Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German philosopher, had trouble writing things that people could relate to. He said towards the end of his life:

“I have come a century too soon with my writings. After a hundred years, people will first correctly understand me. And then study my books anew and admit them.”

Maybe Heidegger is right to ask whether Kant said this out of “vain self-importance”or the “angry hopelessness of being shoved aside.” What strikes me is that we live in a world where it’s becoming less and less possible to say things like that. And it’s simply because we’ve become impatient. Things have to be meaningful fast and quick and easy and in the moment or else they’re left for dead in the darkness outside. This kind of postponement of revelation on which Kant hangs his whole life’s work is a mystery to us.

 

First Image via The-Philosophy

Second Image via