John Niemeyer Findlay

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John Niemeyer Findlay , also known as JN Findlay (born November 25, 1903 in Pretoria , † September 27, 1987 ), was a South African philosopher . Findlay was a member of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was on the scientific advisory board of the journal Dionysius . After him are a chair of visiting professorships at Boston University and the biennial award of the Metaphysical Society of America for the best new publication in the field of metaphysics named.

academic career

Findlay studied classical studies and philosophy first at the University of Pretoria and finally from 1924 to 1926 as a Rhodes scholar at Balliol College in Oxford . He completed a doctorate with Ernst Mally at the University of Graz in 1933 with a doctorate. Findlay was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria and the University of Otago in New Zealand, Rhodes University in Grahamstown , the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg , King's College in Newcastle upon Tyne and King's College London . After retiring from his London professorship and a year at the University of Texas at Austin , Findlay taught for 20 more years, first as Clark Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy at Yale University (1967–1972) and then as professor and as Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy at Boston University (1972–1987). In 1975 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

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Rational mysticism

Against the trend of analytical philosophy and naturalism or the philosophy of natural language , Findlay took a phenomenological position , advocated neo- Hegelianism and wrote works permeated with theosophy , Buddhism , neo-Platonism and idealism . In his works from the 1960s, including two series of Gifford Lectures , Findlay developed a “rational mysticism ”, according to which philosophical problems of the connection between the individual and the general concept, body and mind, knowledge and the external world, solipsism, free will and determinism arise , of purposeful and causal causes, justice and morals etc. express fundamental experiences of deep contradictions and absurdities. Findlay comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to adopt higher spheres ("latitudes") that fade the individuality and categorical diversity as well as the physical boundaries of the objects, so that they disappear entirely at the highest level. Findlay identifies this level with Hegel's idea of ​​the absolute .

Edmund Husserl

Findlay translated Husserl's Logical Investigations into English. He considered it to be Husserl's most important work, since it represented a developmental stage in phenomenology in which phenomenological reduction (“epoché”) has not yet become the basis of a philosophical system, but rather defines a subjectivist position. For Findlay, the work represents a high point in philosophy, since it is superior to both reductionistic naturalism in ontology and the philosophy of natural language in epistemology and philosophy of consciousness.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Findlay was next a supporter, but then a sharp critic of Ludwig Wittgenstein . Findlay rejected all Wittgenstein's attempts at a theory of meaning . Against the use theory of meaning, as it was advocated by Wittgenstein in his later years and his students, he argued that an investigation of the meaning of a sign without taking into account the conceptual content and supported ideas, implication and syntax must remain insufficient, and that the The meaning of linguistic signs presupposes that the contents of consciousness and facts in the world are given independently of them.

Publications

Monographs and edited volumes

  • Meinong's Theory of Objects , Oxford University Press, 1933; 2nd ed. As Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values , 1963
  • Hegel: A Re-examination , London: Allen & Unwin / New York: Macmillan, 1958
  • Values ​​and Intentions , London: Allen & Unwin, 1961
  • Language, Mind and Value , London: Allen & Unwin / New York: Humanities Press, 1963
  • The Discipline of the Cave , London: Allen & Unwin / New York: Humanities Press, 1966 ( Gifford Lectures 1964–1965)
  • The Transcendence of the Cave , London: Allen & Unwin / New York: Humanities Press, 1967 ( Gifford Lectures 1965–1966)
  • Axiological Ethics , London: Macmillan, 1970
  • Ascent to the Absolute , London: Allen & Unwin / New York: Humanities Press, 1970
  • Psyche and Cerebrum , Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1972
  • Plato: The Written and Unwritten Doctrines , London: Routledge and Kegan Paul / New York: Humanities Press, 1974
  • Plato and Platonism , New York: New York Times Book Co., 1976
  • Kant and the Transcendental Object , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981
  • Wittgenstein: A Critique , London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984

Essays

  • "Time: A Treatment of Some Puzzles", Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy , Vol. 19, Issue 13 (December 1941): 216-235.
  • "Morality by Conventions", Mind , Vol. 33, No. 210 (1944): 142-169
  • "Can God's Existence Be Disproved?", Mind , Vol. 37, No. 226: 176-183 (1948); reprinted with discussion in Flew, A. and MacIntyre, AC , (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology , New York: Macmillan, 1955 online
  • "Linguistic Approach to Psychophysics," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , 1949-1950
  • "The Justification of Attitudes", Mind , Vol. 43, No. 250: 145-161 (1954)
  • "Use, Usage and Meaning", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 35. (1961), pp. 223–242 ( sfu.ca (PDF))
  • "Foreword", in Hegel's Logic, Being Part One of The Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1830) , Clarendon Press, 1975. ISBN 978-0-19-824512-4 online
  • "Analysis of the Text," in Phenomenology of Spirit , Oxford University Press, 1977: 495-592. ISBN 978-0-19-824597-1 marxists.org
  • "The Myths of Plato", Dionysius , Volume II (1978): 19-34

literature

  • Robert S. Cohen, Richard M. Martin, Merold Westphal (eds.): Studies in the Philosophy of JN Findlay . State University of New York Press, Albany NY 1985, ISBN 978-0-87395-795-3 (includes autobiographical note by Findlay and his account of encounters with Wittgenstein).
  • Michele Marchetto: L'etica impersonale: La teoria dei valori di John Niemeyer Findlay . Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1989, ISBN 978-88-7104-138-4 ; Closely. tr. 1989, Impersonal Ethics: John Niemeyer Findlay's Value-theory , Avebury, 1996, ISBN 978-1-85972-272-5
  • Bockja Kim: Morality as the End of Philosophy: The Teleological Dialectic of the Good in JN Findlay's Philosophy of Religion . University Press of America, 1999, ISBN 978-0-7618-1490-0
  • Alasdair MacIntyre : John Niemeyer Findlay, 1903–1987 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 111 , 2001, p. 499-512 ( online [PDF; accessed May 27, 2020]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Niemeyer Findlay . University of Glasgow , accessed February 4, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Errol Harris, In Memoriam: John Niemeyer Findlay in Owl of Minerva vol. 19/2, spring 1998, pp. 252-253
  3. ^ Awards • Department of Philosophy at Boston University. Retrieved July 10, 2008 .
  4. ↑ “ The Discipline of the Cave and the Transcendence of the Cave… represent my attempt to cull an eternal, necessary theosophy from the defective theosophic teaching of my adolescence ” ( John Niemeyer Findlay : Studies in the Philosophy of JN Findlay, p. 45, German: "the obligation of the cave and the Tranzendenz the cave ... represent my attempt an eternal and necessary Theosophy from the faulty theosophical teachings herauszuschälen my youth.") (This refers to the two lectures, the title to the cave of the cave allegory allude) .
  5. ^ The Transcendence of the Cave 1964-1966 - Preface . University of Glasgow , archived from the original on April 21, 2014 ; accessed on February 4, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  6. ↑ cf. Sanford L. Drob, Findlay's Rational Mysticism: An Introduction , online
  7. ^ John Niemeyer Findlay, Translator's Introduction in: Dermot Moran (Ed.), Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations I New Haven, Connecticut: Routledge 1970 ISBN 0-415-24189-8
  8. ^ A b Gilbert Ryle , John Niemeyer Findlay: Symposium: Use, Usage and Meaning in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes 35, p. 240, 1961. (PDF; 516 kB) Accessed June 14, 2008 .
  9. ↑ The Discipline of the Cave 1964-1966 . University of Glasgow , archived from the original on April 21, 2014 ; accessed on February 4, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  10. ^ The Transcendence of the Cave 1964-1966 . University of Glasgow , archived from the original on April 21, 2014 ; accessed on February 4, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
personal data
SURNAME Findlay, John Niemeyer
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Findlay, JN; Findlay, JN; Findlay, JN; Findlay, JN
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Pretoria
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1987