mysteri

ous depth. By reason of this freedom, this emerging from all
interests not engendered by the object itself, the philosopher
acquires a closeness or proximity to the object which surpasses
the closeness that existed before the emerging from actuality
took place. This new proximity and closeness gives, in a certain
sense, to the object a unique "actuality" of its own. It hovers
before us, as, analogously, the beloved stands in a unique light
before the lover.
The universe is mysteriously deep and solemn. Deep also are
the centrally important objects of philosophy. It is to the depth
of these things that we awaken when we emerge from practical
closeness to the object and from entanglement in accidental
situations. We in no sense emerge to the neutral objectivity
proper to the sciences. Adequate in the sciences, this neutrality
is inadequate, we might say fatal, in philosophy. The depth
dimension of the objects of philosophy calls for a deep and
reverent wondering and it discloses itself to this attitude and to
this attitude alone.
Let us take another look at this philosophical distance from
the object. We must consider and distinguish two ways in which
an object may be "close" to us. In the first way, we are close
to objects when we move among them, become entangled with
them, when we approach them with a pragmatic interest. In
the second way, we are close to certain objects because of an
existential contact with them, because of a lived contact in the
depths of our spiritual life. As we shall see, the distance in phi
losophy opposes the first kind of closeness but not the second.
The first kind of closeness exists with respect to all objects
that have a practical function in our lives. The water we wash
with, the towels we use to dry ourselves, the chair we sit on, the
taxi we ride in, the pots we cook in, the glasses we drink from,
and so on - these are close to us in the first sense. We approach
all of them with a naive pragmatic attitude. We take all of

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them for granted. They possess for us a familiarity which is

not the result of a thorough thematic knowledge but of re
peated use. We are too close to them, in the sense of their
being too familiar to us, for us to pose questions concerning
their nature, for us to be curious about them and, afortiori,
to wonder about them. This attitude of being too familiar with
certain things and taking them too much for granted is not
restricted to practical things. The rhythmic changes of the moon
in all its phases, the alternations of day and night, the rhythm of
the seasons, the star-covered sky - all are also taken for granted
in the ordinary course of life. Even life and death, two of the
greatest mysteries in the universe, are accepted as routine events.
We do not question the whence and the where of existence
but take the whole of existence for granted : "It happens every
day." We also turn this unquestioning familiarity upon certain
persons who have a function in our lives, perhaps persons we
meet in society, perhaps colleagues in our business or pro
fession, perhaps the mailman, the milkman, the ticket seller at
the railroad station, the policeman. We have not really awak
ened with respect to these things and persons. We have not
yet gained that distance from the objects which all systematic
knowledge requires, the scientific as well as the philosophical.
This kind of closeness has the character of a blind familiarity.1
The second kind of closeness is completely different. This
refers to deep existential contacts in our spiritual life, to the
contact with being that is granted to us in all deep experiences,
when something in nature or art discloses its beauty to us and
moves us deeply, when we are profoundly touched by a great
1 In a certain way children are exempt from this familiarity-blindness, no
doubt partly because the things are not familiar enough to be taken for granted.
This fact explains the astonishment and genuine delight that accompanies many
of the perceptions of a child. Take him to the zoo and he stares with wonder
and incredulity at the mysterious objects before him. The waves at the beach,
the fact of rainfall, birth and death, all are eagerly and sincerely investigated.
Although uncri tical, the child's mind may nevertheless be called more "meta
physical" than the mind of an ordinary adult.

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personality, by his charity or generosity, when we are impressed

with the intellectual power and depth of insight in, say, a
dialogue of Plato or the Confessions of St. Augustine, or when
the personality of a beloved person reveals itself to us over
whelmingly, and our souls interpenetrate each other in a deep
love.
In all cases like these, the object is grasped with an especial
awakenedness. It is thrown into relief and in a certain way we
emerge from the dull routine of the day, the ordinary course
of life. We emerge from the pragmatic tension also, which
impels us toward an end to be fulfilled. We break loose from
the rhythm which pushes us from one occupation to another.
Such emerging, it is true, does not imply any questioning on
our part, any inquiry, as might be expected in a systematic
kind of knowledge. There is here no full thematicity of knowl
edge. Our emerging from the deep sleep of ordinary routine is
certainly different from our familiarity with things, but it
differs in its own way from this blind familiarity and not by
reason of its being systematic. Any systematic knowledge, and
philosophy above all, is in direct antithesis to blind familiarity.
But this emerging has not the same kind of antithesis. It is
rather the awakenedness of immediate experience. It concerns
the full thematicity of the object as such, inasmuch as the
object discloses itself in an extraordinary way. This personal,
lived, existential contact with the object is the precise opposite
of the attitude of blind familiarity. There is a great scale of
intimacy and closeness within the frame of this existential con
tact, but for our purposes here it is enough to stress the differ
ence between this kind of "closeness" in general and the blind
familiarity which we mentioned before.
In a previous chapter we hinted at the distinction in ques
tion here. There we distinguished the pragmatic approach to
the object from the approach wherein the object becomes
strongly thematic because of an intensely dramatic situation

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involving the object. Thus, when we see a man in danger of

death, the value of human life flashes up with great impact.
We grasp this object in a way radically different from any
pragmatic approach. The being speaks to us in its full im
portance, in its existential garment. The situation in which
this being is present to us is not dominated by the theme of
knowledge, for the dramatic call to action stands in the fore
ground and overshadows all other considerations. Yet, this
dramatic, practical theme of the situation does not frustrate or
undermine our adequate perception and our deep understand
ing of the object as does the pragmatic approach.
The philosophical standpoint, from which we gaze at the
universe in general and at specific objects, certainly differs from
the closeness of the existential lived contact as well as from
the closeness of blind familiarity. It differs because it has a
high thematicity of knowledge, because it implies a "distance"
from the object and a "deactualization." But whereas it forms
an outspoken antithesis to the closeness of blind familiarity,
it has many deep links to an existential lived contact. Although,
as we saw when we showed that the philosophical stand places
us at the axis of truth, philosophical "closeness" has roots
different from the closeness of existential lived contact and
is, therefore, only an analogous kind of closeness, neverthe
less, philosophical closeness presupposes in many areas an exis
tential lived contact.
In ethics, aesthetics, or philosophy of community, the success
and even the possibility of a philosophical analysis depends
upon a prephilosophical lived contact with the respective ob
jects. Even though a man be eminently gifted in philosophy,
even though he can offer brilliant and profound insights in
such fields as epistemology, he may be a dismal failure in
aesthetics or ethics if he lacks the necessary lived contact with
the object. If the world of moral values has never disclosed
itself in its majesty and depth to a man, what can this man

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203

possibly discover in ethics? How shall he be able to interpret

the metaphysical call and challenge of moral values if he has
never once had a deep moral experience? For ethics it is im
perative that the philosopher's prephilosophical experience be
profound enough to have brought him into contact with the
existential reality of moral values. The greatest gift of inteili
gence cannot substitute for this lived contact.
Again, a philosopher's analysis of aesthetic problems would
be of no interest, and would also most likely be absurd, if
the beauty in nature and in art played no role in his life if he had never had an authentic lived, existential contact with
the world of beauty. No philosophical gifts of acuteness, in
teiligence, or sagacity could enable him to attain deep insights
into the nature of beauty if the true and genuine beauty in
nature and art had never touched his heart deeply. What he
says would be as worthless as the remarks about color by a
man who has been blind from birth.
Philosophy, therefore, in certain disciplines presupposes this
existential lived contact with objects. Not only this, but in
philosophical closeness we find several elements analogous to
existential closeness. Both, for example, have the full thematicity
of the object. Both have the intimacy of contact with its full
qualitative flavor and its mystery. Again, both are opposed to
blind familiarity. They differ, however, as we said before, by
reason of the different root of closeness in each case, and also
by reason of the knowledge-thematicity which is full in philo
sophical contact and nonexistent in the naive, existential one.
They differ also in that the closeness of the existential contact
may surpass by far the closeness of any philosophical penetration.
We see, therefore, that philosophic "distance" from the ob
jects of which it seeks knowledge forms the perfect antithesis
to all "familiarity" with the object, in the sense of taking cer
tain aspects for granted, to all mere intellectual "toying" with
the object, to that closeness whereby we can no longer see

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the object in its totality. In no way does it imply an escape

from the object, a distancing in which the living contact with
the object, together with its atmosphere and self-revealing es
sence, is broken off so that the object becomes a merely neutral,
peculiar phenomenon. This, in effect, would mean the ravish
ing of the object and the forcing of it into an arbitrary point
of view. Philosophical distance, on the contrary, entails freedom
from all arbitrariness. It renders possible our allowing ourselves
to be borne along in knowledge by the main theme of the
object in question.
Above all, in this remoteness of the spiritual position from
which philosophy considers the object, there is no "seeing
things from without."
We saw, in our analysis of apriori knowledge, that the mind
is able to know "from within" only those objects having an
essence that can be grasped intuitively. We saw, furthermore,
that this knowledge from within is one of the deepest charac
teristics of philosophical knowledge. The direction toward
knowledge of this kind is an essential characteristic of philo
sophical knowledge alone. By this same feature the above
mentioned dimension of depth, proper to philosophical inquiry
and knowing, accredits itself. For philosophy not only seeks
the deepest stratum of being, namely, the essences of objects,
but also aims at a completely different knowledge-penetration
of the object - at the intus legere.
All the empirical sciences, as we have already seen, approach
the object only "from without," whether in single observations,
whereby they grasp their data descriptively or whether through
observation and induction whereby they disclose the such-being.
Natural science in our day, especially physics, is not re
stricted to the strict empirical procedure mentioned above.
Besides using observations and inductions, and thus being
strictly empirical, physics makes use of explanations, "guesses,"
and the like, which are not empirical in the strict sense.

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205

In most of the sciences to some extent, but especially in

physics, the hypotheses offered as explanations of the physical
world have the character of constructions in which imagination
and speculation play a predominant role. The role of hypotheses
in natural science is highly important. Moreover, the different
kinds of hypotheses and their respective natures are a fascinating
topic in epistemology. It would be a worthwhile philosophical
task to analyze the nature of scientific hypotheses and show
how they differ from mere induction and observation. In this
context, however, we wish to pass over this difference. For our
task here is the distinction between science and philosophy.
This distinction is not altered by the fact that the hypotheses
of science are not empirical in the strict sense. For even so,
they remain instances of knowledge "from without," and in
this way they clearly differ from philosophical knowledge.
Scientific hypotheses differ not only from empirical induc
tions but also from philosophical hypotheses. Both possess the
common note of being plausible speculations, but imagination
plays a greater role in the scientific than in the philosophical
hypothesis. The scientific hypothesis has more the character
of a construction, of a possible explanation, whereas a good
philosophical hypothesis restricts itself to elaborating the im
plications of the given. There is less room, consequently, for
highly imaginative constructions which might happily explain
a given fact. A second point of difference is that the scientific
hypothesis always calls for a confirmation by empirical means
- for a verification.
Whether, therefore, we look at the inductive side of science
or the less empirical side of the use and verification of hypoth
eses, it remains true that science is a knowledge "from without."
Philosophical knowledge, on the other hand, drawing from the
intuitive givenness of necessary and intelligible essences, under
stands states of facts as necessarily grounded in the essence.
Here the knowing mind stands in a contact of ultimate fruit-

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fulness with the inner essence of the object. The mind moves
out from the core and penetrates into the single elements and
necessary components of the essence. From this enviable stand
point, the mind perceives the state of facts grounded therein,
and, with each enlightened insight, it penetrates more deeply
into the essence of the object so that this essence glows with
more and more light.
We speak, for example, about "love" as something entirely
familiar. We casually regard it as a self-evident, familiar thing.
As soon, however, as we delve deeply into the essence of love,
in a philosophical direction, a completely new and enlightened
contact begins. We place ourselves in a close contact with
the object and we are touched by its breath; simultaneously,
we stand on a level remote from all contingencies - the de
actualized philosophical stand mentioned above. It is just in
this manner that we glance into the interior of this essence
instead of glancing, as before, alongside or around it. In looking
at this essence we grasp certain constitutive elements of it, as
well as states of facts necessarily grounded in it. We grasp,
for example, the ordination of love to a being possessing a
value, and also the essence of love as a value response. We
understand that its two basic components, namely, the intentio
unionis and the intentio benevolentiae, are constitutively
grounded in its essence. All this takes place neither in going
around the object and observing it from without, nor by reach
ing through induction facts or features hidden to our immedi
ate approach, but in an intuitive penetration of the object "from
within," from the very core of its essence.
Obviously this type of knowledge possesses another level of
rational light and intelligibility than observation and induction.
This "insight" has a character of understanding which the mere
stating of something "from without" lacks completely. Here
our mind is supported and embraced by the very meaning of

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207

the object, a real "preestablished harmony" between our intel

lect and the object.
The natural sciences are often considered as the model of
criticism. In that they accept nothing unless it is a tangibly
verifiable fact they possess an admirable exactness. Of course,
as we saw before, there are also some nonempirical elements
in the sciences which cannot be verified in the same way as
can inductive conclusions. Such are hypotheses, explanations,
and interpretations. Even though there is some room for con
troversy in this area of hypotheses and interpretations, even
though for a limited time there may be actual battles waged
over conflicting results in science, medical science, for example,
as happened in the Jenner affair over the smallpox vaccine,
nonetheless, in general it remains true that the results in science
are not controversial This is in sharp contrast to philosophy,
which seems to offer no result that is not scarred and seared
by persistent and often violent controversy.
Thanks to the fact that science is exact, that it offers the
possibility of tangible verification, and most of all, that its
results are for the most part noncontroversial, the opinion is
common that science is much more "critical" than philosophy.
This opinion is false. Even though philosophy may not be
able to boast of an exactness of the kind found in mathematics
or the natural sciences, yet philosophy is pervaded by the critical
spirit to the highest degree. This is linked to the depth-dimen
sion character of philosophy and also to the higher degree of
certitude that philosophy offers.
We saw before that another kind of "wondering" is found
in philosophy than in science. The mere fact that epistemology
plays such a great role in philosophy is ample and clear testi
mony that the philosopher still questions and probes where
the other sciences already are silently presupposing and taking
certain things for granted. In analyzing the various possibilities

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of knowledge, their validity and certainty, philosophy goes into

a deeper stratum than science ever does and is as such more
critical. The critical "spirit" which moves Descartes in his
methodical doubt is a typical example of this higher criticism
in philosophy. And the fact that philosophy can be satisfied only
when it has grasped its object with absolute certitude, only
when the questioned states of facts are either brought to evi
dence or ascertained by deduction based on evident premises,
again discloses a greater criticism and, in another sense of the
term, a greater exactness. True philosophy has, as it were, a
much greater self-consciousness than any science. The philoso
pher is more conscious not only with respect to his object but
also with respect to his own procedure and action.
True philosophy must exhibit greater cautiousness, and must
never accept the slightest nonevident or unproved silent pre
supposition. It can never be satisfied with a vague or artificial
conception.
That the results of philosophy are much more controversial
is no argument against the greater criticism in philosophy nor
against its higher type of exactness. We shall understand this
after a brief look at the reasons for the controversial character
of philosophical systems.
First, philosophical systems include to a great extent hypoth
eses and possible explanations which surpass the frame of classi
cal philosophical insights. Because unshakable and indubitable
insights are interwoven in these systems with constructions and
hypothetical explanations, they unjustly share the fate of these
constructions. They are dragged into the infinitely prolonged
controversies to which the constructions and hypothetical ex
planations are naturally exposed. Insights like Augustine's si
faHor, sum, or Plato's distinction in the Meno between apriori
and empirical knowledge, or the Cartesian insight into the
nonspatial character of the spiritual, or Kant's distinction be
tween analytic and synthetic propositions, or Aristotle's dis-

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tinction between efficient and final causes, are objectively and

in themselves absolutely uncontroversial. They are evident and
endowed with a higher certitude than any scientific result. But
to be appreciated, philosophical insights require in us another
intellectual organ than the one which operates by tangible
verification. For someone who approaches them in an intellectual
attitude which aims at a type of tangible verification, even
absolutely evident philosophical truths will be veiled. He acts
like the man who wants to hear colors and to see tones. More
over, the actualization of the philosophical organ presupposes,
besides a specific intellectual gift, many general attitudes of
the person, such as reverence, spiritual elan, and many others.
Finally, we must not forget that there is a subconscious moral
resistance against many philosophical truths, which does not
exist with respect to scientific truths. We have dealt with this
factor in knowledge in another work. 2 The question of the
existence of absolute truth, and many metaphysical and ethical
problems, have obviously a different bearing on the depths of our
personal life than have scientific facts. They have an existential
bearing and imply consequences for our moral life. The sub
conscious reluctance to accept them thus plays another role
here than in the acceptance of the fact that "heat expands
bodies," or that "water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen,"
or that "cosmic rays exist." Apart from these reasons for the
more controversial character of philosophy, we must realize
that in the sciences also there is controversy, only it manifests
itself in a different direction. There have been innumerable
scientific theories of former times which are now reversed and
abandoned. The immanent and, as it were, automatic progress
which is proper to many sciences, especially natural sciences,
entails a continuous rhythm of replacing one theory by another.
We need only think of medicine and compare the theories in
the eighteenth century, concerning the cause of certain diseases,
ll

The New Tower of Babel, "Catholicism and Unprejudiced Knowledge."

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our present medical doctrines in order to see how one

theory in the course of scientific progress dethrones a former one.
Philosophy, on the contrary, does not possess a similar im
manent automatic progress. It is in no way an anachronism
to encounter a Platonist or an Aristotelian in the twentieth
century. Although there undoubtedly exists a hidden "move
ment" in philosophy, which brings certain problems to the fore
in a certain epoch and gives to this epoch the character of the
hour for this new insight, this rhythm has in no way the
character of a continuous replacing of one doctrine by another.
This intrinsic movement in philosophy, at which Hegel hints
in his "thesis, antithesis, synthesis" doctrine is, first of all, some
thing hidden and not obvious as is the progress in science. It
is consequently a great and difficult task to trace this develop
ment in philosophy. It is, moreover, not continuous as in
science, but exhibits many aberrations and interruptions. Above
all, it never dethrones the real philosophical conquests. It never
even makes them obsolete or superannuated. The great philo
sophical truths remain equally new and inspiring for any new
epoch to come. This latter feature of philosophy is connected
with the fact that sciences can be "learned," whereas philosophy
requires a full co-operation, and a real direct grasping of truths
on the part of the one who reads a great work in philosophy,
e.g., a Platonic dialogue or the Augustinian De Libero Arbitrio.
The transmission of philosophical truths presupposes a specific
philosophical gift on the part of the receiver. Philosophical
truths cannot simply be accepted, as many parts of science
can, but they must be understood in a direct contact with
the object in question. And this also accounts for the fact
that philosophical truths are more controversial in one and
the same epoch than are scientific theories. It also explains why
philosophy does not possess the character of science which
allows a teacher to say: "Science has proved," whereby one
utters a result which is commonly accepted.
with

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Thus the reasons for the more controversial character of

philosophy show clearly that it cannot be used as an argument
against the eminently critical character of philosophy. The fact
of philosophical controversy only proves that philosophers in
general are less faithful to the requirements of true philosophy
than scientists are to their own requirements.
We now see clearly that the difference separating the philo
sophical attitude toward knowledge from that of the other
sciences is of a much more essential nature than the differences
found in the separate sciences themselves; the difference, for
example, between the natural sciences and the sciences like
history, philology, political science, economics, and the like.
The grand difference is based on much more essential and
important modifications of knowledge as such.
3.

The positive relation of philosophy and scientific knowledge

It is not sufficient to point out the characteristics of the

philosophical attitude and to distinguish it thereby from that
of the other sciences. We must also say a word about the posi
tive relation of philosophy to the other sciences. We must
affirm, first of all, that philosophy is as incapable of answering
scientific questions as the sciences are of solving philosophical
problems. To overstep the boundary from either side is equally
fateful Well-differentiated knowledge-objects exist for philoso
phy on the one hand, and the sciences on the other. They
stand side by side, however, in relation to each other. The ob
jects of philosophy need not always lie beyond those of the
other sciences, as indeed happens with respect to ethics, aes
thetics, epistemology, and so forth. As we saw before, the ob
jects of philosophy are often the objective ground on which
the other sciences move.
Thus, logic and epistemology deal with the presuppositions
taken for granted and used by science. The philosophy of his
tory, of language, and of law deal with those questions and

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facts which are the silent bases for the respective single sciences.
They deal, for example, with the essence of history, of language,
of law, and so forth.
But even where philosophy deals with objects which are
basic, in one sense or another, for the other single sciences, its
function and importance are never a mere preliminary service
for science. It would be completely false to assume that the
meaning and importance of philosophy lie in its being a formal
methodology of sciences, or even a merely formal basis of them.
This assumption overlooks the most important parts of phi
losophy, whose objects lie beyond science.
What the philosophy of right or of language or of history
offers are genuine philosophical insights, which have in no way
the character of methodological preludes for the respective
sciences.
On the other hand, it must also be said that neither do these
sciences depend in their own research upon the related philo
sophical disciplines. The historian need not know the true re
sults of the philosophy of history in order to be a great his
torian. If it is true that philosophy is not the handmaid of
the sciences, it is also true that philosophy is not the master
of sciences. They are in general independent of each other
even when they deal with the same topic, in a larger sense
of the term "topic."
Historically speaking, philosophical views have had a tre
mendous influence on the development of science, and scientific
discoveries have had a great influence on the views of many
philosophers. We are not here concerned, however, with the
mutual influences of philosophy and science which de facto
took place, but rather with whether objectively they depend
upon each other. In this respect different sciences vary to a
great extent.
There is a scale with respect to the mutual influence between
philosophy and science. The scale varies with the specific

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213

character of sciences. In considering, first, the question of the

dependence of a science upon philosophy, we see that sciences
like physics and chemistry do not presuppose a specific phi
losophy. "Whatever may be the philosophical view of a chemist,
he may accomplish great achevements in his field.
In sciences like zoology and biology, on the contrary, the
philosophical view of a scholar does have an influence on his
biological conceptions, naturally not insofar as single observa
tions are concerned, but insofar as it is a question of their
interpretation and their general evaluation. In a completely
different way, his position on certain philosophical problems
will influence the historical conceptions of an historian. A
materialist will certainly write history in a different manner
than a nonmaterialist, a personalist in a different manner
than a collectivist. Here, even the concrete acceptance of a
fact as authentically historical may sometimes depend upon
the "philosophy" of the historian. If he starts from the thesis,
for example, that a miracle is something intrinsically impossible,
and if he places it on the level of magic, he will not accept
the reality of certain facts even if they are historically authenti
cated in the most scientific manner. In this context, of course,
our topic is the influence, not of a conscious adherence to a
philosophy, but of unformulated convictions which a scientist
holds with respect to philosophical topics. The question is how
far does a given science need to presuppose tacitly certain
philosophical truths.
"When we turn to certain modern sciences, such as sociology,
psychology, or psychiatry, a completely different situation is at
stake. Here it is easy to see that the dependence upon phi
losophy reaches much further. The psychiatrist who does not
see the difference between contrition and a guilt complex, or
the difference between mere inhibitions and a consciousness of
moral prohibitions, will inevitably be greatly frustrated in his
own field.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

In these "new" sciences, it is even true that a set of philo

sophical truths is the indispensable basis for any fruitful and
adequate scientific research. This does not imply that the
psychiatrist, sociologist, or psychologist must start with philo
sophical research, but rather that he must have the right con
ception of certain philosophical topics for his own work.
\Vhether he knows it or not, he inevitably presupposes certain
philosophical theories. If they are wrong, it will have a fatal
bearing on the results in his own field.
\Vhat now shall be said of the influence of the sciences on
philosophy? As independent as philosophy in general is of
science, as little as the results of science can influence the re
sults in ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, logic, or metaphysics,
still the influence of science may be great in giving birth to
new philosophical problems and new philosophical questions.
We have already mentioned in Chapter IV the role of em
pirical scientific results for certain philosophical problems, in
the case of Bergson's Matter and Memory But above all, the
very existence of the different sciences, and the very fact of
their development, offer to philosophy many interesting episte
mological problems.
Thus we see that there is a mutual fecundation between
science and philosophy. But this must never allow us to forget
the essential difference between both and the value and im
portance which each possesses on its own.
.

4.

The method of philosophy

As we saw previously, only by going beyond observation and

induction can we obtain knowledge of the world of essences
and the states of facts necessarily grounded in them. We obtain
apriori knowledge either by intuition or by deduction.
The term "intuitive" for many people connotes the irra
tional. One believes that intuitive givenness has its home out
side the bounds of philosophical rational penetration. If some-

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215

one says that he grasps something intuitively, he is interpreted

as saying that he has a mysterious and irrational contact with
the object, a mystical vision, or at least a contact with it lying
beyond rational knowledge. This is a complete misunderstand
ing. We wish, therefore, to give a brief clarification of the term
"intuition."
We have pointed to the nature of intuitive givenness in a
broad sense in Chapter VI, when dealing with the three marks
of perception. We saw that the intuitive element consists in
the full unfolding of a such-being before our mind, which is pre
cisely to be found in perception in contrast to inferring. We
also saw that representation is more intuitive than meaning.
Since, however, in representation we do not take cognizance
of something, but only actualize knowing, by the term "intuitive
knowledge" or "intuition," we always imply the further note
of a self-present givenness of the object. Intuitive knowledge
means here "perception," in the broadest sense of this term.
Intuition in this sense plays a fundamental role in all of our
knowledge, naive and scientific, as well as philosophical.
There is no need for us to stress the privileged position of
intuition from the point of view of plenitude, fecundity, and
intimacy of contact with the object.
Besides the broad sense, whereby intuition means the fully
deploying, self-present object, there is a narrower and more
specific sense of the term. By intuition or intuitive givenness
in this narrower sense we refer to such a thing as "intellectual
intuition." This is possible only in the case of the highly in
telligible necessary such-being unities, which we have called
the genuine essences, and the necessary and intelligible states
of facts rooted in these essences. Intuitive givenness of this
kind includes not only the self-presence and deployment of the
essence of the object, but also a unique intelligibility which
is present only in the case of these necessary essences. Here,
therefore, "intuition" means that deployment of the essence

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

before our mind which enables us to penetrate the object fully.

In an intuition the object becomes luminous to us in its es
sence. It is, for this reason, the most radical and polar opposite
to the case wherein our mind merely "falls externally" upon
the such-being when it only bluntly observes it. Much more, this
intuitive grasping refers to that knowledge "from within," with
which we previously became acquainted, and which makes pos
sible also the fulfillment of the contemplative theme. Intuition
in this specific sense possesses all the perfections of intuition
in the broad sense in addition to those proper to it. What is
more, intuition in the narrower sense does not always require
for its accomplishment the self-presence of the object in
perception. Thus, we do not require the perception of a con
crete person in order to penetrate intuitively the nature of
person and grasp states of facts which are rooted in the essence
of personal being - its nonspatial character, for instance. Plac
ing a personal being before our mind, and then focusing on its
essence is sufficient to allow us to reach an intuitive contact.
Again we need not perceive the actual colors of orange, red, and
yellow, in order to understand intuitively the essence relation
which is affirmed by the proposition: "Orange lies between red
and yellow."
We are not concerned at the moment with the fact that we
need to perceive a being at least once in order to get acquainted
with it. What matters here is not the primal experience of
essence, but the fact that the contact with the being which
is required for intuitive knowledge of essences may already be
granted by placing an example of this being before our mind.
The extraordinary fact here is that in the case of a necessary
intelligible such-being, which we call a genuine essence, this es
sence is not simply represented, but is also self-given and self
present, though the example through which it is given may be
only represented. Yet we must pay special attention to the fact
that if, for example, we try to become clear about the essence

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217

of willing, and obtain the essence relation of "No willing

without thinking," then what we do is not to analyze the
concept willing, but rather to represent spiritually the such-being
unity of wiiiing, following this with an intuitive penetration
into it. We do not look at the concept of willing, nor at the
meaning of the term "willing" and its characteristics. On the
contrary, we tum to the unity of willing, not to its accidental
features but to its very essence. We look at the intuitively
revealed necessary and essential unity of willing.
In the naive perceiving of willing, more is already given to
us than the mere existence of a such-being. The necessary genu
ine essence of willing is somehow given, but it is, as it were, still
sealed. But when the philosophical question which seeks for
the essence is put, the nucleus of the essence is fixed upon and
explicitly considered as such. It is only at this time, therefore,
that we speak of an intuitive grasping in the strict, narrow sense.
With regard to this strict intuition, it is essentially unim
portant whether we proceed by means of a concrete perception
or, instead, by a mere spiritual representation. For, even when
we employ a concrete perception, the self-givenness of the
essence which is implied in the intuitive grasping nourishes itself
on the concrete givenness of the necessary unity, and not on
the self-presence of the concrete object. We must above all
realize that this intuition of a higher kind, possible only in
the case of contents with a highly intelligible, necessary such
being unity, is just as direct as intuition in the broad sense
and is just as different from indirect, deduced knowledge.
It is not difficult to see that intuition in neither the broad
nor the narrow sense implies anything "irrational." Indeed,
as we have already seen, intuition in the narrow sense presents
us with the ultimate source and climax of all ratio. The lumi
nous intelligibility of a genuine essence, the completely spiritual
penetration of an object "from within," is on the one hand
the basis of all rational knowledge and, on the other, the climax

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

of the knowing contact of our mind with an object. Such an

intuition is not limited to the direct grasping of an essence
itself. It extends also to the states of facts which are necessarily
grounded in the essence; they likewise become luminously intel
ligible. For example, when in a philosophical attitude we repre
sent to ourselves an act of willing in its concrete essence, not
only is willing itself intuitively given to us, but also the state of
facts that there is "No willing without understanding." The
state of facts also is selfpresent, self-given, and intuitively de
ployed in its essence before our mind. The mind does not ob
serve it simply from the outside, as it does any empirical fact like
"Today the weather is fine." On the contrary, this state of
facts becomes luminous. We penetrate it from within. It
possesses a lucidity and intelligibility analogous to that of an
essence.
After this brief clarification of the broad and narrow sense
of intuition, we may ask ourselves in what way philosophical
knowledge is possible. We answer as follows: In most cases
intellectual intuition is the only way of acquiring philosophical
knowledge. This is exclusively true, for example, in all ontologies
of the different object-territories, as well as in ethics and
aesthetics, among others. How else can one intend to understand
the difference between substance and accident, the nonspatial
quality of psychical beings, the difference between motivation
and mechanical causality, the difference between an efficient
and a final cause, and the grounds and ratio of knowledge,
if not by intuitive representation of the objects in question? We
cannot deduce these differences, these states of facts, from
anything else. Much less can we know them inductively. But
intuition plays a prominent role even when deduction is both
possible and necessary. This is true of deduction proper, and
also of those. "inferrings" which, as we saw, are involved in
what is the most important point in philosophy. Deduction
pro:J?er is dependent upon the essentially intuitive character of

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219

the initial premises. In philosophy, moreover, deduction plays

a minor role, not only quantitatively but also according to its
importance.
In that unique case, however, wherein we infer from actual
facts the fundamental fact of God's existence, not only is there
demanded an especially high form of intuition in the broad
sense, but also that essence-premise which is the pivotal point
of the inference is always grasped intuitively in the strict sense.
At any rate, we can affirm as valid this general rule: The sphere
of inferring philosophical knowledge may never be entered by
any formalization which abandons, more geometrico, as it were,
the intuitive contact with the object in question and operates
purely in a formal way with the premises. Whenever we deal
with deductive knowledge we must always hold firmly to the
living, concrete contact with being that is given in the premises
which have been directly grasped. We should never leave our
feet dangling in the air, basing all our deductions merely on a
formalization of a state of facts which is present in the meaning
unity of a proposition. On the contrary, we must base them on
states of facts nourished and sustained by the intuitive givenness
of the premises.
An all-essential difference between mathematical and philo
sophical knowledge is present here. As soon as one sees in
mathematical knowledge an ideal, and tries to proceed with an
analogous formalization in philosophy, the philosophical knowl
edge becomes sterile and fruitless. At times this attempt even
leads to false results because, without the correction of a living
contact with the object, one easily falsifies the proper meaning
of a premise by an artificial formalization.
Finally, a direct understanding, that is to say, an intuition,
is demanded for the ultimate laws which are the tacit pre
suppositions in any deductive knowledge and which make it
possible for the conclusion to identify itself as really existing.
We saw that philosophy does not resort to blunt observa-

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

tion and induction, that it is independent of experience in this

sense, and that it presupposes only the such-being experience
of its object.
Someone might object: "Do we not also in philosophy, when
we analyze a being, look at many examples of it, at various
situations, in order to reach its authentic nature? For instance,
in analyzing the nature of courage, do we not take several
examples, do we not consult different types of courageous peo
ple: the temperamentally courageous, the rash, the morally
courageous, and so on? Do we not also observe the different
examples, and do we not formulate inductive conclusions from
our several repeated observations in order to find our way to
a clear understanding of the nature of courage and the different
types of courage? Do we not find su.ch a way of proceeding
in the dialogues of Plato, for instance in Lysis, Laches, or
Protagoras?"
In answer we say that philosophy must indeed always consult
reality, must again and again in different examples intuit the es
sence, and listen to the information which the object alone can
grant us. But this consultation radically differs from "''observa
tion" in the sense in which we use the term. And the function
of the example in the process of grasping necessary intelligible
facts rooted in the essence of a being has nothing in common
with the one which the single observations have in an inductive
process.
The consultation of reality is here a continually repeated
intuitive contact with the essence of the object. It is per
vaded and guided by the light of the intelligible essence of the
being. All the different examples here serve, first of all, only
to immerse ourselves always anew in the full fl.avor of the real
object, to protect us from any artificial construction, or from
any imprisoning of ourselves in concepts; second, to eliminate
everything which does not belong to the essence and is only
accidentally connected with it. When, for instance, in analyzing

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221

the nature of love, we look at such an example as Romeo's love

for Juliet, and then again at the love of Heathcliff in Wuthering
Heights, and again at the love of Dante for Beatrice, the analysis
of all these examples is guided by an intuitive contact with the
nature of love; it is in the light of this intuitive contact with
the nature of love that we clearly grasp the elements of pride,
ressentiment, and self-assertion in Heathcliff, which are as such
incompatible with (though they are here combined with ) cer
tain elements of love. In the case of Romeo and Dante, on
the other hand, we find an authentic love. In Beethoven's
Fidelia, however, a full typical embodiment of the essence of
love is to be found.
The difference between this and observation and induction is
clearly given. In the first place, the examples in philosophical
consultation of reality do not necessarily refer to really existing
persons, because it is only the such-being which counts, whereas
in empirical observation one deals only with really existing facts
inasmuch as here the existence counts. Second, philosophical
consultation does not look at the example from "without" and
pick up every detail which it can find, without the help of the
intelligibility of the whole being. On the contrary, in every
single case, we have an intuitive contact with the intelligible
essence, whether it is an example which has the function of
presenting us with a typical embodiment of this essence, or
an example with the function of helping us to eliminate all
factors which, though coexisting, do not belong to the essence.
During the entire process, it is the intuitively given intelligible
essence which, embodied in the example, informs us, and which
shines forth when we look at it, always granting us new insights,
always presenting us from "rushed" statements, always fecundat
ing our mind anew with its plenitude. And again, it is the
intelligible intuitively given essence which forms the back
ground against which all the examples are checked to eliminate
all elements which only apparently resemble the essence in

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

question. It is continually a consultation of reality whereby the

object is grasped "from within." There is no inductive "infer
ring" in a philosophical consultation of reality. The grasping of
necessary intelligible facts rooted in the essence is a purely
intuitive process.
Philosophical consultation is not a cautious going-around
"from without," whereby only the real experience of a here
and-now existence can support our knowledge, and where the
mere fact of existence replaces the intelligibility. It is the always
renewed fecundation of our mind with the plenitude of the
intelligible essence. It is the step-by-step progress of delving
deeper into this essence, always by intuitive insights. And even
though philosophical consultation of reality differs from ob
servation, description, and induction, the philosophical intuition
which goes with it is in a certain way much closer to reality
than is the contact of science. True philosophy is in a certain
sense less abstract than science. Certainly, it is a difference
which is again determined by the object in question. The highly
intelligible necessary essence grants a more intimate contact,
a greater proximity to our intellect, than do objects and facts
which are the topic of science. But because of this, philosophy
is found to observe an intimate contact with the full plenitude
of these intelligible beings, and to abstain from an abstract
journey from concept to concept. In always going back to
concrete examples, philosophy aims to reach the full sapere,
the full-flavor of the object, and to do justice to its real specific
nature in all its mysterious richness and existential flavor. In
this sense of the term "empirical," philosophy must be more
empirical than the sciences, especially the exact natural sciences.
5.

Phenomenology
The term phenomenology has already assumed an ambiguous
character today. One meaning of phenomenology is that which
Husser! gave to this term after 191 3, in his Ideen, and all sub-

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223

sequent works. It is this meaning which is the topic of Father

Quentin Lauer's Triumph of Subjectivity, and which, according
to him, leads Husserl to Transcendental Idealism.
But a completely different meaning of phenomenology is in
strict, radical opposition to any idealism. It signifies in fact
the most outspoken objectivism and realism. It is this meaning
of phenomenology which we find in the writings of Adolf
Reinach, Alexander Pfaender, myself, and several others, and
which we, at least, identified with the meaning of phenome
nology in the first edition of Husserl's Logische Untersuchungen.
In fact, the historical impact of this work of Husserl, attracting
students of all countries to Gottingen, was due to its unam
biguous refutation of psychologism, subjectivism, and all types
of relativism.
The phenomenological approach in this sense is chiefly syn
onymous with the intuitive analysis of genuine, highly intelli
gible essences. It is neither a reduction of the world to mere
phenomena, nor a mere description of appearances or of sub
jective experiences. Nor is phenomenology a mere prise de
conscience of the meaning of our concepts, but it is concerned
with the very essence of the object. It is rather the approach
which is at the basis of every great philosophical discovery,
whether found in Plato's Meno, Aristotle's Organon or in the
Si faiior, sum argument of St. Augustine. It is always to be
found when a real, intuitive contact with an object having a
genuine essence is attained in contrast not only to observation
and induction, but to all constructions, speculations, or hypoth
eses. It is also in contrast to any genetic approach which claims
that we understand the object when we know its causes; it is
likewise in contrast to the position which sees the climax of in
tellectual penetration in the definition of the object.
Thus, phenomenology seems not to be something new. And
yet, because former philosophers used this arch-method of phi
losophy only occasionally, and always unsystematically, without

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

being conscious of it as a method, we may say that phenome

nology is new and even revolutionary. For phenomenology as a
systematic method excludes the confusion of evident insights
with mere hypotheses, whereas we see often in former philo
sophic works real insights placed on the same level as hypotheses.
B ut that is not all. What is also new in phenomenology is
its emphasis on the existential, immediate intuitive contact with
the object, in opposition to any abstractionism or any dealing
with mere concepts. Finally, what is perhaps especially new in
phenomenology is that this method is used, not only de facto,
but epistemologically founded and legitimated by means of the
all-important distinction between genuine essences and mere
morphic unities. Obviously, because Father Lauer's book deals
only with phenomenology in the sense of the later Husser!, that
is, as Transcendental Idealism, none of his arguments have any
relevance whatever to phenomenology in our sense. Father Lauer
says in the same book (p. 142 ) : "The appeal, for example, which
we find in the ethics of Max Scheler or of Dietrich von
Hildebrand, owes more to its Augustinian foundation than
to its phenomenological elaboration." Astonishingly enough,
he does not seem to grasp the radically different nature of
phenomenology in my works as contrasted to Husserl's phe
nomenology. Instead of interpreting my ethical work as a hid
den Augustinianism which parades under the garb of phenome
nology, he might have inferred how much of a phenQmenologist
St. Augustine truly was in his great philosophical discoveries.
By this we touch on one of the specific features of phenome
nology mentioned above, namely, its existential contact with
reality, its commerce with the living plenitude and full flavor
of being in contrast to any preoccupation with merely abstract
concepts.
The phenomenological approach is not, however, restricted
to the philosophical analysis of genuine essences, that is, to
philosophical apriori knowledge. It is also indispensable for

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225

the deeper understanding of many data which play a pre

dominant role in the humanities, such as a great individual
personality, or the cultural epoch of baroque, or an individual
work of art like King Lear, Mozart's Don Giovanni, etc.
Besides its existential contact with reality, phenomenology
is further characterized by its facing the object itself and by its
methodical concern to do justice to the qualitative nature of
the object. The true phenomenologist does not believe that
he can know the object in its qualitative self-identity simply by
gathering information about all those data connected with the
object which can be bluntly stated. He sharply disagrees, there
fore, with, say, the historian of art who believes that he will
attain a real knowledge of a work of art, simply by exploring
all sociological influences on an artist and his work, and by
minutely analyzing the history of his life. He would charge
the historian with proceeding in a typically non-phenomenologi
cal way. On the other hand, the one who approaches the work
phenomenologically concentrates on the very nature of the work
of art itself, its beauty, its atmosphere, and tries to grasp the
specific character and individuality of this work by an intuitive
delving into it.3
Phenomenology is the very antithesis to the anti-qualitative
8 It is obvious that the phenomenological approach presupposes a specific talent
which is not always found in a would-be critic or observer. There are many men
who are able to grasp the surrounding facts which can be simply stated, but are
unable to accomplish understanding of the work itself by an intuitive contact.
In our introduction, we spoke of these two basic different capacities in man. Now
the fact that specific capacities are presupposed in a man in order to grasp certain
truths - capacities which are not granted to every man - is in no way an
argument against a proposed method. Nor does it imply any subjectivity whatso
ever. It is a great and widespread error to assume that the objectivity and
validity of a truth depend upon the fact that everyone and anyone can grasp
it or that we can prove it in such a way that everyone must accept it. This
assumption itself is not, however, evident, nor has anyone ever attempted to
prove it. It is one of the many silent presuppositions which have crept into
philosophy during its long history. In certain cases one is not even aware of
such presuppositions; in other cases, one deals with them as if they were evident
and thus need not be proved. They are anything but evident, however. To this
family of illegitimate tacit presuppositions belongs also this extension of equality
to the domain of knowledge and truth.

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WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

trend which we find in some thinkers who are deluded by the

prejudice that the more something possesses a qualitative pleni
tude, the less is it rational and intelligible. Phenomenology, on
the contrary, implies a full receptiveness for the essential per
fume of spiritual, cultural entities in all their existential and
qualitative plenitude. But here again we must emphasize the
radical antithesis between the phenomenological sight and any
mere description. Even here, where the object does not yield
to the cognizance of apriori facts, where there is no question
of our reaching necessary and highly intelligible states of facts,
the phenomenological sight, because it understands the object
in its unity from within, differs essentially from a description.
For this consists in merely observing and stating the single
features and is, as it were, a going around the object.
In later publications we intend to deal in great detail with
the role of phenomenology in understanding important singular
objects of history and culture. Here it may suffice to stress first
that the phenomenological approach is not restricted exclusively
to philosophy; second, that this element of phenomenology
just discussed, namely, its intuitive and immediate contact with
the given reality in its living plenitude and flavor, clearly reveals
the affinity between phenomenology and any serious existential
ism, for example, that found in Gabriel Marcel's works.

CHAPTER

VIII

THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY

FOR MAN

We saw what kind of unique knowledge-interest is incor

porated into philosophical inquiry and also what a completely
new stage of awakening of the human mind is implied by it.
As we saw in the beginning, all knowledge is a special form of
intentional participation in the objects known. It is, moreover,
the presupposition for all other forms of spiritual participation.
Philosophical knowledge is the prototype of knowledge. In
it the first perfection of knowledge in general within the natural
sphere reaches its high point. As the knowledge of centrally
important realities in their essence, and as the penetration
of the essence from within with a completely new intelligibility,
philosophical knowledge grants a participation in being incom
parably higher than all the other types of knowledge as such.
The philosophical putting of a question aims at a participation
in being which is indescribably deeper and more intimately
related to eternity. The philosophical eros, which is incor
porated in the Platonic Dialogues and, uniquely, in the works
of St. Augustine, aims at a becoming-accepted into the kingdom
of truth as such. This is at the base of the solemnity and the
ardor characteristic of the striving for true philosophical knowl
edge. It is found also in the threefold thematicity of philo
sophical knowledge, namely, the notional theme, the theme
of the object itself, and the contemplative theme. Philosophical
227

228

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

knowledge is a fundamental position of the human mind. Just

as knowledge in general is a basic component of personal life
and being, so philosophical knowledge, not only as the highest
form of natural knowledge but also as the most classical form
of explicit and systematic knowledge, is the basic position of
the human spiritual person. It is grounded in the meaning and
essence of man as such.
Compared to philosophy, all the other sciences not only
have a more special knowledge but also a knowledge which is
not centrally grounded in the essence and meaning of man. This
is so both because the object of a philosophical inquiry has
a more central importance than the objects of the other sciences
and because philosophical knowledge, above all other kinds,
is the deepest and most classical. In fine, it is the highest
fulfillment of natural knowledge in general.
It is no accident that philosophical inquiry stands at the
beginning of all systematic theoretical inquiry, and that all
sciences are children of philosophy. For philosophical inquiry
is the basic position of the awakened and cognizing human
mind. The philosophical thirst is of an elementary, classical
nature inasmuch as it is very deeply grounded in the metaphysi
cal situation of man in his being ordered toward God, the
very Fountain of all being and all truth. The philosophical
thirst is grounded in man's task to penetrate, by knowledge,
reality as an image of God, which has itself been ordered to
God. Man has the task to penetrate reality and then lovingly
to embrace it.
The philosophical eros is at its very heart a basic form of
man's natural longing for God, the absolute truth and the
source of all truth. The direction toward philosophical knowl
edge, therefore, exists in some form in every man, albeit com
pletely covered over and made unconscious, and even despite
the fact that only a few possess the intellectual capability to
attain to a real and autonomous philosophical knowledge.

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229

Philosophic inquiry is the basic question of the human mind.

It is the archcomponent of the spirit turned toward God and
a component also of its natural bond to God.
Philosophic inquiry and knowledge is not only the most
classical form of theoretical knowledge; in the truest sense of
the word, it is also "closer to life" than all the other scientific
kinds of knowledge. Nothing is more erroneous and childish
than to look upon a philosopher as a man who lives in the
clouds and is occupied with abstruse problems, as a man who
has lost every living contact with reality. This is an error typical
of a pragmatic, shortsighted, banal attitude which sees a content
as real and important for life only to the degree that it satisfies
an external, even an indispensable practical need. This error
is analogous to the one which represents the religious man as
one who lives in the clouds and becomes estranged from life
and its realities because of religion.
I say an analogous error, for the latter is even more stupid
and childish, inasmuch as the religious attitude is indeed the
center and the forma of the true life. Still, there is an analogy
in the misunderstanding which lies at the root of both errors,
namely, the failure to grasp the paradox that the glance into
eternity deals with the center of the temporal life much more
than does the preoccupation with the external needs of life.
Analogous also is the attitude of ressentirnent against the world
of the essential and the eternal. It embodies the wrong concept
of reality and "nearness to life."
This prejudice against philosophy is nourished by all "prac
tical" and banal minds. They ignore the power of the Idea;
they have not the slightest inkling of what unheard-of conse
quences have resulted from philosophical errors and genuine
philosophical knowledge in the political and economic spheres
- both of which even they recognize as real and important for
life. This prejudice against philosophy is not confined to banal

230

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

minds, however. It is also found in some of the minds of those

who are representatives of the various sciences. Although the
latter understand the meaning and value of systematic theoreti
cal knowledge, although they demand such knowledge for their
own scientific research and look with contempt upon the banal
minds, they nonetheless think that philosophical inquiry is a
superfluous intellectual luxury. They regard philosophical in
quiry as a vain expedition into an abstract world. They see it
as lying beyond the investigation of the "real" world, as an
overemphasizing of the theoretical and as foreign to life. We
pass over in silence their complaints about the inexactness and
unscientific quality which they deem to be bound up with
the philosophical method.
In truth, however, philosophy is in many respects much
closer to life than are all the other sciences. In the first place,
the questions of philosophy are primarily of a deeper and much
more universal importance for man and life than those of the
other sciences. We need think only of ethics, and philosophy
of community, philosophy of law, and, above all, natural theol
ogy. But even in those cases where the content of the object
in its universal character is not easily grasped as having a direct
significance, philosophy yet deals in a way completely different
from science with things related to man, his destiny, the posi
tion from which his real life as a spiritual person proceeds,
and the ground on which he evidently stands with his whole
being and in which he is rooted. This difference between
philosophical questions and those of the other sciences is still
valid even when we consider that, within the sciences them
selves, some are directly related to man and his life and others
are more distant. History and medicine belong to the first class
and mathematics and mineralogy to the second. Logic, which
deals with the formal bases of all truth; metaphysics, which deals
with the essence and basic forms of being; epistemology, which

THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY FOR MAN

231

investigates the certainty of the foundations of knowledge

all deal with questions treating of the constitutive elements of
the spiritual space in which we live and work.
Philosophical knowledge, second, as a prototype of knowl
edge in general, is a much more linear continuation and ful
fillment of the highest form of naive knowledge than are all
the other kinds of scientific knowledge. To be sure, it requires
a much more essential awakening, a much sharper eruption
from the ordinary attitudes of life than do all the other sciences.
This is so because philosophy is completely unpragmatic and
proceeds from a nonactual position. Despite this distance from
the ordinary attitudes of life, philosophy in its direction toward
the essential, substantial content of things yet stands in an in
comparably deeper relation to the spiritual life of the person,
and especially to the above-mentioned highest form of naive
knowledge.
Third, philosophical knowledge is linked, too, in a manner
completely different from that of science to classical "common
sense," that is, to the aspect which the world offers in the
organic living contact of the mind with reality. Philosophy aims
at the intuitively graspable necessary essences of things and does
not draw conclusions "from without," from a hidden essence.
Consequently, there exists no gap between the naive world
view and the world-view of true philosophy as there does
between physics and the naive view of the world.
Even as philosophy deals mercilessly with false "common
sense," the kingdom of doxa, the world-view that results from
inorganic theoretical reasoning, so true philosophy is linked
respectfully to all that discloses the object to man in a naive
living contact. Thus, the philosophical essence-analysis of beauty
or love does not sovereignly disregard what these contents
disclose in prephilosophical, living, organic experience. On the
contrary, it refers back to these springs of reality, not, however,
in order to elevate the aspect given in the naive experience to

232

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

a theoretical and systematic consciousness, but rather to pro

ceed from it and to push forward to an essence-analysis of the
thing itself. Hence, it not only broadens and deepens but also
rectifies the naive aspect. Never, however, will philosophy treat
the naive aspect disrespectfully or disregard it, as physics does,
for example, when it substitutes "vibrations" for colors and
tones. No, philosophy fulfills its deepest intentions with regard
to the naive aspect.
We see, therefore, that although philosophical knowing and
inquiry proceed from a position which is removed from all
the whirl of actuality, they are nevertheless a form of systematic
theoretical knowledge which is closer to life than those of the
other sciences. Moreover, philosophy requires for its research
no physical apparatus and no complicated method. Yet it has
the deepest effect on human life.
Here we touch a very difficult problem, which we have
already mentioned earlier, namely, the manner in which philo
sophical results, which are completely directed toward being
understood and not merely toward being communicated, can
penetrate to the broadest masses, who are unable to grasp
philosophical knowledge. Of course, we think here of the results
of genuine philosophy and not of popular philosophy, which
from the start chooses its level to match the unphilosophical
intellect.
We have already seen the unfortunate role that erroneous
philosophical attitudes play in false common sense and inorganic
reasoning about the world. It represents the illegitimate pene
tration of false philosophy into the organic, theoretical, pre
scientific world-view of man. In the recent past, it has resulted
in widespread subjectivism, skepticism, relativism, and so forth.
But there is also another kind of penetration. This is the legiti
mate but unconscious and uncritical influence which the pre
scientific world-view absorbs from the results of pure philosophy.
Even from a formal point of view this legitimate influence is

THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY FOR MAN

233

completely different from the illegitimate penetration of false

philosophies.
First of all, it is not a question of genuine philosophical
results being grasped uncritically by the dilettante, by the in
organic spiritual register of a person's mind. On the contrary,
the question of a legitimate influence is centered around the
penetration of a philosophical truth into that aspect of the
world which organically grows out of a naive living contact,
with the result that there forms an orderly, enlightened, purified,
and solidified principle.
Let us give examples of this in ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
The simple man has a naive living contact with goods endowed
with an ethical value. True ethics does not sovereignly disregard
the world disclosed in the naive grasping of these values. Rather,
it elevates the deepest and most correct of the naive impressions
to another stage of consciousness and forms the mind into a
lasting conviction. It purifies the impression of all murky ele
ments, all "idols," which combine haughtiness with concu
piscence, and it fixes our gaze on the truly ethical elements in
the naive experience. Ethical values, such as generosity, the
forgiving of a wrong suffered, self-less love, all of which perhaps
flash up in the highest moments of naive experience, only to
be obscured for the most part by idols like "honor," revenge,
and so on, are elevated by the basic propositions of genuine
ethics to a possession that cannot be lost, to an unchangeable
attitude. Nor do logic and true metaphysics pull the carpet
from under the naive world-view by means of abstruse, unclassi
cal constructions. Quite the contrary. They elevate the classical
elements of the simple world-view to the sphere of a clear
consciousness. They dig out the classical heart of things and
present them purified and clear.
Thus we see that philosophy does not act upon the spiritual
center of the inorganic reasoning, but rather influences the
naive, living contact itself. It does this through ordering, purify-

234

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

ing, and illuminating the impressions obtained in the naive,

organic, living contact. It transforms these impressions into
rectified convictions which are permanent. The role of phi
losophy here is to be a judge that does not eliminate what is
presented, but rather deepens and clarifies it.
Again, this legitimate influence of philosophy is by no means
the same as the suggestive penetration of fragments from a
fashionable philosophy which are then uncritically taken over
by the theorizing dilettante as allegedly indisputable starting
points. The mediation between genuine philosophical results
and the ordinary person is accomplished by the classical man,
who not only understands philosophical truths, but also trans
lates their integral ethos and perspective in such a way that the
classical nature of the basic philosophical thoughts is intuitively
reflected in them. These are the qualified transmitters of basic
philosophical truths. From them these truths are then received
with a reverent preparedness by the man who remains rooted
in the naive living contact and who, precisely in his innocence
and freedom from pseudo criticism, is equipped with a latent
sense for truth. Such classical men are not simply formal
"authorities." Intuitively mediated, however, the truths they
teach bear the stamp of something which comes "from above."
Just this latent sense for truth is authentic common sense,
which refuses to accept abstruse and arbitrary theories. It is
the sense of those persons who stand in an organic living con
tact with reality, who are theoretically unwarped, so that they
very willingly accept whatever is linked to the objective logos
of an object insofar as this logos has disclosed itself to them
in naive experience. Even when this naive experience is by far
exceeded by the mediated philosophical truth, the latter simply
leads deeper into the language of the object and is never com
pletely removed from this language. These naive people cer
tainly do accept philosophical truths without criticism, without
a philosophical examination of them. Nevertheless, unless dilet-

THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY FOR MAN

235

tante1 inorganic reasoners1 they do not take over such truths in

an illegitimate manner. For philosophy appeals not to their
minds, which are willing enough to know theoretically and yet
which lack the suitable means, but rather to their naYve sense
which is much more at home in the truth.
We see, therefore, the profound mission of philosophy with
respect to the whole life of man - for philosophers themselves1
first of all, but1 second1 for the people who1 although not pro
fessional philosophers, are yet full personalities with a classical
receptivity for truth. Even though they are incapable of their
own philosophical research, such people not only understand
philosophical truth, but even embody it in their personality.
They, and not the mere theorizing students of a philosopher1
are entrusted with the tradition of truth for the unphilosophi
cal masses.1 Philosophy has its importance also for a third type
of man, namely, the naYve person who is unable to gain a
theoretical understanding of philosophical truth. He must accept
these truths from the mediator personalities just discussed.
With regard to all three, the philosopher himself, the mediator1
and the naive man, despite the very different relation of each
toward philosophical truth, philosophy possesses the deepest
importance for the whole of life. It enlightens, deepens, purifies,
and sanely solidifies living contact with the world of objects.
In a negative respect philosophy has the mission to sweep
away the fog which comes from inorganic theoretical reasoning
and lies like a suffocating cloak over the meaning-content of
being as it flashes up in naive living contact. Philosophy has
the task of prohibiting and destroying all the transgressions of
the undigested results of different sciences into the metaphysical
sphere in an amateurish chatter about them. Philosophy must
sweep away the kingdom of doxa, just as Socrates did in a
unique manner in the field of ethics.
1

cal

Of course, we do not mean to contradict the fact that the inner philosophi
tradition actually belongs to the students and disciples of the philosophers.

236

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

In a positive respect philosophy has a basic function for the

building of a spiritual earthly cosmos. Like a spiritual skeleton,
its basic truths must support the flesh of community life, art,
poetry, and the whole culture. Philosophy must help form the
life of the individual from this point of view. Every cultural
epoch has its immanent philosophical basis, and one of the
measures for the classicity of an epoch is the truth or falsity of
this basis. We think here of philosophical theses which are
embodied in a certain culture as such. Let us, therefore, not
confuse this immanent philosophical basis with some fashion
able philosophy which happens to be the ruling one of an epoch.
The path along which these basic philosophical truths pene
trate the lives of those masses who are destined neither for
philosophical research and teaching nor for philosophical learn
ing, is not, as we have already seen, an intellectual path. The
results of philosophy are not meant to be theoretically under
stood by every individual in a popularized form. These results
have to penetrate the spiritual space of a time-epoch by means
of their direct effect upon certain classical personalities who
intuitively reflect the philosophy in their ethos, that is, upon
great poets, statesmen, and the like. This results in the accept
ance of truths by the individual unphilosophical man, not as
theoretical but as embodied truths, which can be accepted
with a genuine common sense.
It now becomes clear how far removed from a mere unpro
ductive reflection is genuine philosophy. We see what kind of
highly classical indispensable mission it possesses for the life of
mankind and the individual, not to mention the high meaning
and value which philosophical knowledge possesses in itself. But
the meaning and importance of philosophical inquiry and
knowledge, which it possesses apart from its selfimportance
and value, as the deepest natural truthontact with reality, is
not yet exhausted.
Philosophy fulfills its highest mission by leveling the way for

THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY FOR MAN

237

religion, by preparing for it and serving it. Philosophical knowl

edge has its climax in the knowledge of the existence of God
and of His attributes as grasped by the natural light of reason.
Its highest step is the understanding of the existence of the
absolute personal Being by whom every being is created, who
is imaged by all beings, and toward whom all beings are ordered.
The proofs for the existence of God, as previously explained
and clarified, are the classical preamble to faith.
Not even this, however, exhausts the importance of phi
losophy for religion, and still less for theology.
For religion presupposes all basic philosophical truths. What
is disclosed by revelation remains beyond what is accessible to
philosophy. It lies above philosophy, however, and not aside
from it. Religion implicitly presupposes, therefore, basic philo
sophical truths, such as the objectivity and autonomy of being,
the incompatibility of being and nonbeing, the objective validity
of values, the existence of personal beings, the freedom of
human decision, the fact that every value demands a positive
response on the part of the person, the fact that the higher
value should be preferred to the lower, and so forth. The per
manent solidification, and the explicitly essential bringing to
consciousness, of our convictions about these basic truths is,
therefore, part of the ground of religion in ourselves and is
also a preamble to faith, although in a sense other than that of
the proofs for the existence of God. Certainly, God is able to
call into being the children of Abraham from stones. He can
give a man the grace of the living faith without any philosophi
cal preparation, and then the one to whom such grace has been
given possesses all basic philosophical truths per eminentiam.
Even so, and in this sense also, philosophy has objectively the
mission of being a preamble to faith, and this in such a way
that the degree of clearness and solidification of explicit con
victions, engendered by basic philosophical truths, create a pro
portionately favorable situation for the reception of faith. In

238

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

this sense, the Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy was looked upon

as a preparation for the truths of the Christian Revelation, how
ever little the philosophy itself could say about the truth and
reality of Revelation.
Finally, philosophical inquiry as such means a longing for
philosophical knowledge, for a contemplative gaze upon the
thing known. As we have already seen, this is a significant
counterpart to the religious longing for God. In turning toward
the centrally important contents of the world, the philosophical
eros leads the human mind into the depths of reality. As Plato
says, it leads man "to his true home." It directs his glance away
from the world of perishing things, of things accidental, and
fixes it on the world of the eternal, on the meaning of things
in themselves which they possess as images of God and as things
ordered to Him. In such a way does philosophy prepare the
soul for the acceptance of the revelation of God.
The philosophical eros with its contemplative goal, its con
sideration of being from a position of an eternity, removed from
the whirl of actuality, its respectful sense of listening and allow
ing things to unfold themselves in their proper content and
importance in themselves, its freedom from all pragmatic ele
ments - this acts in an important way upon the growth of
those spiritual organs which are indispensable for a truly deep
and full religious life.
It is clear, therefore, what rank rightly belongs to philosophi
cal inquiry. True philosophizing carries man into recollection
and frees him from all alleged autarchy. In it mankind becomes,
like Daniel, the "man of longing," of that longing which St.
Augustine expressed when he said: "Our hearts are restless
until they rest in Thee." The true philosopher is, like Plato,
paidagogos eis Christon, the preparer of the way to Christ.

INDEX

Abstraction, degrees of, 129; nature

of, 1 1 3; third degree of, 1 30
Aesthetic appearance, 98
Analytic propositions, 77
Appearance such-being, 103
Apriori , the, distinguished from pre
suppositions, 92 ff; and experience,
96 ff; and philosophical knowledge,

63 ff
Apriori knowledge, absolute certainty
of, 70 ff; characteristics of, 63 ff;
criterion of, 1 30 ff; incomparable in
telligibility of, 69 ff; possibility of,
summary, 99 f; range of, 129; re
futes all skepticism, 140; strict
necessity, 64 ff
Aristotle, discoveries in logic, 1 37; dis
tinction between final and efficient
causes, 208 f
Augustine, St., on knowledge and con
templation, 182; "Si falJor, sum,"
74, 124, 146 f, 208

one premise in proof o f God's ex

istence, 1 5 0
Cognizance, see Taking cognizance
Colors, existence of, 121
Common sense, 2 3 1 ; authentic, 2 34
Contact, existential, lived, 202
Contemplative "dwelling-in," 1 79 f
Contemplative theme, of knowledge,
178; in religion, 1 82
Controversy, in philosophy, 208
Conviction, a theoretic response different from taking cognizance, 19 f
Cosmological proof, 149
Creation, message-character of, 162 n
Criterion, of apriori knowledge, 130 f
Criticism, lack of, in inorganic knowledge, 59; lack of, in theoretical pre
scientific knowledge, 57 f
Deactualized standpoint, of philoso
phy, 194
Deception, based on sense-structure,

160
Beatific Vision, 182
Being, architectonic structure of, 92
Bergson, Henri, 8; distinction between
technical and intellectual memory,
32 n; on memory, 1 50, 214
Blind familiarity, 200
Blonde!, Maurice, 8
Body-soul relation, 1 5 1
Bracketing, o f existence, 97, 9 9 n, 128
"By definition," 80
Cartesian doubt, 73
Certainty, of apriori knowledge, 70
Certitude, about recollection,
3 5;
proper to knowing states of facts,

35
Chaotic unity, 100 ff
"Cogito, ergo sum,"

Deduction, 74; confused with source

of intelligibility as such, 1 38; in
philosophy, 2 1 8 f
Depragmatization,
of philosophical
knowledge, 191 ff
Depth, in certain objects, 143; in
philosophy, 1 89, 191; of the uni
verse, 199
Descartes, critical spirit, 208; see also
"Cogito, ergo sum"
Description, empirical way of know
ing, 105
Dilettantism, of inorganic theoretical
prescientific knowledge, 56
Discovery, philosophical a n d scientific,

1 36

74, 124, 146;

as

239

Distortion 1 1 6
Doxa, and inorganic theoretical knowl-

240

INDEX

edge, 231; realm of,

Dream, possibility of, 73

235

Ego, reality of, 148

Eidos, reality of, 1 32; and unity, 101
Empirical, blunt observation, 96
Empiricism, denies the apriori, 77
Entia rationis, 1 1 8
Eros, philosophical, 188, 227, 238
Essences, aesthetic, 108 f; constitutive,
98; genuine, 1 1 6; genuine, episte
mological characteristics of, 131 ff;
genuine, intuitive grasp of, 97 ff;
genuine, source of all ratio, 1 32; as
self-given, 216; see also Such-being
Eternal verities vs. idealism, 15 8
Euclidean geometry, not tautological,

78
Existential

closeness,

of philosophy,

199
Experience, and the
meanings of, 86 ff

apriori,

Familiarity, blind, 200

Fictions, reality of, 170
Formal, concept of, 93
Frui, Augustinian, 180 n ,

96 ff;

181

Gap, between a conclusion a n d the

given, 71 f
Generality, degree of, 1 30
Given, the, 5 8
Givenness, o f a such-being, 77
God, as Creator and Lord, 1 62; man's
longing for, 228; necessary existence
of, 126; our knowledge of, 149;
proof of existence of, 219
Hallucination, no threat t o apriori,
75; possibility of, 73
"Having knowledge of," different from
knowing in limited sense, 34
Hegel, G. F. W., dialectics, 2 1 0
Heidegger, Martin, 8
History, objects of, 194
1-Iume, David, skepticism, 2
Husser!, Edmund, 8; on bracketing of
existence, 99 n, 128; Lauer's criti
cism of, 99 n, 224; on phenome
nology, 223
Hypotheses, in philosophy, 150; in
science and philosophy, 205

Ideal existence, of essences, 114; two

kinds of, 1 19 f
Idealism, on the meaning of truth,
1 58; misinterpretation of taking
cognizance, 24; refutation of, 140;
summary of its differences from
author's position, 167 ff; transcen
dental, self-contradictory claim that
taking cognizance is a producing of
the object, 16
Ideas, Platonic, a n d genuine essences,

116
Immediacy, of perception, 174
Induction, fate of, 72
Innate ideas, in Descartes, 88
Inorganic theoretical knowledge, 53 f
Insanity, as related to grasp of necessary essences, 1 1 5
Insight, 69
InteiJigere, meaning of, 69 f, 134
In telligibility, of apriori knowledge,
69 ff; of apriori states of facts, 69 f;
frontiers of, 144
Intuition, of genuine essences, 97 ff;
intellectual, 1 1 3, 183, 215; in phi
losophy, 214 f
Intuitive "having," of necessary es
sences, 139
Inventions, 1 1 0
Judging, not the same a s taking cogni
zance of something, 16
Judgment, marks by which it is dis
tinguished from taking cognizance,
1 8 ff
Kant, Immanuel, on discrepancy be
tween appearance and reality, 1 69;
distinction between analytic and
synthetic propositions, 208; extent
of his subjectivity, 166 f; on knowl
edge of things-in-themselves, 147;
meaning of subjective, 1 57 f; on the
noumenon as inaccessible to man,
157; on phenomena, 1 52 f; on the
possibility of experience, 93; on pre
suppositions, 92; on the role of in
tuition, 84; on tautology, 77
Kantian categories and forms of intui
tion, 88
Kennen, having knowledge of' 33; as
opposed to wissen, 3 3
Kierkegaard, S., on subjectivity, 158 n

INDEX

241

Knowing, in broad and in narrow

sense, 34; static, as distinct from
taking cognizance, 26 ff
Knowledge, basic forms of, 26 ff;
contemplative theme, 1 78; general
discussion of, 1 3 ff; notional theme,
1 77; a primary datum, 1 3 ff; a spirit
ual possession of an object, 14;
superactual form of, 28 ff; two basic
themes of, 1 72 ff; as a "wedding"
with object, 1 77 f; see also Pre
scientific knowledge, Naive prescien
tific knowledge, Philosophical knowl
edge, Taking cognizance
Knowledge-thematicity, 4 3
Lauer, Quentin, critique o f Husserl,
99 n; on meaning of phenome
nology, 224
Learning, the dynamic process that
leads to static knowing, 27
Logical positivism, 147 n
Lying, 146
Man, as a questioner, 1 1
Marcel, Gabriel, 226
Material, concept of, 9 3
Meaning, distinguished from percep
tion, 1 75
Meaningfulness, stages of, 1 00
Memory, knowledge subsists as poten
tial, 32
Message-character, of creation, 162 n f;
of some sense images, 1 6 1
Message objectivity, 1 6 3
Metaphysics, definition of, 1 2 6
Method, of philosophy, 2 1 4 ff
Moral values, existence of, 122
Morphic unity, 141 f, 192
Naive prescientific knowledge, 3 8 ff;
six types of, 48 ff
Nature, constitutive, I 04
Necessary unity, 1 1 0 ff
Necessity, of apriori knowledge, 64 f;
of essence, 68; formal, 66; of "laws
of nature," 68; structural, 67
Noncontradiction, principle of, 84 f
"Nothing else but" formula, 5
Notional theme of knowledge, 36 f,
177

Numbers, existence of,

of philosophy, 142

120;

as

object

Object, of philosophical knowledge,

63 ff, 140 ff, 1 8 5 ff; pragmatic de
formation of, 42
Objective existence, 1 52
Object-thematicity, 43; in philosophical knowledge, 1 8 5 ff
Ontology, object of, 145
Opaque facts, 192
Organ, for philosophical knowledge, 5
Organs, various intellectual, 3
Oughtness, of moral values, 1 2 2
Perception, nature of, 1 72 f; starting
point for experience, 87; three char
acteristic features of, 1 72 ff; two
perfections of, 1 76 f
Person, reality of, 1 24
Pfaender, Alexander, phenomenology,
223

Phenomena, in Kant's sense,

152

f,

1 57

Phenomenology, existential character,

224; meaning of, 222 ff; as trans
cendental idealism, 224
Philosophical knowledge, basic differ
ence from theoretical prescientific
knowledge, 6 1 ; contrasted with pre
scientific knowledge, 38 ff; deprag
matization of, 1 9 1 ff; depth of,
1 89 f; distance from the object,
1 97 f; distinguishing mark of 1 88 ff;
object of, 63 ff; summary of differ
ences from naive knowledge, 48 ff
Philosophic inquiry, dominant themes
of, 1 85 ff
Philosophy, concern for existence, 1 46;
deactualized standpoint, 194; mean
ing for man, 22 7 ff; method, 2 1 4 ff;
object of, 140 ff; object of, apriori
nature, 63 ff; object-thematicity in,
1 8 5 ff; rehabilitation of, 1 0; and
science, 1 86 ff, 204 ff; and science,
positive relation, 2 1 1 ff; subcon
scious moral resistance to, 204; see
also Philosophical knowledge
Physics, character of, 204 f
Plato, achievement of, 64; on direct
grasp of species, 1 1 3 f; on distinc
tion between apriori and empirical
knowledge, 208; on the theory of
reminiscence, 9 1
Positivism, knowledge as blunt ob
servation, 4 f; main feature of, 6; on

242

INDEX

the role of philosophy, 1

Possible, meaning of, 101, 125
Pragmatic attitude, in knowledge, 42
Pragmatic character, of some naive
knowledge, 40
Pragmatic interest, nature of, 186
Prescientific knowledge, naive, 38; or
ganic and inorganic, 52; theoretical,
50 ff; theoretical, inorganic, 53 f
Presuppositions, 60; distinguished from
the apriori, 9 Z ff
Prise de conscience, 83, 1 36 f
Propositions, analytic, 77; being of,
1 1 8 f; synthetic, 77
Psychologism, error of, 1 5
Recall, authentic, 181
Reinach, Adolf, distinction between
affirmation and conviction, 17; phe
nomenology, 223
Religion, and philosophy, 229; role of
philosophy for, 236 f
Reminiscence, in Plato, 88
Representation, in contemplation, 181;
how distinct from perception, 173
Scheler, Max, 8
Science, and philosophy, 1 86 ff, 404 ff;
and philosophy, positive relation,
2 1 1 ff
Self-evidence, 84
Semblances, 160; distinguished from
subjectivity, 166
"Si fallor,

sum,

"

74, 124, 146, 208;

analyzed, 14 7
Skepticism, contemporary, 1; of Greek
Sophists, 1; of Hume, Z
Soul-body relation, 1 5 1
States of facts, definition of, 3 3; as
object of an assertion or judgment,

17
Status viae, man's earthly situation,

11

Subject, concept of, 80

Subjective, several meanings of, 1 5 3 f
Subjectivity, 1 54 n; idealistic, 157; of
valid aspects, 166

Such-being, experience of, 87 ff

Superactual subsistence, of knowing,
28 ff
Synthetic propositions, 77
Taking cognizance, active component
in, ZZ ff; active elements in, 24 f;
differs from conviction, 19 f; dis
tinguished from judging and other
theoretical acts, 16 f; distinguished
from static knowing, 26 ff; dynamic
appropriation of some new object,
26 ff; marks whereby it differs from
judgment, 18 f; philosophical, dis
tinctly thematic, 38; philosophical,
twofold distinction from pragmatic
knowledge, 41 f; a "receiving," 1 5;
specific features of, 1 5 ff
Tautology, distinguished from fruitful
statements, 77 f
Thematicity, of object and of knowl
edge, 43
Theme, of both taking cognizance and
knowing, 36; of knowledge, 172 ff;
notional, 36 f
Thomas Aquinas, St., on contempla
tion, 183; on intelligere, 134 n
Transcendental idealism, self-contra
dictory claim that taking cognizance
is a producing of the object, 1 6
Transcendentals, o f being, 1 30
Transparency, confused with intel
ligibility, 1 3 3
Unity, o f appearances, 1 04 f; chaotic
and accidental, 100 ff; of genuine
types, 1 02 ff; morphic, 192; neces
sary essential, l l O ff; types of, 100 ff
Verities, eternal, l l 7
"Wedding" with object, 178
Wissen, knowing, 33; as opposed to
kennen, 33
Wonder, a mark of philosophy, 1 89,

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