Every Age Is Blind To Its Own

The Facile Economic And Psychological Debunking Of The Theoretical Life Cannot Do Away With Its Irreducible Beauties.

There Are Two Threats To Reason, The Opinion That One Knows The Truth About The Most Important Things And The Opinion That There Is No Truth About Them. Both Of These Opinions Are Fatal To Philosophy; The First Asserts That The Quest For Truth Is Unnecessary, While The Second Asserts That It Is Impossible. The Socratic Knowledge Of Ignorance, Which I Take To Be The Beginning Point Of All Philosophy, Defines The Sensible Middle Ground Between Two Extremes.

The First Discipline Modernity's Originators Imposed Upon Themselves Was That Of Self-restraint, Learning To Live With Vulgarity. Their High Expectations For Effectiveness Were Made Possible By Low Expectations Of What Was To Be.

As Soon As Tradition Has Come To Be Recognized As Tradition, It Is Dead.

We Witness A Strange Inversion: On The One Hand, The Endeavor To Turn The Social Contract Into A Less Calculating And More Feeling Connection Among Its Members; On The Other Hand, The Endeavor To Turn The Erotic Relationship Into A Contractual One.