A specific movement is usually highlighted, by Karl Löwith scholars,
as one of the essential features of his philosophy: the transition from that
critical operation undertaken against history and historicity, most evident in
Meaning in History (1949), to the almost laudatory depiction of the cosmic
reality of nature, in which all things are conceived, to be found in his mature
essays. While the passage cannot by any means be denied, the aim of the paper
is to show how it could be identified in a more philosophically nuanced way.
Always relying on Löwith’s writings, the interpretation proposed will be that
of a dialectic between finite time (as a synonym of human and historical world)
and infinite time (as a synonym of cosmic reality). In doing so, an original and
more fruitful articulation of history and nature is offered – one which does not
require a complete annihilation of the former term, but rather draws a renovated
understanding of it.