“The philosopher will ask himself … if the criticism we are now suggesting is not the philosophy which presses to the limit that criticism of false gods which Christianity has introduced into our history.”

—  Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Source: In Praise of Philosophy (1963), p. 47

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The philosopher will ask himself … if the criticism we are now suggesting is not the philosophy which presses to the li…" by Maurice Merleau-Ponty?
Maurice Merleau-Ponty photo
Maurice Merleau-Ponty24
French phenomenological philosopher 1908–1961

Related quotes

Leo Igwe photo

“History has thrust on us this critical responsibility which we must fulfill.”

Leo Igwe (1970) Nigerian human rights activist

A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa (2012)

Jacques Ellul photo

“Faith lived in the incognito is one which is located outside the criticism coming from society, from politics, from history, for the very reason that it has itself the vocation to be a source of criticism. It is faith (lived in the incognito) which triggers the issues for the others, which causes everything seemingly established to be placed in doubt, which drives a wedge into the world of false assurances.”

Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarchist

L'espérance oubliée (1972) [Hope in Time of Abandonment] translated by C. Edward Hopkin (1973)

Peter Sloterdijk photo

“In the kynicism of Diogenes of Sinope, the laughter about philosophy itself became philosophical. … In the pantomimes and wordplays of the philosopher from the tub, the Gay Science was born, which saw the earnestness of the false life recur in the false earnestness of philosophy.”

Peter Sloterdijk (1947) German philosopher

Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. 535

“Kant's critical philosophy is the most elaborate fit of panic in the history of the Earth.”

Nick Land (1962) British philosopher

Source: The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism (1992), Chapter 1: "The death of sound philosophy", p. 1

“It is true that many of the problems with which professional philosophers deal do require quite a high level of abstract thought. However, the same is true of almost any intellectual pursuit: philosophy is no different in this respect from physics, literary criticism, computer programming, geology, mathematics, or history.”

Nigel Warburton (1962) British author and lecturer

Philosophy : the basics (Fifth Edition, 2013), Introduction

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 223

Michel Foucault photo

“The critical ontology of ourselves has to be considered not, certainly, as a theory, a doctrine, nor even as a permanent body of knowledge that is accumulating; it has to be conceived as an attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which the critique of what we are is at one and the same time the historical analysis of the limits that are imposed on us and an experiment with the possibility of going beyond them.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

What is Enlightenment? (1978)

Isaac Asimov photo

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981)
General sources

“Ireland is unique in religious history for being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed.”

Thomas Cahill book How the Irish Saved Civilization

Source: How the Irish Saved Civilization (1995), Ch. VI What Was Found

Northrop Frye photo

“The only way to forestall the work of criticism is through censorship, which has the same relation to criticism that lynching has to justice.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

"Quotes", Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957), Polemical Introduction

Related topics