second_thesis.txt
| second_thesis.txt | |
|---|---|
| Source: | phil_arc |
| Date: | 1784 CE |
| Area: | B7 |
second_thesis.txt is a text document stored in terminal B07 Extra in B7.
Contents
In Man (as the only rational creature on Earth), those natural predispositions which are intended for the use of his reason, should be completely developed only in the species, not in the individual.
Reason in a creature is a faculty for extending the rules and purposes of the use of its powers far beyond natural instinct, and knows no limits in its designs. Yet it does not act according to instinct, but requires trials, practice and instruction, in order to progress from one degree of insight to the next.
Therefore each human would have to live excessively long in order to learn how he could make full use of his natural capacities; or, if Nature had given him only a short term of life (as she indeed has), so she would require a perhaps unpredictable series of generations, each passing its enlightenment to the next, to finally develop her seeds in our species to the degree that she considers appropriate.
And that point in time must be, at least as an idea, the goal of man's efforts, for otherwise his natural capacities would have to be regarded as largely meaningless #&& [KANT, IMMANUEL]
Notes
- The text comes from philosopher Immanuel Kant's Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View, under the "Second Thesis" section, as per the title.