Dr. J. Glenn Friesen

Studies relating to Herman Dooyeweerd Linked Glossary of Terms

© J. Glenn Friesen 2003-2008

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.)

Temporal aspects are fitted into the cosmic systasis of meaning (II, 401). We are fitted into the temporal cosmos along with other temporal reality. This being “fitted into” is what Baader refers to as “Gesetzt sein.” We are thus fitted into the law-order. But our central selfhood is supratemporal.

Verburg says that Dooyeweerd's first use of the law-Idea is in his February, 1923 address, “Advies over Roomsch-katholieke en Anti-revolutionaire Staatkunde.” As far as I can tell, this is his first use of the word ‘gesteld’ which is translated “fitted into.”

Al het bestaande ligt gebonden aan zijn objectieven zin, die zijn wezen uitmaakt. Het schouwen is gebonden aan zijn gezichtsvelden, het denken aan zijn kategorieën. In deze binding van schouwen en denken ligt hun objectieven zin. Waar nu het bewustzijn niets meer autonoom stelt, maar alles heeft ontvangen, in alles gesteld is, als objectieven zin, nu de wet der heteronomie onbeperkt in al het bestaande gaat heerschen, ook in het zingeven bewustzijn, komt de vraag naar den wetgever, den ordenaar, den Schepper van zelf naar boven. (cited by Verburg, 60)

[All that exists is bound to its objective meaning, which gives it its essence. Intuition is bound to its fields of view and thought is bound to its categories. In this relation of intuition and thinking lies their objective meaning. If now our consciousness no longer autonomously sets its own meaning, but rather has received everything, has been set or placed in everything, as objective meaning, and if now the law of heteronomy can rule unhindered in all that exists, even in the consciousness that gives meaning, the question then arises as to the lawgiver, the one who orders, the Creator].

There is a play on the words ‘stelt’ and ‘gesteld,' just as Baader makes a play on the words ‘setzen’ and ‘gesetzt.’ Selbstsetzung is autonomy, and being ‘gesetzt’ is being placed or sub-jected to God's law [Gesetz].

In 1931, Dooyeweerd uses the word ‘ingesteld’ in this way. Our pre-theoretical experience is of being fitted into temporal reality, and this experience is one of enstasis, as opposed to theoretical synthesis of meaning:

De naieve, vóór-theoretische ervaring is en-statisch, niet synthetisch in de volle tijdelijke werkeijkheid met al hare in de kosmische tijdsorde samengevlochten zinzijden, zoowel natuurlijke als geestelijke, ingesteld en komt intuïtief in verzet tegen iedere poging van het verabsoluteerd synthetisch denken, om haar een of meer zin-zijden harer werkelijkheid to ontrooven.(De Crisis der Humanistische Staatsleer, in het licht eener Calvinistische kosmologie en kennistheorie (1931), 87)

[It is not in a synthetic but an enstatic way that naïve, pre-theoretical experience is fitted into full temporal reality with all of its meaning-sides (both natural and spiritual) that are interwoven in the cosmic order of time. And this naïve, pre-theoretical experience intuitively opposes every attempt of absolutized synthetic thought to rob it of one or more of its meaning-sides.]

Dooyeweerd contrasts our merely being fitted into temporal reality in our pre-theoretical or naive experience with the deliberate ‘setting over-against’ of theoretical thought. Dooyeweerd here plays on the meaning of the words:

In het zin-synthetisch denken bevrijdt de verdiepte analytische bewustzijnsfunctie zich van een bloot ingesteld zijn in de volle tijdelijke werkelijkheid: het stelt zich de ter kennis opgegeven a-logische zin functies tegenover, het wordt “gegenständlich.” De Crisis der Humanistische Staatsleer, in het licht eener Calvinistische kosmologie en kennistheorie (1931), 102).

[In meaning-synthetic thought, the deepend analystic function of consciousness frees itself from being merely fitted into full temporal reality; it sets itself over against the a-logical meaning-functions that are given to be known, it becomes “gegenständlich.”]

There are a couple of instances of the word ‘gesteld’ in the WdW. Dooyeweerd criticizes Rickert's view that thought can autonomously set its own limits (door het denken gesteld) (WdW I, 36). There are several instances of the word 'ingesteld' in WdW II, 401-08). But Dooyeweerd generally changes to the word ‘gevoegd.’

Het is een wereldsamenhang, dien de mensch wel in zijn zelfheid transcendeert, naar waarbinnen hij met alle schepselen, die met hem in denzelfden wereldsamenhang gevoegd zijn, in universeele gebondenheid aan den tijd verkeert (WdW I, 36)

[It is a temporal coherence. Man transcends it in his selfhood, it is true,–but within this coherence he exists in a status of being-universally-bound-to-time. Man is bound to time together with all creatures that are fitted with him in the same temporal order] (as translated in NC I, 24].

In WdW II, 401, he uses both the words 'ingesteld' and 'ingevoegd,' demonstrating that they have the same meaning.

In his response to the Curators dated Oct. 12/37, Dooyeweerd uses this idea in relation to the idea of boundary between God and creation:

Naar de overeenstemmende opvatting van Calvijn, Kuyper en de Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee is God de Heere niet onderworpen aan zijn wetten, maar heeft Hij daarentegen heel Zijn schepping onder Zijn ordinantieën gesteld.

[Calvin, Kuyper and the Philosophy of the Law-Idea all agree that God the Lord is not subjected [onderworpen] to his laws, but He has on the other hand set [gesteld] his creation under his ordinances].

Dooyeweerd refers to creation as having been “in the beginning” in this sense of being outside of comsic time. Creation was “before” cosmic time. The being fitted into the temporal order is subsequent to the creation.

Want hoe kon de mens binnen de tijdelijke orde tot een "levende ziel" worden, wanneer God niet in den beginne Zijn scheppend woord gesproken had, dat het hele mensdom in zijn totaliteit, gerepresenteerd in zijn stamvader en stammoeder, tot aanzijn riep, een aanzijn dat eerst in het wordingsprocess binnen de tijdsorde zou uitwerken? (“Schepping en evolutie,” 115-116, cited by Steen 61-62)

[For how can man become a “living soul” within the temporal order, unless God had not spoken His creative Word in the beginning, that called all of humanity to existence [aanzijn] in its totality, represented in its root-father and mother, an existence that could only be worked out within the becoming process within the temporal order?]

In Encyclopedia of Legal Science (1946), Dooyeweerd says,

Now what is unique to naïve experience is that it does not set the functions of consciousness over against a reality that is foreign to it (the Gegenstand of knowledge, as it is called by the Germans). Rather, with the functions of consciousness (the psychical and logical), our naïve experience is naively fitted into [in-gesteld] full temporal reality. That is to say, it understands the psychical, logical and the later spiritual functions as an organic part of and in full temporal reality.
Naïve experience is therefore fitted into the full temporal reality with all its meaning-sides (law-spheres), but without an articulated knowledge of the law-spheres (p. 9).

Revised Jan 29/08