Constantin Brunner
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Constantin Brunner (1862-1937) was the pen-name of the German Jewish philosopher Leopold (Arjeh) Wertheimer, born 27 August 1862 in Altona (near Hamburg). He came from a prominent Jewish family that had lived in the vicinity of Hamburg for generations; his grandfather, Akiba Wertheimer, was chief Rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein. Brunner studied philosophy under a number of prominent scholars, but never completed his doctorate. He established himself as a literary critic, and enjoyed a wide celebrity. In the 1890's he withdrew from public life to devote himself to writing. He lived in Germany until 1933, when, with the rise to power of the Nazi party, he moved to The Hague.
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[edit] Doctrine
Brunner's work resolves many of the problems of philosophy. Most notably, he reconciles idealism with materialism and absolutism with relativism, stating, "we are absolute idealists and relative materialists." He saw his work as a continuation of that of Spinoza, whom he considered the quintessential philosopher and the philosophical voice for the community of people of spirit. Brunner's thought can be described as a kind of holism, or as totalized organicism. It proceeds from the assertion of the oneness of all being which is manifest materially in the universal complex of causal relationships. From there, Brunner precedes to demonstrate that this material unity is also a unity of thought. In philosophical terms, this ideal unity is identified as "The One," "The Absolute," or as "The Cogitant" (das Denkende).
Brunner argues that human thought exists in three fundamental modes. First, practical understanding comprises those mental activities which contribute toward the maintenance of our well-being. The practical understanding resolves itself into the three fundamental operations of thought: feeling, knowing and willing. Science, understood as mental activities contributing to the maintenance of well-being, forms part of the practical understanding.
Brunner asserts that by modifying our practical understanding to reflect the fact of absolute, ideal unity, we can significantly improve the quality of our lives. This contextualizing of our lives within absolute unity Brunner calls spiritual thought. Brunner maintains, however, that few people are interested in any such modification because it means relativizing their own egos and interests. Instead, most people seek to identify their egos and interests with the absolute. This results in the distortion of spiritual thought into what Brunner calls superstition.
Each of the three modes of thought consists of three specificates. In the practical understanding, the specificates are feeling, knowing and willing. In spiritual life, these specificates are modified to become, respectively, art, philosophy and mysticism (love). Superstition distorts the specificates of spiritual life, transforming them into religion, metaphysics and moralism.
[edit] The people of spirit and the common folk
In 1908 Brunner published the first part of his foundational work, Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volk. This appeared as two volumes. Each volume was actually designated a "half-volume" because together they were to be the first half of the complete work. The second half of the complete work did not appear until 1921. It was entitled Unser Christus oder Das Wesen des Genies (Literally: "Our Christ, or The Essence of Genius." The 1991 English translation of the book bears the title, Our Christ: The Revolt of the Mystical Genius). "Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volke" is usually translated as "The doctrine of the spiritual élite and the people." "Geistigen" used as a substantive is a neologism invented by Brunner. Its root is "Geist" which in German covers a lot of ground, being used for "mind", "soul", "spirit", "intellect", and "psyche". The suffice "igen" means "those of". "Das Volk" connotes "the people", "the public", "the commonality", "the hoi polloi", "the nation".
Brunner's intention is to create a contrast between the general populace and the few individuals who free themselves from the prejudices of mass thought. He asserts that this dichotomy lies at the heart of all human activity. His work Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volk is a survey of the whole of human intellectual history seen from the point of view of his doctrine.
To fully grasp the nature of Brunner's doctrine, it is necessary to understand his view of science. He argues that science is founded on "fictional constructs", and cites as a key example the notion of the atom: we know that there are no indivisible particles, but we need to assume them in order to conduct certain practical activities. His doctrine of the Geistigen and the Volk is the social science equivalent of atomic theory, ie. a fictional construct used to aid in the understanding of human phenomena and to direct practical activities aimed at improving the quality of life.
Another key distinction is between those who are spiritually creative and those who are spiritually reproductive. Both are part of "Geistigen", but the latter are far more numerous. It is with them that lies the work of furthering the reach of the doctrine, and of establishing it as the foundation of practical living. The distinction between spiritual creativity and spiritual reproduction is simple. Very few can write music like Mozart, but many can appreciate his music and enrich their lives and the lives of others by cultivating this appreciation. Mozart is the spiritually creative genius, and his appreciators are spiritually reproductive, ie. they seek to reproduce for themselves and others the spiritual feeling they experience in listening to Mozart's music.
For Brunner, the distinction between Geistigen and Volk is fundamental. There can be no possibility of "switching sides." There can no more be the possibility of changing one's spiritual nature than there can be one of changing one's genetic composition. Nevertheless, many factors can contribute to maximizing or minimizing the development and expression of an individual's spiritual attributes. The inclination to spiritual life needs in most cases to be stimulated somehow. It is the objective of the spiritual community to maximize the opportunities people have to be spiritually stimulated. There are many people who would naturally incline toward the life of the spirit, but who, through force of circumstance, see themselves as only people of the mass. The duty of those who are awakened to the life of the spirit is to help awaken those in whom it lies dormant. There is always the possibility of metanoia, the transformation of the individual from "a man of the hand" to "a man of the spirit". But generally this requires both a latent capability and a stimulus.
It is important to keep in mind that something of the commonality remains in even the most sublime soul, as does something of the sublime remain even in the most prosaic soul. All human beings are united within the universal "One." The distinction between Geistigen and Volk is one of merely practical and scientific utility. It makes no judgement on essential value. The main thing is for the Geistigen to stop expecting everyone to embrace their orientation, and likewise for das Volk to stop demanding that everyone live as they do.
Brunner's doctrine is present throughout history. It is found, for example, in the Jewish idea of election and in the Stoic idea of the wise vs the fools. Brunner simply codifies this as a scientific principle. Social science currently lacks a foundational construct. It is this that Brunner provides. Whereas Marx deals only with material conditions, Brunner with his dialectical idealism deals with intellectual conditions, and thus provides the necessary corrective to Marx that allows the establishment of a true social science.
Brunner directed a great deal of his writing to fighting the rise of Nazi race theory. He always believed that there is nothing that is absolutely false, but that everything is a more or less distorted version of the truth. Behind Nazi race theory he saw a perversion of the doctrine of election coupled to pseudo-scientific doctrines of genetic racialism and progressivism. His work is largely an attempt to isolate the truth at the heart of these distortions.
Brunner's ultimate objective was to prepare the way for the establishment of a community of people of spirit, which would in turn open the way to a Christ-centered global democracy.
[edit] Brunner and Judaism
The opposition between the spiritual and the religious is a major theme in Brunner's work. He contends that Judaism is essentially anti-religious, stating in Our Christ that "Judaism as a spiritual doctrine is the opposite of religion and a protest against it", and culminates his argument with his own translation of the Shema: "Hear O Israel, Being is our god, Being is one". He juxtaposes priestly and rabbinical to prophetic Judaism, stating that the latter represents the true mystical essence in opposition to the former which represent superstition: "Prophetic Judaism is not a religion. That which makes it into Judaism consists of something which no religion possesses: the revelatory character of mysticism."
[edit] Brunner and Christianity
For Brunner, Jesus represents the greatest representative of what he calls die Geistigen, the people of spirit. Brunner's doctrine of the people of spirit is essentially a doctrine of genius. Thus he argues that Jesus is the greatest of geniuses. Brunner relies heavily on Spinoza in all matters, including Christology.
Brunner argues that Jesus' conception of what he calls "the Father" corresponds to what Brunner calls "das Denkende". This is translated in Our Christ as "the Cogitant". It corresponds to the formless, imageless essence of being which we attain to through mystical apperception. The spiritual elite are those who have a clear apperception of this essence. Most people have little or no ability or desire to work toward this clarity, adhering instead to a view of the absolute based on their sense impressions. For Brunner, Judaism is an anti-religion, a protest against religion with its absolutizing of the relative. Jesus is the purest example of this protest, living as he did completely within the clarity of his mystical apperception.
Brunner contextualizes Jesus' execution in his doctrine of genius by showing how the leaders of the people have consistently acted throughout history to silence geniuses. Brunner expresses the hope that his doctrine, by making explicit the distinction between geniuses and common people, will at last end the war between them. Geniuses will stop trying to turn common people into geniuses, and common people will stop trying to turn geniuses into common people.
As for Christianity, Brunner sees it as a process of distortion by which Jesus becomes de-Judaized and divinized through the massive influx of Gentiles. Finally, he calls for Jews to reclaim Jesus as their own highest exemplar, stating that "Christ was the embodiment of Judaism."
[edit] Brunner and Israel
Throughout his life, Brunner was anti-Zionist, arguing that Jews should assimilate into the nations in which they lived. However, there is evidence that he was reconsidering his opposition to the founding of an Israeli state toward the end of his life in light of events in Europe (see Assimilation und Nationalismus: ein Briefwechsel mit Constantin Brunner / Willy Aron).
[edit] Brunner and the history of philosophy
According to Brunner, the authentic philosophy presented by Spinoza has its antithesis in scholasticism which reaches its highest expression in Immanuel Kant. Thus Spinoza and Kant represent opposite poles in the dialectical idealism by which Brunner organizes the whole of intellectual history.
[edit] Brunner and science
Brunner maintains that the foundation of all science is the doctrine of universal all-motion. Brunner's elaboration of this doctrine has had a decisive impact on a number of medical practitioners and researchers. Dr. Aron M. Rappaport of the University of Toronto, in the annual Sarrazin Lecture to the Canadian Physiological Society (1982), credited Brunner for providing him with the intellectual foundations for his achievements in medical science.
[edit] Brunner and evolution
Brunner's position is that the fixity of species is a scientific construct that needs to be preserved in order to carry out meaningful work with biological systems. He argues that the theory of evolution undermines the notion of species to the detriment of practical scientific endeavor. Brunner's criticism of the theory of evolution has found recent validation in work being done in epigenetics and environmental determination.
[edit] Influence and relevance
In Confessions of a European Intellectual, Franz Schoenberner describes Brunner as "one of the more important figures" in Europe. He corresponded with Walther Rathenau, Martin Buber, Gustav Landauer and Lou Andreas-Salome. Albert Einstein read Brunner but, while appreciating his critical insight and sharing his devotion to Spinoza, rejected his philosophy, particularly where it stood opposed to Kant (see Einstein-Aron correspondence, Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University in Jerusalem).
Brunner attracted a large and devoted following among the Jewish youth in Czernowitz. The best known of his disciples in this group is the poet, Rose Auslander.
With the Second World War, Brunner's books were burned and his devotees scattered. His German disciple Magdalena Kasch managed to save the bulk of Brunner's writing from destruction by the Nazis. In 1948, she, with the help of some of Brunner's other surviving friends, founded the "Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut" (ICBI) in the Hague. However, there has been no major revival of interest in his work, despite the efforts of such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin and André Breton.
[edit] Brunner in English
The most important of Brunner's works available in English is Our Christ. This is the integral translation of the German original, enhanced with an introduction and editorial notes.
Next in importance is the compilation Science, spirit, superstition. Here are extracts from many of Brunner's works, most importantly large sections from Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volk, covering the doctrine and history of science. There are also important sections from Materialismus und Idealismus, a dialogue presentation of Brunner's understanding of philosophy and its history.
Finally, there is The Tyranny of Hate: The Roots of Antisemitism, an abridgement of one of Brunner's works on antisemitism.
There is relatively abundant secondary literature available in English, notably To live is to think : the thought of twentieth-century German philosopher Constantin Brunner by Hans Goetz (1995).
[edit] Brunner in French
Two important works by Brunner are available in French but not in English. L'amour is the first part of Brunner's work on sexual relationships. Spinoza contre Kant contains Brunner's sketch of the history of modern philosophy. There is abundant secondary material in French as well.
