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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Jaspers expresses dissatisfaction with the study of law, highlighting a disconnect between legal principles and the broader aspects of life.
In this quote, Karl Jaspers reflects on his experience studying law, suggesting that mere legal frameworks and intellectual exercises fail to fulfill his quest for understanding the deeper meanings and purposes of life. He feels that the complexities of legal thought are detached from the realities and truths of human existence, leading to a sense of dissatisfaction and longing for a more meaningful and holistic understanding.
Themes
LawLifeSatisfactionPhilosophyUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a seminar about the philosophical implications of law, this quote can illustrate the limitations of legal education.
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.
Karl JaspersRead
We must learn to talk with each other, and we mutually must understand and accept one another in our extraordinary differences.
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.
Karl JaspersRead
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
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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