Béla von Brandenstein

Baron Béla von Brandenstein (born March 17, 1901 in Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † August 24, 1989 in Saarbrücken ) was a Hungarian-German philosopher who stands on the one hand in the tradition of Western ontology and metaphysics , on the other hand the achievements of modern science has fully incorporated into his philosophy . In addition to a reshaping, deepening and expansion of old metaphysical figures of thought, new and deeply founded insights into the structure of reality come about at decisive points.

Brandenstein's main concern is a comprehensive “foundation of philosophy”, which he presented in six volumes from 1965 to 1970.

Life

Brandenstein was born in Budapest as the first of two sons to his parents Albrecht Freiherr von Brandenstein (born in Saxony), an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, and Antonie de Csonky. When the regiment Albert Freiherr v. Brandensteins was relocated to Vienna for a few years, he and his family moved there from 1906 to 1911. Brandenstein then attended three classes in a Viennese elementary school and passed private school exams in Budapest at the same time. He returned to Budapest in 1911 and graduated from high school there in 1919. After eight semesters at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Budapest, he was awarded a doctorate. phil. PhD.

In the winter semester 1924/25 and in the summer semester 1925 he was then a scholarship holder of the Hungarian state-owned Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin and matriculated at the university there, where he came into personal contact with the philosophers Eduard Spranger and Romano Guardini, initially through Spranger's sponsorship the first, then the third volume of his "Foundation of Philosophy" (1926 and 1927) published by Max Niemeyer Halle. In Cologne he went to the philosophers Peter Wust , Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann .

On September 1, 1925, he was appointed office manager of the General Secretariat of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences , completed his habilitation in philosophy in 1927 and began teaching philosophy as a private lecturer at the Philosophy Faculty of Budapest University in the winter semester of 1927/28 . In 1929 he was appointed full professor in the same faculty and in 1934 full professor. From 1938 to 1944 he was President of the Hungarian Philosophical Society , at the same time a member of the St. Stephen's Academy in Budapest.

In March 1944 he fled the Russian occupation with his family from Hungary to Austria and lived in Vorarlberg until autumn 1948, where he published part of his work and gave over 100 lectures in Vorarlberg, Innsbruck and Switzerland. In Feldkirch (Austria) he received a call to the then newly founded University of Saarland , where he continued his philosophical work and was able to publish some of it. After 41 semesters in Saarbrücken and reaching his 68th birthday, he retired on April 1, 1969. Brandenstein has since held guest lectures and lectures and continued his philosophical and literary work intensively into old age.

He was married to Magdalene de Dessewffy since 1929 and has five grown children with her. Since 1954 Brandenstein spent the summer mainly in Ticino (Lago di Lugano, Brusino-Arsizio) and since the end of 1969 the winter months in Munich.

After a short illness, he died in Saarbrücken at the age of 89.

Teaching

"Baron Béla von Brandenstein was both one of the most important representatives in the history of Hungarian philosophy of the 20th century and a great figure of Christian-humanistic, system-building thinking." (Ildikó Veres)

With these words, the Hungarian philosopher Ildikó Veres names central aspects of Brandenstein's thought and work, which had already attracted attention across Europe between the world wars, but gradually fell into oblivion after the war. In both Hungary and Germany, however, efforts have recently been made to arouse interest in this thinker and to make his work known again. In Germany it is the doctor and philosopher Boris Wandruszka who developed a "Philosophy of Suffering" (three volumes: Phenomenology of Suffering - Metaphysics of Suffering - Ethics of Suffering; two volumes) against the background of Brandenstein's thinking and who published Brandenstein's achievements makes fruitful in many philosophical fields.

In his self-characterization, Brandenstein places himself on the one hand in the great "ideal-realistic" tradition of Western thought , which he thoroughly thinks through, takes into account and appreciates, but on the other hand he practices at a distance that enables him, where the matter dictates, with prudent and persistent criticism and, where necessary, to take a stand against great authorities. The guiding principle is a consistent and rationally verifiable, discursive-scientific "pull to the ground", which not only requires a clear distinction between philosophy and religion, philosophy and special science, philosophy and world view ( ideology ), but also all instrumentalizing, only on use and Well-being directed mindset rejects. The “thing” or the structure of being of a phenomenon and its adequate conceptual formulation are always in the foreground, or to put it another way: The “factual or being truth” of a phenomenon is sought for its own sake and, where possible, through correct thought processing into a “knowledge truth”, into a humanly appropriated, thus also existentially always relevant factual truth.

Mainly for this reason, in Brandenstein's work, one does not come across the “arch of systemic compulsion”, which imposes a “system” on the phenomena from outside, rather he develops the overarching, “systematic” connections from the phenomena and the relationships in question themselves . Only in this way can he uncover the temporal-timeless "basic structure of being" in all beings and their transphenomenal presuppositions of being, which makes him both a "phenomenologist of being" and a metaphysician, but not such a metaphysician who is far from all experience from mere concepts , allegedly deduced general truths from beliefs or ideologues , but from the questions and problems themselves the fundamental and thus universal connections of being or facts.

Philosophy as a science of principles therefore differs from all other human activities in a characteristic way - it cannot be based on belief and revelation of religions, not on considerations of usefulness in applied sciences, and certainly not on socio-political challenges, purposes and power orientations. Its end in itself is to reveal the deepest and ultimate basic determinations of being, the world, life, man and his mind; its end in itself is recognition and understanding, in order to open up the possibility of a meaningful and goal-oriented change (and often only preservation!) of the world and life. In this way, Brandenstein overcomes the "old metaphysics" in many crucial fundamental questions, including that of Aristotle , Thomas Aquinas , Kant and Hegel, and often provides striking solutions within the framework of a newly founded ontology and metaphysics.

As unknown as Brandenstein is today, it seems justified to an attentive and “in-depth” reader to regard this thinker as one of the greats not only in Hungary or Germany, but also in the history of philosophy in general. If this is correct, then the discovery and appreciation of his “immense” work in terms of scope, depth, breadth and substantive clarity are still pending. Neither in Kant nor in Hegel or even in Heidegger did western thinking find its final climax or its overcoming, as is often claimed - on the contrary, here, so the opinion of its proponents, thought has reached a new climax, that of the present time is not fair, but the coming times can and should be fair.

The systematics of the basic philosophical sciences in the "foundation of philosophy"

In his main work “Foundation of Philosophy” (1965–1970), Brandenstein built philosophy as an independent science, more precisely as a “basic and universal science”, with a similar claim to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , whose attempt, however, remained largely a fragment.

A separate methodology comes into play here, which is more critical, always questioning-checking and systematic, i.e. H. consistently coherent way reveals the basic trinitarian structure of all being, which in turn serves as a point of reference and framework for the "pyramidal whole" of a limited number of meaningfully building on basic philosophical sciences:

First and foremost is ontology in the narrower sense (doctrine of being or thing) with its demonstration of the three "primordial reasons" or basic structural moments of all being:

1. the simple being-there (also being -there / existence ) of the singular content filled with its concrete quality ("this-there" / tode-ti, e.g. precisely this red spot in front of me);
2. of being like that (also being water or essence / essence) of the inner, factual, logical form being as an immanent coherent structure of a matter of fact (the red spot is logically part of the sensory perception and is related to other colors, to the surroundings of the tablecloth, to my perception, etc. ) and
3. of being-in-being (unity and size) of the quantitative shaping of every being (the red spot has a certain geometric shape, expansion in space and time, can be measured, lies in an environment, etc.).

In Brandesstein's teaching there are not only two original moments of being, as in classical ontology, which distinguishes between form and matter , but essentially three moments that determine each other or correlate. In his opinion, therefore, in the classical Aristotelian ontology, on the one hand, the content element is not grasped and grasped clearly enough; on the other hand, both factual and quantitative elements are improperly incorporated into the "form factor", which leads to a mixture and confusion.

From these three moments of being arise the first, namely the three ontological basic sciences,

• the salary or quality theory ( totik ),
• the theory of forms or connections ( logic in the sense of a logic of being)
• and the theory of design or quantity ( philosophical mathematics ).

These three sciences are summarized in a next step and carried on in the philosophical theory of reality (metaphysics), from which three new and insofar higher, richer and more lively basic sciences result, as the content on the active-conscious or spiritual level as will, the form appears as reason and design as feeling. These are the basic human sciences

• pragmatics (doctrine of deeds),
• the Wissenschaftslehre (Theoretik)
• and art theory ( poietics ).

All three are then combined again and flow into

• a comprehensive doctrine of life ( ethics ) that is far more than “practical reason” and
• whose crowning glory is the philosophy of religion , which, however, already points beyond anything philosophical.

In building this “foundation”, Brandenstein uses a specifically philosophical method composed of several sub-methods, which relate to the immanent basic structures of all phenomena and their ultimate being-like, often phenomenally not directly deliverable, therefore “transphenomenal”, “metaphysical” or “transcendent” “ Asks back the prerequisites of all being . This method stands out characteristically from other scientific methods such as intuition, description, induction , deduction and hermeneutic interpretation and only enables a reliable and demonstrable "scientific" philosophizing or philosophical thinking that is neither "ideological-thinking" nor "mystical-poeticizing" going on.

The first two philosophical methods: philosophical description and reductive analysis

As with any science, this method begins with

• the description or philosophical description of phenomena given in human experience,

but not, as in everyday life and in the empirical sciences, with "accidental" phenomena, but with those that cannot be denied without self-contradiction (such as temporality, changeability, experience, intentionality in my conscious life immediately given to me). On this "fundamentum inconcussum" then takes place in a first analytical step by means of the so-called, going back to the philosopher Akos von Pauler

• reductive analysis

the discursive-based uncovering of moments that cannot be further analyzed, i.e. indistinguishable, and their fundamental and essential connections in the phenomenon. This descriptively founded analysis, moving in the phenomenal, is called “reductive” because it asks back from the “surface structures” to the deep connections that are given in the phenomenon, but mostly concealed and hidden. This method is called philosophical-fundamental, insofar as it works towards those moments, elements, differences and their relationships that cannot be further differentiated and that "justify" themselves in direct, in this sense "intuitive" evidence , that is, do not need any further reason and exclude this. So is z. B. every being that I encounter - this tree perception, this pain, this fantasy, this decision, myself, the other - not nothing, but "something" with its individual content that deviates from other content; stands in connection with itself, with others and with me, is therefore identical with itself, but different from others; and is one, whole, is unequal to other and therefore distinguishable from other, for example spatially, temporally and structurally. Qualitative content, formal connection and unity are those basic aspects of beings that can neither be justified by something else nor require further justification - they justify themselves, directly evident.

The basic moments or "primordial reasons" of the structure of being: content, form and design

Such reasons of being, which can still be fully grasped in the given phenomenon, include three basic structural moments, which themselves cannot be further justified: the quality or the content, the form or the inner connection and the quantity or configuration of a being.

The salary or the singular quality

The content indicates the fact that something is at all, "is there" in the simplest and most closed sense, specifically is there, individually and directly filled with its unique being, with its unique quality like this carmine red there in front of me, this one Plato remembered me in ancient Greece, this rose that I am handing over to someone tonight, etc. Since we can ultimately only grasp and designate the content due to its ontological detail, ie deictically and "afterwards", Brandenstein calls the philosophical science the it is based on the “salary”, totik (Greek: tode-ti = this-da). He shows that the general can neither exist nor be known without such a singular basis.

The very first basic categories of quality (totik) include the three reasons being, similarity, positedness / positing and the three counter-reasons the other, the deviation, the opposing. Brandenstein uncovered a total of eighteen philosophical-deadly basic categories of content or quality, that is, of being individual . They serve as the basis for the structure of the specific categories (initial statements) of the empirical sciences.

The form or the context

As Brandenstein already pointed out in his short "Thing or Being", a being cannot only be, be there, posited in being, but must at once, i.e. H. Simultaneously in time, only in terms of the order of being later, fundamentally related, first of all with oneself and then with everything else, directly or indirectly. A salary cannot possibly be incoherent, unrelated, it must at least be related to itself, which is commonly referred to as “ identity ”. Not only is something here, but something is what it is, i.e. H. Das-sein has a what-sein, a "being", a characteristic structure of connection (with itself and with other things).

Clearly, the self-connection of identity is the simplest and most fundamentally possible connection; it is the basic and original form that fixes the content with and in itself. But not only that, because it also opens it out of its qualitative detail and unity, "divides" it with itself, brings a difference into being and thereby gives "space" free for real general issues. For example, all things and beings, insofar as each is related to itself, are identical to one another (with all other differences). As a basic form, identity (the self-connection) cannot be traced back to simpler forms, but it needs content, since only beings, precisely a content, can be connected: Nothing cannot be connected, neither with itself nor with anything else (e.g. Hegel at the beginning of his “ Science of Logic ”). The possible generality of the form is particularly evident in later forms, e.g. B. in the generic form (all people are living beings), the chain (successive moments of time are mutually dependent), the subordination (the teacher is logically superior to the students) etc., which can apply in the same way to many qualitatively different contents, namely being-wise, ontological, not just conceptual. Plato and Aristotle are individual, qualitatively unique people, but in terms of their status as philosophers or as people in general, they are identical. Thus, the form objectively establishes the possibility that everything that is can and must be related, can be ordered, understood spiritually and formulated in general terms. Contrary to Kant, the forms of connection are not projected into the phenomenal world by thinking, but are taken from it, singled out and considered for themselves.

In the field of form, too, Brandenstein reveals three reasons (identity, context, condition) and three counter-reasons (difference, separation, order) which, like the remaining eighteen philosophical, formal or logical categories, fully correspond to the substantive categories and, according to Brandenstein, must correspond , "Being" should not be destroyed in its basic structure and thus become a priori impossible.

The design or quantity ("size")

Even the “division”, which does not mean a split in being or a kind of doubling, but an inner development of moments in being, indicates that the timeless basic structure of being is not yet complete, not yet rounded off; and in fact Brandenstein discovered a third fundamental moment of being, which again includes and embraces content and form in their differentiation. Brandenstein calls this moment the design - a “power” that shapes, encompasses, rounds, unifies, unites, summarizes and “magnifies” being in the most fundamental and broadest sense. Thus the form arises from the content, from which both again, encompassing both of them, the design arises. In this way, being is unified and shaped in units, in “sizes”, which shows that shaping is the “primordial power” of everything quantitative, which is why all mathematics is ontologically grounded with it. The mathematical reasons and counter-reasons are accordingly: wholeness, equality and unity or part, inequality and quantity. In total, Brandenstein reveals eighteen basic philosophical-mathematical categories in accordance with the previous basic structure of being. Since the design returns to the content in the unification of content and form and thereby becomes content again itself, being is completed in its basic structure and does not remain mythically indeterminate as with Heidegger, for example, or in the balance as with Karl Jaspers . Because a fourth basic moment is impossible due to the reclosed nature of the design, which turns back, as it were, to content and form, unifying them. Everything that is and can be, in order to be, must firstly exist, more precisely than this-there, secondly be related to itself (and with other things) and thirdly be united with itself and other things in certain dimensions (which also like God or how infinite sets can be infinite).

The basic modalities of being: freedom - necessity - possibility

This trinitarian basic structure of being corresponds, as Brandenstein further elaborates, three basic modalities of being, namely freedom in the ability to position or in the positedness, necessary validity in knowledge and possibility in design. After all, this is the reason why none of the three sciences can be traced back to one of the others, but each has its own way of being and thus also its own method of knowledge. The salary, e.g. B. This carmine red, if it is to be perceived, must be set, more precisely replicated, it cannot be derived logically or mathematically (which is why a color cannot be assigned to a blind person); the shape, e.g. B. the generic form of humanity in the human being Socrates, must be recognized, d. H. to be singled out and analyzed out of the detail as its immanent logical condition; and the design, e.g. B. the temporal-spatial-geometric shape of a rose has to be recreated in a kind of artistic reconstruction in order to be recorded.

As mentioned, all of this was basically, as mentioned, opened up and uncovered with the descriptive-reductive method, which traces the conditioned - ontologically later - back to the conditioned - ontologically earlier. The realm of the “phenomenal” was not left, everything was in the circle of “experience”, which is why Brandenstein's theory of being is a phenomenological ontology. That changes in the case of the next basic philosophical science, metaphysics or reality theory.

The science of reality or metaphysics

On the foundation of ontology with its three sciences of being, which include totics, logic (not Aristotelian meant as the organon of thinking) and mathematics, Brandenstein builds the fifth science of his "foundation of philosophy", the science of reality or metaphysics, today of Many also called "ontology" at the expense of the conceptual clarity. Your task is to trace back the reality given to us of the sensually mediated world and the reflexively experienceable psychic and spiritual world of our own by inferring the necessary reality requirements. First and foremost, it shows what a real thing or being actually is: while a content (the red in its redness), a form (the form of subordination as such) and a design (a number) alone are not yet are real and can be real, but are "pre-real" in the sense of the co-composition of reality, every fully real being essentially comprises all three basic structural elements of being, i.e. content, form and design together, and in a unique stamping according to rank and degree. So we can z. B. not at all perceive the content of this red without identity and extension - all three moments are clearly distinguishable, but not separable, rather together form the whole being, e.g. B. this red spot with its specific red quality, its connections, for example with the environment (spot on a cloth) and with its specific design, this spatial expansion, geometric shape, etc. That is why Brandenstein describes the first three sciences as "pre-real" or “reality-composing” sciences which only together constitute a real being. The full and systematic unfolding of reality, on the other hand, is accomplished by metaphysics with its own new method, regressive analytics .

The method of regressive analysis

In contrast to some forms of the old metaphysics criticized by Immanuel Kant, which believed that one could gain knowledge from pure "a priori" terms, Brandenstein shows that this is factually and conceptually impossible. Every knowledge needs a basis of experience, whereby the subject field of this experience not only includes the sensually mediated physical world, but everything that can be experienced at all, e.g. B. also the world of decision-making, thought, fantasy, wish and feeling and the world of ideal sizes, numbers, logical forms, ethical values ​​and norms, further the world of the imagination, the imaginary, the pathological, etc.

The empirical-metaphysical "protocol sentences"

In contrast to the empirical sciences of nature and spirit, however, metaphysics tries to start from empirical facts whose denial is impossible or whose negation leads directly to self-contradiction. So stand out z. B. directly on the following statements: "I do not experience anything"; "I'm not"; “There is no change”; "My willing and thinking is related to nothing"; "I deny everything"; "There is nothing"; “There is no truth”; “Nothing counts”; “Nothing is good” (including this attempt at language and communication); "Everything is pointless" etc.

From the failure of such sentences it follows that the opposite statements necessarily hold and the facts corresponding to them are irrevocably there: "As soon as I experience, I experience something, at least myself"; “As soon as I say, do, think, speak, I change”; "As soon as I want and think, I want and think something"; "I cannot deny everything because I have to at least affirm this of my speech in order to be able to do it."

Based on the old protocol sentences of the logicistic Vienna Circle , which, because they were exclusively empirical , could never achieve real and fundamental general validity, these "new protocol sentences" are empirically verifiable and at the same time generally valid sentences whose negation is impossible.

The argumentatio ex contrario with the assurance of positive evidence by showing negative evidence

The decisive procedure for securing this necessary philosophical general validity can be neither intuition nor induction nor deduction and much less the description, rather it is an analysis that works with the "argumentatio ex contrario or ex negativo ", which tries to to prove the validity of a proposition by showing the impossibility of its negation. Or to put it another way: Since direct evidence is not possible for the finite human spirit in many and decisive cases (such as in the case of the existence of God , the beginning or non-beginning of the world, the fundamental nature of matter, causality, etc.), he makes use of the indirect evidence , which shows the necessary validity of the positive, only hypothetical evidence, by showing the indirect, negative evidence, i.e. the impossibility of negating an initially hypothetical-positive sentence. Brandenstein calls this method the regressive analysis , which, in contrast to the reductive analysis, exceeds the phenomenal-empirical horizon of its transphenomenal, transcendent, but not arbitrarily constructed, but necessarily assumed prerequisites for being.

This backward transcendence to the reasons takes place through scientifically exact, for everyone fundamentally comprehensible and therefore generally verifiable conclusions, the negation of which the validity of the philosophical protocol sentences, i.e. the directly certain truths of being ("I experience myself, so I am somehow and in the broadest sense" being, "changeable, etc.") nullifies what is impossible.

The “gateway” to metaphysical science: temporality and the proof of alternating sequence

On the basis of these metaphysical protocol sentences, Brandenstein then uses regressive analysis to conduct his exploration of reality down to the last factors and roots of reality. In doing so, he primarily makes use of the temporality or changeability of our experience, perception, thinking, wanting and acting, which cannot be negated without self-contradiction, or the constantly changing objects and processes in nature and culture to which those acts relate. The following questions open up: What is change, change, change, arising and passing away? Do they have a beginning or not, do they have an end or not? Who or what initiates the change, “leads” it, shapes it? What is pushing forward in this dynamic, where from, where, for what? What or who carries the "alternating series" of changeable, temporal realities?

In order to clarify this, Brandenstein offers at the beginning of his metaphysics the so-called "alternating sequence proof", with which he shows that every changeable reality necessarily implies a beginning and all changeable reality as a whole necessarily implies a very first beginning, before which there is nothing temporally changeable can. However, since nothing cannot be the origin of changeable beings, the origin of the temporal must be untimely, timeless, eternal; see accordingly the proofs of God in Brandenstein's metaphysics.

After the first proof with the demonstration of the necessary beginning of all changeable being, Brandenstein then shows in a second proof that timeless being is essentially unconditional or self-determined, i.e. free and active and thus essentially conscious, spiritual and creative: the absolute can only personal be thought, speak as God . On this he will then build philosophical theology .

The three ranks of all reality and the solution to the problem of causality

But decisive for the entire foundation of philosophy, especially metaphysics, is the first proof, i.e. the alternating sequence proof, insofar as it shows the basic "three-tier order" of all reality:

• First, there is a being that, because it is timeless, is absolutely unconditional or only self-determined, and can therefore only work itself and cannot be directly caused or determined by anything else (the first or primal cause in the first rank of being) ;
• Secondly, there are beings that are indeed begun and temporal, thus determined and conditioned, but can work themselves and are therefore infinitely unfoldable, i.e. beings that can work, but are themselves brought about (the passive-active, effected-acting object -Subjects in the second creatively active rank of being as secondary causes);
• And so, thirdly, there are beings that are only brought about and cannot work themselves (the passive things in the third, only passive rank of being, e.g. the formations of nature and the works of man, but also his sensory perceptions, thoughts, ideas, decisions etc.).

The metaphysical "rule of height" comes into play, which says that the first rank effects the subjects in the second, the second rank effects things in the third rank, so neither the second can determine the first nor the third the second or even the first rank ( and the first rank of being rarely the third). Thus the primordial being in the first rank of being, which can be demonstrated as a spiritual primordial subject ("God"), causes the object-subjects in the second rank of being, which includes people as spiritual beings and all other purely spiritual creatures, which in turn cause things in the third rank , e.g. B. the natural processes, human works, but also structures immanent in consciousness such as wishes, fantasies, ideas, purposes, thoughts, concepts, ideals, etc.

The natural spirit forces and metaphysical matter

A far-reaching finding that is strange to modern ears is revealed, namely that nature itself is spiritually shaped ("formed") in its structure of effects and is created and shaped by spiritual subjects, the so-called "natural spirit forces". These creative, but not divine beings, to which the human being belongs, place their effects (e.g. colors, tones, atoms, molecules, organisms, actions and works) in the metaphysical, independently existing matter, which cannot be conveyed by the senses, but which is necessarily accessible ( "Transempirical space field") as the carrier of all interaction in the world and are able to communicate with each other. Since the natural formations are effected, created effects and works, they cannot produce themselves, but require either the original subject in the first or the subjects in the second rank. Insofar as the primordial subject, according to his sovereignty, directly creates only the created subjects and transfers and leaves them the effect of natural things, God only exceptionally effects something in nature, not nature itself, which is called " miracles ".

In this way, nature proves to be a spiritual-physical interrelationship that teaches that man is no exception and lives lost in a senseless and spiritless world, but belongs in a “community of spirits” that has endlessly much to say. Insofar as it is not God who directly effects the physical world, but "only" creates the foundations and basic factors of reality (the created spiritual forces and metaphysical matter), the arising and passing away, struggling and suffering, searching, trying and going astray in Cosmos does not directly return to him, but reveals the special spirituality of non-divine spirit creatures, which first have to be found and unfold and which are in a plural-agonal relationship with one another, naturally and deeply "guided" by God. Only this insight can address the “ theodicy question”, which becomes entangled in contradictions if it presupposes that God is not only omnipotent but all-effective (like Allah in Islam ), that is, everything directly effects and leaves no room for creational freedom.

The peculiar level of being and the three peculiar philosophical sciences pragmatics, theory and poietics

Brandenstein's metaphysics offers much more than what has been said and a lot that cannot be represented here, but it manages to illuminate the basic structure of reality, that is, of the “whole” by not doing what is impossible for humans , everything recorded in detail, but tries to make the basic structures and basic factors present in everything that is transparent. One of the most important findings, which leads to the next basic philosophical sciences, has to be emphasized: Although every real being (thing, being, event, occurrence, every process) is always composed or constituted as seen from the triad of content, form and design , Experience shows that these components do not always have the same characteristics. Thus, both a color and a number as well as a shape, z. B. the generic form, always have all three components, but obviously one of the three components of being dominates in all three cases. So a real color (including the one just presented) is shaped spatially extended and shaped, e.g. B. as a specific optical quality of the senses is subordinate to the quality of the senses in general, but the qualitative element of the particular color undoubtedly dominates in it and stands out most clearly and vividly, also most expressively. Similarly, a number also has its qualitative content and its factual logical form, but both clearly take a back seat to the element of quantitative design, which applies accordingly to the form, such as the subordination, the genre, etc.

Thus, reality has not only ranks (just the three named) and countless degrees within the ranks, but also real stages of being, which Brandenstein describes as non-peculiar, peculiar and peculiar (which cannot be explained in more detail here). If one includes subjective-spiritual realities, the gradation gains a great increase in importance. Since the content in the case of a subject is its actual will, its form the uncovering-analyzing-knowing mind and the design is the working, situation and self-creating feeling, metaphysics arise at the end of its discourse, which has treated all three basic moments of being in an undifferentiated manner , three new sciences in each of which a ground of being (the content, the form or the design) is at the highest, namely a peculiar level.

If the subjective content, i.e. the will, dominates life and work, then the science of will , deed, action, freedom and effect unfolds and forms the pragmatics , which up to now has hardly ever been specifically seen, appreciated and developed in the history of philosophy, but mostly and was included in the ethics too early and "perished" there. Typical pragmatic fields of life in which the will predominates, but together with the cleverness of the practical understanding and the skill of the practical feeling, are about politics, the economy, the sport, the game, the handicraft and many more.

If, on the other hand, the subjective form, i.e. the understanding ( intellect , ratio, reason) dominates, then the science of cognition, thinking, analysis, justification, research and teaching, i.e. theoretic , unfolds, but also without the theoretical will and the theoretical feeling does not work. Because every thinking, researching and recognizing must first of all be wanted in order for it to get going, and feeling often also plays an important role, for example in the case of intuition or neat systematics. Typical theoretical fields of life are science, school, teaching, reading, discussion and the like. v. a. m.

And finally, subjective design, i.e. feeling, can predominantly permeate life and turn it into a work of art, so to speak, if we furnish an apartment beautifully, decorate the body and dress nicely, build a city pleasantly, intone the language lively, etc. v. a. m. The corresponding science is called poietics or peculiar design theory and is more than just "aesthetics", it is art theory.

The comprehensive doctrine of life or ethics

In all of these three cases, the grounds of being, content, form, and design, are no longer just on a peculiar level, but on the peculiar level above which there is and cannot be another level. Nevertheless, the foundation of philosophy does not end at this point either, but rises even further in its systematics, namely by the fact that all three peculiar sciences (pragmatics, theory, poietics) are combined in a new science and expanded as a comprehensive doctrine of life or ethics become. The leading point of view in it consists in the fact that it considers all realities, subjective as well as material-objective, under the aspect of value , valency, "material quality" and "dignity". If it relates to subjects, it unfolds the cosmos of virtues (or vices), if it relates to objective realities, it unfolds the cosmos of “goods”. As expected, Brandenstein rediscovers the effects of the trinitarian structure of reality and finds nine basic virtues accordingly, first the will-like virtues of self-control ( self-control , moderation and moderation), the intellectual virtues of respect and the emotional virtues of love.

The philosophy of religion

With this science ends the canon of the strictly philosophical sciences, but for that reason a religious-philosophical outlook is inevitable, as already in the doctrine of God of metaphysics and in ethics the doctrine of the love of God, creation and human being was developed and in the "religious-philosophical appendix" a final exaggeration and perfection demands and achieved. The fundamental trinitarian structure of being does not only recur in God as the Trinity , which summarizes all levels of being and in the three-person God even surpasses it in an overly reasonable, but by no means unreasonable, way, but it is also reflected in the three cosmic historical epochs of creation , Redemption and sanctification . Only in this way and only then does the creation, which unfolded for a long time, need and maturation, return to God, becomes completely whole and even more so in the mystical union with God, above all with the God-Man, lifted in an intimate way into the divine, without its being rich individual diversity and profound order is abolished. All spirit creatures turned towards God, redeemed and sanctified by him are there through divine in their core, so that all searching, erring and suffering ends and each spirit being endlessly one of the infinitely many sides of God, i.e. H. its respective "divine foreshadow", approximates and with it in each unique way, but connected with all good creatures, "one body and one kingdom" becomes: " Hen kai pan ". God's highest justice then judges not only by the fact that it, with the cooperation of the creatures, reveals, clarifies and redresses everything, but is fulfilled in the love of mercy in which God gives himself. It cannot be less, since otherwise God would remain below his possibilities, which is why justice and mercy coincide in the highest rank. Whoever does not belong to his kingdom is therefore not excluded from it by God, but by himself. All damnation is self-damnation and self-chosen isolation; all community, on the other hand, is love given in mutual gift and acceptance. The holy creation shows all degrees and grades from the almost nothing of the self-isolated “fallen” to the God-man , a holy order in which everyone has his or her holy place.

The "post-fundamental" works

With the "Foundation of Philosophy" Brandenstein completed his main work early, probably in 1926/27 at the age of 25/26, but this is followed by larger and smaller works in which he deals with the entire history of philosophy and intellectualism. more or less all important contemporary philosophers, natural scientists and mathematicians are taken into account and the corresponding problems are treated at the level of modern mathematics, logic, humanities and natural science.

He penetrates the theory of evolution , relativity and quantum physics intensively , shows their philosophical relevance, examines them critically and takes them further in some ways.

In biology he discovers the special way of descent of humans, namely his position as the direct and probably last representative of the main primate tribe, which explains the bodily mosaic character of humans, their composition of very old and very young biological characteristics.

In physics, it can show that special relativity motivating Michelson-Morley experiment of Einstein hasty and unnecessary the speed of light was most likely in the direction of absolute constancy interpreted and quite another probable, and allows much more plausible interpretation that the ether problem in a sets new light.

In psychology he not only discovers the personal basic structure of the subject, but can also shed light on the position of feeling, emotion or affect , which has always been unclear, and points to a highly significant inner order of the emotional life, which shows that the subsuming of the emotional life either as in the Middle Ages under the will life or as in modern times in the animal world is inappropriate and unhappy. In addition, in addition to the physical unconscious (the drives and instincts), it determines a soul-spiritual or personal unconscious, which proves that even earthly humans are not a purely earthly being.

In mathematics, on the other hand, he resolves Russell's paradoxes and Cantor's aleph theory by revising the problem of infinite sets, establishing a deeper mathematical foundation for set theory, clearly separating the essence of mathematics from the essence of logic and thus "logicism" in shows its limits.

As far as the "depth" of human consciousness and spirit is concerned, he works out a dimension that transcends the body-bound, psychophysical human consciousness because the finite body cannot grasp the essentially infinite spiritual life. He calls this dimension “full consciousness” because it actually deals with everything that a person has ever experienced and to which in most areas he has no access in his body. In so-called panorama experiences, in hypnotic treatments and in dreams, but also in many small everyday experiences, e.g. B. already in the involuntary stream of consciousness and in the free liquid language, this "deep ground" shows and reveals its astonishing size. In turn, Brandenstein spreads the entire body, social and spiritual life of man in a well-founded and enriched manner with a wealth of special scientific findings in his great anthropology from 1947 (“Man and his position in space”).

As for the history of philosophy and “the conversation” with the great thinkers, Brandenstein writes smaller and larger treatises, for example on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, on Heidegger and Jaspers, on Plato and Pauler, on Schelling and Kant. In general, he covers the shortcomings of Kantian criticism and can overcome Kant's verdict against all metaphysics. But he also deals with the advantages, shortcomings, contradictions and one-sidedness of Marxist philosophy, existential philosophy and the philosophy of language in detail and in a differentiated manner. In doing so, he always proceeds in a justifying, weighing, critically questioning and checking manner; nowhere does it stop at mere opinions or assertions. Even where he does not find any proof, he marks this (for example with the question of the causation of metaphysical matter) and leaves the mind open for future solutions. In addition, he expresses himself on political, artistic and religious questions, takes a position on current challenges (atomic energy, east-west conflict, etc.) and offers surprising points of view and solutions. The scope and depth of his knowledge are immense, but he always remains factual, sober, modest, knows that he is not heard and understood by his contemporaries, remains true to himself and does not lose touch with his time, knowing that the truth is , the deeper and more universal it is, the longer it has to remain hidden.

If one wants to specify a main feature of his thinking, one would have to name his unshakable "being connectedness" and "factuality", which never loses touch with the real and only, as is common today, succumbs to mere constructivism . Man is indeed active, creative, independent, creative, certainly also constructing a lot, but always has to be drawn from the fund of being that permeates, supports and shows us. In truth, Brandenstein can show that “bypassing being and its inner structure of meaning” nothing at all can be done, thought, suspected or felt, yes, that being, where it is disregarded, “strikes back” because of the disregard for being is itself “being” and can only take place in that it draws from being and participates in it. In contrast to Heidegger, for example, he reveals that being is by no means univocally structured, but rather significant differences in itself - as a trinitarian internal structure, as an order of being in three ranks (which can only be surmounted from above), as a gradual order of levels, as trinitarian areas of life - harbors and unfolds from within, so that its simplicity is never simplicity, but rather "unity of diversity".

In an introductory overview, as it is attempted to give at this point, it is impossible to present both the striking novelty, the conceptual sharpness, the always sought “well-foundedness” and the concrete richness and the great depth of this thinking. Many gaps that the philosophical tradition overlooked or ignored, such as the essence of content or quality and its position in being and life, the relationship between matter and form (more precisely than content, form and design), the foundation of both the logical as well as mathematical fundamental determinations of being, the role of metaphysical matter, the existence of the natural spirit forces, full consciousness, the explanation of God-humanity, the proof of alternation, the nature of the community and its relationship to the individual, he unlocks for the first time, like his followers state in an original and factually convincing way.

Brandenstein's thinking reveals an ingenious creativity that takes into account, appreciates and takes into account all the significant results of the philosophical tradition and the specialist sciences, but always goes beyond and critically illuminates (including and especially those of the great Kant!). The "pull to the ground" is unmistakable, but never in an evocative, but in a discursively clearly justified, generally comprehensible and generally valid way, because it wants the other to agree out of freedom and conviction, not out of suggestion and seduction. However, in addition to often arduous work, this requires the courage to be determined by the “truth” or the “truths” and the “higher man” in us about the “lower man” who is only after self-preservation and self-interest To give preference, also at the price of allowing (having to be) changed by philosophical knowledge.

Just as his connection to being is unbreakable, so is his realization that existence and essence, further being, meaning and value not only belong together inseparably, but are basically "one". Everything nonsensical and absurd, which is in abundance, even if only in the status of provisionality, proves to be possible only because it is consciously or unconsciously related to a meaning . But what has meaning always also has a value, just as every meaning not only emerges from being, but itself creates being again, which is never value-neutral. Therefore everything, even the smallest thing, can become an occasion for the revelation of the deepest contents of being, meaning and value; nothing is ever completely meaningless, meaningless and without consequence. Being without meaning is impossible in itself and for thinking. Who comes into this feeling of being, experiences that everything is "alive" and that there is no reason for boredom, despair and resignation, rather being is always ready to give itself in its fullness, depth and purity, but also in its challenging character. Brandenstein tries to explain this above all in his "existential writings" such as "Life and Death", "On the Development of the Spirit in the Soul", "The Sources of Being", "Consciousness and Transience" (including the remarkable article about the "Unconscious") and "Man before God". In terms of the philosophy of history and the history of philosophy, his books “On the Meaning of Philosophy and Its History”, “The Image of Man and the Idea of ​​Humanism” and his “Anthropology” are ultimately central. The book “The Structure of Being” is summarized in the form of a textbook and, as it were, as a short version of the “Foundation”. System of Philosophy ”.

Fonts (selection)

• Foundation of Philosophy, Vol. 1–6, Anton Pustet, Munich 1965–1970: Volume. 1: thing theory / ontology, content theory / totik, form theory / logic; Volume 2: Design theory / mathematics; Volume 3: Reality / Metaphysics; Volume 4: Theory of action / pragmatics, science / theory; Volume 5: Art theory / poetics; Volume 6: Life theory / ethics, religious-philosophical appendix
• The difficulties of metaphysics and the guidelines for trying to solve them. In: From the research work of the members of the Hungarian Institute and the Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin, Berlin-Leipzig 1927
• Metaphysics of Organic Life, Habelschwerdt 1930
• Művészetfilozófia , Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest 1930
• Az ember a mindenségben , Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest 1936–37
• The relationship between soul and body and general causality. In: Travaux du IX. Congress International de Philosophy, Paris 1937
• The soul in the realm of the spirit, Blätter für Deutsche Philosophie, Berlin 1937
• The shape of the personal mind. In: Research and Progress, Volume 15, No. 10, Berlin, April 1, 1939, pp. 131-134
• Man and his position in space, Philosophical Anthropology, Benziger, Einsiedeln / Cologne 1947
• Is humanism still relevant ?, Innsbruck 1947
• The Image of Man and the Idea of ​​Humanism, Teutsch, Bregenz 1948
• Life and death, basic questions of existence, Bouvier, Bonn 1948
• "The not yet identified animal". In: Word and Truth 3, 1948
• God in History, Schweizer Rundschau, Volume 48, January 1949
• The structure of being, system of philosophy, Minerva, Saarbrücken 1950
• Plato, An introduction to his work and thinking, West-Ost-Verlag, Saarbrücken 1951
• On the development of the spirit in the soul, Minerva, Saarbrücken 1954
• Causality or acausality in the scientific worldview. In: Actes du deuxiéme Congrés International de l`Union Internationale de, Philosophy des Sciences, 3, Zurich 1954
• The sources of being, introduction to metaphysics, Bouvier, Bonn 1955
• Of the essence of man, Reference: Studium generale 9: 8 (1956: Oct.) 453
• On the meaning of philosophy and its history, Bouvier, Bonn 1957
• About the meaning of freedom. In: Wissenschaft und Weisheit 28, 1965; Atti del XII. Congresso Internationale di Filosofia 3. Venezia 1958
• Science and life. In: Konkrete Vernunft, Bonn 1958
• The metaphysical weight of the psychic, Deutsche Universitätszeitung 1959
• From the method of metaphysics. In: International Philosophical Quarterly 1
• Modern problems of systematic philosophy, especially with regard to its history. In: Journal for Philosophical Research 12
• Telelogical thinking, reflections on the book of the same name by Nikolai Hartmann, Bouvier, Bonn 1960
• About the reason of the random probability, Salzburg Yearbook for Basic Philosophical Concepts 1961–1962
• The problem of the transcendental and the structure of being. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild, 1963
• Basic human desire as a revelation of human nature, Mainz 1963
• Realism, idealism, ideal realism. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild, 1963
• The responsibility of philosophy in the present. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild 1963
• Truth and Reality, A. Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1965
• Ways of knowing God. In: Salzburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 9, 1965
• Language, thinking, philosophy. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild 1966
• About the transcendability of consciousness. In: Journal for Philosophical Research 16
• Investigations into the problem of infinite sets (?)
• Simply being a necessity? In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild 29, 1966
• About the truth. In: Philosophical Yearbook 1967
• Truths and truth. In: Salzburg Yearbook for Philosophy 7
• Art and Philosophy (History of the Future), Festschrift for Anton Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1967
• On the essence and value of the analogy of being. In: Wissenschaft und Weisheit 31, 1968
• Structure of being and modality. In: Actes of the XIV International Congress of Philosophy 3, Vienna, 1968
• About the purposefulness. In: Wissenschaft und Weisheit 31, 1968
• Philosophy and technology. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild 23, 1970
• Creation and redemption from a philosophical point of view. In: Salzburger Jahrbuch für Philosophie 15-16, 1971-72
• Philosophical foundations of human rights. In: Wissenschaft und Weltbild 25, 1972
• Action. In: Handbook of Basic Philosophical Concepts, Vol. 2, Munich 1973
• Causality. In: Handbook of Basic Philosophical Concepts, Vol. 2, Munich 1973
• Consciousness and transience, J. Bergmanns, Munich 1975
• Logic and Ontology, Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1976
• Human nature and position in the world, Saarbrücker Druckerei 1979
• The problem of a philosophical ethics, J. Berchmans, Munich 1979
• Basic questions in philosophy, J. Berchmans, Munich 1979
• What is philosophy ?, Saarbrücker Druckerei 1981
• His Welt Mensch, J. Berchmans, Munich 1983
• Man before God, J. Berchmans, Munich 1984
• Metaphysical Evidence, Kant Studies 53

literature

• Annemarie Pieper : Review of the six-volume foundation of philosophy (Munich 1965-1970), in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 80 (1973) 425-430.
• Brigitte Dehmelt Cooper: Bela v. Brandenstein (1901-1989), in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 97 (1990) 390-394
• Veres Ildikó: (Szerkesztő) Brandenstein Béla emlékkönyv. Miskolc, Magyarország: Miskolci Egyetemi Kiadó 2002
• Veres Ildikó: Mikrokozmosz a Makrokozmoszban: Brandenstein Béla filozófiájának szegmensei 1944-ig: = Microcosm in the Macrocosm - segments of Béla Brandenstein's philosophy until 1944. Vienna, Ausztria: Integratio (2014), szerk. Börondi Lajos
• Veres Ildikó: Hiány és létteljesség. Budapest, Magyarország: L'Harmattan Kiadó (2017), 220 p.

Web links

• Tibor Hanak: Béla Frh. Von Brandenstein. Hungarian Institute, Munich
• Béla von Brandenstein . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)
• Magyar Katolikus Lexicon: Brandenstein

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Veres Ildikó 2014, 230 ff.