Polanyi 의 "Personal Knowledge" / Robinson 의 "Humanism"

 

화학자이며 철학자 Michael Polanyi 의 책 Personal Knowledge:

Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy (1958)나 소설가이며

에세이스트 Marilynne Robinson 의 The Givenness of Things:

Essays (2005) 맨 앞에 실린 에세이 Humanism 이나, 크게는, 같은

열정으로 같은 얘기를 하고 있다는 생각이 든다. 이들과 비슷한

생각인 사람들에 속하든, 그 바깥에 속하든, 이들의 주장이나 논리를

어느 정도는 알아 둘 만하겠다.

 

하나, Humanism 에서 Marilynne 이 "Neuroscientists seem

predisposed to the conclusion that there is no 'self,'" 그리고

[그래서] "Is it fair to say that this school of thought is

directed against humanism? This seems on its face to be

true" 라고 한 것은, 사실 좀 놀라고 실망했는데, 맞기보다는 틀린다는 게

내 생각이다.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personal knowledge is an intellectual commitment, and as such

inherently hazardous. only affirmations that could be false can be

said to convey objective knowledge of this kind. (in Preface)

 

St. Augustine brought the history of Greek philosophy to a close by

inaugurating for the first time a post-critical philosophy. He taught

that all knowledge was a gift of grace.... Then faith declined and

demonstrable knowledge gained superiority over it. (p266)

 

If the universe were in fact meaningless, the destruction of religious

beliefs would have been fully justified. Since I do not believe that

the universe is meaningless.... Today we should be grateful for

the prolonged attacks made by rationalists on religion for forcing

us to renew the grounds of the Christian faith. (p286)

 

In trying to restrict our minds to the few things that are

demonstrable, ... it has overlooked the a-critical choices which

determine the whole being of our minds and has rendered us

incapable of acknowledging these vital choices. (p286)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find the soul a valuable concept, a statement of the dignity

of a human life and of the unutterable gravity of human action

and experience.... I am not prepared to concede objectivity to

the arbitrarily reductionist model of reality. (Humanism, p9)

 

Now that I find myself elderly, I am impatient with artificial

limits we put on our sense of things -- in the name of  reason,

I suppose, or in any case in difference to what consensus

will support as reasonable.... Our realism distracts us from

reality, that most remarkable phenomenon. (Realism, p275)