Volume 6 of "The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin" offers the
first translation of the full German text of "Anamnesis" published
in 1966. The previous English edition, translated by Gerhart
Niemeyer, focused largely on the sections of "Anamnesis" dealing
directly with Voegelin's philosophy of consciousness. It omitted
some of the extensive historical studies on which the philosophy of
consciousness was based. To properly understand Voegelin's work,
however, it is essential to give equal weight to the empirical as
well as the philosophical aspects. This complete version of
"Anamnesis" captures the full integrity of his vision. It is at
once scientific, in the sense of fidelity to the demands of
historiographic scholarship, and philosophical, in exploring the
significance of the texts for the meaning of human existence in
society and history.
"Anamnesis" is a pivotal work within Voegelin's intellectual
odyssey. Alone among Voegelin's books, it reveals an author looking
back and taking stock of his growth rather than customarily forging
ahead into new regions and new problems. This critical work is both
a recollection of Voegelin's own development, reaching back even to
his infant memories, and a demonstration of the anamnetic method as
applied to a wide range of historically remembered materials.
Written as more than just a collection of essays, "Anamnesis" is
the volume in which Voegelin works out for himself the
reconceptualization of what "Order and History, " and by definition
his central philosophical approach, is going to be. By revisiting
his previous work--a departure from Voegelin's usual scholarly
habits--he found at last the literary form for the kind of
empirical philosophical meditation that had long absorbed his
labors.
Parts I and III contain biographical and meditative reflections
written by Voegelin in 1943 and 1965, respectively. The first part
details the breakthrough by which Voegelin recovered consciousness
from the current theories of consciousness. Part III begins as a
rethinking of the Aristotelian exegesis of consciousness, and then
expands into new areas of awareness that had not come within the
knowledge of classic philosophy. Between these two meditative
selections are eight studies that demonstrate how the historical
phenomena of order gave rise to the type of analysis which
culminates in the meditative exploration of consciousness.
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