anima mundi

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ANImA muNDI:THE RISE OF THE WORLD SOuL THEORY IN mODERN

GERmAN PHILOSOPHY

miklós Vassányi

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Anima mundi

The Rise of the World Soul Theory in modern German Philosophy

miklós VassányiKároli Gáspár university of the Hungarian Reformed Church

miklós VassányiFaculty of ArtsDepartment of General HumanitiesKároli university of the Hungarian Reformed ChurchHungarymvassanyi@yahoo.com

ISBN 978-90-481-8795-9 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8796-6DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8796-6Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York

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Acknowledgments

The present study is a thoroughly revised version of the dissertation I wrote under the promotership of Professor Dr. martin moors and defended in September 2007 at the Katholieke universiteit Leuven. Therefore, I reiterate all the acknowledg-ments I then made, as follows:

I thank my parents who brought me up, supported me and bore me with patience.I thank my honorary parents, i.e., my parents-in-law, who have always helped

me and my narrower family in every conceivable manner.I thank my promoter, Dr. martin moors, Professor of the Centrum voor

Metafysica, for his scientific advice, patience, kindest assistance and trust through-out the project. I also thank him for providing the official financial support without which the tremendous amount of international interlibrary loans, photocopying and microfilming related to the project could never have been carried out.

I thank the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the five-year-long scholarship that made possible the entire research project.

I thank mr. Stefan Derouck of the Interbibliothecair Leenverkeer-office of the K.u.L. for his very accurate, fast and effective cooperation on the project, in getting copies of some of the most unreal books and microfilms. Though I sometimes made ten requests a day, he invariably remained calm and friendly.

I thank my wife Ágota, de zoete geur van het leven, for her unstinting support and love.

I thank the heavenly Father for all these people, et de m’avoir porté et supporté – ὄλωλα, σέσηπα‧ ְּתַחְּטֵאִני ְבֵאזֹוב ְוֶאְטָהר

the author.

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Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1 The Concept of the Soul of the World in Plato ..................................... 1 2 The Concept of the Soul of the World in Plotinus ................................ 3 3 The major Difference Between the Classical and the Early

modern Conceptions of the World Soul ............................................... 4 4 The Chief Objective and the Structural Outline of the Enquiry ........... 5 5 Thematic Limitations and Terminology ................................................ 8

Part I Opposition to the Identification of the World Soul with God in the Philosophia Leibnitio-Wolffiana: The Theory of God as the ‘ens extramundanum.’

2 Presentation of the Texts Relevant for the Concept of an anima mundi. The Immediate Natural Theological Setting of the Problem ................ 13

1 Leibniz’s mature Position on the anima mundi in Deum non esse mundi animam (appr. 1683–1686), De ipsa natura… (1698), Considerations sur la doctrine d’un Esprit Universel Unique (1702) ....................................................................................... 13

2 Wolff: Theologia naturalis, Pars prima (1736) ..................................... 18 3 Baumgarten: Metaphysica (11739) ........................................................ 20 4 Ploucquet: De hylozoismo veterum et recentiorum (1775) ................... 22

3 The Distinctive Philosophical Content of the Concept of an “anima mundi” in Leibniz and His Followers. Arguments of This School Against the General Theory of anima mundi. A Broader Natural Philosophical and Metaphysical Discussion of Their Answer Positions ............................ 25

1 Leibnizian Natural Philosophy in General: De ipsa natura… (1698). Leibniz’s Position in Relation to that of malebranche (De la Recherche de la Vérité, 1674–75 and Traité de la Nature et de la Grace, 1680) and J. Ch. Sturm (Idolum naturae…, 1692), Respectively. Sturm’s Opinion Concerning the anima mundi ...................................... 25

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2 Propedeutical Characterization of the Difference Between Mens and Anima, According to Leibniz: Systeme Nouveau de la Nature… (Publ. 1695), Letter to R. Ch. Wagner (4th June 1710), Principes de la Nature et de la Grace, Fondés en Raison (Appr. 1712–1714), etc. ........................................... 36

3 Leibniz’s Alleged Panpsychism versus the Organicistic Interpretation of His Doctrine of Substance ......................................... 42

4 Leibniz’s Particular Arguments Against the Identification of God with the World Soul in Deum non esse animam mundi. The Problematic Possibility that There is an anima mundi Subordinate to God ............................................................................... 45

5 Leibniz’s Toleration of the Nominal Identification of a universal Spirit with the World Soul. His Arguments Against the Identification of God with the Totality of All Finite Spirits: Considerations sur la Doctrine d’un Esprit Universel Unique . Plotinus’ Arguments in Favour of the Identification of the World Soul with the Totality of All Finite Spirits: Enneads IV/2 and 9 ............................................................................... 50

6 The Wolffian Argument Against the Existence of a World Soul: the Difference of the Object of Perception from the Organ of Perception................................................................ 62

7 A General Assessment of the Theology of Causal Divine Presence in the Wolffian-Baumgartenian School and Its Shortcomings ........................................................................................ 67

8 Ploucquet’s Criticism of Hylozoism and of Leibnizian monadology. His Own Philosophy of Nature ....................................... 72

9 A Systematic Confrontation of the General anima mundi Theory with the Theology of Causal Divine Presence of the Leibnizian Tradition ................................................................... 81

Part II “Les Naturalistes” – Eighteenth-Century Physico-Theology: The Scientific Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God from the Teleology of Nature. The World Soul Theory in Physico-Theology. Physico-Theology As a Source of Inspiration for the Early German Romantics

4 Preliminary Historical and Conceptual Presentation of “L’Histoire Naturelle” in Selected Major Works of some Leading Naturalists. The Relation of Natural Science to Theology or Spirituality in their Works ............................................. 87

1 Definition of the Key Concepts: “Les Naturalistes” and “Physico-Theology” ....................................................................... 87

2 major Sources of Eighteenth-Century Physico-Theology .................... 90

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5 General Philosophical Analysis of Physico-Theology ............................ 103 1 The Quality of Physico-Theology as a Natural Science:

the Example of Cosmology ................................................................. 103 2 Physico-Theology as a Philosophical Science. The Logical

Skeleton of the Physico-Theological Argument for the Existence and Attributes of God ......................................................... 105

3 A Logically Formalized Exposition of the Physico- Theological Argument ........................................................................ 107

4 The Problem of Evil and the Physico-Theological Argument ............ 109 5 The Possible Resolution of the Problem of Evil Within

the Bounds of the Physico-Theological Theory .................................. 109 6 The Atheistic Hylozoistic Alternative to Physico-Theology .............. 111 7 The Physico-Theological Position in Respect of the

Atheistic Hylozoistic Theory .............................................................. 113 8 Kant’s Criticism of the Physico-Theological

Argument for the Existence and Attributes of God in the Critique of Pure Reason ............................................................ 115

9 A Criticism of Kant’s Criticism of Physico-Theology ...................... 116 10 Jacob’s Ladder as the First metaphysical metaphor

of Eighteenth-Century Physico-Theology .......................................... 117 11 The Second metaphysical metaphor of Eighteenth-Century

Physico-theology that Creation Is the Language of the Creator ................................................................................................. 120

12 The Indefinite Presence of God in Physico-Theology. Physico-Theology as a Source of Inspiration for the Early German Romantics .............................................................................. 120

Part III Gradual Rise of the Concept of a World Soul in the ‘Lessingzeit’. Philosophical Cabbala, Spinozism and Mysticism: Böhme and Ötinger; Spinoza, Lessing and the Pantheismus-Streit; Giordano Bruno’s Influence in the Epoch

6 Böhme’s Speculative Theology (De signatura rerum, 1622). Ötinger’s Cabbalistic Theory of the World as a Glorious Divine Epiphany or Shekhinā ; and His Problematic Rejection of the Concept of Weltseele (Offentliches Denckmahl der Lehrtafel einer … Prinzessin Antonia, 1763) .......................................... 127

1 The Tradition of Philosophical Cabbala; Böhme’s and Ötinger’s Work ............................................................................. 127

2 Böhme’s Speculative Theology as a Philosophy of Nature. The Two Speculative Principles of His Theology ................................. 129

3 Böhme’s Übergang from Theology to Cosmogony and Physics: a Probabilistic Step-by-Step Description of the Origin of the Physical universe .................................................. 133

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4 A Systematic Analysis of Böhmian Theology: the Eternally Incomplete Delivery of the World by God (Gebärung der Welt) Is a Birth of God Himself (Geburt Gottes). The Identity of Cosmogony with Theogony ............................................................ 137

5 The Eschatological Facet of Böhmian Theology and the Role of Alchemy: the Transfiguration of the material Body into the Pure Spiritual Element. The Doctrine of Geistliche Körperlichkeit, and Its Importance for the German Romantics ........................................................................................... 142

6 Böhme’s unsystematic Concept of the “Seele der großen Welt”: a Third Version of Probabilistic Cosmogony ...................................... 143

7 Ötinger’s Theology of Glorious Divine Epiphany (Shekhinā or Herrlichkeit): the Ontological Relation of the Ten Representative manifestations (Sephiroth) of God, to the Essence of God ............................................................ 146

8 Ötinger’s metaphysics: the Ontological Eminence of Spiritual Corporeality. God’s Spiritual Body. The mutual Transformability of Spiritual and material Substance (Corporificatio and Essentiatio) ......................................................... 153

9 Spiritual Space as the Sensorium Dei. Ötinger’s Reference to Newton’s Optice (1706 Edition). Newton’s Denial That God Is the Soul of the World ...................................................... 159

10 Ötinger’s Fragmentary Cosmogony, and His Idea of God’s Influxus ‘Spirituo-Corporalis’ on the Physical World. God’s Quasi-Physical Presence ..................................................................... 167

11 Ötinger’s Rejection of the Identification of God with the Weltseele. His Non-Exhaustive Differentiation of Geist from Seele, Within His System of Vivifying Principles. His Possible Alternative of the Weltseele-Theory: the Idea of a Spiritus Universalis. Recapitulation ..................................................................................... 176

7 The Philosophical Incompatibility of Spinoza’s System with the World Soul Theory. Bayle’s Identification of Spinozism with the World Soul Theory, and Wachter’s Denial of the Same. Lessing’s Statement Concerning the World Soul, and His Alleged Spinozism in Jacobi’s Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza (11785), Mendelssohn’s Morgenstunden (1785), and Herder’s Gott. Einige Gespräche (1787). Herder’s Rejection of the Identification of God with the Weltseele .......................................................................... 187

1 Spinoza’s Pananimism. His General Conception and Definition of the Soul in the Korte verhandeling, Second Appendix: Van de menschelyke ziel (approx. 1660–1662, publ. 11862), the Cogitata metaphysica (1663), and the Epistles OP No XXXIV (1665) and XXI (1675) ......................................................................... 187

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2 Spinoza’s Specific Definition of the Soul in the Korte verhandeling and Ethica I–II (1663–1675): the Case of the Human mind, mens humana. The Role of the Ideas as mediators Between the Infinite Intellect, and the Finite minds. Philosophical Parallelism with Ficino’s Theologia Platonica ..................................................... 197

3 Spinoza’s Concept of God as the Single Infinite Substance. The Philosophical Incompatibility of Spinozism with the anima mundi-Theory ...................................................................................... 204

4 Bayle’s Fundamental Philosophical Intention in the Spinoza- Article of His Dictionaire historique et critique (11697) .................... 210

5 Bayle’s Identification of Spinozism with the World Soul Theory in Footnote A of the Spinoza-Article. Seneca’s Concept of God as an Alleged Philosophical mediator. Bayle’s Own Criticism of the World Soul Theory ........................................... 215

6 Wachter’s Position in the Elucidarius Cabalisticus (1702, publ. 1706) that Spinozism is Philosophically Incompatible with the World Soul Theory .......................................... 224

7 Leibniz’s Confrontation with Wachter and Spinoza, in His Animadversiones ad Joh. Georg. Wachteri librum de Recondita Hebraeorum Philosophia (approx. 1706–1710), in Connection with the Anima mundi-Theory ..................................... 233

8 The Rejection of the World Soul in Hemsterhuis’s Theology (Aristée ou de la divinité 1779). Space as an Attribute of God. Hemsterhuis’s Philosophical Relationship to Spinozism. Lessing’s understanding of Hemsterhuis’s Theology, as Reflected in His Conversations with Jacobi ................. 240

9 The Character of Lessing’s Philosophical Convictions: mme de Staël on Lessing. A Synoptic Presentation of His Natural Theology and Turn Toward Spinozism: Das Christenthum der Vernunft (1753, posth. publ. 1784), Ueber die Wirklichkeit der Dinge außer Gott (approx. 1763; posth. publ. 1795), Die Religion Christi (1780) etc. .......................................................... 252

10 The Psychological Coherence of Jacobi’s Personality, and His Own Philosophical Relation to Spinozism, as Intrinsic Guarantees for His Veracity in the Spinozismus-Streit. The Historical Philosophical Truthfulness of Jacobi’s Account of Lessing’s ‘eigenes System’ ............................................................ 262

11 Lessing’s Statement About God Conceived as the World Soul (1): His Philosophical Sympathy for a Cabbalistic Spinozism, According to the Presentation of Jacobi’s Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza (11785). Historical Derivation of Lessing’s Concept of the Cosmogonical Contraction of God, and Its Philosophical Delimitation from the tsim-tsum of the Cabbala: book Bereshith of the Zohar (1280–1286); and Rosenroth’s Latin Epitomes (resp. 1677 & 1678) of I. Luria’s Sepher ha-Derushim (doctrine propounded 1569–1572, text

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compiled 1573–1576, edited 1620) and of A. C. Herrera’s Puerta del cielo … (comp. prob. betw. 1602–1635) as Possible Sources of Lessing’s Conception .................................................... 268

12 Lessing’s Statement about God Conceived as the World Soul (2): The Idea of God’s Cosmogonical Contraction and Expansion in H. More’s Fundamenta Philosophiae sive Cabbalae Aëto-paedo-melissaeae (1677), and van Helmont’s Seder Olam … (1693). Wachter’s Involuntary Propagation of the Idea of tsim-tsum in Der Spinozismus im Jüdenthumb (1699). Stoic Theology as a Potential Source of Lessing’s Concept of a ‘Personal’ God, Who Is Simultaneously the World Soul. Lessing’s ‘Esoterical Rationalism’ ..................................................... 297

13 Mendelssohn’s Rejection of the World Soul in Pope ein Metaphysiker! (1755), within the Frame of His Rational Theology as Propounded in the Morgenstunden oder Vorlesungen über das Daseyn Gottes (1785) ................................................................... 310

14 Herder’s Rejection of the univocal Identification of God with the World Soul in Gott. Einige Gespräche (1787) in the Context of His Cosmic Theology. The Quasi-World Soul of the Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit V/2 (1784) ........................................................................................... 317

8 The World Soul in Giordano Bruno’s De la causa, principio et uno (1584) and De l’infinito, universo e mondi (1584). The Revival of Bruno’s Philosophy in Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth-Century German Thought .................................... 329

1 A Philosophical Analysis of Bruno's Concept of l’anima del mondo and Its Connection with the Notion of an intelletto universale, and with the Concept of God ............................................ 329

2 Bruno’s Influence on Jacobi (Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza, 2nd ed. 1789, Beylage I), S. maimon (Auszug aus Jordan Bruno von Nola, 1793), and Schelling (Bruno, 1802) ..................... 343

3 A Philosophical Recapitulation of Part Three. An Introduction to Part Four: The Reception of the World Soul Theory in Early German Romanticism ......................................................................... 353

Part IV The Philosophical Postulation of the World Soul in Early German Romanticism

9 The World Soul in Baader’s and Schelling’s Conceptions .............. 363 1 Baader's Theory of Heat matter As the Soul of the World

(Vom Wärmestoff, seiner Vertheilung, Bindung und Entbindung, vorzüglich beim Brennen der Körper, 1786) in Relation to Kant’s Idea of ‘materia caloris’, Boerhaave's Chemical Idea of ‘verus ignis”, Lavoisier's Idea of

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‘le calorique’ and Volta’s Idea of ‘fuoco elementare’, on the One Hand, and to Newton’s mechanical Idea of ‘aether’, on the Other .......................................................... 363

2 Schelling’s Theory of the World Soul in the Timaios-manuscript (1794), in the Introduction to the Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur (1797), in Von der Weltseele (11798, 21806, 31809), and in Die Weltalter (versions of 1811 and 1814). The Influence of Kant’s Dynamical Concept of Wärmestoff (Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft) on Schelling’s Idea of the World Soul .......................................................................... 375

3 General Conclusion ............................................................................... 393

Bibliography .................................................................................................... 397

Index of Titles Philosophical and Other Works ........................................... 415

Name Index ...................................................................................................... 421

Index of Philosophical and Historical Concepts .......................................... 427

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Signs

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