Paul Carus - Practical Quotes

 Paul Carus Practical Quotes

Paul Carus - Practical Quotes

Paul Carus (18 July 1852 – 11 February 1919) was a German-American author, editor, student of comparative religion and philosopher.

Mankind has become more and more convinced of the efficiency of science.

Mankind has become more and more convinced of the efficiency of science, and in this sense the philosophy of science prevails even now as a still latent but nevertheless potent factor in the life of mankind, manifesting itself in innumerable subconscious tendencies of the age. We may confidently hope that the future which the present generation is preparing will be the age of science.

Cosmos, not chaos.

Experience verifies our conviction that the assured results of the various sciences, the so-called scientific truths, never conflict with each other; they may form contrasts but they never contradict one another. This indicates that the world in which we live is a cosmos, not chaos.

Science serves the practical purpose of guidance in life.

Science is originally one and undivided and serves the practical purpose of guidance in life. When by a division of labour the several sciences originated, there remained a field which was common to all of them; and this field is the domain of the science of the sciences, i. e., of philosophy.

A Philosopher must not be a one-sided intellectualist

A Philosopher must not be a one-sided intellectualist. He must bear in. mind that the noetic operations of man's mind are only one feature of his life; man is also endowed with sentiment and above all, he is an actor, a doer, a worker.

 Man is a struggling creature who must make a living; he is not a mere thinker, his thoughts serve the purpose of life; they must be applied to the tasks which he has to accomplish. Besides, he delights in giving expression to his sentiments by depicting in poetry and in art the motives that sway his soul. It would be a serious defect in philosophy if it attempted to be purely intellectual and ignored religion, literature, the arts and music. 

We must cultivate all the human aspirations that constitute the fullness of man's worth, the faculties of the head, the heart and the hand.

Paul Carus Crticism of Kant

Dr Carus believes that Kant has formulated the problem of philosophy correctly, but that he has not succeeded with its solution. Pointing out the errors of Kant, which consist in the looseness of the use of certain terms, especially the words "experience" and "ideal," Dr Carus builds up a foundation for the philosophy of science by demonstrating how the formal sciences enable us to solve the problems of objective reality.

Pauk Carus's theory that feeling and consciousness

The reader will be interested in Dr Carus's theory that feeling and consciousness originate from the organization. All existence possesses a subjective and an objective, i. e., an inner and an outer aspect; but so long as the subjectivity of every atom remains isolated (as is the case in the purely physical world), it cannot develop into actual feeling. 

The organization makes it possible that several functions of subjectivity can communicate, and thus organized life in its lowest stages, even in plants, produces irritability; further, animal life through the mechanism of a nervous system (which is nothing more nor less than an organ for coordinating the intercommunicating functions of subjectivity), yields that wonderful phenomenon of feeling.

Carus's theory of the nature of pleasure and pain

Dr Carus further propounds a new theory of the nature of pleasure and pain, rejecting the old notion that pleasure is identical with growth, and pain with decay. Pleasure is the satisfaction of a want or a craving, while pain is due to a disturbance. Thus even growth (being a disturbance) is no uncommon cause of pain.

The pursuit of pleasures is not morality!

Hedonism, which is based on the principle that that is moral which will bring about a maximum of pleasure for the greatest number of people, is, closely considered, a denial of ethics. The pursuit of happiness has nothing to do with morality, and if there were no duty except to bring about happiness, ethics would be an illusion.

The God of Science !

The God-conception here presented is that of the God of Science, not of nescience. The author combats agnosticism and  God preached is not an unknowable being science, whose existence cannot be proved and whose nature is a logical impossibility.

The God of Science is that principle which constitutes the cosmic order of natural law, and which, in the religious development of mankind, is discovered as the authority of conduct. He is a God whose existence even the atheist cannot deny.

I am an atheist who loves God!

One reader who looks upon religion as a huge aberration of the human mind said to the author: "People will say that the book is written by an atheist," to which the author replied: "I would make no objection if they only modify the statement by saying, 'Written by an atheist who loves God"

Paul Carus was Deist 

The author claims that his God is the God." only true God, and that other God-conceptions, especially the traditional views of the churches, are only surrogates, which did service so long as the truth was not yet forthcoming.

The Devil is a myh

Beginning with prehistoric Devil-worship and the adoration of demon gods and monster divinities, the author surveys the ancient beliefs of the Summero-Accadians, the Persians, the Jews, the Brahmans, the Buddhists, the early Christians and the Teutonic nations. He then passes to the demonology of the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and Modern times, discussing the Inquisition, witchcraft, and the history of the Devil in verse and fable.

The Buddhist God-conception.

The story of Amitabha has a historical setting in the ascendancy of the kingdom of Gandhara, under King Kanishka, whose interest in Buddhism and whose connection with Acvaghosha, the great Buddhist philosopher, are well known. 

The plot gives ample opportunity in discussion and incident to explain and illustrate some of the cardinal points of Buddhism, especially in regard to the way of salvation and the Godconception represented by Amitabha Buddha, the Source of Infinite Light and the Standard of Being, as distinct from the Brahman idea of a conscious personal deity.