Physicians think they do a lot for a patient when they give his disease a name.
Immanuel KantRead
Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Kant emphasizes that criticism is essential for challenging harmful ideologies.
In this quote, Immanuel Kant argues that criticism is a powerful tool for dismantling various harmful beliefs and ideologies, including materialism, fatalism, and fanaticism. He suggests that unexamined beliefs can be detrimental to society, and that a critical approach can help protect and refine ideas, benefiting both academic institutions and the broader public.
Themes
CriticismIdeologiesBeliefsPhilosophyKant
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about the merits of different philosophical approaches, this quote can highlight the importance of critical thinking.
More from Immanuel Kant
All quotes →The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.
Immanuel KantRead
One cannot avoid a certain feeling of disgust, when one observes the actions of man displayed on the great stage of the world. Wisdom is manifested by individuals here and there; but the web of human history as a whole appears to be woven from folly and childish vanity, often, too, from puerile wickedness and love of destruction: with the result that at the end one is puzzled to know what idea to form of our species which prides itself so much on its advantages.
Immanuel KantRead
I shall never forget my mother, for it was she who planted and nurtured the first seeds of good within me. She opened my heart to the lasting impressions of nature; she awakened my understanding and extended my horizon and her percepts exerted an everlasting influence upon the course of my life.
Immanuel KantRead
. . . as to moral feeling, this supposed special sense, the appeal to it is indeed superficial when those who cannot think believe that feeling will help them out, even in what concerns general laws: and besides, feelings which naturally differ infinitely in degree cannot furnish a uniform standard of good and evil, nor has any one a right to form judgments for others by his own feelings. . . .
Immanuel KantRead
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
Immanuel KantRead
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