PANDEMONIUM BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.
Merida, Venezuela, 1999.
COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Throughout the Middle Ages, until the 17th Century, the ancient Greek "Logos" was ideologized and it became transformed into intellectus (Latin) and into Verstand (German). This concept acquired the connotation : "das höchste Erkenntnisvermögen des Menschen", the highest cognoscitive potentiality of Man. In this context, we should not forget who "Man" was, and who He still is. Man was and still is masculine and he incorporates and animates everything that serves ruling class interests. In the Dark Ages he personified European Patrian Divine Essence.
As it is natural in all class societies, everything must be classified, hence the major elements of "Thought", of "Denken", of "Human Being" received the following hierarchical structure :
1. Intellectus (Intellect, Verstand)
2. Ratio (Reason, Vernunft)
3. Sensatio (Sensation, Sinneswahrnehmung)
The above corresponded to the social feudal order and it reflected the absolutist rule by Divine Grace. The eminent mystic Meister Eckhart had translated the Latin concept "intellectus" as "verstand" or "verstendigkeit", then it was "updated" to "Verstand" ; later, in English, this holy summum bonum will be baptized as Intellect or Understanding. Next in line, after this supra-divine concept, came "ratio", which Meister Eckhart, but also Luther, had translated as "firnunft", thereafter, it was modernized as "Vernunft", as Reason. This was considered to be the minor organ of Thinking of sapient Human Being.
In descending order, finally, we encounter "Sensatio", Sensation, crypto-thinking, which is generally associated with the brain activity of the mob, of the gentusa , of the muchedumbre , of the "Pöbel", of the slaves and serfs, in nuce, of the masses. It is Reason, Vernunft, which converts the sensations, the sensorial perceptions, into Concepts, into Begriffe. This also implies that the masses do not think for themselves; Reason thinks for them. In this case, it is the nobility and clergy who produced the dominant feudalist ideas and thoughts, who produced Catholic Philosophy.
Storms of Change
Then the "storms of change" invaded Europe; the old order was destroyed and capitalism was ushered in. Everywhere the Enlightenment took its toll, especially in the fields of philosophy. The "Aufklärung" was on the order of the day, and Kant and Hegel prepared the superstructural ground for the new class order, for the industrial accumulation of Capital, of Vernunft, of Weltgeist.
Of course, the bourgeois-democratic revolution was also reflected in the domain of philosophy; the new rulers had to topple intellectus and had to replace it with their own class representation, with ratio, with Vernunft, with Capital. The new order had the following hierarchical superstructure :
1. Ratio, Reason, Vernunft.
2. Intellectus, Intellect, Verstand.
3. Sensatio, Sensation, Sinneswahrnehmung.
Thus, the bourgeois-industrial Reason triumphed over the feudalist-
agricultural Intellect; lumpen-proletarian Sense-Perception was left out
in the cold, in the coal mines and factories.
It is evident that our Concept "Intellect a n d Reason" has nothing in common with what has been explained above.
TO CONTINUE:
PLEASE