The Basic Problem of the Theory of Levels of Reality

Two essential aspects of Hartmann’s thought are its categorial perspective and the theory of the levels of reality. They are also aspects which have exerted significant influence on Hartmann’s intellectual legacy, however limited that may be. Here I wish to point out their importance for Bertalanffy (see his 1968) and Lorenz (see his 1978). The latter notes the close similarity between his own ideas and those of Hartmann, and he recalls that for Hartmann the world possesses the unity of a system, but it is a system made up of layers. Some pages earlier he writes that he once asked Roberto Corti, who was closely acquainted with Hartmann, how he thought Hartmann would have reacted to a philogenetic interpretation of his thought. Corti replied that Hartmann would undoubtedly have rejected such an interpretation, but then added “And yet this is the only way to do anything with it”.