Contradiction Set Free

Hermann Levin Goldschmidt (1914-1998) was an independent philosopher and champion of dialogical thinking. A native of Berlin, he fled to Zurich in 1938 and continued to live and work in Switzerland until his death in 1998. He is also the author of The Legacy of German Jewry (translated in 2007). Willi Goetschel is Professor of German and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada.

I. The Discovery of Contradiction
1. Contradiction From the Beginning
2. Contradiction in Thought
3. Contradiction in Faith
4. Plato’s Dialectic

II. The Forgotten and Overblown Contradiction
1. The Unity of the Middle Ages
2. The All of the Middle Ages
3. The Anxiety of the Middle Ages
4. The End of the Middle Ages

III. The Repression of Contradiction
1. From Opposition to Contradiction
2. From Hegel to Marx and Kierkegaard
3. Mao Zedong’s Contradiction Set Free
4. The Weakness of Every Dialectic

IV. Attempted Displacement
1. Freedom of Technology
2. Freedom Through Technology
3. Technology Contra Freedom
4. Freedom Contra Technology

V. Attempted Oppression
1. The Completeness of the Modern World
2. The Totalitarian Arrogation of Totality
3. The Fascist Arrogation of Force
4. The Right to Contradiction as the Right to Resistance

VI. Attempted Eradication
1. Attempted Sabotage
2. Attempted Postponement
3. Attempted Dissipation
4. Attempted Annihilation

VII. The Challenge of Contradiction
1. Outraged Freedom
2. Freedom Contra the State
3. Freedom through Challenge
4. Freedom contra Freedom

VIII. The Contradictions of Freedom
1. Freedom instead of Subjugation
2. Freedom despite Liberation
3. Freedom despite Freedom
4. Limits of Freedom—in Freedom

IX. The Unavoidable Contradiction
1. The Old Meaning
2. The Lost Meaning
3. The Enduring Meaning
4. The Reclaimed Meaning

X. The Unacceptable Contradiction
1. Guilt and Exculpation
2. Guilt and Turning
3. The Good of Turning
4. In the End only Good!

XI. Set Contradiction Free!
1. Dialogic instead of Dialectic
2. Dialogic without Dialogism
3. Set Contradiction Free!
4. Instead of Aufhebung — Aufgeräumtheit

XII. In Contradiction to the World
1. The Challenged Environment
2. Challenging Maturity
3. Costs Claimed
4. Required: Humans!

Notes