Das Unheimliche der Übergänge EJ's train of thought is difficult to follow here. I read it as follows. He has just pointed to a welcome result of the ceaseless quest of the human spirit beyond all traditional barriers. It is the discovery of the basic unity of the organic and anorganic worlds, first perceived by Leibniz, but since then denied and forgotten. [See separate note on Leibniz] However, the blurring of classical distinctions by transcending all boundaries with impunity renders uneasy the detached observer. So he sees the emergence of figures like cloners, brain washers or perpetrators of genocide, for a 19th century mind impossible to imagine, as products or representatives of the breaking of taboos that is implicit in the ongoing transition everywhere.
Markup © John King, 2008. Web archive generated Tue, 21st August 2007.