The Cave of Life: Remembering the Beginning
The first essay in the book is "Erinnerung an den Anfang", about which I wrote this brief note when I first read it.
References which do not mean anything to me:
- "Kant's refutation of idealism in the second edition of the Critique". Blumenberg seems to be saying that this refutation would serve as proof of the eternal nature of the world, "even if this price, a corollary to his main result, must have seemed to him too high -- since it is inescapably Spinozan."
- The invocation of Spinoza.
But the basic idea that "We cannot imagine a beginning of time[, since] it would itself be in time" seems pretty straightforward to me.
More tomorrow.
posted by The Modesto Kid at 10:19 PM
3 Comments:
Ben Wolfson believes Kant would not have regarded the eternality of the world as a corollary of the refutation of idealism, because this eternality is half of his first antinomy. That seems fair -- maybe this is why Blumenberg says Kant would not accept this reasoning -- if that is indeed what he says. I'm a bit flummoxed by the notion that Kant is refuting idealism, when everything I read about him seems to indicate that idealism was his bag. But I will let this pass for now.
2:06 PM
Ah. Well here is an explanation of Kant's refutation of idealism.
2:43 PM
Thanks -- what about Spinoza?
11:19 PM
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