fessors of Theology. For at the bottom they have really been this for some time already, and have served quite long enough as volunteers.
Meanwhile my honest and kindly advice to the young generation is not to waste any time with university philosophy but to study Kant's works and my own instead. I promise them that there they will learn something substantial that will bring light and order into their brains, so far at least as they may be capable of receiving them. It is not good to crowd round a wretched farthing rushlight when brilliant torches are close by; still less to run after will o' the wisps. Above all, my truth-seeking young friends, beware of letting our professors tell you what is contained in the Critique of Pure Reason. Read it yourselves and you will find in it something very different from what they deem it advisable for you to know.—In our time a great deal too much study is generally devoted to the History of Philosophy; for this study, being adapted by its very nature to substitute knowledge for reflection, is just now cultivated downright with a view to making philosophy consist in its own history. It is not only of doubtful necessity, but even of questionable profit, to acquire a superficial half-knowledge of the opinions and systems of all the philosophers who have taught for 2,500 years; yet what more does the most honest history of philosophy give? A real knowledge of philosophers can only be acquired from their own works, and not from the distorted image of their doctrines as it is found in the commonplace head.[1] But it is really urgent that order should be brought into our heads by some sort of philosophy, and that we should at the same time learn
- ↑ "Potius de rebus ipsis judicare debemus, quam pro magno habere, de hominibus quid quisque senserit scire," [Wikisource translation: On the contrary, we should judge of things themselves rather than attach importance to knowing what kind of an opinion everyone had of men.] says St. Augustine, (De civitate Dei, Lib. 19, c. 3)—Under the present mode of proceeding, however, the philosophical lecture-room becomes a sort of rag-fair for old worn-out, cast-off opinions, which are brought there every six months to be aired and beaten. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
