|
© J. Glenn Friesen 2003-2007 |
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.)
give an account
[rekenschap geven] |
I, 5, 27, 39, 50; 41, 47-52, 58, 61, 68, 81, 87,
125, 127
II, 401, 403, 405, 422, 488, 490
NC I, 3 (weakly translated as 'consider'), 35, 83 (account for)
NC II, 492 (take account of the transcendent and transcendental
conditions), 579
NC III, 66
“Het dilemma voor het christelijk wijsgeerig
denken,” Philosophia Reformata 1 (1936) 1-16 [‘Dilemma’]
at 4: immanence philosophy does not give an adequate account of
the conditions that make philoosphic thought possible. See also
pages 6, 11of the same article.
Het transcendentale critiek van het wijsgeerig
denken,” Philosophia Reformata 6 (1941), 1-20, at
14: give an account of ontical conditions [de voor-onderstelde]
of theoretical thought in a transcendental Idea.
Encyclopedia of the Science of Law (1967 SRVU Dutch
edition), 14: naitve experience cannot give a theoretical account
of the structure of reality it experiences. |
To give an account of something is a specifically philosophic
task. We give an account of the insufficiency and restlessness
of all particularized meaning
(I, 49-51). We do this by directing our attention to the totality
of meaning to which the restlessness of particularized meaning refers.
Dooyeweerd says that theory is required to give
account of naive experience (I, 47; NC I, 83).
Philosophic theory must enable us to give an account
of the structure of temporal reality given in naive experience
(NC II, 579).
Giving account is related to the transcendental direction in philosophy,
relating our experience to the Origin. Why can this not be done in naive
experience? He says that our naive experience, although integral and
enstatic, is restricted to the retrocipatory moments in the aspects,
and bound to sensory perception. It needs to be opened up to the anticipatory
moments. In theory and the subsequent synthesis,
we discover the anticipatory moments. (NC III, 31).
Dooyeweerd's own philosophy gives a theoretical explanation of naive
experience, but it does not replace it. It can only approach naive experience
by means of a transcendental Idea. (NC III, 66).
Development of the Idea of Giving Account
In 1923, Dooyeweerd seems to relate giving account to
the normative aspects. He says that the essential coherence within the
normative field of view exists as a giving account [toerekening]
(Feb 1923 "Advies over Roomsch-katholieke en Anti-revolutionaire
Staatkunde," cited by Verburg 58).
In 1928, Dooyeweerd says that only the law-Idea gives
an account of the coherence of law-spheres and subject functions:
Op de vraag: hoe is kennis der wetskringen mogelijk?
luidt het antwoord: door dien dieperen goddelijken samenhang aller wetskringen
en subjectsfuncties, waarvan alleen de wetsidee "rekenschap aflegt"
(het logon didonai in Platonischen zin). De ware kritische methode eischt
dus de erkentenis, dat niet de logos, doch de wetsidee de Platonische
hupothesis en het anhupotheton beide is van alle synthetisch begrip
("Het juridisch causaliteitsprobleem in 't licht der wetsidee,"
cited by Verburg 114).
[To the question, "How is knowledge of the law-spheres
possible?" the answer is: by the deeper divine coherence of all
law-spheres and subject functions, of which only the law-Idea "gives
an account" (the logon didonai in the Platonic meaning).
The true critical method therefore demands the acknowledgement that
it is not the logos but rather the law-Idea that is both the
Platonic hypothesis and the anhupotheton of all synthetic concepts]
The law-Idea is both the hypothesis and the "anhypotheton"–the
unpostulated principle–of all synthetic concepts. He relates this
to the "logon didonai" in the Platonic sense. I am
not sure what he means by this comment. "Logon didonai"
has been interpreted as "giving a reckoning." It appears in
Acts 1:1. It is interesting that Dooyeweerd does not seem to mind referring
favourably to Plato.
Revised Sept 26/07 |