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It is the shared bad faith by which individuals help each other sustain the illusion that they can shirk their spiritual destiny by joining the public.

— Merold Westphal Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

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More quotes by Merold Westphal

Knowledge conceived as an instrument is a means to the end of power. The goal of philosophy, however, is not to gain power over the Absolute but to know it as it truly is.

History and Truth in Hegel’s Phenomenology (1979)

Kierkegaard seeks to un-socialize the individual in order to un-deify society.

Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

It is precisely the acceptance of political, ethical, and religious heteronomy which leads Hegel to label Judeo-Christian culture a slave culture.

History and Truth in Hegel’s Phenomenology (1979)

To assume that one’s existential task is completed when the individual is brought into right relation with society, that is, when the individual has been socialized, is to absolutize society and confuse society with God.

Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

The story of German idealism is the story of Kant and the aftermath.

All Merold Westphal quotes →

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Merold Westphal (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.