Jean Gebser
Jean Gebser ( born August 20, 1905 in Poznan, † May 14 1973 in Wabern near Bern ) was a philosopher, writer and translator. As a representative of Integral theory, he sought to combine scientific and spiritual discoveries. In this context, he is regarded as one of the first cultural studies oriented consciousness researchers who have established a structural model of consciousness history of man.
- 5.1 Primary texts
- 5.2 Commemorative and anthologies with contributions to Gebser
- 5.3 secondary literature on Jean Gebser
- 5.4 Additional and complementary secondary literature
Life
Jean Gebser (actually: Hans Karl Rudolf Hermann Gebser ) talks about his childhood and youth in the autobiographical short story " The sleeping years."
After completing a bank apprenticeship training followed as a bookseller in Berlin. There he enrolled in 1924/1925 for a few semesters as a student at the Humboldt University Berlin. He heard among others, Werner Sombart and Romano Guardini.
In 1931 he left Germany and lived from 1932 some time in Spain, where he was a friend of Federico García Lorca and other Spanish poets. 1936 published his translations of Spanish poems into German under the title " New Spanish poetry " in the publishing Rabenpresse of Victor Otto Stomps. In the same year he started ( first in Spanish) with the preparation of the publication " Rilke and Spain ", which was published in 1940 in German. From 1937 he lived in Paris, where she learned the French poet Paul Eluard, Aragon and Malraux and the painter Picasso know. Gebser 1939 left France and settled in Switzerland, which became his adopted home. In 1943 appeared his " demolition of the results of modern research " under the title " Occidental conversion ", then " The grammatical Mirror" ( 1944) and " Lorca or the realm of the Mothers " (1949 ).
In the winter of 1947 he had started to develop his main work "Origin and Present". 1949, the first volume was completed and published. From 1950 to 1952 he worked on the second volume, which appeared in 1953. On numerous conferences and lecture series, which are usually published in book form, he spoke with leading scientists and thinkers on the dawn of a " aperspectival " age, as he tried to show him in "Origin and Present", and about the new, " aperspectival " worldview. His friends included Carl Gustav Jung, Adolf Portmann, Karl Kerényi and the painter Siegward sprat. His closest friend was the historian Jean Rodolphe von Salis.
In 1961 he undertook a trip to Asia, the precipitation in the book " Asia smiles differently " (published in 1968) found. His last work, " Decline and participation ", published in 1974, he completed shortly before his death. To understand Gebserschen thinking it is just as important as " Present Origin ", because it brings in chapters such as " The Invisible origin " and " primal and basic trust " in -depth form the basic themes of the " integral consciousness " to the language. Jean Gebser died on 14 May 1973 in Wabern (Canton Bern ). His estate is located in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.
Work
Basic idea
Besides philosophical writings Gebser work also includes poems, an autobiographical story and books on the poet Lorca and Rilke. The work is by Gebser basic ideas influenced ( " The present is an age of change, and this change leads to the breakthrough of a new consciousness "). In the lecture " The new world view " described Gebser, as a thought struck him in November 1932, which was fundamental for his future work: " To put the shortest formula, is this thought: . Overcoming of space and time," he explained further "What does that mean? It is said that we are to overcome aware of space and time; it says not to say that space and time are to be abolished, but it does mean that we have to free ourselves up to a certain degree of both, but without sliding back into the magical, mind- weak Raumzeitlosigkeit. "
Gebser was of the opinion " that it does not important to think many various, but one or two main thinking or basic ideas as clearly as possible to the end. "
Gebser operation
Gebser wrote an essay entitled " Philosophy of Culture as a method and risk ", the insight into his understanding of himself as a thinker and granted in his way of working. It says about the cultural philosophical work: " The preparatory work is always first phenomenological, then comparative, then coordinating Art " Gebser believed to have found in his work such a basic issue that underlies the cultural phenomena of our time. "It is ," says Gebser, " the attempt to overcome the space and time. "
His basic idea was Gebser in physics, biology and psychology ( " Occidental conversion " ) as well as in the poetry of our time ( " Rilke and Spain ", " The grammatical mirror "). In his main work "Origin and Present" will find its results kulturphänomenologischer and cultural philosophical work.
Gebser's consciousness story
Gebser is now mostly associated with the history of consciousness, which is the first volume of " Present Origin " dedicated ( titled " The foundations of the aperspectival world. Contribution to the history of consciousness ").
Gebser method is the kulturphänomenologische consideration of the relic of the past (pictures, statues, documents ) and the study of words and their roots ( etymology ). He is of the opinion that there are four structures of consciousness can be demonstrated that constitute the contemporary European people and the succession occurred in its cultural history in appearance. He calls this consciousness structures the archaic, the magical, the mythical and the mental. In our time occurred in his opinion, the "breakthrough of a new, integral stage of consciousness, whose basic theme is overcoming ( Entprojizierung ) the only mental (linear) Arrested One of space and time by the concretion of time ( as time- free experiential quality holistic realized Present). "
The structures of consciousness are sometimes referred to as " awareness phase ". This may give the impression that the structures of consciousness successive followed by a structure, the other replaced. However, every structure remains effective even after a new structure of their " herausmutiert ". Therefore Gebser speaks of structures of consciousness, and not by "phases". Also, the spatial term " levels of consciousness " he avoids, because the structures of consciousness are " not mere spatial structure ," but can " especially spatiotemporal structure, and even space- time freelance art " be.
Furthermore, Gebser is of the opinion that awareness has not continuously "developed", but that abrupt, discontinuous changes of structures happened: as soon as a structure " deficient ," ie, when it is exhausted and thus have a destructive begins, reaches a different consciousness structure breakthrough, which is not a smooth continuation of the old structure of consciousness, but something entirely new. The abrupt, discontinuous nature of the transformation of consciousness brings Gebser expressed by speaking of " consciousness mutations ".
Thinkers such as Hegel, Comte and Herbert Spencer believed in the human consciousness story to detect a progressive higher development, are in the course of earlier forms of consciousness recognized as "errors" and replaced by new, "better" forms of consciousness; no new structure is "better" than the old one, from which they herausmutiert. Each consciousness is at the same time profit and loss. It was a loss, insofar as it dissolves out the people from the whole. However, it is a gain, so far as it offers the opportunity for growing distancing of space and time, and thus to overcome the space and time to obtain the space-time freedom, bringing back the basic idea Gebser is touched.
The space-time constitution of the structures of consciousness
The consequences arising from the basic theme of the new mutation will become apparent only when one is going to examine the space-time constitution of consciousness structures, as described in " Present Origin " pointed Gebser. Gebser is in the tradition of Kantian thought that the " reality is not simply given to man, but the result of the constitution power of human consciousness is. " Each of the structures of consciousness to a particular awareness of time and of space condition ( constitute ). This awareness is fundamentally not only what man calls reality determine, but also his attitude to the world and his actions.
The man of the magical structure of consciousness, according to Gebser lived in a space-and timeless world. Also for the people of the mythical structure of space is said to be not yet a reality. However, it awoke first, still weak awareness of time. This sense of time is to be distinguished from the prevalent today, because it perceives the time is not as linear, but as cyclical. Such a sense of time can be found for example in the Asian concept of " wheel of time", but also in the cycle of the seasons with their traditions and festivals.
The breakthrough of the mental consciousness, starting around 500 BC, but finally in the Renaissance to 1500, should be done with the awareness of the space. Also, the sense of time changed fundamentally. Time was no longer than circling, but perceived as directed, to be linear. In place of the " wheel of time" joined the " arrow of time ". Particularly clear one finds such an understanding of time in the teaching of Christianity, according to which everything that happens goes to meet a " recent", so the final judgment. Another characteristic of the time-consciousness of the mental structure is that the time is considered to be measurable and measured with increasingly precise clocks. This sense of time is prevalent even today.
The " time " as we understand it today, as a measurable clock time, is only one aspect of the phenomenon of "time". In addition to the measurable, linear clock time, it should also give the cyclic time of the mythical consciousness and the timelessness of magical consciousness.
Gebser criticized the tendency of our culture, the time to outclass and narrow down to a single aspect. Is the task of our epoch, as Gebser to be the time in all its forms and aspects aware. That is a condition of overcoming them. Overcoming of time to mean awareness of the " time freedom ". This consciousness Gebser referred as the main task of the new mutation.
Time freedom and origin
The time freedom, " Achronon " as Gebser calls it, is different from the timelessness of the cultures that live in a magical structure of consciousness. The Achronon is an understanding of the world, " which the different tenses, be they timelessness, natural time or measured clock time, is aware of where our Have skill on it frees us from them, and provides us with the freedom of time, in the conscious realized and ever-present origin near. " This" time freedom is the conscious form of the archaic, primitive prehistoric Stick. "
The object was for Gebser, the origin of the time to become aware. Characteristic of the origin are: his Vorzeithaftigkeit, its time freedom and its at-once structure. The origin is ancient way, as being the time "before", " is ". Even Augustine suspected in the light of the Christian idea of creation ex nihilo ( creation from nothing ) in the " City of God ": ". Undoubtedly, the world was created not in time, but with the time," The physicist and philosopher CF Weizsäcker writes about the state before the beginning of the world: "Before this time, the world must, if they ever existed, have been in a state that was completely different from today and we can not imagine us, as even the applicability of a concept such as time does not exist for him. "
This condition before the start is the origin. In contrast to the time-bound initial operation ( start, start ) is the origin is not bound by time, ie time free. However, this also means that he is always present. Events that can be described in time, and " no-data " events arise from the presence of the origin. In this case, the origin is also present, which unfolds sequentially in time. This brings a quote from Max Rychner expressed, " For the invisible history " mentions the Gebser in the essay. Rychner quoted: "Today it occurred to me on the street, the time was about a gift for the man because he can understand only through them. Actually, everything is at the same time there but we need to unwrap it piece by piece, because we would otherwise remain blinded by the whole, which seeks to reveal itself. "
The idea of Ursprungsgegenwärtigkeit is not to be understood as a doctrine of predestination, but as an attempt to the whole, the "before" or to be " beyond" the time "lying" origin meet. Gebser's work is called the awareness of the origin of the great issue of our time: " [ ... ] the origin, receives a stepped -conscious present- character with any consciousness mutation; the origin, which is characterized by a whole and the spiritual, and above space and time, is ', is time- free present. " This awareness makes the " overcoming of time " and thus a part of what is considered the basic idea Gebser was above referred to.
Unperspektivische perspective and aperspectival world
Parallel to overcome the time is done with the breakthrough of integral consciousness and the overcoming of the room. Here, too, must be emphasized again that there is no question of Gebser, sink back into the magical and mythical spacelessness. With the mental structure of the room was aware and this awareness can no longer be undone.
Was the magical and mythical world an un - or vorperspektivische world, was (and is ) the mental world with its space awareness a perspective world. The world of integral consciousness, however, be a aperspectival world. This thought leads Gebser in a chapter of the first volume of " Present Origin ": "The three European worlds." There he writes that the concept of perspective is meant here not only in art history, but in a much broader sense.
The perspective allows awareness of space and thus distancing themselves from him. For the perspective consciousness the world becomes opposite of a self that consciously differentiates itself from its surroundings, thus making the space available and manipulable. Particularly well you can understand this shift in consciousness in the painting: The old paintings of mythical consciousness know no perspective. To embed the people in the gold background. This expresses the fact that the man is still part of the world and not its opposite. Leonardo da Vinci turned the first painter to the perspective in technical perfection and informed them theoretically. The man broke away from the " golden ground " and made available to the world, manipulable opposite. Gebser recognizes thereby the mental consciousness as a big win, which meant a huge creative upsurge.
Only in our time the mental consciousness has become deficient. Therefore, in our time engaging the aperspective is necessary, which will result in the overthrow of the room. Again, this can be particularly well seen on the picturesque efforts of our time: the painting after the turn of the century tried in numerous ways to overcome the perspective. To be particularly successful experiments that can already be seen the new consciousness, the works of Braque and Picasso are of Gebser referred. What announces itself in the attempts of the painter, is to overcome the over - existing world of perspective age. The aperspectival world that emerges today will be a " world without counterpart".
The dualism of subject- object split, which gave her stamp of perspectival world is overcome in the " world without counterpart" by a new cooperation and with the conscious participation of the individual in the universe. Instead of the limited space of the mental structure occurs a finite, but unbounded cosmos the open world. This world is not overlooked realized the second part of the spirit of Jean Gebser, the overcoming of the room.
Reception and impact
Already during his lifetime has Gebser's work acted in many ways, open partially visible, even more hidden part. This already shows a view of the author list of the hard fonts that appeared to Gebser's 65th birthday. Both natural scientists such as Werner Heisenberg and Adolf Portmann and artists like Siegward sprat, Kurt Wendlandt, Max Brod and Hermann Broch were impressed by Gebser's writings. The research- on the border between psychology and medicine, scientists Gustav Richard Heyer and Arthur Jores unpaid Gebser recognition. The composer Peter Michael Hamel composed with " Diaphainon " a musical representation of the structures of consciousness Gebser. Hamels book " Through music to the self" is permeated by the idea Gebser. The books of jazz musician Joachim Ernst Berendt (eg " Nada Brahma " ) are influenced by Gebser. According to Berendt was Gebser's "Origin and Present" then to " in -book of an entire generation ". Whether this also point to a rather emotional, unscientific reception, so Gebser, however, knitted varied simultaneously in academia. The physicist Harald Atmanspacher presented with the reason of the Metis a book about Gebser's "integral consciousness structure ". The Jazz musician Theo Jörgensmann refers to the philosophy Gebser in his book Small ethics of improvisation. The psychologist Peter Gottwald makes in his book " Zen in the West" the conception Jean Gebser fruitful for a Western recording of Zen Buddhism. The composer and musicologist Eva -Maria Houben owes her habilitation on the problem of time in the music of 20th century philosophy Gebser essential suggestions. Among the more recent works are finally the substantial dissertation of Kai Hell bush call " The integral consciousness " and Heinrich Leopold's book "Globalization and integral consciousness ."
With the U.S. translation Gebser effect had crossed the German-speaking area. In the U.S., a lively discussion of Gebser's thoughts was held, starting with the books by Georg Feuerstein. Gebser had to Algis Mickunas, Ken Wilber, Allan Combs and William Irwin Thompson. Eric Mark Kramer issued an anthology of essays on English Gebser with " Consciousness and Culture". In his book " Modern / Postmodern. Off the Beaten Path of Antimodernism " shows Kramer, how can modern brighten with Gebser the difference / postmodern and clarify.
This list, which does not claim to be exhaustive, makes it clear that Gebser is by no means a forgotten thinker. Until now, however, a profound, constructive criticism of Gebser's work, which puts the finger on the sore points in Gebser conception and simultaneously makes its unquestionable merits and suggestions known to a wider circle is missing. Instead of constructive criticism so far outweigh short derogatory remarks that hang around to a serious confrontation. For example, Gebser be " ideological methods " accused of Rudolf Wendorff, and Karen Gloy. Emma Brunner- Traut done Gebser in her book "Early forms of knowledge " in a few sentences, claiming that his findings would not withstand serious research. All three save yourself the trouble of a substantiate its allegations.
Significance and criticism
Gebser's "Origin and Present" may today besides Rudolf Wend Orff's " time and culture. " Regarded as the standard work on the subject of time consciousness: " history of time consciousness in Europe " and Günter Dux ' " The time in the history Gebser company can [ ... ] be regarded as one of the most comprehensive attempts to portray the discourse of the time. " The Karlsruhe philosophy professor Ernst Oldemeyer says about Gebser, he had "groundbreaking with its rich collection of evidence and symptoms of arts and sciences worked for the detection of an integral consciousness formation, in which the analytic- delimiting subject-object rationality by a synthetically - systemic thinking is formed into networks. "
Ken Wilber criticizes Gebser's " archaic structure of consciousness " as a retrospective romance. One response to this criticism, wrote Georg Feuerstein. In addition, Gebser was accused that he would " psychologizing " - an accusation which, as Busch Light, was based on a misunderstanding of Gebser's structures of consciousness.
Possible points of criticism are the following:
- Gebser evidence is marginal, randomly picked and taken out of context.
Two objections to its cultural and philosophical method:
- From the fact that the science on these and those results coming, follows the life for a long time nothing. ( "We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched. " Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6:52 )
- There is never " a European reality " (which could be found for example in the art and science ), but always many realities, much more and much more complex realities than the structures of consciousness Gebser.
- Gebser makes in his characterization of the magical and the archaic structure of consciousness the mistake to put her Lévy Bruhl'schen claims about the " The spiritual world of primitive " basis, which has already been criticized and refuted by Claude Lévi- Strauss.