EINE RANDBEMERKUNG ZUM VERHÄLTNIS VON METAPHYSIK UND GESCHICHTE IN KARL RAHNERS
A MARGINAL REMARK TO THE RELATION BETWEEN METAPHYSICS AND HISTORY IN KARL RAHNER’S SPIRIT IN THE WORLD

Summary/Abstract: The problem of Rahner’s Spirit in the World is: How can the human spirit, that is depending on the senses, reach the unconditioned truth? Or: How is the Metaphysics possible on the ground of imagination? The solution of Rahner is following: The human spirit lets originate the sensibility as its receptive organ through the intellect that is an empty tendency to being. Therefore, the intellect is the first that originated from the soul and is free in regard to sensibility. However, another problem arises: The intellectual cognition is determined in its content; but the spirit cannot receive determinations from the sensibility. The solution of Rahner sounds: The intellect relates, under the impulsion of actual sensations, to the earlier cognition, that cannot be ever lost in a spiritual power. In this way, History is settled in the heart of Metaphysics. This solution has notable difficulties: 1. The sensibility comes on the margin of insignificance. 2. The return to the earlier cognition leads to an endless regress. Our study suggests an alternative solution: The sensibility is not subordinated to the intellect, but coordinated with it. In the top of the activities of these two powers, they reach a coincidence of contemplation and spiritual senses. Their distinction consists in the fact that the sensibility belongs to the order of affectivity, the intellect to the order of representation, so that their mutual relation is not simple dialectics.

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