Levels of Organic Life and the Human

Foreword from the Helmuth Plessner Society | vii

Translator's Preface and Acknowledgments | ix

Preface to the First Edition (1928) | xv

Preface to the Second Edition (1965) | xix

Introduction | xxxvii

J. M. Bernstein

1. Aim and Scope of the Study | 1

The Development of Intuitionist Lebensphilosophie in Opposition to

Experience, 3 * Lebensphilosophie and the Theory of the Humanities, 11 *

Working Plan for the Foundation of a Philosophy of the Human, 22

2. The Cartesian Objection and the Nature of the Problem | 34

Extension vs. Interiority and the Problem of Appearance, 34 *

Appearance as Originating in Interiority, 38 * The Prior Givenness

of Interiority and the Forward Displacement of Myself: The Proposition

of Immanence 41 * Extension as Outer World; Interiority as Inner

World, 46 * The Proposition of Representation and the Element

of Sensation, 51 * The Inaccessibility of Other I's according to the

Principle of Sensualism, 55 * The Need for a Revision of the Cartesian

Dichotomy in the Interest of a Science of Life, 58 * A Methodological

Reformulation of the Opening Question, 64

3. The Thesis | 75

The Question, 75 * The Dual Aspect in the Appearance of Ordinary

Perceptual Things, 76 * Against the Misinterpretation of This Analysis:

A Closer Focus on the Subject Matter, 81 * The Dual Aspect of Living

Perceptual Things: Koehler contra Driesch, 84 * How Is Dual Aspectivity

Possible? The Nature of the Boundary, 93 * The Task of a Theory of the

Essential Characteristics of the Organic, 99 * Definitions of Life, 104 *

Nature and Object of a Theory of the Essential Characteristics of the

Organic, 110

4. The Modes of Being of Vitality | 115

Essential Characteristics Indicating Vitality, 115 * The Positionality of

Living Being and Its Spacelikeness, 118 * Living Being as Process

and Type; the Dynamic Character of the Living Form; the Individuality of the

Living Thing, 123 * Living Process as Development, 129 * The Curve of

Development: Aging and Death, 137 * The Individual Living Thing as a

System, 144 * The Self-Regulation of the Individual Living Thing

and the Harmonious Equipotentiality of Its Parts, 149 * Individual Living Things

as Organized: The Dual Meaning of Organs, 154 * The Temporality of

Living Being, 159 * The Positional Union of Space and Time and the

Natural Place, 168

5. The Organizational Modes of Living Being: Plants and Animals | 172

The Circle of Life, 172 * Assimilation-Dissimilation, 182 *

Adaptedness and Adaptation, 186 * Reproduction, Heredity,

Selection, 196 * The Open Form of Organization of the Plant, 202 *

The Closed Form of Organization of the Animal, 209

6. The Sphere of the Animal | 219

The Positionality of the Closed Form: Centrality and Frontality, 219 *

The Coordination of Stimulus and Response in the Case of an Inoperative

Subject (Decentralized Type of Organization), 227 * The Coordination of

Stimulus and Response by a Subject (Centralized Type of Organization),

231 * The Animal's Surrounding Field Organized into Complex Qualities and

Things, 242 * Intelligence, 252 * Memory, 257 * Memory as the Unity of

Residue and Anticipation, 262

7. The Sphere of the Human | 267

The Positionality of the Excentric Form: "I" and Personhood, 267 *

Outer World, Inner World, Shared World, 272 * The Fundamental Laws

of Anthropology: The Law of Natural Artificiality, 287 * The Law of

Mediated Immediacy: Immanence and Expressivity, 298 * The Law of

the Utopian Standpoint: Nullity and Transcendence, 316

Appendix | 323

Glossary | 337

Notes | 345

Index | 359