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  3. The decades after 1830 were a period of disintegration and uncertainty in German philosophy. For almost half a century idealist

The decades after 1830 were a period of disintegration and uncertainty in German philosophy. For almost half a century idealist

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问题     The decades after 1830 were a period of disintegration and uncertainty in German philosophy. For almost half a century idealist philosophies, culminating in Hegel’s grandiose system, had dominated the philosophical scene, revolving around such spiritual notions as transcendental ego, consciousness, presentation(Vorstellung), idea, mind, and spirit(Geist). The rapid collapse of German Idealism—that "gigantic mountain range" of creative thought, as Husserl called it in 1917, was due to a combination of causes.
    There was in the first place, accelerated progress in the natural sciences, ranging from physiology(Johannes Muller, Ernst Weber)to physics(Robert Mayer, Hermann Helmholtz)and chemistry(Justus von Liebig, Friedrich Wohler). The success of the experimental approach visibly demonstrated the futility of all idealistic speculation about nature. Secondly, there was the rapid growth of technology(especially the construction of railways and the invention of the telegraph), combined with the process of industrialization(resulting in tensions between capital and labour which led to radical changes in the economic system). Moreover, new political ideas concerning popular participation in government led first of all to the abortive revolution of 1848 and resulted finally in the unification of Germany after the war of 1866.
    Next to philosophical idealism, the other great loser in this course of events was Christianity, especially protestant Christianity, a long-standing ally of idealism. The vacuum thus produced was often filled by vulgar materialist ideas along the line of Ludwig Buchner’s Kraft und Stoff(1855). The more educated classes, however, had needs of a more refined nature, and they turned instead to Schopenhauerianism. Schopenhauer stood firmly in the great European tradition of idealism extending from Plato and Kant, but he nevertheless resolutely rejected post-Kantian, and more specifically Hegelian idealism. Schopenhauer combined the scientist’s conviction of a blind causality reigning in the world of nature with a view according to which this world is none the less rooted in a subjective bestowal of sense. He combined the democratic feeling of compassion for all mankind with an elitist view on art, and a belief in the ultimate meaninglessness of history with an ontology in which the will is fundamental. But above all his philosophy, while rating Christianity rather low, made room for religion on better soil; the religion of India.
    The view of Indian thought current among educated circles in the second half of the nineteenth century in Germany was strongly influenced by Schopenhauer. Not only did he give popular currency to expressions such as "nirvana" and "the veil of maya", but also he may also be held responsible for the current amalgamation of all ideas which blew into Europe from the East. Neither Hinduism and Buddhism nor Brahmanism and Vedanta philosophy were clearly distinguished by Schopenhauer. On one point, however, he was particularly firm: Buddhism is the highest religion in the world, because it is an "atheistic religion" .Thus it not only surpasses Christian theism, but also comes close to Schopenhauer’s own conception of the absolute. Schopenhauer’s followers in Germany were therefore able to look down on the parochial Christian rituals practised in their country, while upholding the claim that they, too, were directed toward some higher entity however, vaguely conceived. Moreover, they could feel themselves close to the Vedas and Up-anisads, considered to be the oldest and most venerable documents of human thought, while at the same time feeling superior to these Indian "myths" as a result of their own ro-otedness in the purely philosophical ideas of the Schopenhauerian system.
    To illustrate all this, I want to quote from a document which not only exemplifies this widespread attitude, but also deviates from it in a significant way. It will moreover display the typical framework of Husserl’s own understanding of Indian thought. The document in question is a letter written by Thomas Masaryk(1850—1937)in 1876, while Masaryk(who later was to rise to fame as the thunder and first president of the Czechoslovakian state)was still a student of philosophy. The letter is addressed to Franz Brentano who had been for some years Masaryk’s teacher at the University of Vienna, the capital of the Aus-tro-Hungarian Empire. It was written from Leipzig in Germany where Masaryk moved in order to continue his studies. On 23 November 1876, he writes to Brentano: ...
What can we infer about the writer’s feelings concerning Louis Buchner’s Kraft und Stoff(1855)?
选项 A、He thinks that it is an example of the much-needed exposition of materialism to the common people.
B、He feels that it is an example of the garden-variety reactions to the void created by the downfall of idealistic philosophies and religions, particularly among Christian denominations.
C、He has a low opinion of Kraft und Stoff.
D、It was an example of materialist ideas.
答案C
解析 根据文中第三段的“The vacuum thus produced was often filled by vulgar materialist ideas along the line of Louis Buchner’s Kraft und Stoff(1855)．”可知，如同路德维希·毕希纳的著作《力和物质》(1855)那样，由此产生的空虚常常为庸俗的唯物主义思想所填满。据此可以推知，作者对路德维希·毕希纳的著作《力和物质》的评价很低。C项正确。
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