This subsite of The Dooyeweerd Pages contains discussions on how Dooyeweerdian thinking might link to thinking outside the Dooyeweerdian community, providing comment thereon and itself being refined by such thinking. Dooyeweerd believed:
"It is a matter of life and death for this young philosophy that ... scholars in all fields of science seek to put it to work in their own specialty." Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol I, p.vii.
Much mainstream philosophy moves forward by reacting to earlier thought. Dooyeweerd was not content merely to react to other thought, because it narrows the thinking down. He wanted an understanding that respects all reality {Note 1} - including the reality of our activity of understanding. Call his desire 'totalising'? Call it 'holistic'? Whatever! Since Dooyeweerd started from pre-theoretical experience rather than a philosophical theory, and did so in a critical way that recognises the diversity and coherence of that experience, it is not surprising that almost everything that has been discussed by other thinkers through the ages is within the remit of Dooyeweerd's thinking {Note 2}. So it is no surprise to find echoes reverberating back and forth between Dooyeweerd and many other thinkers. The echo affirms the thought of the other thinker, but at the same time critiques it and enriches it. (This might surprise some followers of Dooyeweerd who see his thought as antithetical to other thought.)
So my approach to commenting on other thinking is to both affirm and question that thinking. Affirmation is appropriate because, in a multi-aspectual cosmos created by God, almost all thought contains useful or valid insights. Questioning is appropriate because all thought is contaminated by flawed presuppositions or even human sin and pride, and is based on flawed worldviews and paradigms. For a longer discussion of comparing with other thinkers, click here. We look for:
This drawer is an attempt to separate this comment from the main pages, for sake of clarity. There are still bits of comment in the main drawer which, I hope, will gradually be moved in here. But at present we have comments on the following:
- Bergson - A Dooyeweerdian Perspective --* New 7 September 2017 **-
- Floridi's 18 Open Problems for the Philosophy of Information
- The Artificial Intelligence Question; A Dooyeweerdian View
- Jan Smuts' Holism: A Dooyeweerdian View
- Merleau-Ponty
- The Duality of Technology by Wanda Orlikowski
- Pierre Bourdieu
- William James' Two-Minds Problem
- Donald Davidson's work is interesting to Dooyeweerdian scholars and vice versa. Some areas of mutual interest, but also some sharp differences. Dooyeweerd can enrich Davidson.
- The Hermeneutic Circle is important in linguistic, interpretive, phenomenological thinking and action. Dooyeweerd provides a clearer understanding of it that can enrich it and make it more practical.
- Emergence - a Dooyeweerdian View - a comparison between various emergence thinkers and Dooyeweerd, showing which portions of Dooyeweerd would support their ideas, and which would critique or enrich them.
- Michel Foucault - some of his main ideas (summarised), situated in relation to Dooyeweerd: a Dooyeweerdian affirmation, critique and enrichment.
- Initial discussion of Bernstein's Beyond Objectivism & Relativism
- Etienne Wenger's 'Communities of Practice'
- Luhmann and his Theory of Distinction
- Initial comparison of Schutz & Luckmann's ideas about the lifeworld. Also a page started on Berger & Luckmann's Social Construction of Reality
- A few points of comparison with Frege
- Jan Smuts' Holism: A Dooyeweerdian View --* New 24 August 2016 *--
- Comparison with Mario Bunge's Ontology of Systems Genera and Emergence.
- Dooyeweerd and Spinoza
- Initial outline comparison of Dooyeweerd with E. A. Singer's multi-aspectual view of science and that of C. West Churchman.
- Brief comparison with Pinch and Bijker's (1986) Social Construction of Technology
- Thomas Reid's Common-Sense (Scottish) Realism and how it resonates with, and yet differs from, several portions of Dooyeweerd's thought.
- Lifeworld - a tabular comparison of Habermas' and Dooyeweerd's notions of lifeworld (everyday life).
- In some ways, Karl-Otto Apel's Towards a Transformation in Philosophy sets out questions that Dooyeweerd provides at least one answer for, namely the transcendental preconditions for argumentation, logic and the like.
- New page started comparing Post-Structuralism and Dooyeweerd in more general terms
- Comparison between Bhaskar's Critical Realism
- Comparison between Systems Theory and Dooyeweerd.
- Comparison with Mario Bunge's Ontology of Systems Genera and Emergence
- Glenn Friesen has recently published an article arguing there are strong similarities between Dooyeweerd's thought and that of von Baader. For now, I only point you to the article; I hope to generate a summary table comparison soon.
- Merleau-Ponty - ** New 24 August 2016 **
- Started a page comparing Dooyeweerd's thought with that of Heidegger.
- Theory and the Everyday in Heidegger's Being and Time - Rudi Hayward's excellent dissertation.
- Comparison of Dooyeweerd's thought with that of Nicolai Hartmann
- A brief initial comparison with Glaser and Strauss' Grounded Theory>.
- A brief comparison of Martin Buber's thought, especially his I-Thou insight into the ethical aspects, and Dooyeweerd's criticism of Buber and a riposte to Dooyeweerd.
- A few pages that compare Dooyeweerd with Habermas:
- Lifeworld - a tabular comparison of Habermas' and Dooyeweerd's notions of lifeworld (everyday life).
- Enriching Critical Theory - Overview of how Dooyeweerdian ideas can enrich and extend those in Critical Theory, especially those centred on Habermas.
- A comparison of accounts of agreement and breakdown in communication.
- A few pages comparing Dooyeweerd's ideas with those of Checkland's Soft Systems Thinking
- Comparison of Dooyeweerdian thought with that of Michael Polanyi - a helpful table showing how similar they are.
- Brief comparison of Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory with Dooyeweerd's ideas.
- Brief comparison with Pinch and Bijker's (1986) Social Construction of Technology
- 'Some Initial Dot Points to Consider When Comparing the Philosophical Sociology of Herman Dooyeweerd with the General Theory of Society in Talcott Parsons' structural functionalism'
- On John Searle's 'The Construction of Social Reality'
- Brief notes comparing Dennett's Intentional Stance with Dooyeweerdian aspects.
- Comparison with Giddens' Structuration Theory.
- Comparison with Vigotsky's Activity Theory
- Emergence - a Dooyeweerdian View - comparison with various emergence thinkers, showing which portions of Dooyeweerd would support their ideas, and which would critique or enrich them. -** New 20 August 2011 **-
- Metaphors for Organizations by Morgan (1986), as given me by S.D. Green. The metaphors seem remarkably close to Dooyeweerdian aspects.
- On four 'Types of Pluralism' by W. Watson (1990). Dooyeweerd might be able to add a fifth that integrates Watson's four?
- H.R.H. Prince of Wales' BBC Reith Lecture on Sustainable Development, 17 May 2000. Suggests how Dooyeweerdian ideas might help us understand sustainability, science, theory, intuition, wisdom, harmony and working with nature.
- Dawkins' 'Selfish Gene' concept. A matter of perspective - and how to discern which perspectives are valid and useful.
- Pierre Bourdieu - ** New 15 October 2014 **
- Michel Foucault - some of his main ideas (summarised), situated in relation to Dooyeweerd: a Dooyeweerdian affirmation, critique and enrichment.
- Foucault's Regimes of Truth seem rather like Dooyeweerd's aspects.
- On pattern - some ideas on links between Alexander's ideas on Pattern and Dooyeweerd's notion of aspects.
- Evan Runner's tribute to Dooyeweerd, in The Banner, 1977 - Contains much interesting material; formatted with contents list.
- Yong-Joon Choi's excellent dissertation 'Dialogue and Antithesis' - not only a study of Dooyeweerd's transcendental critique, and a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Dooyeweerdian thought, but an application of the Dooyeweerdian critique to Korean thought and culture.
The page on Using Dooyeweerdian Thinking also furnishes examples of links with external thinking.
Notes
1. That is, as far as reality is susceptible to being understood. He found fundamental reasons why some reality, such as the human self, cannot be understood.
2. Some of it has yet to be thought through, of course, while other matters, especially to do with the juridical aspect and the state, were subjected to intensive thought by Dooyeweerd himself.
Compiled by Andrew Basden, as part of The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. These pages discuss how Dooyeweerd's thought might relate to or compare with that of other thinkers - whether they be philosophers, scientists, commentators or just people in the public eye. Comments and queries are very welcome.
Number of visitors to these pages: . Written on the Amiga and Protext.
Created: 20 May 2001
Last updated: 10 July 2001 link to rot. 6 February 2002 link to vigotsky. 12 February 2002 started the Habermas sub-site. 22 February 2002 link to choi/. 27 February 2002 corrected name. 11 March 2002 link to Runner's tribute. 4 April 2002 link to Latour's ANT. 26 June 2002 Polanyi. 2 August 2002 Giddens. 17 September 2002 John Searle and comparisons.html moved here with links. 12 November 2002 link to Parsons. 20 November 2002 new link to Enrich CT/Habermas, to SST, and links to Alexander's patterns. 28 November 2002 Link to Heidegger by RH, some links reordered. 1 March 2003 Choi link relocated, .nav. 3 March 2003 link to Dennett. 4 March 2003 Buber. 25 April 2003 Grounded Theory link. 28 June 2003 added what our approach looks for. 10 July 2003link to heidegger. 25 July 2003 Hartmann. 22 September 2003 von Baader link, upd Hdg. 12 November 2003 st.html. 15 June 2004 Bhaskar's Critical Realism; some rearrangement of page, plus rewrite of admin part, corrected a link. 14 August 2004 ps link. 23 August 2004 Apel. 26 January 2005 Reid, Habermas' lifeworld. 11 March 2005 SCOT. 16 April 2005 E.A.Singer and Churchman. 22 April 2005 corrected link to hab/lw.html. 11 July 2005 Spinoza. 3 October 2005 Bunge. 24 June 2006 Hirst. 9 February 2008 Frege. 29 July 2008 schutz, berger.luckmann. 12 June 2009 Luhmann + correction. 23 November 2009 wenger, buber update. 27 April 2010 more in intro. 10 July 2010 Bernstein. 23 October 2010 foucault. 21 August 2011 emergence. 7 November 2013 Donald Davidson, hermeneutic circle. 16 December 2013 james. 15 October 2014 bourdieu. 8 May 2015 duality.tgy. 24 August 2016 smuts, merleau-ponty. 4 November 2016 ai, floridi. 7 September 2017 bergson.