Monday, January 24, 2005
(9:33 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
A Third
The Young Hegelian somehow managed to visit the house of Freud and the grave of Marx, both in the same day. Thinking of the monumental influence both have had, and the frequency with which syntheses of their ideas have been attempted, I was struck by a question that may seem arbitrary: Is it really possible that there are only two? Shouldn't there be three such figures of similar stature, or else just one?So if my question makes sense at all: Who is the third who walks along with them? Is there a Father to Freud's Son and Marx's Holy Ghost? Darwin, perhaps? -- all the more likely to have been neglected in the intellectual circles in which I and most other American humanities people run, given the evolution fatigue produced by the culture wars and the general neglect of the hard sciences by humanities scholars (produced in at least equal measure by indifference on the humanities side as by scientists' overdefensiveness and a conviction that any non-scientist must by definition be "abusing" or "misunderstanding" science if they attempt to relate it to any other field of human endeavor).
This would, of course, be the Eastern Trinity if it turns out to be Darwin. I don't think there's any figure who would allow the trinity X-Freud-Marx to be Western (i.e., the Spirit procedes from the Father and the Son).
UPDATE: As a public service to those who think the topic of my post is dumb, I offer you a link to the culmination of the recent meta-meta-blogging trend. Via our dear friend Matt.
