Second Lecture

That this is the case, that we really grasp world events in thinking by one corner, could only be illustrated initially by the thinking that underlies human action, the thinking that develops when we shape the moral world in our actions out of our pure thinking. For then we are compelled first to develop pure thinking in the soul, that is, to have thinking in its pure form, so to speak, and then to shape our perception ourselves. The facts themselves compel us to separate perception, cognition, and thinking from one another in order to combine them in action, in moral deeds. How, precisely in the pursuit of ethical, social life, the true essence of intellectual activity dawns on us—what I have developed in my Philosophy of Freedom—is what I want to talk about tomorrow.