Difference between revisions of "Absolute (philosophy)" - New World Encyclopedia

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==Concept of Absolute ==
 
==Concept of Absolute ==
=== Terminology ===
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=== Etymology ===
  
 
English word, absolute, came from [[Middle French]] "absolut," which was originated from [[Latin]] "absolutus," a past participle of "absolvo," a verb, meaning "to set free, end, and complete," and "detached, pure." <ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=absolute&searchmode=none|Online Etymological Dictionary]. Retrieved April 13, 2008.</ref>
 
English word, absolute, came from [[Middle French]] "absolut," which was originated from [[Latin]] "absolutus," a past participle of "absolvo," a verb, meaning "to set free, end, and complete," and "detached, pure." <ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=absolute&searchmode=none|Online Etymological Dictionary]. Retrieved April 13, 2008.</ref>
  
==Conceptual issues==
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=== Conceptual issues===
  
 
The term, Absolute, denotes whatever is free from any condition or restriction, and independent from any other element or factor. As with other concepts such as infinite, perfection, eternity, and others, absolute can be articulated only by negating finite concepts. Absolute, in itself, is not immediately or directly accessible by human perception, experience, and comprehension. Thus, the concept of absolute is usually defined by negating what are immediately available to human knowledge.  Perception and comprehension, in a usual sense of the term, are relational event which presupposes relative elements such as knowing subject and object of knowledge. If absolute is understood in the strict sense, it rejects the relativity which is inherent to the mechanism of human cognition, understanding, and language. [[Thomas Aquinas]] discussed both [[ontology|ontological]], [[epistemology|epistemological]], and [[methodology|methodological]]  difficulties in articulating and accessing knowledge of the Absolute which is by definition beyond any conditioning and limitations.  [[Kant]] elaborated, in his Critique of Pure Reason, the limit of and conditions of human knowledge and the role limit concepts play in human understanding.  He also developed philosophical arguments for the positive role of limit concepts in [[morality|moral]] discourses.  
 
The term, Absolute, denotes whatever is free from any condition or restriction, and independent from any other element or factor. As with other concepts such as infinite, perfection, eternity, and others, absolute can be articulated only by negating finite concepts. Absolute, in itself, is not immediately or directly accessible by human perception, experience, and comprehension. Thus, the concept of absolute is usually defined by negating what are immediately available to human knowledge.  Perception and comprehension, in a usual sense of the term, are relational event which presupposes relative elements such as knowing subject and object of knowledge. If absolute is understood in the strict sense, it rejects the relativity which is inherent to the mechanism of human cognition, understanding, and language. [[Thomas Aquinas]] discussed both [[ontology|ontological]], [[epistemology|epistemological]], and [[methodology|methodological]]  difficulties in articulating and accessing knowledge of the Absolute which is by definition beyond any conditioning and limitations.  [[Kant]] elaborated, in his Critique of Pure Reason, the limit of and conditions of human knowledge and the role limit concepts play in human understanding.  He also developed philosophical arguments for the positive role of limit concepts in [[morality|moral]] discourses.  
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In religious traditions, [[truth]] is also understood as an attribute of or originated from God or the Ultimate being. Absolute truth in the sense of unconditional truth is often distinguished from natural truth and the former is said to be accessible by [[faith]] or [[revelation]].  
 
In religious traditions, [[truth]] is also understood as an attribute of or originated from God or the Ultimate being. Absolute truth in the sense of unconditional truth is often distinguished from natural truth and the former is said to be accessible by [[faith]] or [[revelation]].  
  
Faith in religion can also have unconditional character. A Danish philosopher, [[Kierkegaard]]  characterized faith as an act beyond rational reasoning. Faith is required to enter into the religious realm precisely because there are some elements incomprehensible elements in religion, which cannot be dissolved by reason.  
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Faith in religion can also have unconditional character. A Danish philosopher, [[Kierkegaard]]  characterized faith as an act beyond rational reasoning. Faith is required to enter into the religious realm precisely because faith involves some rationally incomprehensible elements which require [[existentialism|existential]] commitment and decision.
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==

Revision as of 15:11, 15 April 2008

The term, Absolute, denotes unconditioned and/or independence in the strongest sense of the term. It can include or overlap with meanings implied by other concepts such as infinite, totality, and perfection, which also exclude conditioning, dependence, and relativity. In Christian theology, the Absolute is conceived as being synonymous with or essential attribute of God, and it characterizes other natures of God such as His love, truth, wisdom, existence (omnipresence), knowledge (omniscience), power (omnipotence), infinite, and others in contrast to corresponding natures, in all beings other than God, which are conditional, dependent, relative, and limited. Absolute love, for example, means unconditional love in contrast to conditioned and limited love we find in human world. Similarly, other natures of God are characterized by absolute to express its unconditional character. The Absolute is also synonymous with or a characteristic of the Ultimate Being in diverse religious traditions.

Greek philosophers did not explicitly elaborate philosophical analyses about the concept of absolute. But, the quest for the unconditioned ultimate principle was the motive for their philosophical inquiries. Medieval philosophers equally did not use the term absolute, but their thoughts on God was the first explicit elaboration on the concept of absolute. Various interpretations were given to the notion of absolute, particularly in relation to other characteristics of God in modern times. Major philosophers who developed perspectives on the Absolute are German Idealists such as Schelling, Kant, and Hegel, and British philosophers such as Herbert Spencer, William Hamilton, Bernard Bosanquet, Francis Bradley, and Thomas Hill Green, and American idealist philosopher Josiah Royce. The notion of absolute played an important role in forming each of these philosophers' theories.

Concept of Absolute

Etymology

English word, absolute, came from Middle French "absolut," which was originated from Latin "absolutus," a past participle of "absolvo," a verb, meaning "to set free, end, and complete," and "detached, pure." [1]

Conceptual issues

The term, Absolute, denotes whatever is free from any condition or restriction, and independent from any other element or factor. As with other concepts such as infinite, perfection, eternity, and others, absolute can be articulated only by negating finite concepts. Absolute, in itself, is not immediately or directly accessible by human perception, experience, and comprehension. Thus, the concept of absolute is usually defined by negating what are immediately available to human knowledge. Perception and comprehension, in a usual sense of the term, are relational event which presupposes relative elements such as knowing subject and object of knowledge. If absolute is understood in the strict sense, it rejects the relativity which is inherent to the mechanism of human cognition, understanding, and language. Thomas Aquinas discussed both ontological, epistemological, and methodological difficulties in articulating and accessing knowledge of the Absolute which is by definition beyond any conditioning and limitations. Kant elaborated, in his Critique of Pure Reason, the limit of and conditions of human knowledge and the role limit concepts play in human understanding. He also developed philosophical arguments for the positive role of limit concepts in moral discourses.

In Christian theology and philosophy, when the Absolute is understood in the strict sense by excluding any form of relativity and any effect by others, it poses a question of personality of God. For God to be personal, He must have a relative relationship with some other being such as human beings. Human interaction with God as a personal being, requires God to be in relative relationship with human beings. If God is the Absolute in the sense of complete absence of any affect or relativity, God’s personality has no sense to human beings. Interpretation of the Absolute in the strict sense also raises a difficulty for the notion of Creatorship of God. If God is the Creator and He created the creation, He enters into the relative relationship with the creation.

When the notion of absolute is applied to God and He is understood as the Absolute, interpretation of the sense of absolute and its relationship with other attributes of God becomes a fundamental theological and philosophical issue.

Spinoza, for example, denied personality and creatorship in God. Exclusion of relativity in God as the Absolute led him to the notion of the immanence of God in the creation and pantheistic oneness of or absence of separation between God and the world. As with Spinoza, Hegel attempted to explain the creation of the world without the notion of creation. Hegel’s concept of the Absolute and its relationship with the phenomenal world including natural and human history became pantheistic. (see Spinoza and Hegel)

Historical perspectives

Ancient Greek Philosophy

Elaborate discussion of the notion of absolute began with medieval philosophy which introduced God as the Absolute. In Greek philosophy, discourses on the concept of absolute was not as explicit as medieval philosophy, but philosophical thought on absolute is embedded in the quest for the philosophical principles.

Ancient Greek philosophers pursued the ultimate rational principle which could consistently and comprehensively explain diverse natural, cosmological, and human phenomena. Although those earliest philosophers in the history of philosophy known as Pre-Socratics did not leave much material except small amount of fragments to us today, their thought indicate that the question of absolute, in the sense of unconditioned or undetermined ultimate principle, was present in their philosophical inquiries.

Anaximander, for example, defined the ultimate principle as “undertermined” for the reason that any form of determinacy is an indication of limitation and conditioning. If the ultimate to be genuinely ultimate, it must be free from any limitation. The “undetermined” is, thus, for Anaximander divine and eternal.

Parmenides identified the ultimate principle with “being” or the fact of “to be.” Ontological fact of “to be” is, he argued, the most universal or fundamental commonality of anything that is. Be it an object of thought or cognizing subject or anything whatsoever, any being must “be” in some way to be able to be thought. So ultimate fact is “to be.” Although he did not use the term absolute, Parmenides argued for the ultimate primacy of the concept of being and characterized being or “to be” as absolute fact in the sense of unconditioned and independent.

Each pre-Socratic philosopher thus presented his philosophical thought on the ultimate principle. These principles were, in one way or another, held an element of absolute in the sense of unconditional and independence.

Plato identified the good, which he characterized as permanently existing by itself in the incorporeal world, as the ultimate principle. The good, for Plato, was the absolute. Its goodness was, he argued, established by itself without recourse to any other thing whatsoever. The good is rather that which is presupposed by any human thought, action, and all social, natural phenomena. With Plato, the concept of absolute came to be conceived as the ethical principle as well as ontological principle. Plato, as well as other Greek philosophers, did not explicitly elaborate the concept of absolute but he implicitly presented the notion of absolute in his ethical ontology.

Aristotle placed a study of god (theology) as the first philosophy for the reason that it deals with the “unmoved mover” of all phenomenal. For Aristotle, the ultimate principle had to be that which is unconditional and independent, which has no prior condition whatsoever.

Medieval philosophy

Although the term absolute was not medieval philosophers’ major vocabulary, contents denoted by the concept of absolute was ascribed to God and His natures. They identified God with the Absolute and made the most explicit discourses on the concept of absolute and the Absolute.

Human knowledge, cognition, and languages are relative, limited, and conditional, whereas the concept of absolute is defined by negating those limitations and conditioning. Thus, knowing, discussing, and even describing the Absolute by human beings are inherently difficult. God is not only inaccessible by human sense perception, but cognition is in itself an interactive relationship between the subject of cognition and its object. Likewise, thinking is an interactive process between the thinking subject and the objects of thought. Absolute, if understood in the strict sense of the term, means by definition a negation of or transcendence over all forms of relativity. How can human beings approach God if He is the Absolute in the sense of denial of all relativity and conditioning?

Thomas Aquinas was fully aware of these difficulties in knowing, describing, and approaching the Absolute by human being. He developed methodologies to answer these questions, which included Negative Way (Via Negativa Latin), Affirmative Way, and Analogy. These three methodologies are interrelated.

Aquinas argues that we can affirmatively predicate God by such words as good and wise. Thus, we can say “God is good or wise.” What human beings understand by “good” or “wise” are, however, all taken from their own experiences from the world. Human knowledge is finite, limited, relative, and imperfect. Thus, those finite human knowledge must be qualified or denied (Negative Way) in order to properly apply to God. The question is how can those limited knowledge, human beings acquired from the world, be applied to God who transcends all forms of limitation. Aquinas called the third way Analogy. By analogy, we finite human beings can ascribe limited and imperfect human knowledge to God who transcends the limitation.

Modern philosophy

The issue of absolute was carried into modern philosophy. Unknowability of God, discussed by Thomas Aquinas, was reformulated by Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason, one of the best known epistemological treatises in the history of philosophy. Kant tried to present the conditions of human knowledge which can show the limit of what is knowable. Kant argued that human knowledge or human experience is constituted by sensible contents supplied by an object and a priori forms (the ways sensible contents are organized) in mind. Thus, that which does not supply sensible contents to human being cannot, in principle, be knowable.

People have always spoken of the absolutely necessary (absolutnotwendigen) being, and have taken pains, not so much to understand whether and how a thing of this kind can even be thought, but rather to prove its existence.… if by means of the word unconditioned I dismiss all the conditions that the understanding always requires in order to regard something as necessary, this does not come close to enabling me to understand whether I then still think something through a concept of an unconditionally necessary being, or perhaps think nothing at all through it.

Kant Critique of Pure Reason, A593

Human reason, however, tends to posit the unconditioned in relation to objects (the conditioned) of human experiences. Due to this inherent tendency of reason, human beings posit the unconditioned such as God, the soul, and the world. For Kant, the unconditioned is in principle unknowable.

While Kant excluded the unconditioned (God, the soul, and the world) from the realm of the knowable, he argued for the necessity of God, immortality of the soul, and freedom in the sphere of morality. Human beings have a rational reason to believe in them as the fundamental presupposition of morality, which Kant called “rational faith.”

German philosophers after Kant such as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, known as German idealists , returned to a speculative metaphysic and developed various theories based upon their understanding of the Absolute.

The concept was adopted into neo-Hegelian British idealism (though without Hegel's complex logical and dialectical apparatus), where it received an almost mystical exposition at the hands of F.H. Bradley. Bradley (followed by others including Timothy L.S. Sprigge) conceived the Absolute as a single all-encompassing experience, rather along the lines of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta. Likewise, Josiah Royce in the United States conceived the Absolute as a unitary Knower whose experience constitutes what we know as the "external" world.

Absolute values

In various religious traditions, absolute is also ascribed to various values and natures of God or the Ultimate being, and by extension to the realm of human being. Absolute love is characterized as unconditional love which constitutes unconditional forgiveness, unconditional giving without expectation of reward or benefits, and altruistic services for the sake of others. Agape in Christianity, Mercy or compassion in Buddhism, are some examples of Absolute love in religious traditions.

Absolute good is described as the good in itself or the Good in philosophical tradition. Platonic metaphysics was built upon the eternal existence of the Good. Goodness of the Good is established by itself without recourse to any other condition. Kant moral philosophy also presupposes the unconditionality of the good.

In religious traditions, truth is also understood as an attribute of or originated from God or the Ultimate being. Absolute truth in the sense of unconditional truth is often distinguished from natural truth and the former is said to be accessible by faith or revelation.

Faith in religion can also have unconditional character. A Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard characterized faith as an act beyond rational reasoning. Faith is required to enter into the religious realm precisely because faith involves some rationally incomprehensible elements which require existential commitment and decision.

See also

Notes

  1. Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved April 13, 2008.

External links

Portal:Philosophy
Philosophy Portal

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