Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Hans Blumenberg
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Shipwreck with Spectator
Paradigm of a Metaphor for Existence
Hans Blumenberg
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Vous �tes embarque
-Pascal
© 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This work originally appeared in German under the title Schfffbruch mit Zuschauer.
Paradigma einer Daseinsmetapher, C/1979 Suhkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publish�r.
This book was set in Bembo by The MIT Press and was printed and bound in the
United States of America.
Blumenberg, Hans.
[Schiflbruch mit Zuschauer. English]
Shipwreck with spectator : paradigm of a metaphor for existence / Hans
Blumenberg ; translated by Steven Rendall.
p. cm. - (Studies in contemporary German social thought)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-262-02411-X (alk. paper)
1. Philosophy-Miscellanea. 2. Seafaring life in literature. 3. Shipwrecks in
literature. l. Title. IL Series.
B68.B5813 1997
193---dc20 96-32034
CIP
Vous �tes embarque
-Pascal
© 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This work originally appeared in German under the title Schfffbruch mit Zuschauer.
Paradigma einer Daseinsmetapher, C/1979 Suhkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publish�r.
This book was set in Bembo by The MIT Press and was printed and bound in the
United States of America.
Blumenberg, Hans.
[Schiflbruch mit Zuschauer. English]
Shipwreck with spectator : paradigm of a metaphor for existence / Hans
Blumenberg ; translated by Steven Rendall.
p. cm. - (Studies in contemporary German social thought)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-262-02411-X (alk. paper)
1. Philosophy-Miscellanea. 2. Seafaring life in literature. 3. Shipwrecks in
literature. l. Title. IL Series.
B68.B5813 1997
193---dc20 96-32034
CIP
Contents
Translator's Introduction 1
Notes 103
Index 121
Contents
Translator's Introduction 1
Notes 103
Index 121
Translator's Introduction
Translator's Introduction 5
Translator's Introduction 4
In the essay that Blumenberg appends to this volume, he nary to scientific concepts. Not only does it persist in
reviews the development of studies on metaphor since 1960, modern discourse, and even in scientific discourse, but it
when he published his programmatic essay "Paradigms for continues to provide the imaginative orientations that con
a Metaphorology. "2 At that time, he says, metaphor was seen stitute the Lebenswelt-the all-inclusive horizon of the world
as a stage in the process of concept formation, and he as we actually experience it prior to all scientific concepts.
envisioned his metaphorology as a "subsidiary method for Shipwreck with Spectator offers a history of the transformations
the history of concepts that was just then emerging." Now, of one such key metaphor.
however, the perspective has been reversed: metaphor "is
no longer directed mainly toward the constitution of Finally, a few comments on the translation. Where
conceptuality but back toward the connections with the life Blumenberg cites a non-Gennan passage in German trans
world as the constant motivating support (though one lation, I have either substituted a published English transla
which cannot be constantly kept in view) of all theory." tion or retranslated the passage from the original. I have also
Whereas metaphorology had earlier focused on the ways in added English translations of passages Blumenberg cites
which images mark out the horizon within which concepts without giving a German translation. Where feasible, I have
are formed, it now focuses on the ways in which they provided more complete bibliographical information than
indicate the characteristics of our life-world that lead us to the original gives, and occasionally I have substituted refer
seek theoretical knowledge in the first place. Thus metaphor ences to English translations for Blumenberg's German
is currently understood as only one special case of references. I have omitted a few notes that would be of no
nonconceptuality-that is, of all that in any culture cannot interest to English-speaking readers; where I have added
be reduced to concepts. notes with interpretive content, I have put them between
Blumenberg's reorientation of metaphorology parallels square brackets and identified them as my own.
his reorientation of mythology in his Work on Myth. As
Robert M. Wallace put it in the introduction to his transla
tion of the latter book, "Blumenberg proposes that instead
of always interpreting myth in terms of what it (supposedly)
came before-its terminus ad quem, science, the arrival of
which appears to make it obsolete-we should try interpret
ing it in terms ofits terminus a quo, its point ofdeparture. That
point of departure is the problem that myth seeks to solve,
which is the source of its real (and lasting) importance,
regardless of what (if anything) comes 'after' it."3 Similarly,
in Blumenberg's view, the role of metaphor cannot be
adequately understood if it is considered as a mere prelimi-
Translator's Introduction 5
Translator's Introduction 4
Shipwreck with Spectator
One of those who know something about making their way thereby to be persuaded that the game has already begun, the
through catastrophes in one piece is Goethe. Speaking in stake is already on the table, and all that remains is to perceive
1809 to the Hamburg diplomat Carl Sieveking, he referred the whole infinity of chance. The skeptic's abstention,
to his happy youth, remarking that the world "has become which Montai gne had expressed through the image of
more serious" since that time: "then one would have been remaining in the harbor, is in Pascal's view not an option.
allowed to lose years, now not a single day." This is, taken The metaphorics of embarkation includes the suggestion
in itself, an older man's remark, valid for every process of that living means already being on the high seas, where there
aging as a formula for the preciousness of time. However, it is no outcome other than being saved or going down, and
then becomes clear that this act of economy, which nature no possibility of abstention. Pascal, whom Nietzsche for this
· imposes on us, is bound up with another constraint, origi reason saw as the "only logical Christian," excluded the
nating in the historical situation: "like the shipwrecked, we thought of simple self-preservation, which does notseek the
must hold tight to the plank that saved us, and put our absolute raising of the stake, the infinite gain. Only thus
precious lost baggage out of our minds. "26 could this "most instructive victim of Christianity" antici
It is also worth noting the connection Goethe establishes pate Nietzsche, who follows Pascal almost verbatim with
between the lack of success of his color theory and the this thought: "We have left the land and have embarked. We
metaphorics of shipwreck. A statement from 1830 allows us have burned our bridges behind us-indeed, we have gone
to see that saving plank, conjured up two decades earlier, and further and destroyed the land behind us. Now, little ship,
the loneliness of the man who is saved, for whom alone the look out! ... and there is no longer any 'land. "'28 Over this
plank has room, in the light of a disappointment with life. To fragment taken from the Gay Science is written, as if to
Soret, the Genevese tutor of the Weimar princes, Goethe remind us of Pascal, "In the horizon ef the infinite."
speaks of his traumatic experience, of the resistances and The next metaphorical step is that not only are we always
prejudices against his theory of colors, which apparently already embarked and on the high seas but also, as if this were
allows no more than one man to be favored by its truth: "it inevitable, we are shipwrecked. It goes almost without
is as if in a great shipwreck one were able to seize a saving saying that, in the complex of notes to the completed parts
plank sufficient to carry one man, and were saved all alone, of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, we find the shipwreck scene. The
the rest of the passengers wretchedly drowning. "Tl fragment entitled "On turmoil" reads: "Once, when
The twist Nietzsche gave to nautical metaphorics, and Zarathustra as the result of a shipwreck was spat out upon the
which people might at times have liked to call "existential," land and rode on a wave, he said in wonder: 'Where is my
was discovered by Pascal in the formula "you are em fate now? I do not know where I should go. I am losing
barked." It occurs in the pensee that develops the wager mysel£' He threw himselfinto the turmoil. Then, overcome
argument. Whoever is still hesitating to wager the whole by disgust, he sought some consolation-himself. "29 It is the
finite stake in the hope of an infinite reward is supposed almost "natural" pennanent condition of life, which the
One of those who know something about making their way thereby to be persuaded that the game has already begun, the
through catastrophes in one piece is Goethe. Speaking in stake is already on the table, and all that remains is to perceive
1809 to the Hamburg diplomat Carl Sieveking, he referred the whole infinity of chance. The skeptic's abstention,
to his happy youth, remarking that the world "has become which Montai gne had expressed through the image of
more serious" since that time: "then one would have been remaining in the harbor, is in Pascal's view not an option.
allowed to lose years, now not a single day." This is, taken The metaphorics of embarkation includes the suggestion
in itself, an older man's remark, valid for every process of that living means already being on the high seas, where there
aging as a formula for the preciousness of time. However, it is no outcome other than being saved or going down, and
then becomes clear that this act of economy, which nature no possibility of abstention. Pascal, whom Nietzsche for this
· imposes on us, is bound up with another constraint, origi reason saw as the "only logical Christian," excluded the
nating in the historical situation: "like the shipwrecked, we thought of simple self-preservation, which does notseek the
must hold tight to the plank that saved us, and put our absolute raising of the stake, the infinite gain. Only thus
precious lost baggage out of our minds. "26 could this "most instructive victim of Christianity" antici
It is also worth noting the connection Goethe establishes pate Nietzsche, who follows Pascal almost verbatim with
between the lack of success of his color theory and the this thought: "We have left the land and have embarked. We
metaphorics of shipwreck. A statement from 1830 allows us have burned our bridges behind us-indeed, we have gone
to see that saving plank, conjured up two decades earlier, and further and destroyed the land behind us. Now, little ship,
the loneliness of the man who is saved, for whom alone the look out! ... and there is no longer any 'land. "'28 Over this
plank has room, in the light of a disappointment with life. To fragment taken from the Gay Science is written, as if to
Soret, the Genevese tutor of the Weimar princes, Goethe remind us of Pascal, "In the horizon ef the infinite."
speaks of his traumatic experience, of the resistances and The next metaphorical step is that not only are we always
prejudices against his theory of colors, which apparently already embarked and on the high seas but also, as if this were
allows no more than one man to be favored by its truth: "it inevitable, we are shipwrecked. It goes almost without
is as if in a great shipwreck one were able to seize a saving saying that, in the complex of notes to the completed parts
plank sufficient to carry one man, and were saved all alone, of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, we find the shipwreck scene. The
the rest of the passengers wretchedly drowning. "Tl fragment entitled "On turmoil" reads: "Once, when
The twist Nietzsche gave to nautical metaphorics, and Zarathustra as the result of a shipwreck was spat out upon the
which people might at times have liked to call "existential," land and rode on a wave, he said in wonder: 'Where is my
was discovered by Pascal in the formula "you are em fate now? I do not know where I should go. I am losing
barked." It occurs in the pensee that develops the wager mysel£' He threw himselfinto the turmoil. Then, overcome
argument. Whoever is still hesitating to wager the whole by disgust, he sought some consolation-himself. "29 It is the
finite stake in the hope of an infinite reward is supposed almost "natural" pennanent condition of life, which the
if Lucretius were right. But Lucretius does not know what the shipwreck." 52 From Strasbourg, he wrote to the countess
he is talking about.People hasten to witness such a drama out Liitzelburg, on 22 August 1753, telling her that fate plays
of curiosity, and curiosity is "a natural feeling in man" (un with poor mankind like a shuttlecock, even though the
sentiment naturel a l'homme). Voltaire claims that not one of shortness of the day of life might lead us to expect an evening
these sightseers would fail to undertake the most difficult without storms: "It is terrible to end such a short and
measures to save the shipwrecked passengers if he could.In unhappy career in the midst of storms" (Il est ajfreux definir
the same way, when someone is publicly hanged, curious au milieu des tempetes une si courte et si malheureuse carriere). On
people do not rush to their windows out of malevolence, as 2 Septemper, he wrote to the countess again, this time
would be true if, on reflecting, they took pleasure in their relativizing the possibility of a feeling of security to the ones
own lack of involvement.Those are the alternatives: "not by saved from shipwreck as well as the spectator, by picturing
comparison with oneself ... but by curiosity alone" (ce n'est the seafarers looking back, from the harbor, on their adven
pas par un retour sur soi-mime . . . c'est uniquement par curiosite ). 50 ture; but he immediately destroys the security value of this
Voltaire also begins the article "Curiosity" in his Dictionnaire image by voicing a hyperbolic doubt as to whether there is
philosophique by quoting and translating the first verse of any safe haven in this world: "Sailors in port like to talk about
Book 2 of De rerum natura. Here he pretends to address the their storms, but is there any port in this world? People
poet directly, interrupting him and telling him he is mistaken shipwreck everywhere, even in a small brook" (Les matelots
about ethics, just as he has always been mistaken about aiment dans le port a parler de leurs tempetes, mais y a-t-il un port
physics. It is only curiosity, Voltaire claims, that makes dans ce monde? Onfait partout naiifrage dans un ruisseau).
people stand on the beach and watch a ship in peril at sea. 51 A year before the "shipwreck" during his escape from
Voltaire appeals to his own experience of such an enjoy Berlin, in his philosophical tale Micromegas, Voltaire had
ment, which he says involved uneasiness and discomfort but introduced the larger-than-life spectator in the characters of
had nothing to do with the sort of reflection that Lucretius· the giant from Sirius and his companion from Saturn. The
imports into the spectator's situation. There was no secret two space travelers arrive on earth, just as Maupertuis's
comparison between his own security and the peril of others: famous expedition is sailing across the Baltic on its way back
"I was curious and sensitive" (j'etais curieux et sensible). This from Lapland. To mock his Berlin rival, Voltaire tells us that
passion alone drives men to climb trees in order to observe the newspapers had already reported the expedition's ship
the bloodbath of a battle or a public hanging. And it is not wreck. He attributes this event to the aliens' interest in what
a human passion but one we share with apes and puppies. was for them a microscopically small vehicle and its passen
Voltaire once saw himself in the figure of the shipwrecked gers. What the human explorers had experienced as catastro
man, when he escaped the Prussian king's snares in Frankfurt phe was only the flip side of the theoretical interest the
in 1753 and spent three weeks of his regained safety in spectators from another planet had taken in them: the giant
Mainz, in order to d ry "his clothes, soaked through during had very carefully laid the ship in the palm of his hand. His
if Lucretius were right. But Lucretius does not know what the shipwreck." 52 From Strasbourg, he wrote to the countess
he is talking about.People hasten to witness such a drama out Liitzelburg, on 22 August 1753, telling her that fate plays
of curiosity, and curiosity is "a natural feeling in man" (un with poor mankind like a shuttlecock, even though the
sentiment naturel a l'homme). Voltaire claims that not one of shortness of the day of life might lead us to expect an evening
these sightseers would fail to undertake the most difficult without storms: "It is terrible to end such a short and
measures to save the shipwrecked passengers if he could.In unhappy career in the midst of storms" (Il est ajfreux definir
the same way, when someone is publicly hanged, curious au milieu des tempetes une si courte et si malheureuse carriere). On
people do not rush to their windows out of malevolence, as 2 Septemper, he wrote to the countess again, this time
would be true if, on reflecting, they took pleasure in their relativizing the possibility of a feeling of security to the ones
own lack of involvement.Those are the alternatives: "not by saved from shipwreck as well as the spectator, by picturing
comparison with oneself ... but by curiosity alone" (ce n'est the seafarers looking back, from the harbor, on their adven
pas par un retour sur soi-mime . . . c'est uniquement par curiosite ). 50 ture; but he immediately destroys the security value of this
Voltaire also begins the article "Curiosity" in his Dictionnaire image by voicing a hyperbolic doubt as to whether there is
philosophique by quoting and translating the first verse of any safe haven in this world: "Sailors in port like to talk about
Book 2 of De rerum natura. Here he pretends to address the their storms, but is there any port in this world? People
poet directly, interrupting him and telling him he is mistaken shipwreck everywhere, even in a small brook" (Les matelots
about ethics, just as he has always been mistaken about aiment dans le port a parler de leurs tempetes, mais y a-t-il un port
physics. It is only curiosity, Voltaire claims, that makes dans ce monde? Onfait partout naiifrage dans un ruisseau).
people stand on the beach and watch a ship in peril at sea. 51 A year before the "shipwreck" during his escape from
Voltaire appeals to his own experience of such an enjoy Berlin, in his philosophical tale Micromegas, Voltaire had
ment, which he says involved uneasiness and discomfort but introduced the larger-than-life spectator in the characters of
had nothing to do with the sort of reflection that Lucretius· the giant from Sirius and his companion from Saturn. The
imports into the spectator's situation. There was no secret two space travelers arrive on earth, just as Maupertuis's
comparison between his own security and the peril of others: famous expedition is sailing across the Baltic on its way back
"I was curious and sensitive" (j'etais curieux et sensible). This from Lapland. To mock his Berlin rival, Voltaire tells us that
passion alone drives men to climb trees in order to observe the newspapers had already reported the expedition's ship
the bloodbath of a battle or a public hanging. And it is not wreck. He attributes this event to the aliens' interest in what
a human passion but one we share with apes and puppies. was for them a microscopically small vehicle and its passen
Voltaire once saw himself in the figure of the shipwrecked gers. What the human explorers had experienced as catastro
man, when he escaped the Prussian king's snares in Frankfurt phe was only the flip side of the theoretical interest the
in 1753 and spent three weeks of his regained safety in spectators from another planet had taken in them: the giant
Mainz, in order to d ry "his clothes, soaked through during had very carefully laid the ship in the palm of his hand. His
I
holding back, the self-disengagement of this attitude. folly, ofills and evils, of the sinking of the most flourishing
At Jena, Goethe had not favored witl1 a single word his empires, which history places before our eyes, is only
the
enthusiastic conversation partner, who confessed that he means to the "true result of world history," that ultimate
would have been prepared to endure personal misfortune goal, for which "these monstrous sacrifices [have] been
gladly if that had been able to turn the battle around. The made."74
1i
observer of the battlefield appeals to the ancient poet's Here, too, the spectator's position is determined by I'
comparison precisely in order to protect his history from reflection; it grants him more than consolation; it reconciles
history per se,72 insofar as the latter is always, and must him with the "immediate prospect of history." And with
remain, the history of others. However, it is no longer unsurpassable intensity: it "transfi res reality with all
gu i ts
possible to put historical catastrophes on the same footing apparent injustices and reconciles it with the rational." Wha
t
with physical ones. The point ofphysical catastrophes, in the an achievement ofreason it is when the spectator looks at
the
philosophy of Epicurus and Lucretius, had been that they i ndividuals in history, with "profound pity
for [their] untold
were fertile in forms, that they were the form-making power miseries," and sees their downfall as the work not only
of
ofnature itself. Goethe has no philosophy ofhistory, and his nature but also of human will.
aversion to Vulcanism, together with his affinity for The spectator's sensitivity can be intensified to the "ex
Neptunism, 73 could suggest that he would have found treme pitch ofhopeless sorrow with no redeeming circu
m
atomism's catastrophic productivity illuminating neither in stances" to provide the counterbalance that he is supposed
the case of nature nor in that ofhistory. Before I pursue his to find, brought to the point where he sees "a most terrify
ing
assessment of Lucretius a step further, we must consider picture take shape," which finally--only as he returns
from
what, in fact, could have been done with the configuration "the lassitude into which such sorrowful reflections
can
ofshipwreck and spectator, in the philosophy ofhistory. To pl unge us"-fades away in the demands of reality. The
that end-how could it be otherwise?-we must glance at spectator can tum away from the "rebellion of the good
spirit" within him, without thereby already being turne
d
I
holding back, the self-disengagement of this attitude. folly, ofills and evils, of the sinking of the most flourishing
At Jena, Goethe had not favored witl1 a single word his empires, which history places before our eyes, is only
the
enthusiastic conversation partner, who confessed that he means to the "true result of world history," that ultimate
would have been prepared to endure personal misfortune goal, for which "these monstrous sacrifices [have] been
gladly if that had been able to turn the battle around. The made."74
1i
observer of the battlefield appeals to the ancient poet's Here, too, the spectator's position is determined by I'
comparison precisely in order to protect his history from reflection; it grants him more than consolation; it reconciles
history per se,72 insofar as the latter is always, and must him with the "immediate prospect of history." And with
remain, the history of others. However, it is no longer unsurpassable intensity: it "transfi res reality with all
gu i ts
possible to put historical catastrophes on the same footing apparent injustices and reconciles it with the rational." Wha
t
with physical ones. The point ofphysical catastrophes, in the an achievement ofreason it is when the spectator looks at
the
philosophy of Epicurus and Lucretius, had been that they i ndividuals in history, with "profound pity
for [their] untold
were fertile in forms, that they were the form-making power miseries," and sees their downfall as the work not only
of
ofnature itself. Goethe has no philosophy ofhistory, and his nature but also of human will.
aversion to Vulcanism, together with his affinity for The spectator's sensitivity can be intensified to the "ex
Neptunism, 73 could suggest that he would have found treme pitch ofhopeless sorrow with no redeeming circu
m
atomism's catastrophic productivity illuminating neither in stances" to provide the counterbalance that he is supposed
the case of nature nor in that ofhistory. Before I pursue his to find, brought to the point where he sees "a most terrify
ing
assessment of Lucretius a step further, we must consider picture take shape," which finally--only as he returns
from
what, in fact, could have been done with the configuration "the lassitude into which such sorrowful reflections
can
ofshipwreck and spectator, in the philosophy ofhistory. To pl unge us"-fades away in the demands of reality. The
that end-how could it be otherwise?-we must glance at spectator can tum away from the "rebellion of the good
spirit" within him, without thereby already being turne
d
--- - - - - ------···---
Shipwreck with Spectator 66 Shipwreck with Spectator 67
Frankfurt, in 1815, which "flowed by in almost idyllic expression used by the poet who sails past the shipwrecked
peacefulness." At the time of writing, he is looking back at man is of the most singular and frigid precision: "I was
this across a quarter-century. As he departed in the mail carrying on board my ship the gods of the future."
coach, Borne had looked after him for a long time, "as The point toward which the reception history of the
melancholy as an old sailor who has retired to dry land, and shipwreck-spectator configuration tends is the dissolution of
who feels moved to sympathy when he sees a young its original relationship to nature. Considered quantitatively,
jackanapes who is going to sea for the first time.... The old the nineteenth century was surely the epoch of shipwrecks.
man thought at that time that he had said farewell forever to Down tq the sinking of the Titanic, nature's force manifested
the malicious element and that he would be able to spend the itself more convincingly than ever before; in the nineteenth
rest of his days in the safe harbor!"88 century, England alone lost five thousand men a year
The expectation was not to be fulfilled, and this leads to through ships going down-off the British coast there were
the reversal of the situation. "Soon afterward, he had to 700 shipwrecks in the first six months of 1880, and in the first
return to the high seas, and there our ships passed by each six months of 1881, 91989-in whose memory J. M. W.
other, during the raging of the dreadful storm, in which he Turner set up a last fierce monument of romantic longing for
went down." Heine is referring to Borne's becoming a death. In spite of this reality, the shipwreck metaphorics was
republican and his participation in the aftermath of the July completely occupied by the newly emerging historical
revolution of 1830, during which he moved away from consciousness and its insoluble dilemma of theoretical dis
Heine, considering him the representative of a politically tance versus living engagement.
unreliable aestheticism. But what Heine published concern In the conclusion to the chapter "On Good and Bad
ing Borne in 1840 already concerned a dead man, whose Fortune in World History"-a lecture given in 1871-in
image in the political shipwreck he conjured up: "He was the World-historical Observations that he prepared for the press
standing at the wheel of his ship, defying the impetuousness (though he did not give them this title), Jacob Burckhardt
of the waves.... Poor man! His ship had no anchor and his introduced the Lucretian motif It completes his idea of the
heart had no hope.... I saw how the mast broke, how the integration of human history, whose unity"appears to us, at
wind tore away the rigging.... I saw how he stretched out the end, like the life of one man." Although Burckhardt had
his hand toward me." Heine confesses that he did not grasp earlier rejected as mere wishful thinking the trust in a secret
the outstretched hand. He asserts, moreover, that he was balance between downfall and ascent, loss and gain, in the
right not to have done so, for he thus avoided endangering total life of humanity, still he clings to a continuity that
the precious cargo, the sacred treasures that had been persists through downfalls and new beginnings, as an"essen
entrusted to him. This is the frightful formula of all those tial interest of our human existence."
who refuse the little humanity of the present in order to The examination and pursuit of this unity then make
fulfill the allegedly greater humanity of the future. So the claims on the historian in such a way that "the concepts of
--- - - - - ------···---
Shipwreck with Spectator 66 Shipwreck with Spectator 67
fortune and misfortune in comparison increasingly lose their again as an unattainable exteriority: "If we could wholly
meaning." This way of privileging knowledge over fortune renounce our individuality and observe the history of the
looks like cold objectivity, but it is only resignation with coming time with just as much tranquillity and concern as
regard to the fact that the wishes of individuals and peoples we do the drama of nature-for instance, as we might look
are blind and cannot serve to guide the observer. Thus, the at a storm at sea from dry land-then perhaps we would
historian's refusal to decide between fortune and misfortune consciously witness one of the greatest chapters in the
is an acknowledgment of the subjectivity of these concepts history of the spirit. "90 It is important that the fiction is
that guards against arbitrariness, but it is not "indifference related to the history that is impending, the epoch of the
toward a wretchedness that may indeed involve us as well coming decisions.
through which we are protected against any coldly objective On three occasions, each two years apart, Burckhardt
dealings." Nevertheless, Burckhardt regards the present applied the metaphorics of shipwreck to the past-though
from which he speaks as so rich in great decisions to be made in his judgment not yet concluded-period of revolutions. 91
(between deceptive peace and the approach of new wars; The first version of his Einleitung in die Geschichte des Revolu
between the political forms of the leading civilized peoples tionszeitalters is dated 6 November 1867.92 Burckhardt sees a
and the increasing consciousness of suffering and impatience consciousness of provisionality as the result of this period and
that result from broader education and communication) that also as the dominant feeling of his own present time. The
the historian cannot resist "thinking of it as a marvelous outlook is gloomy: "Times of dread and deepest woe may
drama"-even if not "for contemporaries, earthly beings" be coming." There follows immediately the radical and, if
and cannot resist pursuing the subject of this history, the we did not know better, last possible transformation of the
"spirit of humanity," which seems to be building itself "a seafaring metaphor, along with its full denaturalization
new dwelling place." This is all expressed in the subjunctive through the elimination of the dualism of man and reality:
of irreality; what allows this spectator to be thought of is at "We would like to know the waves on which we sail across
the same time what prevents him from being realized in the the ocean; but we ourselves are these waves."
historian: "A man who had a sense of this would completely The metaphor that has been pushed to the point of
forget fortune and misfortune and live on in pure longing for paradox is supposed to illustrate the epistemological position
this knowledge." That is the last sentence in this reflection, of the historian of the revolutionary period. This first
pursued in so complicated a modality-complicated be becomes fully clear in the 1869 version. The historian is
cause it wants at all costs to avoid looking like a passage from confronted by an unprecedented problem of objectivity,
Hegel. which, however, is something that historical knowledge is
Before that, however, the image from Lucretius had been not allowed to abandon. "As soon as we rub our eyes, we
conjured up for this imagined spectator-the unreal em clearly see that we are on a more or less fragile ship, borne
bodiment of the historian's good fortune without respect to along on one of the million waves that were put in motion
good or bad fortune in history itself-and immediately let go
----···------· ----------- -
-
Shipwreck with Spectator 74 Shipwreck with Spectator 75
what our wishes and claims had expected of it, but what it cannot expect a rescuing ship, "the fourth difficulty is, for
does achieve is essentially unsurpassable and suffices to meet the present, not transcendent, however hesitantly a serious
the demands of maintaining life. and conscientious thinker may again and again stand before
In 1880, again on the academy's Leibniz Day, DuBois it." Can we ever move beyond the plank? Nothing needs to
Reymond, in what is probably his most famous address, be said about that, even in a celebratory speech. The
"The Seven Riddles of the World," comes back to his economy is one of self-preservation, not one of navigation
shipwreck simile. The fourth of his riddles gives him the toward landings and harbors, and certainly not one that takes
occasion to point out that the difficulty of explaining the into account finnly situated spectators.
"apparently purposeful, teleological arrangement of nature" In the reception histories of metaphors, the more sharply
is indeed great, but not "absolutely transcendent." In the defined and differentiated the imaginative stock becomes,
theory of natural selection, Du Bois-Reymond argues, the sooner the point is reached where there seems to be an
Darwin had offered the possibility of at least getting around extreme inducement to veer around, with the existing
the assumption of an inner teleology of organic creation. At model, in the most decisive way and to try out the
this point, the speaker quotes his own earlier lecture verba unsurpassable procedure of reversing it.
tim and comments, in opposition to the unwelcome ap The shipwreck metaphorics appears to have escaped such
plause of those who thought they were being presented with a reversal, even if the image process does seems to be wound
an image of the failure of reason, that his concern had been backward by considering the shipwrecked man and his
with the d�gree of probability of that explanation. "The fact efforts to salvage, from what was almost the end of his sea
that I compared the theory of selection to a plank on which voyage, a Robinson Crusoe-like new beginning of self
a shipwrecked man sought rescue aroused such satisfaction preservation. A reversal in the strict sense would be present
on the other side that, in retelling the story, people enjoyed only if the helpless man borne along on his plank at sea were
turning the plank into a straw. "97 The "other side" does not the initial situation, that is, if the construction of a ship were
· consist, in the speaker's sarcastic address, of the opposition only the result of self-assertion proceeding from this situa
alone. 98 tion. In the "existential" use of the image type, which takes
The plank is the most that can be expected in the human the always-already of embarkation and later the always
situation of immanent self-help through science, and the already of shipwreck as its point of departure, this is out of
belittling straw converts into an image higher requirements the question.
than theoretical ones. Du Bois-Reymond insists, therefore, Nevertheless, turning the "nautical accommodation"
on the important difference between his plank and the straw toward a seaworthiness situated in the opposite temporal
that has been foisted on him: "The man who relies on a straw direction is almost a natural metaphor in a constructivist
will sink, whereas a solid plank has saved many a human life." environment. In 1965, Paul Lorenzen contrasted the posi
In any case--so it should surely continue-as long as one tion of logical positivism to his own by means of an antithesis
----···------· ----------- -
-
Shipwreck with Spectator 74 Shipwreck with Spectator 75
between two versions of the basic nautical metaplior.99 He physics can be eliminated without remainder, the
ar gued that the question concerning the methodical begin presuppositionlessness of such an absolute beginning cannot
ning of human thinking has been taken out of the realm of be achieved. The two reductions, that of metaphysics and
the rational, on the one hand by the predominance of that of the inexactitude of language, are separable. Neurath
axiomatic method after the displacment·ofKant, and on the expresses this state of affairs by means of the ship metaphor:
other by a hermeneutics oriented toward language philoso- · "We are like sailors who have to rebuild their ship on the
phy. From the proposition that knowledge cannot go back high seas, without ever being able to take it apart in a dock
behind life, the new immediacy of philosophy proceeding and reco!'.}struct it out of the best parts. Only metaphysics can
from Wilhelm Dilthey unintentionally produced the other disappear completely. The imprecise 'clusters' [Ballungen]
proposition, that the expression "life," too, refers only to a are always somehow part of the ship." If imprecision is
contingent set of presuppositions, which manifests itself as a diminished in one place, it may reappear in a stronger form
linguistic framework imposed on thought. Logical positiv elsewhere.
ism, Lorenzen goes on, then narrows the formulation of the That is the position that Lorenzen sets himself off against,
question to how the foundation of scientific language is with his extreme variant of the metaphor. The acknowledg
possible. The answer to this question is supposed "to be ment that we can neither spontaneously put the vehicle of
given most clearly in an image, according to which language natural language into use nor abandon it, because it is already
with its syntactic rules is a ship in which we find ourselves decisively pregiven in everything else we can do-this
on the condition that we can never enter a harbor. All repairs concession in no way decides in advance the question of
to or rebuilding of the ship must be carried out on the high whether we ourselves must use this same apparatus in order
seas." This is the "nautical accommodation" on a higher to make possible the methodical fulfillment of the postulated
comfort level than the plank could offer. But apparently beginning. Lorenzen continues the image by representing
with such defects in the vehicle system that rebuilding and natural language as "a ship at sea," without thereby wanting
repairs have to be undertaken while under way. Neverthe to put the situation beyond any genetic inquiry into whence
less, the syntactical scaffolding functions so long as it can be and whither. How this imbrication of pregivenness and
kept afloat, and one need not, or cannot, inquire into the presuppositionlessness is to be understood is illustrated by
memory of where and when it was put into service. the reversal of the shipwreck metaphor: "If there is no
Lorenzen is clearly referring to Otto Neurath' s version of attainable solid ground, then the ship must already have been
the ship simile, which Neurath directed against Rudolf built on the high seas; not by us, but by our ancestors. Our
Carnap's "fiction of an ideal language constructed out of tidy ancestors, then, were able to swim, and no doubt-using
atomic sentences. " 100 According to Neurath, there is no way scraps of wood floating around-they somehow initially put
to put a language of definitively certain protocol sentences together a raft, and then continually improved it, until today
at the beginning of scientific knowledge. Even if all meta- it has become such a comfortable ship that we do not have
A metaphoris autem
abstinendum philosopho.
-Berkeley, De motu 3
A metaphoris autem
abstinendum philosopho.
-Berkeley, De motu 3
-1�1
sions and that it leads us in the direction ofBuridan's ass is What binds concept and symbol together is their indiffer
a natural one. Even if this were true, it would not produce ence .to the presence of what they represent. Whereas the
!I
this state of affairs but would only describe it.But when the concept tends potentially toward intuition and remains
l
theory goes back to the genesis of that state of affairs and dependent on it, the symbol, in the opposite direction,
analyzes that genesis in terms of a situation of need, some disengages itself from what it stands for. It may be that the
thing is produced that I would like to call the rationalization capacity for symbolism arose from the inability to depict, as
of lack. It consists in supplementing the consideration of Freud suggested; or from magic, with its technical need, by
what we should do to fulfill the intentionality of conscious dealing with an arbitrary fragment of a reality, to make the
ness, with a-more anthropological-consideration of what latter itself wholly available for its use; or from the disposi
we can afford in the way of fulfillments. tion toward conditioned reflexes, in which a circumstance
In a fra gment first published in 1959 by H. Sembdner, that accompanies the real stimulus takes over and retains the
Kleist proposes to divide human beings into two classes: stimulus function itsel£ What is decisive is that this elemen
"those who are at home with metaphors, and those who are tary organ of the relation to the world makes possible a
at home with formulas." There are too few people who are turning away from perception and visualization, a free
at home with both, he says, to make up a class. This typology control over what is not present. The symbol's operability
looks as though it contains an exclusive choice. But in fact is what distinguishes it from representation [ Vorstellung] and
we cannot avoid metaphors where formulas are possible. We from depiction [Abbildung]: not only does the flag stand for
can afford the abundance of metaphors that our rhetoric the state, which has selected its sequence of colors, but also,
produces only because what formulas are able to accomplish in contrast to the state, it can be exploited or desecrated,
determines the scope we have for what goes beyond the bare displayed at half-mast to signify mourning or at a sports event
securing of existence, and thus also the scope for what to signify victory, misused for certain ends and held high for
metaphors offer us in going beyond the formulaic. Above all, others.
formulas guarantee the connection between the beginning It was only at a late date that this capacity for linking
states of processes and arbitrary end states, without presup together heterogeneous elements allowed us to understand
posing that the intermediate field, or the totality, is empiri what happens in human cognition and to understand that it
cally objective. Nonconceptuality wants more than the is not governed by the natural but ultimately contradictory
-1�1
sions and that it leads us in the direction ofBuridan's ass is What binds concept and symbol together is their indiffer
a natural one. Even if this were true, it would not produce ence .to the presence of what they represent. Whereas the
!I
this state of affairs but would only describe it.But when the concept tends potentially toward intuition and remains
l
theory goes back to the genesis of that state of affairs and dependent on it, the symbol, in the opposite direction,
analyzes that genesis in terms of a situation of need, some disengages itself from what it stands for. It may be that the
thing is produced that I would like to call the rationalization capacity for symbolism arose from the inability to depict, as
of lack. It consists in supplementing the consideration of Freud suggested; or from magic, with its technical need, by
what we should do to fulfill the intentionality of conscious dealing with an arbitrary fragment of a reality, to make the
ness, with a-more anthropological-consideration of what latter itself wholly available for its use; or from the disposi
we can afford in the way of fulfillments. tion toward conditioned reflexes, in which a circumstance
In a fra gment first published in 1959 by H. Sembdner, that accompanies the real stimulus takes over and retains the
Kleist proposes to divide human beings into two classes: stimulus function itsel£ What is decisive is that this elemen
"those who are at home with metaphors, and those who are tary organ of the relation to the world makes possible a
at home with formulas." There are too few people who are turning away from perception and visualization, a free
at home with both, he says, to make up a class. This typology control over what is not present. The symbol's operability
looks as though it contains an exclusive choice. But in fact is what distinguishes it from representation [ Vorstellung] and
we cannot avoid metaphors where formulas are possible. We from depiction [Abbildung]: not only does the flag stand for
can afford the abundance of metaphors that our rhetoric the state, which has selected its sequence of colors, but also,
produces only because what formulas are able to accomplish in contrast to the state, it can be exploited or desecrated,
determines the scope we have for what goes beyond the bare displayed at half-mast to signify mourning or at a sports event
securing of existence, and thus also the scope for what to signify victory, misused for certain ends and held high for
metaphors offer us in going beyond the formulaic. Above all, others.
formulas guarantee the connection between the beginning It was only at a late date that this capacity for linking
states of processes and arbitrary end states, without presup together heterogeneous elements allowed us to understand
posing that the intermediate field, or the totality, is empiri what happens in human cognition and to understand that it
cally objective. Nonconceptuality wants more than the is not governed by the natural but ultimately contradictory
Prospect for a Theory ofNonconceptuality 100 Prospect for a Theory of Nonconceptuality 101
Only a little supplementary theory is required to help us the methodological connection between the analysis of
understand why this possession was able to remain hidden Dasein and ontology, is at the same time a prohibition of
from us for so long, and with such fateful consequences. It rnetaphorics, and also of absolute metaphor. Nothing can be
is the supplemental theorem of the inauthenticity "represented" metaphorically if all elementary modes of
[Uneigentlichkeit] 10 of our existence; in Heidegger, it was only behavior toward the world find their original totality in care,
later on transformed into a component of his conception of whose ontological meaning lies in temporality, which in its
a history of being, which sought to grasp what was earlier tum is probably the unfolded horizon of an ultimate radicality
called inauthenticity as an episode of the concealment of whose designation may be arbitrarily exchangeable. To this,
being, or rather of being's self-concealment. As a historical the strictest prohibition on metaphors applied; the language
doom, it had worse consequences than Dasein's failure to be of the "history of being". proves that it could not be
authentic. It turned scientific reason's blindness with regard maintained.
to the way its possibility derives from a world relationship An interdiction on metaphor also applies to what is
into a fated state of affairs. designated by the expression "freedom." Because it could be
Heidegger posited an enmity between his question about deduced only "as a necessary presupposition of reason,"
being and positive scientificity, and this enmity was sup Kant says, freedom is an Idea. Not only is there no experi
posed to be more deeply fundamental than that between ence of the reality of freedom, there is also no possible way
intuition and concept, between metaphor and formula. But of presenting something intuitive corresponding to its Idea.
for this relationship, too--and this cannot be overlooked by For it alone, Kant expressly denies the possibility of symbol
the evaluation tendencies in this field-it is true that the ization-in the sense of the concept of"symbol" that he uses
question concerning the "meaning of being" can affect or in a way that is close to that of absolute metaphorics
even occupy us only because the question concerning the "because no example can ever be given of it in accord with
conditions of existence is neither decided nor even influ any analogy whatsoever." However, the danger of using an
enced by it. absolute metaphorics for the idea of freedom can be dis
Initially, the trick of assuming that the answer to the cerned in Kant himself, and its grave, necessarily misleading
question of being has always already been given had presup consequences can be seen in the introduction of the concept
posed an indissoluble connection between Dasein and that of transcendental action. This makes it natural to regard as
into which it inquires in this way. This connection results in freedom anything that can be represented as a transcendental
a coupling of Dasein and being that is so constitutively action of the understanding.
unobjective, _and has such a lifelong and "lifedeep" persis Kant represented the synthesis of transcendental apper
tence, that Dasein was able to become the very type of the ception as an operation of the understanding, and the
symbol for being, or rather the type of the grounding of all categories of the understanding as the ultimate rules of that
symbols. What I have called "implication," as the schema of operation. In view of the concept of action in the theory of
Prospect for a Theory ofNonconceptuality 100 Prospect for a Theory of Nonconceptuality 101
practical reason, can this already or still be called "action"?
The theory of practical reason can and must presuppose the
identity of the subject, which is the condition of all possible
Notes
responsibility and imputability; the theory of theoretical
reason cannot do this-it shows the identity of the subject
precisely in statu nascendi [being born]. The understanding is
not the subject that makes use of a mode of operation in its
actions; rather, it is nothing other than the sum of this
regulated operation itself If one takes literally the linguistic
distinction between the understanding and such "actions,"
then the whole critique of reason-and not merely the
critique of practical reason, which as such is naturally also
theoretical-becomes practical. Ifeverything, then, is prac Translator's Introduction
tical and nothing is any longer theoretical, everyone is, 1. On "self-assertion," see Hans Blumenberg, The Legitimacy
indeed, appeased, but nothing has been learned. of the Modem Age, trans. Robert M. Wallace (Cambridge:
No contribution to the understanding of freedom as the MIT Press, 1983), pt. 2.
foundational condition ofmorality has been achieved when
2. "Paradigmen zu einer Metaphorologie," Archiv fur
we learn that the synthesis of representations, itself, is
Begriffigeschichte 6 (Bonn: Bouvier, 1960).
"already" an action of the understanding. However, this
misunderstanding is an older one than its recent inventors 3. Translator's introduction to Work on Myth, trans. Robert
believe; it already plays a role in Simmel's much-admired M. Wallace (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985), p. ix.
interpretation ofKant and subsequently in his attempt, in his
philosophy of history, to derive arguments against deter Shipwreck with Spectator
ministic historicism from it. Human beings, then, would 1. Aristippus the Cyrenaic most fully, and perhaps first,
"make" their history freely, or more freely, because the exploited the illustration of states of mind by the degree of
synthesis of their representations is an "action" of their movement of the sea; typically, he was also one of the
understanding. This is just the misleading effect of an transmitters of the travel anecdote about the "shipwreck of
absolute metaphor that has been taken literally. the philosophers" (frag. 301, ed. Mannebach). The Pyr
rhonians and Epicureans had similarly made "calm on the
high seas" (galen6tes) into a metaphor of merely negatively
(because of the exclusion of ominous factors, such as wind
and storms) determined well-being: Happy is he who lives
33. Franz Overbeck,Christentum und Kuitu,. Aus dem Nachlass, 47. Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes, 3d discourse.
ed. C.A. Bernouilli (Basel, 1919), 136. 48. Voltaire, Zadig, chap. 20. "Everything in this world is
34. The Gay Science, 1:46, p. 110. dangerous, and everything is necessary."
35. The Gay Science, 4:289, p. 232. 49. Mme du Chatelet, Discours sur le bonheu,, ed. R. Mauzi,
3.
36. Werke, 20:148.
50. Voltaire, L'A BC ou Dialogues entre A BC. Quatrieme
37. The Gay Science, 1:45. Entretien sur la Loi Naturelle et de laCuriosite. Oeuvres completes
38. Anthologia Graeca, 9:69, ed. H. Beckby (Munich, 1965- (Basel, 1792), 50:278-284.
1967), 3:38-39. 51. "Pard<;m, Lucrece,je soup<;:onne que vous vous trompez
39. Casanova, Geschichte meines Lebens, trans. H. v. Sauter, ici en morale comme vous vous trompez toujours en
4:104. The distich is used here in the fifteenth-century physique. C'est a mon avis, la curiosite seule qui fait courir
version by Ianus Pannonius: Inveni portum. Spes et fortuna sur le rivage pour voir un vaisseau que la tempete va
valete: I Nil mihi vobiscum est: ludite nunc alias ( Geschichte meines submerger. Cela m'est arrive." ( Oeuvres completes, 56:62)
Lebens, 113). The adventurer replies to the abbot that this is 52. J. Orieux, Leben Voltaires (Frankfurt, 1968), 2:106.
the translation oftwo Greek lines by Euripides, "but perhaps [Voltaire had offended the Prussian king, Frederick the
they apply here once again, Monsignor, for I have altered my Great, by his attacks on Maupertuis, and left Berlin in March
view since yesterday."
33. Franz Overbeck,Christentum und Kuitu,. Aus dem Nachlass, 47. Entretiens sur la pluralite des mondes, 3d discourse.
ed. C.A. Bernouilli (Basel, 1919), 136. 48. Voltaire, Zadig, chap. 20. "Everything in this world is
34. The Gay Science, 1:46, p. 110. dangerous, and everything is necessary."
35. The Gay Science, 4:289, p. 232. 49. Mme du Chatelet, Discours sur le bonheu,, ed. R. Mauzi,
3.
36. Werke, 20:148.
50. Voltaire, L'A BC ou Dialogues entre A BC. Quatrieme
37. The Gay Science, 1:45. Entretien sur la Loi Naturelle et de laCuriosite. Oeuvres completes
38. Anthologia Graeca, 9:69, ed. H. Beckby (Munich, 1965- (Basel, 1792), 50:278-284.
1967), 3:38-39. 51. "Pard<;m, Lucrece,je soup<;:onne que vous vous trompez
39. Casanova, Geschichte meines Lebens, trans. H. v. Sauter, ici en morale comme vous vous trompez toujours en
4:104. The distich is used here in the fifteenth-century physique. C'est a mon avis, la curiosite seule qui fait courir
version by Ianus Pannonius: Inveni portum. Spes et fortuna sur le rivage pour voir un vaisseau que la tempete va
valete: I Nil mihi vobiscum est: ludite nunc alias ( Geschichte meines submerger. Cela m'est arrive." ( Oeuvres completes, 56:62)
Lebens, 113). The adventurer replies to the abbot that this is 52. J. Orieux, Leben Voltaires (Frankfurt, 1968), 2:106.
the translation oftwo Greek lines by Euripides, "but perhaps [Voltaire had offended the Prussian king, Frederick the
they apply here once again, Monsignor, for I have altered my Great, by his attacks on Maupertuis, and left Berlin in March
view since yesterday."
88. Ludwig Borne. Eine Denkschrift. Siimtliche Schriften, ed. K. 99. Paul Lorenzen, "Methodisches Denken," Ratio 7
Briegleb, 4:34-35. (1965): 1-13. Also in Lorenzen, Methodisches Denken (Frank
furt, 1968)', 24-59.
89.Jerry Allen, The Sea Years ef]oseph Conrad, German trans.
(Wuppertal, 1969), 218. 100. 0. Neurath, "Protokollsatze," Erkenntnis 3 (1932/
1933):204-214.
90. Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen 6, Werke (Darmstadt,
1956), 4:195-196. Prospect for a Theory of Nonconceptuality
91. Historische Fragmente, ed. E. Diirr (Stuttgart, 1942), 194- 1. Hans Blumenberg, "Paradigmen zu einer Metaphor
211. I also refer to parts of the draft that were cut out by ologie," Archiv fur Begrilfsgeschichte, 6 (1960): 7-142.
Burck:hardt, 248-254.
2. [On"absolute metaphor," see Blumenberg's "Paradigmen
92. From the winter semester of 1867-68 also come the zu einer Metaphorologie," p. 9. Trans.]
listeners' notes on the lecture "Uber die Geschichte der
3. ["zu anschaulicher Eifiillung." Here and elsewhere I have
Revolutionszeitalters," on the basis of which Ernst Ziegler
translated anschaulich, Anschauung, and related words by
proposed his "reconstruction of the spoken text" (Basel,
"intuitive," "intuition," etc., in accord with the use ofsuch
1974).
terms in Husserlian phenomenology. Trans.]
93. Letter to Andreas Heusler-Ryhiner, 30July 1844.Jacob
Burckhardt, Briefe, ed. M. Burckhardt, 2:110. 4. [Widerstimmigkeit]
5. [On the "book of nature," see the author's Die Lesbarkeit
94. Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen 4, "Die geschichtlichen
der Welt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981. Trans.]
Krisen," Werke, 4:128.
6. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans.
95. Historische Fragmente, 251-253.
D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness (London: Routledge and
96. Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Darwin versus Galiani (Berlin, Kegan Paul, 1961), sects. 1, 7. Subsequent references appear
1876), 23. in the text.
97. Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Uber die Grenzen des Natur 7. [Sprengmetaphorik. Cf. Blumenberg's "Paradigmen zu
erkennens. Die sieben Weltriitsel. Zwei Vortriige (Berlin, 1884), einer Metaphorologie," pp. 132: "What we would call
88. Ludwig Borne. Eine Denkschrift. Siimtliche Schriften, ed. K. 99. Paul Lorenzen, "Methodisches Denken," Ratio 7
Briegleb, 4:34-35. (1965): 1-13. Also in Lorenzen, Methodisches Denken (Frank
furt, 1968)', 24-59.
89.Jerry Allen, The Sea Years ef]oseph Conrad, German trans.
(Wuppertal, 1969), 218. 100. 0. Neurath, "Protokollsatze," Erkenntnis 3 (1932/
1933):204-214.
90. Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen 6, Werke (Darmstadt,
1956), 4:195-196. Prospect for a Theory of Nonconceptuality
91. Historische Fragmente, ed. E. Diirr (Stuttgart, 1942), 194- 1. Hans Blumenberg, "Paradigmen zu einer Metaphor
211. I also refer to parts of the draft that were cut out by ologie," Archiv fur Begrilfsgeschichte, 6 (1960): 7-142.
Burck:hardt, 248-254.
2. [On"absolute metaphor," see Blumenberg's "Paradigmen
92. From the winter semester of 1867-68 also come the zu einer Metaphorologie," p. 9. Trans.]
listeners' notes on the lecture "Uber die Geschichte der
3. ["zu anschaulicher Eifiillung." Here and elsewhere I have
Revolutionszeitalters," on the basis of which Ernst Ziegler
translated anschaulich, Anschauung, and related words by
proposed his "reconstruction of the spoken text" (Basel,
"intuitive," "intuition," etc., in accord with the use ofsuch
1974).
terms in Husserlian phenomenology. Trans.]
93. Letter to Andreas Heusler-Ryhiner, 30July 1844.Jacob
Burckhardt, Briefe, ed. M. Burckhardt, 2:110. 4. [Widerstimmigkeit]
5. [On the "book of nature," see the author's Die Lesbarkeit
94. Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen 4, "Die geschichtlichen
der Welt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981. Trans.]
Krisen," Werke, 4:128.
6. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans.
95. Historische Fragmente, 251-253.
D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness (London: Routledge and
96. Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Darwin versus Galiani (Berlin, Kegan Paul, 1961), sects. 1, 7. Subsequent references appear
1876), 23. in the text.
97. Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Uber die Grenzen des Natur 7. [Sprengmetaphorik. Cf. Blumenberg's "Paradigmen zu
erkennens. Die sieben Weltriitsel. Zwei Vortriige (Berlin, 1884), einer Metaphorologie," pp. 132: "What we would call
124
Index
Vulpius, Christiane, 50 Studies in Contemporary Gennan Social Thought
Thomas McCarthy, General Editor
Wallace, Robert M., 4
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 84, 89-90, Theodor W. Adorno, Against Epistemology: A Metacritique
95 Theodor W. Adorno, Hegel: Three Studies
Work on Myth (Blumenberg), 4 Theodor W. Adorno, Prisms
Works and Days (Hesiod), 9 Karl-Otto Apel, Understanding and Explanation: A Transcendental-Pragmatic
World-historical Obseivations Perspective
(Burckhardt), 67, 71 Seyla Benhabib, Wolfgang BonB, and John McCole, editors, On Max
Horkheimer: New Perspectives
Zelter, Karl Friedrich, 55-56, 57 Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr, editors, The Communicative Ethics
Zeno of Cition, 12 Controversy
Ziegler, Ernst, 118n Richard J. Bernstein, editor, Habermas and Modernity
Ernst Bloch, Natural Law and Human Dignity
Ernst Bloch, The Principle ef Hope
Ernst Bloch, The Utopian Function efArt and Literature: Selected Essays
Hans Blumenberg, The Genesis ef the Copernican World
Hans Blumenberg, The Legitimacy ef the Modem Age
Hans Blumenberg, Shipwreck with Spectator: Paradigm ef a Metaphor for
Existence
Hans Blumenberg, Work on Myth
James Bohman, Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy
Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics efSeeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades
Project
Craig Calhoun, editor, Habermas and the Public Sphere
Jean Cohen and Andrew Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory
Maeve Cooke, Language and Reason: A Study efHabermas's .Pragmatics
Helmut Dubiel, Theory and Politics: Studies in the Development ef Critical
Theory
John Forester, editor, Critical Theory and Public Life
David Frisby, Fragments ef Modernity: Thoories ef Modernity in the Work ef
Simmel, Kracauer and Benjamin
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Philosophical Apprenticeships
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Reason in the Age ef Science
Jurgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory
efLaw and Democracy
Jiirgen Habermas,Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics
Jiirgen Habermas, On the l..iJgic ef the Social Sciences
Jurgen Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action
124
Index
Jurgen Habennas, The New Consewatism: Cultural Critidsm and the Histori Helmut Peukert, Science, Action, and Fundamen tal Theology: Toward
a
ans' Debate Theology if Comm unicative Action
Jurgen Habermas, The Philo sophical Discourse if Modernity: Twelve I.£ctures Joachim Ritter, Heg el and the French Revolu tion: Essays on the Philoso
phy of
Jiirgen Habermas, Philosophical-Political Profiles Right
Jurgen Habermas, Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philo sophical Essays William E. Scheuerman, B etween the Norm and the Exception: The Fra
nkfurt
Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transfonnation efthe Public Sphere : An Inq uiry School and the R ule efLaw
into a Category ef Bourgeois Society Alfred Schmidt, History and Structure: An Essay on Hegelian-Marx
ist and
Jurgen Habennas, editor, Observations on "The Spiritual Situation efthe Age " Structuralist Theories ifHistory
Axel Honneth, The Critiqu e ifPower: .Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Th eory Dennis Schmidt, The Ubiquity of the Finite: Hegel, Heidegger,
and the
Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar ef Social Entitlements efPhilosophy
Cotiflicts Carl Schmitt, The Crisis if Parliamentary De mocracy
Axel Honneth and HansJoas, editors, Communicative Action: Essays onJurgen Carl Schmitt, Political Romantidsm
Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Fou r Chapters on the Concept ef Sover
eignty
Axel Honneth, Thomas McCarthy, Claus Offe, and Albrecht Wellmer, Gary Smith, editor, On Walter Benjamin: Critical Essays an d Recollec
tions
editors, Cu ltu ral-Political Interventions in the Unfinished Project ofEnlightenment Mi�hael Theunissen, The Other: Stu dies in the Social Ontology ef Hu
sserl,
Axel Honneth, Thomas McCarthy, Claus Offe, and Albrecht Wellmer, Heideg![er, Sartre, and Buber
editors, Philosophical lntetventions in the Unfinished Project if Enlightenment Ernst Tugendhat, S elf-Consdousness and Self-Determination
Max Horkheimer, Between Philosophy and Soda/ Sdence: Selected Early Georgia Warnke,Justice and Inte,pretation
Writings Mark Warren, Nietzsche and Political Thought
Hans Joas, G. H. Mead: A Contemporary R e-examination if His Thou ght AlbrechtWellmer, The Persistence ifModernity: Essays on Aesthetics,
Ethics and
Michael Kelly, editor, Critiq ue and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Postmodemism
Debate Joel Whitebook, Petversion and Utopia: A Stu dy i n Psychoanalysis
and Critical
Hans Herbert Kogler, .The Power ef Dialogue: Critical Hermeneutics efter Theory
Gadamer and Fou cau lt Rolf Wiggershaus, The Franlefurt School: Its History, Theories,
and Political
Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis if Sign!ficance
Modem Society Thomas E. Wren, editor, The Moral Domain: Essays in the Ongoin
g Discussion
Reinhart Koselleck, · Fut ures Past: On the Semantics ef Historical Tim e b etween Philosophy and the Social &iences
Harry Lieberso�, Fate and Utopia in German Sodology, 1887-1923 Lambert Zuidervaart, Adamo's Aesthetic Theory: The Redemptio
n ef nlusion
Herbert Marcuse, Hegel's Ontology and the Theory ef Historidty
Larry May and Jerome Kohn, editors, Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years l.Ater
Pierre Missac, Walt er Benjamin's Passages
Gil G. Noam and Thomas E. Wren, editors, The Moral Self
Guy Oakes, Weber and Rickert: Concept Formation in the Cu ltural Sdences
Claus Offe, Contradictions if the Welfare State
Claus Offe, Disorganized Capitalism: Contemporary Traneformations ef Work
and Politics
Claus Offe, Modernity and the State: East, West
Claus Offe, Varie ties ef Transition: The Bast European and Bast German
Experience
Jurgen Habennas, The New Consewatism: Cultural Critidsm and the Histori Helmut Peukert, Science, Action, and Fundamen tal Theology: Toward
a
ans' Debate Theology if Comm unicative Action
Jurgen Habermas, The Philo sophical Discourse if Modernity: Twelve I.£ctures Joachim Ritter, Heg el and the French Revolu tion: Essays on the Philoso
phy of
Jiirgen Habermas, Philosophical-Political Profiles Right
Jurgen Habermas, Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philo sophical Essays William E. Scheuerman, B etween the Norm and the Exception: The Fra
nkfurt
Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transfonnation efthe Public Sphere : An Inq uiry School and the R ule efLaw
into a Category ef Bourgeois Society Alfred Schmidt, History and Structure: An Essay on Hegelian-Marx
ist and
Jurgen Habennas, editor, Observations on "The Spiritual Situation efthe Age " Structuralist Theories ifHistory
Axel Honneth, The Critiqu e ifPower: .Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Th eory Dennis Schmidt, The Ubiquity of the Finite: Hegel, Heidegger,
and the
Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar ef Social Entitlements efPhilosophy
Cotiflicts Carl Schmitt, The Crisis if Parliamentary De mocracy
Axel Honneth and HansJoas, editors, Communicative Action: Essays onJurgen Carl Schmitt, Political Romantidsm
Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Fou r Chapters on the Concept ef Sover
eignty
Axel Honneth, Thomas McCarthy, Claus Offe, and Albrecht Wellmer, Gary Smith, editor, On Walter Benjamin: Critical Essays an d Recollec
tions
editors, Cu ltu ral-Political Interventions in the Unfinished Project ofEnlightenment Mi�hael Theunissen, The Other: Stu dies in the Social Ontology ef Hu
sserl,
Axel Honneth, Thomas McCarthy, Claus Offe, and Albrecht Wellmer, Heideg![er, Sartre, and Buber
editors, Philosophical lntetventions in the Unfinished Project if Enlightenment Ernst Tugendhat, S elf-Consdousness and Self-Determination
Max Horkheimer, Between Philosophy and Soda/ Sdence: Selected Early Georgia Warnke,Justice and Inte,pretation
Writings Mark Warren, Nietzsche and Political Thought
Hans Joas, G. H. Mead: A Contemporary R e-examination if His Thou ght AlbrechtWellmer, The Persistence ifModernity: Essays on Aesthetics,
Ethics and
Michael Kelly, editor, Critiq ue and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Postmodemism
Debate Joel Whitebook, Petversion and Utopia: A Stu dy i n Psychoanalysis
and Critical
Hans Herbert Kogler, .The Power ef Dialogue: Critical Hermeneutics efter Theory
Gadamer and Fou cau lt Rolf Wiggershaus, The Franlefurt School: Its History, Theories,
and Political
Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis if Sign!ficance
Modem Society Thomas E. Wren, editor, The Moral Domain: Essays in the Ongoin
g Discussion
Reinhart Koselleck, · Fut ures Past: On the Semantics ef Historical Tim e b etween Philosophy and the Social &iences
Harry Lieberso�, Fate and Utopia in German Sodology, 1887-1923 Lambert Zuidervaart, Adamo's Aesthetic Theory: The Redemptio
n ef nlusion
Herbert Marcuse, Hegel's Ontology and the Theory ef Historidty
Larry May and Jerome Kohn, editors, Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years l.Ater
Pierre Missac, Walt er Benjamin's Passages
Gil G. Noam and Thomas E. Wren, editors, The Moral Self
Guy Oakes, Weber and Rickert: Concept Formation in the Cu ltural Sdences
Claus Offe, Contradictions if the Welfare State
Claus Offe, Disorganized Capitalism: Contemporary Traneformations ef Work
and Politics
Claus Offe, Modernity and the State: East, West
Claus Offe, Varie ties ef Transition: The Bast European and Bast German
Experience