“The jargon makes it seem that … the pure attention of the expression to the subject matter would be a fall into sin.”
Source: Jargon der Eigentlichkeit [Jargon of Authenticity] (1964), p. 9
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Theodor W. Adorno90
German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for … 1903–1969Related quotes
Edward Nelson (1932–2014) American mathematical physicist and logician
[Nelson, E., Predicative Arithmetic, 1986, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 0-691-08455-6, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pvr_AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false, 86018730, 14001745, 173, harv]
“Men make war to get attention. All killing is an expression of self-hate.”
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
Foreword to The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss (2007), p. xiii http://books.google.com/books?id=NEhSpZFWiBMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PR13#v=onepage&q&f=false
John Von Neumann (1903–1957) Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath
As quoted in Proportions, Prices, and Planning (1970) by András Bródy
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening
Geoffrey Hill (1932–2016) English poet and professor
Interview, Telegraph Review, 2013
Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) American physician, poet and educator
"The Tucson Zoo", p. 10
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1979)
Context: Everyone says, stay away from ants. They have no lessons for us; they are crazy little instruments, inhuman, incapable of controlling themselves, lacking manners, lacking souls. When they are massed together, all touching, exchanging bits of information held in their jaws like memoranda, they become a single animal. Look out for that. It is a debasement, a loss of individuality, a violation of human nature, an unnatural act.
Sometimes people argue this point of view seriously and with deep thought. Be individuals, solitary and selfish, is the message. Altruism, a jargon word for what used to be called love, is worse than weakness, it is sin, a violation of nature. Be separate. Do not be a social animal. But this is a hard argument to make convincingly when you have to depend on language to make it. You have to print out leaflets or publish books and get them bought and sent around, you have to turn up on television and catch the attention of millions of other human beings all at once, and then you have to say to all of them, all at once, all collected and paying attention: be solitary; do not depend on each other. You can’t do this and keep a straight face.