“Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.
That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind...”
― An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind...”
― An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”
― Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals/On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
― Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals/On a Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns
“Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt”
― Critique of Pure Reason
― Critique of Pure Reason
Shermichael’s 2024 Year in Books
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