So m e Refl e c t i o n s Re g a r d i n g an Int ell e c t u a l Bio g r a p h y of Eric
Vo e g e l i n
Pap er pres e n t e d at th e 23
rd
Annu al Inter n a tio n al Meetin g of th e Eric
Voeg elin Society
Chicag o , Augu st 31 – Sept e m b e r 2, 200 7
By
Thom a s Hollweck
Univer sity of Colora d o at Bould er
When Jürge n Gebh a r d t and I first discu s s e d our go als for the edition of
the Selec t e d Corres p o n d e n c e , we quickly agr e e d th at what we had in
mind was providin g the rea d e r with an intellect u al biogr a p h y of Eric
Voeg elin bas e d on th e mo s t reliabl e evid e n c e av aila bl e, Voeg elin’s
unr e h e a r s e d self- repr e s e n t a t i o n as a ma n who s e life was abov e all
ch ar a c t e riz e d by a se ar c h for the me a ni n g of his exist e n c e an d th a t of
the larg er circles of which he was part, in short, God and m a n , world
an d society. Looking at Voeg elin’s life thu s would me a n to ex a mi n e the
proc e s s of a life lived in any t hin g but solipsistic self- aw ar e n e s s , for
Voeg elin had a kee n und e r s t a n d i n g of how his life inter a c t e d or
inter s e c t e d with th e world aro u n d him. What we had se e n in going
thro u g h th e roug hly forty box e s of lett e r s at th e Hoov er Archive s as
well as ad ditio n al lett e r s includ e d in oth e r collectio n s had impr e s s e d on
us tha t the Voeg elin we had known was also the Voeg elin who had
know n and was known by ma n y oth e r s ; his was in fact a life which was
sh a p e d by conv e r s a ti o n in th e Ben e dic tin e sen s e of the word as a life
lived in conv er s a ti o n with God an d one’s fellow me n . In our sele ctio n s
we en d e a v o r e d to kee p this idea in th e foregr o u n d , showin g tha t
Voeg elin was a ma n who fost er e d th e habit of conv e r s a ti o n an d who
lived the life of spiritu al an d intellect u a l ope n n e s s th a t infor m e d his
res e a r c h an d his philoso p h y .
Having said this, a few re m a r k s abo u t Voeg elin’s und e r s t a n d i n g of
biogr a p h y are in ord er. Ther e is of cour s e plen ty of evid e n c e tha t
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