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Full Idea
The philosopher lives on problems as the human being does on food. An insoluble problem is an indigestible food. What spice is to food, the paradoxical is to problems.
Gist of Idea
Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox
Source
Novalis (Logological Fragments II [1798], 09)
Book Ref
Novalis: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Stoljar,M.M. [SUNY 1997], p.68
A Reaction
Novalis would presumably have disliked Hegel's dialectic, where the best food seems to be the indigestible.
19586 | Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox [Novalis] |
19587 | Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system [Novalis] |
19588 | The highest aim of philosophy is to combine all philosophies into a unity [Novalis] |
19597 | Logic (the theory of relations) should be applied to mathematics [Novalis] |
19598 | Philosophy relies on our whole system of learning, and can thus never be complete [Novalis] |