Nicola Abbagnano Quotes on Mind
Nicola Abbagnano, the Italian philosopher who founded what he called positive existentialism, made possibility and the limits of reason central to his thought, and the quotes gathered here reflect that. For Abbagnano the human being is defined not by fixed essence but by what lies open to it, since what is possible for me defines what I am, and this openness he treated as a ground for hope rather than despair. He took an unillusioned view of reason itself, holding that reason is fallible and that this fallibility must find its place in logic. And he reversed the idealist relation of mind and world, arguing that genuine objectivity is reached only when a person does not think of the world as a part of himself, but feels himself as a part of the world. Drawn from his philosophical works, these passages present the mind as finite, fallible, and defined by its possibilities.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Nicola Abbagnano:
“Philosophy is the conscious life of the human in question.”
-
Attributed to Nicola Abbagnano:
“What is possible for me defines what I am.”
-
“The ideal of reason that had emerged in the modern world with Grotius and Descartes found one of its first typical expressions in Spinoza .”
Wikiquote -
“Secularism should be considered as mutual autonomy not only between political and religious thought, but between all human activities, which must be subordinate to one another in a relationship of hierarchical dependence, nor can they be subject to ends or interests that are foreign to them, but must autonomously carry out their own purposes and internal rules. This corresponds, in the relationships between activities, to freedom in the relationships between individuals.”
Wikiquote -
“Reason itself is fallible, and this fallibility must find its place in logic.”
Wikiquote -
“From “'The Irrational Sources of Thought”', F. Perrella, Genoa – Naples – Florence – Città di Castello, 1923.”
Wikiquote -
“To discover the authentic objectivity of the world, man must not think of the world as a part of himself, but must feel himself as a part of the world.”
Wikiquote