The Reminiscence of Perennis Philosophia in Germany of around 1900

The Reminiscence of Perennis Philosophia in Germany of around 1900

Raphael Borchers

The phrase of a so-called perennial philosophy appeared around 1900 almost out of nowhere, especially in the milieu of the Catholic movement of Neo-Scholasticism. It was happily garnished with a reference to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It is well known by now that this does not correspond adequately to the facts, that Leibniz at least cannot be considered as the originator of the phrase "philosophia perennis". As I will show, though, neo-scholasticism cannot refer to Leibniz at all, since the latter undertakes a reinterpretation, as it rather corresponds to the historical-philosophical attitude of Nicolai Hartmann, Karl Jaspers or Hans-Georg Gadamer in the 20th century, who argued for a dynamic-historical concept of truth instead of a static Thomism.