Human self-reflection

Reflection means in everyday language, when referring to a spiritual activity, such as: contemplation, reflection. In philosophy there since the 17th century beyond subject-specific uses of the term, the more or less oriented to the colloquial term and emphasize different aspects. Central to this is the distinction between drawee to external objects and perceiving that intellectual activity that focuses on the thought and imagination Act itself.

Ancient and modern basics

A "knowledge of knowledge" is addressed already by Plato ( Charmides 171c ), Aristotle calls this " thinking of thinking " in the context of a discussion of happiness that comes to him from the spiritual activity of all:

Finally, the turning back of the mind upon itself, Greek Epistrophe, in Neo-Platonism, especially with Proclus, a central concept. In the middle ages was reverse Epistrophe first as reditio, return, or conversio, translated. In addition, Thomas Aquinas used but reflexio already.

Following Descartes ' mirror reflection metaphors numerous controversial theories emerged. However, " should the definition of Leibniz ' La reflexion n'est autre chose qu'une attention à ce qui est en nous " [ German: " The reflection is nothing more than attention to what is in us ." ] For have been subject to the Cartesian tradition to Husserl than consensus. " these principles emerged deferrals that, reflection ' increasingly distinguished by a prevailing here, the psychological notion of introspection.

John Locke

After reflection reflexion had naturalized in English and in French in the 17th century as slang terms, was John Locke's treatment of the reflection in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding ( 1690) decisive for the further philosophical debates about it. Locke distinguishes between the perception of external objects and the perception of the events in our own soul as " perceiving, thinking, doubting, faith, Justify, knowledge, will ," together with the associated feelings of " satisfaction or dissatisfaction ":

It is unclear whether the reflection is to be seen as dependent on the external perception or as an independent source of knowledge, as Locke recourse to Descartes, who coined the term reflection is not used, of course, also the latter claims ( try ... IV, 9, § 3).

The concept of reflection in the Enlightenment

The idea that the reflection mean a loss of immediacy, we find for the first time in François Fénelon and was propagated especially by Jean -Jacques Rousseau: " The state of reflection is against nature. " An became known literary treatment of this topic is Heinrich von Kleist's On the Marionette Theatre, where it says:

Johann Gottfried Herder pointed out that the reflection is dependent on language: they only allow it in an "ocean of sensations " capture individual moments in which the mind can be reflected. As people here drew upon earlier achievements, which they expanded and improved, finally (L. tooth) arises for Herder the intellectual history as a " supra-individual reflection context " dar.

Kant and German Idealism

Kant deals with the reflection terms of his predecessors in an appendix to the Transcendental Analytic of the Critique of Pure Reason apart. He speaks here of the Amphiboly, ie the ambiguity of the concepts of reflection, because they are either " abstract from all conditions of intuition (...) so we of course remains in the mere conception nothing left but the interior at all " (B 339, 341); or the concepts of the understanding would entirely " sensifiziert " so that you only could find their difference and their conflict. The former was the fault of Leibniz, the latter of Locke ( B 327 ). He therefore calls for a transcendental reflection, in the first place should the be determined whether the terms " than the pure understanding or to sensuous intuition belonging are compared " (B 317) - he calls it transcendental, because they do " locate the subjective conditions, under which we can come to terms, " and have it " of which the terms are to be obtained (B 316 ) is not to do with the objects themselves ".

Spruce differs in his science teaching from 1794 between " reflection " and "pursuit " as the two fundamental activities of the " absolute ego ". They bring in a first stage, the " I-ness " as a " back into itself continuous, self-determining activity ." By further "free reflection " 'll initially still separated and Related " in a new form, the form of knowledge or consciousness added ," by which the reflection "for themselves Being of Knowledge ", the but his reason, namely its freedom and unity, could visualize it in every case. The "essential basic law of reflection " is that knowledge is always " this and that " retains what to put back that the " reflection on reflection " also repeatedly makes "the world in a new form " appear in the form of a. The relationship of the reflection with the immediacy is accessible in love, which is intended for spruce than the " in God himself purely destructive reflection ".

For Schelling, the " sphere of reflection and divisiveness " characteristic of humans, but also means " a mental illness ". However, since these determine especially by Christianity as " divisiveness of the infinite and the finite " (L. tooth), the modern consciousness, they must be dealt with. This takes Schelling in the system of transcendental idealism (1800 ), in which the "free reflection " the task belongs, which I take as the naked body opposite to the consciousness of itself to. The reflection is " analytically ", but refers to a lying ahead " synthetic intuition", in the intuitant and intuited are identical.

Schelling criticizes Fichte that this by the I " never out of the circle of consciousness beyond " does using his setting of the ego to the self- given objects of nature, but it is difficult to spare him even this allegation.

Hegel determined in an essay of 1802, the modern philosophy as a whole 'Reflections philosophy of subjectivity ", but criticizes its predecessors always stay composed the separation between the finite consciousness and a vacuous Absolute. His own conception of reflection he developed in the science of logic ( 1812-16 ) and in the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences ( 1816 ).

Hegel distinguishes between "being" as a pure immediacy and the "essence ", "their determination" was the reflection. The reflection of " puts " the identity of the essence, this puts the being ahead of the one part, "sets " it at the same time himself to " passing reflection " therefore is an "outer" reflection, the set being the, just because it from the reflection is set, negating, making it " the cancellation of this they are set " and " in the Negiren Negiren this their Negirens " operates. Finally, the results in " determining reflection " that translated and external reflection are one, because the latter is nothing but the " immanent reflection of immediacy itself." This results in a " reflection " statements of identity, difference and contradiction, with the reflection of the latter, " to reason " is, in both senses of the expression. The "infinite reflection " leads the "essence ", which have the character of a " substance" to the purely subjective " term" as the third development stage of Hegel's logic. In the sphere of the term " articulate " the reflection which had hitherto represented only the "movement " of the essence of Being itself. Than judgment and final

From this " reflection at all ' Hegel distinguishes the " reflection of consciousness, "which he had developed in the Phenomenology of Spirit (1806 ), and the" definite reflection of the mind "which discuss the circumstances of perception under various aspects. Within the overall process of his philosophy that describes the Zusichkommen of the Absolute, he identifies the being and consciousness of the individual as a " stage of reflection".

Phenomenology and Existentialism

According to Hegel, Jakob Friedrich Fries led the reflection on the one hand to " immediate cognition of reason " back, on the other hand, he determined it empirically as an asset "inner self-observation " .. As a result, trends of increased " psychologistic " approach, in which the reflection treated itself as an empirical object been. Franz Brentano pointed contrast from the fact that the " inner perception ... can never be inner observation " but the observations merely accompany. In this understanding the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl's built on.

Husserl sees in the reflection of the " consciousness method for the recognition of consciousness in general." As for him only the contents of consciousness may be subject to a strictly scientific philosophy, it has thus a " universal methodological function" to. He formulated a hierarchical order of reflections, because the " reflections are again experiences and, as such substrates of new reflections, and so on ad infinitum ", where each of the previously experienced situation in the " retention " is detected. Last so would " pure ego " makes present the.

From the phenomenological and existentialist successors Husserl this " reduction to pure subjectivity " has been criticized (L. tooth). Merleau -Ponty pointed out that on the one hand with this approach the world might be such transparent to the ego out that was not clear why Husserl ever take the detour over them; on the other hand, the reflection always comes up a pre-reflective " impenetrability " ( opacité ) in the world. The reflection must in view of this impenetrability examine and develop their options:

The result is: "Never can the reflection itself over all situation raise ( ... ) is always even she gave Himself experientially - in a Kantian sense of the word experience: it arises, without even knowing where they gives itself to me as natural. "

Sartre describes in Being and Nothingness, the failure of reflection in their "double simultaneous effort to objectification and internalization ":

But "the reversion of being let only a distance appear between what pours out, and that for which the reversion happens " - a division known as " the nothing that separates the consciousness of himself even deeper and unconquerable will " be.

Sartre distinguishes three " Nichtungsprozesse ": the nihilation of the " for-itself ", which is "outside" lose first, " the in-itself and in the three temporal Ek metastases " past, present and future; secondly, that the attempt to recover then as just described; and third, " for-others being," Sartre called " impure " or " complicit reflection " because they pursue the impossible goal, " to be both different and to stay there itself " the nihilation by the.

Karl Jaspers calls with reference to Kierkegaard the " existential self-reflection " " a me nowhere it closes medium ". On one hand, " I am looking for me " in it " as proceeding from my mind about me ," a principle inconclusive process, on the other hand I place while continually new possibilities free, but run this risk of destroying " every beginning of my reality." " Existence can only in the constant danger of the endlessness of their reflection ," in which it " the boundless openness dares to come to him. "

Heidegger deals with the concept of reflection in Kant's thesis about being apart (1962). Kant's transcendental reflection is " reflection on the local network in place of being " where the thought " once as a reflection and then as a reflection of reflection " within the game. The former was " the horizon " before, in the " like how positedness objectness can be seen ," latter "means the procedure by which (...) is designed which first saw the horizon of positedness being." According to Heidegger, there is a dichotomy that is "the whole history of Western thought " for basic.

Paul Ricoeur refers to spruce and its reception in the French philosophy when he " for a basic re-appropriation of our passion " describes reflection as. From the Cartesian philosophy of consciousness distinguishes the philosophy of reflection, that in it the 'I ' neither in a psychological evidence, even in an intellectual intuition " is given:

Communication theories and philosophy of language

In the 20th century, the questions of reflection and reflexivity were again raised by the formative influence of the philosophy of science and philosophy of language, linguistics and structuralism. Particularly pronounced in the post-analytical philosophy ( in their attempt reintegration of empiricism and reflection semantics) as well as in the communication theories in particular the discourse and system theories. ( 1889-1976 ) and Hans -Georg Gadamer (1900 - 2002) In that communication paradigm, the new theming in the sphere of influence of Martin Heidegger knocks.

In the analysis of Herbert Schnädelbach reflection is traditionally thought of thinking that this is useful and systematisierbar generally as a philosophy and today taken as methodological and rational philosophy in more detail. The methodological systematization of, reflection ' allow it to transform the pre-analytical, mentalistic understanding of reflection in the adjoining Jürgen Habermas and Karl- Otto Apel discourse theories as well as in the language- or post-analytical philosophies and there to differentiate critical. The idea of ​​mirroring is abandoned. The ratio of reflection and method Schnädelbach formulated at the beginning of his main work reflection and discourse (1977 ):

Here go reflection as justification - in the sense of validity reasons of practical philosophy - on reflection as introspection addition ( this represents a demarcation to empiricist theories and systems theory is ). As a third is in the Schnädelbachschen reflection theory, the reflection to distinguish as disambiguation (analogous to its analytical separation of normative, descriptive and explicative discourses ). In terms of reflection as a justification of actions Jürgen Habermas emphasized in the lecture series The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (1983 /84) the communicative anchoring of reflection:

In the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann reflection refers to a certain form of self-reference of social systems, namely, in which the system creates its operations based on the difference between system and environment. The self-reference is the autopoietic reproduction, ie the reproduction of the system by itself; the orientation on the difference between system and environment allows the system to choose conditioning by the environment itself, which may be relevant if the system is provided as such in question. Luhmann formulated in terms of mental systems ( with reference to Jurgen Ruesch / Bateson for an outlet end standards of psychiatric theories ):

Reflection theories operate in different ways and solutions to the paradox of a blind spot in each observation, the Kantian reticle of himself, of the lower placing in Martin Heidegger, the already in - the - language -ness with Hans -Georg Gadamer or Dekonstruktionstheorems by Jacques Derrida; at last but not least, what can not be described, at least as "undetermined" to capture. Theodor Adorno was in connection to Hegel - which has been working on this still most detailed - led to the development of a negative dialectic. Reflection is in this theory capable of mentally running back reference to what the thinking in thought thinking and can not think (or to what the conversations and other communications in the communication communicate and can not communicate ).

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