Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

136 } Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany

Wohlwill describes feeling torn (zerrissen) by the impossible wish to hold

onto the dream life of youth, and he sees no way out of this impasse.^146 One non-

possibility would be an unexpected ordeal (Unglück) that would interrupt one’s

accustomed life and force one to summon new strength and achieve “the solid-

ity and unity of one’s own self.”^147 But why then, Wohlwill wonders, wait for a

violent disruption from without? Why not simply pursue the escape (Ausweg)

of this desired strong, unified self? Because, he confesses, he cannot summon

the requisite strength. And Wissenschaft, he notes, is of no help: “This would

require at least a less lame arm than mine now is, a bolder self-confidence than

I for now generally possess.—You refer me to Wissenschaft, but it cannot stand

beneath life if it is to raise [one] up above life; it must be embraced completely,

with free and unadulterated mind and soul, if it is to exercise its beneficial sov-

ereignty. With what else would I be spending my hours other than scientific

pursuits; these, however, are too lacking in a unifying orientation to have the

right effect on my life-constitution.”^148 Science’s ability to lift its practitioner

up is contingent on the enthusiasm and energy he or she can muster to pursue

it. In fact, science can have a positive and unifying effect on individuals only if

psychological and material circumstances permit them to devote themselves in

a concerted way to its pursuit (they must bring an einheitliche Richtung to their

wissenschaftliche Beschäftigung). No deus ex machina, science can transcend life

only through the concrete individuals who practice it. To the person mired in

the exigencies of life, Wissenschaft is essentially impotent: it is subject to life and

thus cannot be called on to lift one above life’s discouraging circumstances. For

Wohlwill, grappling with how to establish a self capable of living and acting in a

world that rudely fails to correspond to one’s dreams, Wissenschaft is useless.^149

Moser does not mince words as he becomes more adamant in his diagno-

sis of Wohlwill’s pathological self-absorption: “You suffer from a morbid self-

scrutiny, which never opens itself to the true life and pure happiness.”^150 He

chastises Wohlwill for his melancholy and apathy and admonishes that “only

resignation yields full enjoyment. One’s ‘I’ must renounce itself in order most

truly to arrive at itself [Das Ich muss sich entäussern um zum wahrhaften Insich-

seyn zu gelangen] .”^151 Moser takes particular offense at Wohlwill’s assessment of

Wissenschaft’s uselessness for life: “What you said about Wissenschaft I can’t let

pass my censure. It is a statement that must have come from your gut [Unter-

leib], not your mind. ‘Without certain endowments [Rüstung] it is not germane

[nichts Rechtes] and these certain endowments—have not been given to you’?!

So here, too, the roasted dove is supposed to fly into your mouth.”^152 Whether

by design or accident, Moser’s call for Wohlwill to stop complaining and get to

work reframes the latter’s more subtle lament that Wissenschaft is of little exis-