Dr. J. Glenn Friesen

Studies relating to Herman Dooyeweerd Linked Glossary of Terms

© J. Glenn Friesen 2003-2006

Linked Glossary of Terms
(references to De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee, unless indicated. See concordance for correlation with pages in the New Critique. The concordance is in pdf format.)

The philosophy of Descartes is an example of autonomous thought. Descartes argues "cogito ergo sum," or "I think, therefore I am."

Baader rejects this. In places of the cogito ("I think, therefore I am"), Baader proposes " I am thought, therefore I think." Baader says, "Cogitor, ergo cogito et sum" (Werke 16, 31; Sauer 29) or Cogitor, ergo cogitans sum (Werke 12, 235; Zeit, 61). Descartes 'cogito' should be: "I am thought, therefore I think." "Der Mensch weiss nur, indem er sich von einem ihm Höheren gewusst weiss." [Man knows only insofar as he knows himself known by a higher Being].

Ich bin gesehen, durchschaut, gewusst, gedacht, begriffen, darum sehe, weiss, denke, begreife ich. Ich bin gewollt, verlangt, geliebt, darum bin ich wollen, verlangend, liebend oder hassend. Ich bin gewirkt, darum wirke ich.

[I am seen, understood, known, thought of, conceived of; therefore I see, know, think, understand. I am willed, desired, loved; therefore I am willing, desiring, loving or hating. I am acted on, therefore I act].

He says that logicians, ethicists and physicists, who speak of the laws of thinking, willing and acting, want to understand law (das Gesetz) as nothing other than the Gesetztsein, that is our being set in [fitted in] the temporal reality. He says that Fichte's idea of the "I" and Hegel's idea of the Concept share the same idea of autonomy of thought as Descartes.

He says that that Kant and his followers opposed the logical function to the other modal aspects of the integral act of thought.

The only, but fundamental, mistake in their argument was the identification of the real act with a purely psychical temporal event, which in its turn could become a 'Gegenstand' of the ultimate transcendental-logical 'cogito' (NC, I, 50).

Dooyeweerd says that our power of thought is fallen and could never serve as the basis for autonomy (NC I, 100). Similarly, Baader holds (contrary to Kant, Jacobi and Fichte) that the Fall affected our reasoning ability (Begründung 121).

Revised May 6/06