Part I: General Philosophical
Program
"If
philosophy [Philosophie]
is to become useful for human beings, then
let it
make the human
being its center."1a
Part III: Philosophy of Mind
""No
cognition," philosophy
says, "is without sensation, i.e. without some feeling of good or
bad, of pleasure or pain, of being or nonbeing, in oneself or in
the object. If the soul feels that it cognizes, then it enjoys
itself, strives forth, develops its forces; the less impeded, the
more lively. That is why a person is irritated by curiosity,
i.e. the drive of wanting to know. . .""1b
"The
force of thinking, of
acting according to an ideal of perfection, is the essence of the
soul . . ."1c
"
. . . [T]he deepest
irritation, as it is the mightiest hunger and thirst:
love!!"1d
"Quite
generally, nothing in nature is separated, everything
flows onto and into everything else through imperceptible
transitions; and certainly, what life is in the creation is in
all shapes, forms, and channels only a single spirit, a
single flame."1e
Part IV: Philosophy of History
"Every occurrence, every
factum, in the world has its grounds and causes which, so to
speak, produced its nature; it also has consequences of its nature
-- and what else is a description of this but a historical
doctrinal structure? Finally, every occurrence is merely a link in
a chain, it is woven into the connection with others, it is
effective in the coming together of worldly things through
attraction and repulsion -- and a plan of this connection, of this
world-system of effects, is this not a historical doctrinal
structure? Is a historian of this sort not a philosopher? Not a
pragmatic systematizer?"1f
Part V: Political Philosophy
""Why
are you pouring water on my head?" said the dying slave to
the missionary. "So that you enter into heaven.""I do
not want to enter into any heaven where there are whites" he
spoke, turned away his face, and died. Sad history of
humanity!"1g
"Europe must
give compensation for the debts that it has incurred,
make good the crimes that it has committed -- not from
choice but according to the very nature of things."1h
"Climates can change; many an
inhabited land can become uninhabitable . . . from several causes.
. . Our earth is probably an organic being; we creep about on this
orange like small, scarcely noticeable insects, torment each
other, and settle here and there . . . Certainly, the periods of
nature are calculated with an eye to each other in regard to
all species, so that when the earth can no longer warm and
feed human beings, human beings will also have fulfilled their
destiny on it."1i