Nec Spe Nec Metu: Philosophic Catharsis in Karl Löwith’s Meaning in History

Abstract

The philosopher Karl Löwith’s confrontation with modernity has not received the same level of attention as those of fellow twentieth-century German-Jewish émigrés, Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss. This is regrettable, for while at times appearing only as chronicler of European nihilism, Löwith’s philosophic-political reflections are just as ambitious as those of his contemporaries. As Jürgen Habermas argues, Löwith intends to generate “the powerful mechanisms with which he hopes to set in motion a portentous change of scene from modernity to antiquity.” For Löwith, though, this change cannot be brought about by a radical jump to classical paganism a la Nietzsche, but via a considered, analytical reduction of modernity to its component parts. Löwith’s measured subversion of the presumptions of modern philosophy is best displayed in his most influential work, Meaning in History, in which he argues that Enlightenment philosophies of history originate with the Hebrew and Christian faiths in an eschatological fulfilment. While the moderns abandon the faith in providence, they secularize it into a faith in progress, attempting to find redemption for human beings in the historical process. An attempt that becomes ever more desperate and hubristic, which in turn is reflected in a growing franticness in modern politics as modern reason and faith in progress becomes further estranged from its roots. In demonstrating that modern philosophies of history are dependent on the theological concept of history as a history of fulfillment and salvation, Löwith reveals the impossibility of finding meaning in history on rational grounds. Thus, despite the pretensions of thinkers from Voltaire to Marx, they too reside within a horizon delimited by irrational hope and faith. By purging readers of the illusions of modern philosophy, Löwith’s catharsis makes accessible the serene rediscovery of the sober reason of the ancients.