The great philosophers and the great works are standards for the selection of what is essential. Everything that we do in studying the history of philosophy ultimately serves their better understanding.
Karl JaspersRead
Philosophic meditation is an accomplishment by which I attain Being and my own self, not impartial thinking which studies a subject with indifference.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophic meditation allows for deep self-awareness and understanding of existence, contrasting with detached analysis.
In this quote, Karl Jaspers emphasizes the importance of engaged, personal contemplation as a means to achieve genuine self-understanding and awareness of one's existence. He distinguishes this deep philosophical meditation from mere objective analysis that lacks emotional involvement, suggesting that true understanding of 'Being' requires a personal and introspective approach rather than a detached, indifferent perspective.
Themes
PhilosophyMeditationSelf-AwarenessBeingExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the meaning of existence.
More from Karl Jaspers
All quotes βThe community of masses of human beings has produced an order of life in regulated channels which connects individuals in a technically functioning organisation, but not inwardly from the historicity of their souls.
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We must learn to talk with each other, and we mutually must understand and accept one another in our extraordinary differences.
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The study of law left me unsatisfied, because I did not know the aspects of life which it serves. I perceived only the intricate mental juggling with fictions that did not interest me.
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If philosophy is practice, a demand to know the manner in which its history is to be studied is entailed: a theoretical attitude toward it becomes real only in the living appropriation of its contents from the texts.
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Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time; it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought
Karl JaspersRead
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