TY - JOUR
AU1 - Clouser, Roy
AB - Dooyeweerd’s account of abstraction is examined and found to be faulty. He holds that abstract thinking isolates aspects which must then be synthesized, whereas I argue that we cannot isolate any aspect from the others however so hard we try. But our very inability to isolate aspects is then turned into an alternative version of a transcendental critique of theory making. Instead of asking for a basis for synthesizing aspects we have isolated, the new version asks: what is the nature of the aspectual connectedness which is so strong that it cannot be interrupted even by abstraction? I argue that it is impossible for anyone to understand the meaning of a concept fully without taking a position on this issue, whether that is done implicitly or explicitly. Moreover, every answer to this question presupposes a divinity belief. Hence, this recasting of the critique yields a demonstration of the religious regulation of all concepts and every theory. In this way the goal of Dooyeweerd’s critique is achieved, even if not in the way he envisioned.
TI - THE TRANSCENDENTAL CRITIQUE REVISITED AND REVISED
JF - Philosophia Reformata
DO - 10.1163/22116117-90000457
DA - 2009-11-29
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/brill/the-transcendental-critique-revisited-and-revised-MMWs5S0o2y
SP - 21
EP - 47
VL - 74
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -