The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)

Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought Thomas McCarthy, general editor Alfred Schmidt, History and Structure: An Essay on Hegelian Marxist and Structuralist Theories

if History,

1981

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Reason in the Age if Science, 1982 Joachim Ritter, Hegel and the French Revolution: Essays on the philosophy of Right, 1982 Theodor W. Adorno, Prisms, 1982 Hans Blumenberg, The Legitimacy if the Modem Age, 1983

The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England

The Legitimacy of the Modern Age

Hans Blumenberg Translated by Robert M. Wallace

Publication of this volwne was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This translation © 1983 by the Massachusetts lnstirute of Technology. This work originally appeared in German as Die Legitimitiit tier Neuuit (erweiterte und iiberaTbeitete neuausgabel, © 1966, 1913, 1914, 1916 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany. First MIT Press paperbaok edition. 1985 Seventh printing. 1999

All right:.~ reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Baskerville by The MIT Press Computergraphics Department and printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication

Jb.ta

Blumenberg. Hans. The legitimacy of the modern age. (Sruclies in contemporary German social thoughtl Translation of. Die Legitimitlit der Nemeit:. 2nd rev. ed. 1976. inclu(ies bibliographical references and index. 1. Civilizli.tion-History. 2. Civilization, Modern-History. 3. Philosophy, ModernHistory. 4. Europe-intellectual life. L TJtle. n. Series. CBSS.B5613 1983 901 ISBN 0-262-02184-6 (hardcover) ISBN '0-262-52105-9 (paperback)

82-10035

AACR2

Contents

Series Foreword

ix

Translator's Introduction

Xl

Part I Secularization: Critique of a Category of Historical Wrong

1 Status of the Concept

3

2 A Dimension of Hidden Meaning?

13

3 Progress Exposed as Fate

27

4 Instead of Secularization of Eschatology, Secularization by Eschatology

37

5 Making History So As to Exonerate God?

53

6 The Secularization Thesis as an Anachronism in the Modern Age

63

7 The Supposed Migration of the Attribute of Infinity

77

8 Political Theology I and II

89

9 The Rhetoric of Secularizations

103

vi Contents

Part II Theological Absolutism and Hmnan Self-Assertion

Introduction

125

1 The Failure of the First Attempt at Warding Off Gnosticism Ensures Its Return

127

2 World Loss and Demiurgic Se1f-Detennination

137

3 A Systematic Comparison of the Epochal Crisis of Antiquity to That of the Middle Ages

145

4 The Impossibility of Escaping a Deceiving God

181

5 Cosmogony as a Paradigm of Se1f-Constitution

205

Part m The 'Trial' of Theoretical Curiosity Introduction

229

1 The Retraction of the Socratic Turning

243

2 The Indifference of EpicUrus's Gods

263

3 Skepticism Contains a Residue of Trust in the Cosmos

269

4 Preparations for a Conversion and Models for the Verdict of the