In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

UNCERTAINTY VS. REALITY 343
Those who try to defend the classic concept and value of truth often
have recourse to traditions of thought and meditation outside their own
Western culture. The essay "Zur Rolle des Yoga in der geistigen Welt
Indiens" ("On the Role of Yoga in the Spiritual World of India"), by the
German philosopher Heinrich Zimmer, is a perfect example of this tendency:
"Yoga is the only path that permits man to grasp the absolute
essence of 'being' behind the veil of its metamorphoses-that being
which is in all things but which man can experience directly only when
it is presented to him beneath this veil, in his own innermost sphere"
(Zimmer, 57). More appropriate than Zimmer's philosophical utopia is
Siegfried Kracauer's grim allegory of the epistemological present: "A jury
sits on invisible chairs along the sides of a quadrangular space. This is
the moment of judgment-but the verdict will never be pronounced"
(Kracauer, 13). What the epistemological moment seems to require,
despite its desperate sophistication, is the courage for simple solutions.
A man like Dr. Wilhelm Dieck, teacher of mathematics at the high school
in the provincial north German town of Sterkrade, publishes a book (in
Sterkrade!) with the imposing title Der Widerspruch im Richtigen: Gemeinverstandliche
mathematische Kritik der geltenden Logik (The Contradiction
in the Appropriate: A Generally Comprehensible Mathematical
Critique of Contemporary Logic), in which he offers the insight that
all the problems of world perception and knowledge production arise
from simple contradictions intrinsic to the human mind-contradictions
that humans will never be able to overcome. Dieck's final message is a
naively arrogant call for epistemological modesty: "I must not forget to
emphasize that my book definitely undermines the belief in the absolute
power of ideas" (Dieck, 149). For all his pretentiousness, Dieck would
not be a German high school teacher if he did not conclude his argument
with a call to intellectual diligence and patience-and with a poem: "The
past suffered from an overappreciation of the intellect. We will not really
correct this mistake if we turn overappreciation into underestimation. It
remains our task to work with perseverance and patience for the perfection
of human knowledge ... If a dreamer, full of sorrow, / will mourn
the fading light of sunset, / open eyes and open minds will always greet
/ the first light of dawn in the east" (151).
Among those who believe that they have left the intellectual past
behind, a boundless enthusiasm for Reality takes hold: "Our truly frantic
love for Reality is unprecedented. Never has Reality appeared so appeal-