Freud, the Reluctant Philosopher

341 Pages·2010·1.13 MB·English

by  Alfred I. Tauber

FREUD, THE RELUCTANT PHILOSOPHER
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FREUD, THE RELUCTANT PHILOSOPHER
Alfred I. Tauber
princeton university press princeton and oxford
Copyright 2010 © by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tauber, Alfred I.
Freud, the reluctant philosopher / Alfred I. Tauber.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14551-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-691-14552-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Freud, Sigmund, 1856–1939—Philosophy. 2. Psychoanalysis
and philosophy. I. Title.
BF109.F74T38 2010
150.19’52092—dc22 2010001612
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
for Jane
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The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest till it has
gained a hearing. Finally, after a countless succession of rebuffs,
it succeeds. This is one of the few points on which one may be
optimistic about the future of mankind, but it is in itself a point of
no small importance. And from it one can derive yet other hopes.
—Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion (1927, 53)
. . . freedom in human beings—against: there is no freedom, rather
everything is natural necessity; it was this that first woke me from
my dogmatic slumber and drove me to the critique of reason itself
to dissolve the scandal of the contradiction of reason with itself.
—Immanuel Kant, letter to Christian Garve,
September 21, 1798
My discoveries are not primarily a heal-all. My discoveries
are a basis for a very grave philosophy. There are very few
who understand this, there are very few who are capable of
understanding this.
—Sigmund Freud (1933 conversation, quoted
by Hilda Doolittle 1971, 25)
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Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction
Psychoanalysis as Philosophy 1
Chapter One
The Challenge (and Stigma) of Philosophy 24
Chapter Two
Distinguishing Reasons and Causes 54
Chapter Three
Storms over Königsberg 85
Chapter Four
The Paradox of Freedom 116
Chapter Five
The Odd Triangle: Kant, Nietzsche, and Freud 146
Chapter Six
Who Is the Subject? 174
Chapter Seven
The Ethical Turn 196
Notes 227
References 277
Index 305