Quotation
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“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
Immanuel Kant · Critical philosophy · Enlightenment · 1788
What does it mean?
The starry heavens humble us as animals in a vast nature, and the moral law raises us as persons who can act from duty, and he wants both feelings kept distinct. The usual reading treats the conclusion of the second Critique as an experience that fits a philosophy already argued, not as a substitute for the argument. A rival reading uses the awe as if wonder were itself the proof of freedom or of God. Reflection, repeated, is what he says increases the admiration; The German passage is his.
Did Immanuel Kant really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The closing of the Critique of Practical Reason, in a standard English of a passage Kant wrote. Mary Gregor's translation is a usual modern guide. The sentence is often shortened by dropping the clause about reflecting often and steadily. The German is secure. This wording is a translation.
Where it comes from
Critique of Practical Reason, conclusion
Approximate date: 1788.
How to use it
Let one of the two actually happen in an ordinary week: a long look at a clear night over the Pentland Hills, or a quiet look at an obligation, a promised visit to a parent, that inclination did not favour. He thinks reflection, often and steadily, is what grows the awe, not a single spectacular moment. The visit is not proved right by the feeling of awe; The feeling is what fits a law he thinks reason has already recognised.
A mindset reading
Awe is not an argument, and in this book the authority of the moral law has been argued before the conclusion offers two objects of reverence. Borrowing the sentence as a mood, without the distinction between nature's scale and moral personality, blurs the contrast he is holding open. The heavens do not moralise; The law does not become astronomy; The mind is filled by both, and he refuses to collapse them.
Understand the philosophy
The first Critique limited knowledge in order, he said, to make room for faith, and the second Critique gives morality its own authority apart from theoretical proof of God or immortality. The key term in this closing is the moral law within, the demand of duty that reveals a person as more than a piece of sensible nature. The starry sky addresses us as creatures. The law addresses us as agents; Gregor’s English, or a close equivalent, is the usual way into the German conclusion.
- meaning
- ethics
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The starry heavens humble us as animals in a vast nature, and the moral law raises us as persons who can act from duty, and he wants both feelings kept distinct. The usual reading treats the conclusion of the second Critique as an experience that fits a philosophy already argued, not as a substitute for the argument. A rival reading uses the awe as if wonder were itself the proof of freedom or of God. Reflection, repeated, is what he says increases the admiration; The German passage is his.
Did Immanuel Kant really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The closing of the Critique of Practical Reason, in a standard English of a passage Kant wrote. Mary Gregor's translation is a usual modern guide. The sentence is often shortened by dropping the clause about reflecting often and steadily. The German is secure. This wording is a translation.
Which work is it in?
Critique of Practical Reason, conclusion Approximate date: 1788.