Modern man lacks a unified conception of the world. He lives in a dual world: in his environment, which is naturally given to him, and, at the same time, in the world which since the beginning of the modern era has been created for him by sciences founded upon the principle that the laws of nature are, in essence, mathematical. The non-unity which has thus come to penetrate our entire life is the true source of the spiritual crisis we are going through today.


Jan Patočka, cited in: Paul F.H. Lauxtermann, "Kant, Goethe, and the Mechanization of the World-Picture." in: Schopenhauer's Broken World-View. Springer Netherlands, 2000. p.9

Jan Patočka Quotes

Modern man lacks a unified conception of the world. He lives in a dual world: in his environment, which is naturally given to him, and, at the same...

Modern man lacks a unified conception of the world. He lives in a dual world: in his environment, which is naturally given to him, and, at the same...

Modern man lacks a unified conception of the world. He lives in a dual world: in his environment, which is naturally given to him, and, at the same...

Modern man lacks a unified conception of the world. He lives in a dual world: in his environment, which is naturally given to him, and, at the same...