Panel: THE CONCEPT OF GOD IN THE INTERPLAY OF THE INFINITE AND THE FINITE



980.1 - ORIGINALITY, INFINITY AND THE DIVINE: HANS BLUMENBERG'S REINTERPRETATION OF MEDIEVAL SCHOLASTIC

AUTHORS:
Bunaciu A. (Independant ~ Vienna ~ Austria)
Text:
Philosophy is understood by the young Hans Blumenberg as ontology. This conceptualization of the role and scope of philosophy shines through every page of Blumenberg's dissertation - Contributions to the Problem of the Originality of the Medieval-Scholastic Ontology - which was written and submitted in the year 1947 under difficult historical and personal circumstances. His dissertation is an attempt at analyzing medieval-scholastic thought through the lens of a key Heideggerian concept developed in Being and Time, namely that of originality (Ursprünglichkeit). Blumenberg's thesis states that medieval ontologies, as developed by Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura and Duns Scotus, entail originality, being thus being thought of not as something manufactured (Hergestelltsein), nor as something existing (Vorhandensein), as an essence (Wesensein) or as an object (Gegenstandsein), but as something grasped in a pre-theoretical manner (Überhaupt-Sein). What Blumenberg tries to describe is an inner experience, which is to be seen as the separating line between ancient and Christian medieval ways of thinking: the hope for personal salvation. It is this lived experience, which, in close connection to the idea of the absolute will of God as responsible for the creatio ex nihilo, is seen as an important turning point towards the following understanding of the coming into being of our very own existence: There is an infinite abyss between nothingness and being, and it is the infinite might of God which is responsible for releasing being out of nothingness. My goal will be to analyze Blumenberg's concept of infinity as related to his concept of God. This entails an analysis of Blumenberg's understanding of the role of Aristotelian metaphysics within scholastic enquiry into the nature of infinity and some critical notes on Blumenberg's disregard of neoplatonic influences when dealing with the very same concept of infinity.