Helmuth Plessner Quotes
Helmuth Plessner was a German philosopher and one of the principal founders, with Max Scheler and Arnold Gehlen, of philosophical anthropology. Trained in zoology, psychology, and philosophy, he spent the years of National Socialism in exile in the Netherlands and after 1945 returned to chairs at Gottingen and Zurich. The quotes below are attributed to Helmuth Plessner, organized by topic.
Helmuth Plessner on Life
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Attributed to Helmuth Plessner:
“We are bodies, and we have bodies; that is the riddle of human existence.”
Helmuth Plessner on Mind
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Attributed to Helmuth Plessner:
“We live an eccentric positionality: always at a distance from the body we are.”
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Attributed to Helmuth Plessner:
“Laughing and weeping mark the limits of behavior the body cannot govern.”
Helmuth Plessner on Nature
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Attributed to Helmuth Plessner:
“The human being is by nature artificial.”
Helmuth Plessner on Politics
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Attributed to Helmuth Plessner:
“Civilization is the form in which we make a home in our own homelessness.”