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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy must be actively engaged with, and understanding its history requires practical application.
In this quote, Karl Jaspers emphasizes that philosophy is not merely an abstract discipline but a practice that requires active engagement with its texts and ideas. He argues that a theoretical understanding of philosophy becomes meaningful only when it is realized through living and appropriating its contents, thus highlighting the necessity of connecting philosophical study to life and lived experiences.
Themes
PhilosophyPracticeHistoryEngagementTheory
In practice
Example use cases
In a classroom discussion on the importance of actively engaging with philosophical texts.
More from Karl Jaspers
All quotes →The 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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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
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Philosophy as practice does not mean its restriction to utility or applicability, that is, to what serves morality or produces serenity of soul.
Karl JaspersRead
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