Monday, December 27. 2004

Obscurantism in Philosophy

There's a debate over at KrisKraus on the invalidity of obscurantism in philosophy.

On the one hand, you have something like Hegel's philosophical writing:

"Self-consciousness exists in and for itself when, and by the fact that, it so exists for another; that is, it exists only in being acknowledged." (Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," section 178.)

On the other hand, you have Nietzsche's writing which is supposedly clearer:

"Sibi scribere. -- The sensible author writes for no other posterity than his own, that is to say for his old age, so that then too he will be able to take pleasure in himself." (Nietzsche's "Human, All Too Human," II.i.167.)

Now, how do you determine which quote is more obscure? Does defining vagueness as indeterminacy help here?

Posted by

barce

in Just Philosophy at 14:26 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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