This series of writings continues to present, briefly, the biography of Eric Voegelin based on the work “Autobiographical Reflections,” published in 2008, in which he offers a historical and biographical context for his motivations through the development and articulation of his ideas in various fields of knowledge.
Eric Voegelin revives the concept of “anamnesis,” which can be translated as “reminiscence” or “remembrance.” He brings it from Plato and creates an unusual synthesis with William James, author of Does Consciousness Exist? (1904), by showing that the horizon of human consciousness, in a concrete situation, will only open up to the divine if it recovers the true meaning of its past (p. 113).
The author also expands on the concepts of order and alienation. Regarding the first, he argues that it is the structure of the reality experienced by man, as well as the harmony between man and an order not fabricated by him, that is, the cosmic order.
Regarding the second, he writes (p. 118):
“Systems like Hegel’s, for example, are systematizations of a state of alienation; it is inevitable that they culminate in the death of God, not because God has died, but because there has been a rejection of divine reason in the egophanic revolt.”
The egophanic revolt consists of an attitude that makes the epiphany of the ego the fundamental experience, eclipsing the epiphany of God in the structure of Christian consciousness.
Voegelin also published a major work titled Order and History. Regarding its development, the author maintains that it started with three hypotheses: a) that there are ideas; b) that ideas have a history; c) that a history of political ideas would need to reconstruct the journey beginning with classical politics and extending to the present moment. According to Voegelin, ideas are of immense importance because “they are responsible for deforming both the truth of experiences and their symbolization” (p. 121).
Teaching was perhaps Eric Voegelin’s longest profession. He taught for 50 years to various students with different worldviews. Furthermore, he founded a Political Science Institute in Munich, which was a huge success.
Regarding the motivations behind his work, Voegelin writes that they have political origins and that anyone well-informed and intelligent like him, and who has lived through the history of the 20th century since the end of World War I, eventually finds themselves surrounded, even suffocated, by the dominance of ideological language (p. 140).
In this regard, Voegelin proposes a large and arduous solution: “The best way to reconnect with reality is to turn to thinkers of the past who have not yet lost it or were engaged in recovering it” (p. 140).
“Recovering reality, rescuing it from the distortion it has undergone, requires a great deal of work. It is necessary to rebuild the fundamental categories of existence, experience, consciousness, and reality” (p. 143).
Aristotle was the first philosopher to perceive one of the fundamental problems of philosophy, according to Eric Voegelin: the constancy of experienced reality. According to Voegelin (p. 160): “In his later years, Aristotle became increasingly fascinated by myth as a source of wisdom, for this form of expression can sometimes be more encompassing than the structures of reality. (…) The most important consequence of this insight is the understanding of certain processes in history.”
Eric Hermann Wilhelm Voegelin was a great and multidisciplinary intellectual. “Great” due to the importance, depth, and reach of his ideas and writings. “Multidisciplinary” because he tirelessly studied various areas of knowledge, such as politics, history, the nature of consciousness, and the divine presence.
REFERENCES
VOEGELIN, Eric. Reflexões Autobiográficas. São Paulo: É Realizações, 2008. (Introdução, caps. 1 a 7; 14; 17 a 25).