Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 91

THE POVERTY OF ANTIHISTORICISM

poses of a critique, but later as a position embraced and even
extended by Plotinus and the Neoplatonists-appears related
to his dialogue with Strauss about Wirkungsgeschichte and the
nature of the good. What Strauss has in mind with respect to the
concept of "natural right" within his dualistic metaphysics corresponds closely to the concept of the "one" that is separated from
all concrete being on the literalist reading of Plato. Both Strauss
and the Neoplatonists assert that the good exists not within concrete reality but above and beyond that reality in the doubled
world of radical transcendence.
However, what Gadamer appears to be arguing here, against
this position, is that understanding the moral good as universal
or "one" is perfectly compatible with it participating in the manifoldness of concrete reality. This "participation" or "taking part"
in the particular, in other words, does not mean that the good
becomes just anything, or that we are incapable of discriminating sufficiently within concrete reality such that we lose sight of
its universality. On the contrary, living within the historical world,
that is, within the many, we nonetheless find ourselves capable of
such discrimination and-even further-could not conceivably
make such judgments without our concrete experience of the
good.
Gadamer explains: "For this 'one' is certainly not Plotinus's 'One,'
the sole existent and 'trans-existent' entity. Rather, it is that which
on any given occasion provides what is multiple with the unity
of whatever consists in itself. As the unity of what is unitary, the
idea of the good would seem to be presupposed by anything
ordered, enduring, and consistent" (31). Consequently, it is this
trans-existence-not the idea of effective history-that makes
inconceivable our knowledge of the good. This must be the case
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Modern Age - Spring 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Spring 2016

Contents
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Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Contents
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