I wanted to reflect a little more on the centrality of ambivalence as
inherent in all systemic conceptual worldviews by a backward glance to the
tension between early German Romanticism and German Idealism.
This is not an arena I know well but Andy's writings have clled me tlearn
more.
I am reading a book on Schlegel's contribution to the ideas circulating in
Jena at the beginning of the 1800's. A time which has been referred to as
Early German Romanticism.
Schlegel wrote this comment when reflecting on thinking systematically.
"It is equally fatal for the spirit to have a system and to have none. It
will simply have to decide to combine the two"
This comment seems to share the same sensibility as Zygmunt Bauman's notion
of "ambivalence" as ontological to all system constructions. "liquid
modernity" as diachronic versus more structural notions of solid modernity
is a case in point.
Every philosopher must have a system, for to make claims and construct
arguments, we must assume some system, FOR WE NEED LIMITS, but this must be
done with the recognition that ANY particular system is a PART of a
PLURALITY of other systems. This is the recognition that one must
simultaneouslly be WITHIN a system and be without it.
This way of thinking, which can be framed as "romantic" [no final system]
is also hermeneutic.
Just further reflections on the ontological necessity of ambivalence at the
heart of our projects.
Larry
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