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
Philosophy as practice does not mean its restriction to utility or applicability, that is, to what serves morality or produces serenity of soul.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy should not be limited to practical use; it encompasses deeper moral and spiritual dimensions.
Karl Jaspers emphasizes that philosophy should not merely be seen as a tool for achieving practical outcomes such as moral behavior or inner peace. Instead, he argues that philosophy has a broader scope that transcends utility, inviting individuals to explore profound existential questions and seek understanding beyond its applicability to everyday life.
Themes
PhilosophyUtilityMoralitySerenityExistential
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on moral dilemmas, one could use this quote to illustrate that philosophy extends beyond practical applications.
More from Karl Jaspers
All quotes βThe 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.
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We must learn to talk with each other, and we mutually must understand and accept one another in our extraordinary differences.
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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.
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
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