Hello. This is my quick overview of Chapter 5 of
Frederick Wilhelmsen’s 1956 book, Man’s
Knowledge of Reality.
Chapter 5 is titled, “The First Principle
of Being and Knowledge.”
In section one, Wilhelmsen speaks out against
the modern idealist assumption that the term
“First Principles” refers to laws of the
mind, rather than laws of reality.
The realist finds principles in things, because
the intellect by its very nature knows reality
as it is.
In section two, he defines “order” and
“principle.”
Order is the more fundamental of the two terms.
Order is the relationship between things,
and principle is the what governs the relationship.
In section three, he observes that the order
of being is the most fundamental order, and
the principle of this order is the principle
of being, or existence itself.
We cannot find a more fundamental principle,
because this would require us to look for
it outside of being, which is nothing.
So, the *principle* of being governs the *order*
of being.
Wilhelmsen tells us that being is also the
first principle in the order of knowledge.
Whatever the intellect knows, it knows *as
being.*
Realizing this is not essential to living
a human life:
we can go through life as non-philosophers.
But when we become philosophers, we realize
the truth of this principle: being is being.
We can reach this judgment by reflecting upon
the content of all our other judgments.
We discover that all judgments include a judgment
of being.
In sections four, five, and six, Wilhelmsen
discusses those who would doubt or deny the
principle of being.
First, the mutist.
This is one who denies the principle of being
without giving a reason.
He may be motivated by fear of affirming anything,
but we are advised to pass by him without comment.
His problems are moral or theological, not
philosophical.
Second, Hegel denies that “being is being”
and asserts instead that being contradicts itself.
This is the meaning of his dialectic.
The root problem in Hegel’s case is his
confusion of the mental order with the real order.
We can *think* a judgment and its opposite,
but a *being* and its opposite cannot coexist.
Third, the logical positivist, or verificationist.
This popular midcentury view held that nonverifiable
sentences are meaningless.
Wilhelmsen observes that the verification
principle itself fails its own test for being meaningful.
As a rational system of thought (not just
an attitude), it self-destructs.
In the final section of this chapter, Wilhelmsen
argues it is impossible to deny or doubt the
principle of being.
One can *want* to doubt it, one can *try*
to doubt it, but the attempt will not succeed.
The principle itself must be used in the attempted
denial, so the effort cancels itself out.
That’s the end of my overview of Chapter
5 from Man’s Knowledge of Reality.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.
