Dr. J. Glenn Friesen

Studies relating to Herman Dooyeweerd Linked Glossary of Terms

© J. Glenn Friesen 2003, 2004

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 continuity of temporal reality is given by cosmic time. Cosmic time is the successive breaking of meaning in the coherence of meaning. Cosmic time streams through and spans the separate meaning limits of the law-spheres (I, 71-72).

This continuity is given in the temporal succession of the aspects. There is an order of before and after in the is succession of cosmic time. The temporal nature of the order is disclosed in the opening process (I, 29). And within each aspects, there are "moments' that refer to the other aspects in an analogical way, either by anticipation or retrocipation.

Other terms that are related to the continuity of time are the coherence of the aspects, the systasis of meaning-functions, and our enstatic experience. It is through our intuition that we can enter into the enstatic continuity of cosmic time.

Our experience of the continuity of cosmic time is pre-theoretical. (NC II, 4). In theory, the continuity of time is broken up into a discontinuity. Theory is dis-continuous; it abstracts from the continuity of cosmic time (I, 72; II, 402-403). In our theory, we penetrate temporal reality, but this involves the dis-stasis, which must be resolved again in a synthesis.

Baader refers to the relation between continuity and discontinuity of time. This is also the relation between the rigid and the flowing. ). He says that the fixed or static is continuity, and the flowing is the power of penetration. The static gives continuity but does not penetrate; the flowing has penetration power but no continuity. And both must be raised up [synthesized, sublated] in a third. This third is neither fixed nor flowing, but it is that which alone gives existence to the fixed and flowing. ("Über Starres und Fliessendes," Begründung p. 13-15).

For Dooyeweerd, the identity of things is also rooted in the continuity of cosmic time (NC III, 65).

Dooyeweerd also refers to the unconscious and to depth psychology. In Grenzen van het theoretisch denken (Baarn: Ambo, 1986), Dooyeweerd refers to two layers of the act-life, as shown by depth psychology (Freud and his school). He says that there is an unconscious underlayer and a conscious layer above [bovenlaag]. As an example of unconscious knowledge he refers to our remembering a name.He says that consciousness is not limited to the psychical and the later aspects:

Het bewustzijn is niet, zoals men vroeger meende, beperkt tot het psychische aspect en de na-psychische aspecten van het menselijke bestaan, waarbij men alle voor-psychische aspecten tot het onbewuste rekende. Bewust-zijn en onbewust-zijn zijn veeleer twee openbaringswijzen van een en dezelfde werkelijkehid, die in alle aspecten zonder onderscheid fungeren. Het menselijk bewustzijn omvat, juist omdat het geconcentreerd is in een zelfbewistzijn, alle aspecten van de werkelijkheid; anders zou de vraag hoe deze aspecten in het menselijke bewustzijn zouden kunnen komen, onoplosbaar zijn. Maar ook het onbewuste fungeert in alle aspecten zonder onderscheid. Zo is vastgesteld, dat het menselijk act-leven zijn eigenlijke continuiteit dankt aan het onbewuste.

[Consciousness is not, as was earlier supposed, limited to the psychical and post-psychical aspects of human existence, by which all pre-psychical aspects were considered as the unconscious. Being conscious and being unconscious are rather two modes of revelation of one and the same reality, which functions in all aspects without distinction. Human consciousness comprehends all aspects of reality, just because it is concentrated in a self-consciousness. Otherwise the question of how these aspects could come to human consciousness would not arise, and would be insoluble. But also the unconscious functions in all aspects without distinction. So it is established that the human life of acts owes its continuity to the unconscious].

This is really a remarkable passage. The continuity of our experience is based in the unconscious. We experience this continuity in naive experience.

Revised Dec. 27/04