What stands in obstruction to the attainment of truth?
a) The perplexity of human cognitive powers.
b) The incapacity of human cognitive functions
c) The infinite difficulty in gaining real knowledge about the world.
D) The pitifulness of all knowledge
Origin of ethical and aesthetic terms and values
The individual points can overlap
a) divine commandments
b) supernatural laws
c) inherited or acquired moral ideas
d) Right and custom in society
e) Style and taste of the time
f) Police regulations
g) fashion journals
degrees of certainty
a) doubt
b) belief
c) knowledge
Three ways of dogmatism
a) Acknowledgment of the truth of all or certain claims
b) Acknowledgment of the falseness of all or certain claims
c) Doubts about the truth of all or certain claims, except one.
Two ways of scepticism
a) Doubts about the truth of all or certain claims
b) Doubts about the falseness of all or certain claims
possible reasons for sceptical moods:
a) the fraud of a friend
b) the death of a loved one
c) constant and recurring failure at work
d) a general feeling of unfulfilled life
e) the failure of art as a comforter in facing the daily horror of being alife
Which way leads to bliss?
a) the knowledge of the truth
b) the renunciation of the knowledge of the truth
is man to big or to small to come into the possession of truth?
is the transition from blossoming life
to withered life more painful than
the transition from withered life to nonexistence?
try to use your senses as tools in the household of reason for the knowledge of reality
What kind of salvation do you seek to achieve?
a) Salvation from the restlessness of existence
b) Salvation from the struggles of the world
c) Salvation from the chase and hurry of life
have you built your ark?
oh, oh, to steer one’s little boat with more and more ballast of mental quotations
Stimme nichts weiterem zu, als dass du sicher bist, es schiene dir so.
Do not agree to anything other, than that you are sure that it seems to you the truth
4 Notes concerning the senses and sensory perception
a) Opinions represent our judgments about the experienced sensory perception.
b) Do not blame the eye for the mind’s mistakes
c) Sensory perception does not provide false, but never true claims
d) Sensory perception has perfect intellectual innocence
4 Notizen zur Wahrnehmung der Sinne
a) Meinungen stellen unsere Urteile über die erfahrenen Sinneswahrnehmungen dar
b) Dichte nicht dem Auge die Fehler des Geistes an
c) Die Sinneswahrnehmung liefert keine falschen, aber auch niemals wahre Behauptungen
d) Die Sinneswahrnehmung besitzt die vollkommene intellektuelle Unschuld
everything that tends to remain static is not natural, and thereby, because it goes against nature, is doomed to disappear, for it is fruitless.
das Verhältnis der Skepsis zur Glückseligkeit
the relationship of skepticism to bliss
welcher Begriff von Wahrheit ist dem grundsätzlichen Zweifler gegenüber zu retten?
which concept of truth can be saved from the fundamental doubter?
der Stachel der Sehnsucht nach vollendeter Erkenntnis
the sting of yearning for perfect understanding
there are always new problems, new question marks
es ergeben sich ständig neue Probleme, neue Fragezeichen
The underlying substance persists. The modifications change
Die zugrunde liegende Substanz besteht fort. Die Modifikationen wechseln
Das Beste ist nicht geboren zu sein, das zweitbeste gleich nach der Geburt zu sterben
The best thing is not to be born, the second best thing to die right after birth
Der Sinn und Zweck des Lebens ist nichts weiter, als die Ordnung des Weltalls zu betrachten
The meaning and purpose of life is nothing more than to consider the order of the universe
Zwei unterschiedliche Formen des Zweifels
a) frivoler Zweifel
Er führt zu Leichtsinn und regelloser Entfesselung aller Triebe
b) ernster Zweifel
Er führt zu Schwermut und Willenslähmung
Two different kinds of of doubt
a) frivolous doubt
It leads to recklessness and unleashing of all instincts
b) serious doubt
It leads to melancholy and paralysis of the will
the existence is for nothing more existent, than the nothing
Um Nichts ist das Sein mehr seiend, als das Nichts
Three questions on the way to the calmness of the heart
a) What can I do?
b) What should I do?
c) What can I hope for?
start thinking about becoming a good person
Practice refraining from commenting on the riddles of life
Questions II
a) How are things really?
b) How do we have to behave towards them?
c) What does this behavior mean for us?
The primal substance of the world is the unlimited
Everything arises from it and everything returns to it
Questions I (about the world we are living)
a) What is the world?
b) What is the world made of?
c) Where did the world come from?
d) Where is the world going?
sell your soul
be rested, when things start to happen
good thing we talked
would you feel better, if you gave up hope?
i am like the worm
that crawls through the dirt
which lives in the dirt
which eats dirt
until someones foot crushes it
the human mind cannot attain true knowledge, either by observing the sensually perceptible, or the supersensory world.
when does the last ray of sun appear, that brings the swelling fruit of knowledge to maturity?
notes, memos, guidelines for survival on earth
Notizen, Merkzettel, Richtlinien für das Überleben auf der Erde
do not bother green lizards
and do not make them angry