World riddle
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The term "world riddle"or"world-riddle"has been associated, for over 100 years, withFriedrich Nietzsche(who mentionedWelträthselin several of his writings) and with thebiologist-philosopherErnst Haeckel,who, as a professor ofzoologyat theUniversity of Jena,wrote the bookDie Welträthselin 1895–1899, in modern spellingDie Welträtsel(German;"The World-riddles" ), with the English version published under the titleThe Riddle of the Universe,1901.[1]
The term "world riddle" concerns the nature of the universe and themeaning of life.
The question and answer of the World Riddle has also been examined as an inspiration orallegorical meaningwithin some musical compositions, such as the unresolved harmonic progression at the end ofAlso sprach Zarathustra(1896) by composerRichard Strauss.[2][3]
View of Nietzsche
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Friedrich Nietzschereferred to the "World Riddle" (Welträthsel) in several of his writings.
Emil du Bois-Reymond
[edit]Emil du Bois-Reymondused the term "World Riddle" in 1880 forseven great questionsof science, such as the ultimate nature of matter and the origin of simple sensations. In a lecture to theBerlin Academy of Scienceshe declared that neither science nor philosophy could ever explain these riddles.[4][5]
View of Haeckel
[edit]Ernst Haeckelviewed the World Riddle as a dual-question of the form, "What is the nature of the physical universe and what is the nature of human thinking?" which he explained, in a lecture in 1892, would have a single answer since humans and the universe were contained within one system, a mono-system:
The "exacting" Berlin physiologist [du Bois-Reymond] shut this knowledge out from his mind, and, with a short-sightedness almost inconceivable, placed this specialneurologicalquestion alongside of the one great "world-riddle", the fundamental question of substance, the general question of the connection between matter and energy. As I long ago pointed out, these two great questions are not two separate "world-riddles". The neurological problem ofconsciousnessis only a special case of the all-comprehendingcosmologicalproblem, the question of substance. "If we understood the nature of matter and energy, we should also understand how the substance underlying them can under certain conditions feel, desire, and think." Consciousness, like feeling and willing, among the higher animals is a mechanical work of theganglion-cells,and as such must be carried back to chemical and physical events in theplasmaof these.
Haeckel had written that human behavior and feeling could be explained, within the laws of the physical universe, as "mechanical work of the ganglion-cells" as stated.
View of William James
[edit]The philosopher and psychologistWilliam Jameshas questioned the attitude of thinking that a single answer applies to everything or everyone. In his bookPragmatism(1907) he satirized the world-riddle as follows:
All the great single-word answers to the world's riddle, such as God, the One, Reason, Law, Spirit, Matter, Nature, Polarity, theDialecticProcess, the Idea, the Self, the Oversoul, draw the admiration that men have lavished on them from this oracular role. By amateurs in philosophy and professionals alike, the universe is represented as a queer sort of petrified sphinx whose appeal to man consists in a monotonous challenge to his divining powers. THE Truth: what a perfect idol of the rationalistic mind!
— William James,Pragmatism,1907[8]
See also
[edit]- Epistemology- study of the nature of knowledge.
- Existentialism- philosophy of being/existence.
- Weltschmerz
Notes
[edit]- ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 804.
- ^ "Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Richard Strauss (1864–1949): Also Sprach Zarathustra"(program notes), Charley Samson, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, 2004, webpage: CSO-AlsoSprach.
- ^ "Classic Records Catalog / LSC-1806: Liner Notes" (description), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, R. D. Darrell, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), 1960, webpage: CSO-AlsoSprach.
- ^Finkelstein, Gabriel Ward (2013).Emil du Bois-Reymond: Neuroscience, Self, and Society in Nineteenth-Century Germany.Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. p. 272.ISBN9780262019507.
- ^du Bois-Reymond, Emil Heinrich (1891).Über die Grenzen des Naturerkennens: Die sieben Welträtsel[On the limits of natural cognition: The seven world-riddles]. Veit – via The Internet Archive.
- ^"Kelvin Smith Library",Case Western Reserve University,Cleveland, Ohio,2004. Notes the essay as dated 1895.
- ^Haeckel, Ernst (1982).Monism as Connecting Religion and Science.Project Gutenberg. Translated by J. Gilchrist. Accessed 1 May 2020. Dates the lecture to 1892.
- ^James, William (1907).Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking.Project Gutenberg. Accessed 1 May 2020.
References
[edit]- Ernst Haeckel,The Riddle of the Universe(Die WelträthselorDie Weltraetsel,1895–1899), Publisher: Prometheus Books,Buffalo, New York,1992, reprint edition, paperback, 405 pages, illustrated,ISBN0-87975-746-9.
- Ernst Haeckel,Monismas Connecting Religion and Science( "translated fromGermanby J. Gilchrist, M.A., B.Sc., PH.D. "), Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, Gutenberg.org webpage:GutenbergOrg-7mono10(for free download).