Physicians think they do a lot for a patient when they give his disease a name.
Immanuel KantRead
Here I shall add that the concept of change, and with it the concept of motion, as change of place, is possible only through and in the representation of time. & Motion, for example, presupposes the perception of something movable. But space considered in itself contains nothing movable; consequently motion must be something which is found in space only through experience -in other words, is an empirical datum.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Change and motion are only understood through the concept of time and experience.
Immanuel Kant highlights the relationship between time, change, and motion, asserting that our understanding of motion arises from our experiences within space and time. He argues that without the framework of time, the idea of motion becomes unintelligible, as physical space alone does not inherently possess the capacity for movement; rather, motion is a perceptual experience grounded in empirical observations.
Themes
ChangeMotionTimeExperiencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the nature of reality, one might use this quote to illustrate how our perception of existence is tied to our understanding of time.
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.
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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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