Comprehensive Study Notes on Hume, Plessner, and Gehlen
David Hume: Empiricism, Skepticism, and Human Nature
Impressions and Ideas - Hume distinguishes between two types of mental perceptions: impressions and ideas. - Impressions: These are vivid, forceful, and direct experiences. They encompass our sensations (sights, sounds, touches) and our immediate emotions or desires. - Ideas: These are described as "faint copies" of impressions. They occur when we reflect on our impressions, such as in memory or imagination. Ideas are less intense and less lively than the original sensations they represent.
The Problem of Induction - Hume identifies a fundamental logical gap in human reasoning known as the "problem of induction." - He argues that we cannot use logic or rational demonstration to prove that the future will resemble the past. - Even if an event has occurred consistently in the past, there is no necessary logical reason why it must continue to occur in the same way in the future.
Causation and Mental Habit - Hume rejects the notion that we can perceive or rationally deduce "necessary connection" or causation from first principles. - Instead, our belief in cause and effect stems from Custom or Mental Habit. - After observing the "constant conjunction" of two events (Event followed by Event ) repeatedly, the mind naturally transitions from thinking of one to expecting the other.
Reason as the "Slave of the Passions" - Hume famously asserts that "reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." - This means that reason alone is incapable of motivating human action or establishing moral distinctions. - Rationality can identify facts or relations, but only our sentiments and emotions (passions) provide the internal drive to pursue goals or judge actions as "good" or "bad."
The Bundle Theory of the Self - Hume challenges the idea of a permanent, unified soul or substance called the "self." - He describes the self as a "bundle" or collection of different perceptions that succeed each other with "inconceivable rapidity." - Upon introspection, one finds only specific perceptions (heat, cold, light, shade, love, hatred, pain, pleasure) but never a stable "self" underlying them all.
The "Is-Ought" Problem - This principle states that a logical gap exists between descriptive statements (what is) and normative statements (what ought to be). - Hume argues that factual or scientific statements about the world cannot, on their own, justify a moral obligation or a statement of duty.
Helmuth Plessner: Philosophical Anthropology and Life
The Concept of the "Lived Body" (Leib) - Plessner utilizes the term Leib (the lived body) to reject Cartesian dualism. - Cartesian dualism treats the mind and body as two distinct and separate substances; Plessner argues for an integrated understanding where the body is not just a physical object we possess (Körper) but the medium through which we exist and experience the world.
Levels of Organic Life and the Human - In his work Levels of Organic Life and the Human, Plessner attempts to navigate a middle path between two extreme biological/philosophical views: - Mechanism: The view that life can be reduced entirely to physical and chemical processes. - Vitalism: The view that a non-physical "life force" is required to explain biological phenomena.
Excentric Positionality - This is Plessner's defining concept for the human condition. - While animals are "centric" (living out of their immediate center), humans possess excentric positionality. - Humans have the unique ability to objectify themselves; they can step outside their own center, viewing themselves as objects within an environment, and reflecting upon their own existence from an external perspective.
Phenomenological Approach - Plessner employs phenomenology to study life, focusing on how living beings appearing to consciousness and intuition. - Rather than reducing life to abstract formulas, he seeks to describe the essential structures and modes of being that characterize different levels of organic existence.
Intellectual Influences - Plessner was significantly influenced by: - Hans Driesch: Associated with vitalism and the study of biological development. - Wilhelm Dilthey: A pioneer of "life-philosophy" (Lebensphilosophie) who emphasized the historical and lived nature of human understanding.
Arnold Gehlen: The Human as a Deficient Being
The Human as "Mängelwesen" (Organically Deficient) - Gehlen characterizes humans as "organically deficient" beings. - Unlike animals, humans lack specialized physical adaptations (such as claws, fur, or wings) and lack the fixed, complex instincts that automatically guide animal behavior in specific environments.
Compensation through Culture and Institutions - To survive despite their biological shortcomings, humans must use culture, tools, and institutions as compensatory mechanisms. - Because we are not physically equipped for a specific niche, we create artificial environments through technology and social structures to ensure our survival.
World-Openness (Weltoffenheit) - Unlike animals, who are bound to a specific "environment" (Umwelt), humans possess world-openness. - This means humans are not genetically programmed for one specific habitat; they can perceive infinite possibilities and adapt to virtually any environment on Earth.
The Function of Institutions - Gehlen argues that social institutions act as replacements for missing instincts. - Institutions stabilize human behavior by providing predictable patterns of action and social norms, preventing the chaos that would otherwise result from a lack of innate behavioral programs.
Consciousness and Intelligence - Gehlen does not see intelligence as a separate, higher essence of humanity but as an auxiliary means. - It evolved as a practical tool to compensate for the lack of instincts, allowing humans to process information and solve problems that animals handle through biological programming.
Critique of Max Scheler - Gehlen rejected the philosophy of Max Scheler specifically because Scheler maintained a form of metaphysical dualism, which Gehlen sought to avoid in favor of a more biological and anthropological focus.
Comparative Philosophy of Human Nature
Relationships Between the Thinkers - Hume: An -century empiricist and skeptic focused on the limits of human knowledge and the bundle theory of the self. - Plessner and Gehlen: Leading figures in the -century movement of Philosophical Anthropology. - While Hume influenced the empiricist tradition, Plessner and Gehlen focused on redefining the biological and existential place of humans within the animal kingdom.
Shared Perspectives of Plessner and Gehlen - Both thinkers rejected simple biological reductionism (the idea that humans are "just" animals or machines). - Both approached the human condition through a "philosophical anthropology" lens, looking at the unique structural ways humans exist in the world compared to other life forms.
Key Conceptual Matches - Hume: Associated with the "Is-ought problem," the "Bundle theory of self," and "Impressions/Ideas." - Plessner: Associated with "Excentric positionality," "The Lived Body (Leib)," and the rejection of Cartesian dualism. - Gehlen: Associated with "World-openness (Weltoffenheit)," "Organically deficient (Mängelwesen)," and institutions as instinct-replacements.