Philosophy in the changed world
Philosophy in the changed world is Walter Schulz's main work, published in 1972 .
It represents the large-scale attempt to "give an illumination of the present from philosophy" (p. 8). Schulz does not claim to bring his time - which he understands as a "time of upheaval" - to the term. Such an overall design would presuppose a metaphysical "overall design of the whole of being" and the view that "philosophy can ground the entire realm of spirit, that is, above all the sciences, in terms of form and content". But philosophy has played this role today.
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Schulz's analyzes of the present revolve around the central concepts: “Scientificization”, “Internalization”, “Spiritualization and embodiment”, “Historicalization” and “Responsibility”. He devotes separate sections to each of these.
The current and most important topic for Schulz is “scientification” . He understands it as a process by which “the simple separation of the objective world of objects and the subjectivity that encompasses them is abolished in favor of a research process in which subject and object are equally intertwined” (p. 8). Schulz gives a presentation of the history of the concept of science and the research situation of individual disciplines (physics, sociology, cybernetics). Particularly noteworthy for him is the intervention of the specialized and independent sciences in the modern everyday world. This state of affairs makes it necessary for philosophy to analyze the scientific development and to question its ethical implications critically.
In the chapter “Internalization” the author first deals with the epoch of classical metaphysics from Augustine to German idealism. He calls this the "philosophy of subjectivity". In his opinion, the existential philosophy that follows this represents a countermovement to traditional metaphysics insofar as it replaces the movement of transcending with a radical finalization of the ego. It remains committed to it insofar as “the inner world is not only placed above the outer world, but is elevated to a principle” (p. 9). Schulz sees this “internalization” from the perspective of the present as a “wrong track” and its examination as a “history of destruction”, which is, however, necessary in order to adequately understand the problems of the present.
For Schulz, the key terms "spiritualization and embodiment" belong together. In this chapter Schulz analyzes the development of occidental anthropology . From antiquity to Hegel, reason was considered the essential faculty of man. In the 19th century, the definition of the relationship between mind and body was reversed: “It is no longer reason, but the instinctual layer that becomes the determining power” (p. 9). Man is seen as determined by will, instinct and corporeality (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc.). Modern anthropology, which strives for a scientific foundation (Scheler, Plessner, Gehlen), must be distinguished from these two approaches. The author is skeptical about this scientification of the doctrine of human beings, since anthropology threatens to cancel itself out if it no longer asks about the essence of human beings but instead creates a multitude of models of human behavior.
Schulz addresses the problem of history under the heading of “historicalization” . Thinking about the problem of historical events reached its climax in the epoch of modern historicism, which began with Hegel's philosophy and largely determined philosophical thinking through the attempts at founding spiritual science up to the late Heidegger and modern hermeneutics. In the present the problem of history has faded into the background both in science and in general consciousness . Schulz opposes this ahistoricalism and wants to work out the dimension of history as essential for man. However, this should not be done as a spiritual historical examination of the past, but only under the aspect of acting towards the future.
In the final part “Responsibility” the area of ethics is dealt with. According to the conception, all previous analyzes are aimed at him. Ethics had taken a decisive position in traditional philosophy. In contemporary philosophy it is marginalized or is dealt with only from the point of view of language and logical reasoning.
Schulz wants to revalue ethics without falling back into a “private morality of inwardness”. The ethics must be based on "concrete issues under the aspect of shaping the future".
Schulz introduces compassion and reason as instances of ethics . In compassion, the awareness of the inner danger to life is kept alive; Reason, on the other hand, is the principle of the order with which the threat to life is overcome.
All five parts of the presentation are designed as historical-systematic studies of the respective topic. At the beginning Schulz presents the basic approaches of the tradition. This is followed by a broad investigation of the current approaches of the time. The last part of each section is a systematic analysis of the possibilities “that arise from the present with a view to the future as contemporary necessities” (p. 10).
The work is characterized by great clarity of presentation and comprehensibility of the train of thought. It has its particular strengths when it brings together the different views of tradition and the present and gets to the heart of their core ideas. The book received a lot of attention when it was published.