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Kant Quotes

Browse 69 quotes about Kant.

Kant Quotes

“Había abandonado el esfuerzo por alcanzar por sí misma la virtud perfecta. Había descubierto qué agotador puede ser ese esfuerzo, qué inhumano y erróneo resultaba vivir esclavizada por aquel esfuerzo. Ahora que conocía su abrumadora imperfección, ahora que era consciente de su fragilidad y de su contingencia, ya no llevaba sobre los hombros el pesado lastre del martillo y cincel. No es que se hubiese rendido a la imperfección ni que se hubiese acostumbrado a ella, pero ya no soportaba la carga en soledad, ya no arrastraba el yugo con sus fuerzas, ya no se sorprendía al descubrirse a sí misma en un mal paso.”

KantPerfecciónVirtudVoluntarismo
Book:El despertar de la señorita Prim
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“Кстати, ведь все.. выжившие или, точнее, выжитые из своих умов, выселенные, так сказать, из всех двенадцати кантовских категорий рассудка, естественно, принуждены ютиться в какой-нибудь тринадцатой категории, этакой логической боковушке, лишь кой-как прислонённой к объективно обязательному мышлению.”

HistoryIdentityZeitgeistKantIronie
Book:Воспоминания о будущем. Избранное из неизданного
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“Hegel also pointed out that part of the content of the division of time into past, present, or future seemed able to transcend these temporal units because the parts in question were simply true. Time does not seem to matter to things like triangles or tripods because their qualities are either timeless or eternal. A future triangle would be like any triangle past or present. Truth, in other words, seems either to eradicate time or, at least, to take the temporality out of time. In the terms that Hegel began to establish, Kant’s disquieting claim about the injustice built into time, history, and progress began to look more surmountable. On one side, there was a world made up of moments, some present, some past, some future. The future would turn into the present and negate itself. The present would turn into the past but could still be available in the present. The passage of time and the endless stream of negations of negations built into the human ability to make choices and decisions would give rise to many diferent values, arrangements, and worldviews. Some, however, might turn out to be true. This was the hallmark of the other side of human history. If something was true, it would fall out of time and become, simply, timeless. On Kant’s terms, time and history were the problem. On Hegel’s terms, they were the solution.”

TimeHegelKant
Book:After Kant: The Romans, the Germans, and the Moderns in the History of Political Thought
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“Since religion must be based not on the logic of theoretical reason but on the practical reason of the moral sense, it follows that any Bible or revelation must be judged by its value for morality, and cannot itself be the judge of a moral code. Churches and dogmas have value only in so far as they assist the moral development of the race. When mere creeds or ceremonies usurp priority over moral excellence as a test of religion, religion has disappeared. The real church is a community of people, however scattered and divided, who are united by devotion to the common moral law. It was to establish such a community that Christ lived and died.”

ReligionChristMoralityKantPurpose Of Religion
Book:The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers
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“In actuality, reality is an illusion. If it were not an illusion, to some degree, it would be the “God” itself, the realization, Oneneness without the beginning or end. That would end everything because everything would transform into its primordial state of Nothingness. Ultimate reality, or Nothingness, is therefore without purpose. The purpose is created by altering the Ultimate Reality (noumenon) into the world of plurality, so the plurality itself is an “illusion” that secures purpose. Without this illusion, there is no reality in an absolute sense. The road to reality is an illusion. Thanks to this illusion, there is existence in a broader sense. Limitations are the source of movement. Without separations and limits, there would be no movement but only frozen Oneness.”

RealityTruthPhenomenonDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“For Schopenhauer, there is only one underlying reality; for Kant, there are things in themselves as a plurality. The difference is singularity against plurality (diversity). But this difference may be only on the surface, for it is hard to imagine that Kant thought of noumenon (if equated to a thing in itself) as of plurality, but rather that things in themselves are not differentiated in the noumenon as they are in the world of phenomena for these phenomena are only particular, phenomenal manifestations of the One—Noumenon (although this may not be the case with Plato). Let’s think deeper about Plato’s idea of noumenon. We may conclude that, although on a superficial level, noumenon may contain plurality, when we look deeper, we may conclude that Plato’s noumenon is singularity too. Regardless of the description and explanation in the Republic, Plato’s noumenon is or may be the undifferentiated One. The idea that the world we see and the things in it are only the shadows of an underlying reality or noumena does not necessarily mean that all these things have their literal equivalents in the noumenon. In the end, there seems to be less difference between Plato’s forms (ideas) and Kant’s things in themselves than it looks like on the surface. Still, noumenon, although being a singularity, being the One and universal underlying reality, contains plurality as a potential.”

WorldRealityPhenomenonRepublicDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteKantNoumenonSchopenhouer
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“The phenomenal world is only a different domain of the noumenal world. It is the “intention” of the noumenal to become, on some level, phenomenal. Although from the perspective of the phenomenal, noumenal seems to be metaphysical and transcendent, from the perspective of the noumenal, phenomenal is immanent. Regardless of not having direct immaterial access to the noumenal, through our experience of the phenomenal, we experience the noumenal at the same time.”

RealityPhenomenonDejan StojanovicAbsoluteUniversal MindKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“When we use the word illusion, we mean something is not real in a broader sense. Yet, how do we define reality and illusion? Does reality depend on our senses, understanding, and definitions or on what it is objectively? Why would our senses, “definitions,” and “understanding,” or lack of it, not be reality irrespective of our idea of reality? What constitutes reality? Who decides what reality is? Would it not be logical that whatever exists is real? Even if something does not exist, we can imagine the reality of nonexistence. If everything that exists is real, we can only talk about the degrees or levels of reality without denying reality to something we do not understand. Our lack of understanding shall not be an obstacle to reality but a motivator to try harder and get closer to the most “real” of what is possible.”

RealityTruthPhenomenonDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteUniversal MindKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“Indeed, we do not experience noumena directly. Still, since the phenomena are the program of the noumenon or the transformed noumenon itself, we may be able to think and understand (to some extent) the thing in itself, Noumenon or the Being (Universal Mind). Although transcendent, Noumenon is immanent at the same time. Phenomena are the emanations of the Noumenon.”

RealityTruthIllusionPhenomenonDejan StojanovicAbsoluteKantNoumenonPlaton
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“Our senses, cognition, and understanding are the result of conditioning. We are not the creators of our senses or our cognition and understanding in the deepest and fullest sense. Without our conditioning, there would be nothing. Senses, cognition, and understanding among human beings may differ only in degree, based on education or intellectual capacity, but not in mystical or mysterious ways.”

RealityUniversePhenomenonDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“We can follow Plato and Kant and agree that the world of phenomena is an illusion and that noumenon is reality. Still, we must add that reality is lost or undermined without this illusion. In this way of reasoning, we conclude that although reality is the creator of an illusion in the form of an “artificial” reality or the world, this “illusion” is also the creator of the reality of the Being itself or the thing in itself. Both reality and illusion are equally important. Without the one, the other loses its meaning and purpose.”

RealityTruthPhenomenonDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“We may ask the question: What is reality? What is the real or objective reality? Finally, we may be surprised by the ultimate answer of reality: that the thing or reality is the illusion itself because the Ultimate Source, the Ultimate Reality, at its supreme point, is equal to Nothingness. That would mean that the Ultimate Reality is Nothingness. The Ultimate Source is the Ultimate Potential. Whether the actualization of this potential is reality or illusion is irrelevant. What is important is the existence and realization of the potential.”

PhilosophyRealityTruthPhenomenonDejan StojanovicPlatoAbsoluteKantNoumenon
Book:ABSOLUTE
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“They agree only on the point that the most important aspect is reason. For one entire evening they play around with the metaphor of the light of reason that illuminates everything equally and dispassionately. Gertruda remarks immediately and intelligently that wherever something’s brightly lit, there is also a shadow, a darkening. The more powerful the light, the deeper, the more intense the shadow. That’s true, that’s a little bit disturbing; they stop talking for a while.”

LightDarknessRationalUnconsciousIrrationalAge Of ReasonKantAge Of EnlightenmentAufklärung
Book:The Books of Jacob
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