The "active forgetfulness" of which Nietzsche speaks, the forgetfulness of the child, for which he makes Zarathustra long, seems not to be easy to introduce into history. The divine art of forgetting, which is invoked in the fragments of the "Dionysus Dithyrambs," is not the art of human history, whose irreversibility implies memory. In history the price we pay for our great critical freedom in regard to the answers is the nonnegotiability of the questions.
Nietzsche's indelible memory of the theological questions the answers to which have "lapsed" is a function of his commitment to history. And the commitment to history is precisely the context of that lapse.
I hope to have something to say soon about the urgency of a philosophy of history.
This is a fantastic quote! And I thought Blumenberg was simply a dry third rate hack a with Voeglinian tendency to leave his fundamental position unclarified and unquestioned. But this really is a fine excerpt!
ReplyDeleteOne question: Are you sure what is CALLED for is a philosophy of history, when the latter, far from being urgent, began with Voltaire and ended with Hegel?
What do you think Blumenberg means by the "nonnegotiability of the questions"? It seems that his particular approach to history ( his philosophy of history) is already pre-supposed here.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, isn't the fact that Nietzsche introduced (or re-introduced) the "divine art of forgetting", and that we are talking about it even today, a demonstration that it may not be as difficult to "introduce into history" as Blumenberg claims?
Pseudonoma, I wouldn't take this quote as a disconfirmation of your prejudice. I actually have the sense that Blumenberg is stepping on his own toes here, although I can't be sure because as you say he does "leave his fundamental position unclarified" (unless my poor and lazy comprehension of philosophical texts is to blame for the appearance of unclarity).
ReplyDeletePeter, I don't know if this is what he means, but what I think one has to conclude is that the commitment to history which is so necessary to the modern age guarantees the persistence in some form of those questions which found history. Indeed they must persist *as* founding questions if the historical tradition is itself to persist.