21 quotes
Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century. It was a dream offering the prospect of a society of perfect unity, in which all human aspirations would be fulfilled and all values reconciled.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
The history of utopias is no less fascinating than the history of metallurgy or of chemical engineering.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
There is no idea so obscure that someone could not come to regard it as self-evident.
The Alienation of Reason (1966)
The concept of original sin gives us a penetrating insight into human destiny.
Pragmatism starts from assumptions similar to those of empiriocriticism, but differs from the latter by its striking formulations, loose aphorisms, and analytical unscrupulousness.
The Alienation of Reason (1966)
We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.
I do not know what postmodern is and how it differs from the premodern, nor do I feel that I ought to know.
Modernity on Endless Trial (1986)
A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading.
Metaphysical Horror (1988)
Fascist was, by definition, a person who happened to have been in jail in a communist country.
My Correct Views on Everything (1974)
The social conditions that nourished and made use of this ideology can still revive; perhaps - who knows? - the virus is dormant, waiting for the next opportunity. Dreams about the perfect society belong to the enduring stock of civilization.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
...shall we say that the difference between a vegetarian and a cannibal is just a matter of taste?
I, then a young and omniscient student (alas, I was soon to lose both these virtues)...
Metaphysical Horror (1988)
In this sense Marxism performs the function of a religion, and its efficacy is of a religious character. But it is a caricature and a bogus form of religion, since it presents its temporal eschatology as a scientific system, which religious mythologies do not purport to be.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
Marxism was a philosophical or semi-philosophical doctrine and a political ideology which was used by the communist state as the main source of legitimacy and the obligatory faith.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
It seems to us that the past is our property. Well, on the contrary — we are its property, because we are not able to make changes in it, while it fills the whole of our existence.
But the philosophy that killed off truth proclaims unlimited tolerance for the "language games" (i.e., opinions, beliefs and doctrines) that people find useful. The outcome is expressed in the words of Karl Kraus: "Alles ist wahr und auch das Gegenteil." "Everything is true, and also its opposite."
Our Merry Apocalypse (1997)
Carnap made a detailed analysis of Heidegger’s statement, “Nothing nihilates,” in order to show that it is purely verbal, devoid of empirical meaning. (Incidentally, this is the only sentence from existentialist philosophy the majority of contemporary positivists appear familiar with.)
The Alienation of Reason (1966)
A certain degree of blindness as to the absoluteness of one’s own values may be indispensable to extract the valuable qualities from the world, the qualities whose value is believed to be the highest. It is possible that in order to realize one’s values one must have faith in their exclusive character.
The Alienation of Reason (1966)
But we may safely predict that Marx himself will become more and more what he already is: a chapter from a textbook of the history of ideas, a figure that no longer evokes any emotions, simply the author of one the 'great books' of the nineteenth century - one of those books that very few bother to read but whose titles are known to the educated public.
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978)
It would be silly, of course, to be either 'for' or 'against' modernity tout court, not only because it is pointless to try to stop the development of technology, science, and economic rationality, but because both modernity and antimodernity may be expressed in barbarous and antihuman terms.
Modernity on Endless Trial (1986)