To Him Who Looks At The World

We Do Not Need To Be Shoemakers To Know If Our Shoes Fit, And Just As Little Have We Any Need To Be Professionals To Acquire Knowledge Of Matters Of Universal Interest.

Every Philosophy Is Complete In Itself And, Like A Genuine Work Of Art, Contains The Totality. Just As The Works Of Apelles And Sophocles, If Raphael And Shakespeare Had Known Them, Should Not Have Appeared To Them As Mere Preliminary Exercises For Their Own Work, But Rather As A Kindred Force Of The Spirit, So, Too Reason Cannot Find In Its Own Earlier Forms Mere Useful Preliminary Exercises For Itself.

In The Case Of All Other Sciences, Arts, Skills, And Crafts, Everyone Is Convinced That A Complex And Laborious Programme Of Learning And Practice Is Necessary For Competence. Yet When It Comes To Philosophy, There Seems To Be A Currently Prevailing Prejudice To The Effect That, Although Not Everyone Who Has Eyes And Fingers, And Is Given Leather And Last, Is At Once In A Position To Make Shoes, Everyone Nevertheless Immediately Understands How To Philosophize.

The Few Assume To Be The Deputies, But They Are Often Only The Despoilers Of The Many.

The State Is The Absolute Reality And The Individual Himself Has Objective Existence, Truth And Morality Only In His Capacity As A Member Of The State.