TY - JOUR
T1 - Thank goodness for the atmosphere : reflections on the starry sky and the moral law
AU - Schmidt, Dennis J.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The purpose of this article is to take up the largely unthought challenge of Kant's celebrated remark about how “two things”-the starry sky above and the moral law within-fill the mind with wonder the more one reflects upon them. After briefly discussing the role of the image of the stars in early Greek thought, and then taking account of what we know about the heavens today, I ask if we have yet come to understand just what our relation to the heavens means. The conclusion is that taking the image of the stars seriously and making the effort to understand what we see in that image humbles us. It brings us before a profound limit regarding our understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to live on the earth.
AB - The purpose of this article is to take up the largely unthought challenge of Kant's celebrated remark about how “two things”-the starry sky above and the moral law within-fill the mind with wonder the more one reflects upon them. After briefly discussing the role of the image of the stars in early Greek thought, and then taking account of what we know about the heavens today, I ask if we have yet come to understand just what our relation to the heavens means. The conclusion is that taking the image of the stars seriously and making the effort to understand what we see in that image humbles us. It brings us before a profound limit regarding our understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to live on the earth.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:61722
U2 - 10.1163/15691640-12341457
DO - 10.1163/15691640-12341457
M3 - Article
SN - 1569-1640
SN - 0085-5553
VL - 50
SP - 370
EP - 385
JO - Research in Phenomenology
JF - Research in Phenomenology
IS - 3
ER -