Science Is Organized Knowledge. Wisdom Is Organized Life

Immanuel Kant? Herbert Spencer? Will Durant? Raoul Jossett? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a fascinating two-part adage about science and wisdom that is commonly attributed to the influential 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant:

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

I have attempted to find a convincing citation for this saying, but none of the websites or books that present these words have been helpful. What do you think?

Quote Investigator: Immanuel Kant communicated in German, and QI believes that he probably did not write or speak a statement in German that corresponded to the English quotation above. Instead, QI believes that the first part of the expression was crafted by the influential philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer. In addition, QI conjectures that the popular historian Will Durant constructed the second part while he was attempting to explain the thoughts of Kant; Durant also combined the two parts.

Kant died in 1804, and the earliest evidence of the first phrase was published in an essay titled “The Art of Education” by Spencer in May 1854. Boldface has been added to excerpts.[1] 1854 May, The North British Review, Article 5: The Art of Education by Herbert Spencer, Start Page 137, Quote Page 152, Published by W. P. Kennedy, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link

Science is organized knowledge; and before knowledge can be organized, some of it must first be possessed. Every study, therefore, should have a purely experimental introduction; and only after an ample fund of observations has been accumulated, should reasoning begin.

Further discussion of Spencer’s remark is presented in a separate website entry located here. This article will explore the full two-part expression.

In 1924 the historian Will Durant published a one-volume popular work titled “The Story of Philosophy” which included a section called “Kant and German Idealism”. During the following decades revised editions were released. The following passage appeared in the 1938 and 1943 editions. QI has not yet been able to examine the 1924 edition.

Durant explained Kant’s philosophical position by discussing a hierarchical sequence of interacting levels. The quotation under examination was part of Durant’s elucidation:[2]1938, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. New Revised Edition, Section: Kant and German Idealism, Sub-Section: Transcendental Analytic, Quote Page 295 and 296, Published by Garden City Publishing … Continue reading[3] 1943, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, Second Edition, (Footnote 13), Quote Page 201, Published by Garden City Publishing Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with scans)

Sensation is unorganized stimulus, perception is organized sensation, conception is organized perception, science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life: each is a greater degree of order, and sequence, and unity. Whence this order, this sequence, this unity? Not from the things themselves; for they are known to us only by sensations that come through a thousand channels at once in disorderly multitude; it is our purpose that put order and sequence and unity upon this importunate lawlessness.

This passage reflected Durant’s conception of Kant’s ideas, and it was not directly translated from Kant’s German. Indeed, Durant remarked in a footnote that his discussion of the difficult philosopher employed few quotations:[4]1938, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, New Revised Edition, Section: Kant and German Idealism, (Footnote 2), Quote Page 289, Published by Garden City Publishing Company, Garden City, New York. … Continue reading

A word about what to read. Kant himself is hardly intelligible to the beginner, because his thought is insulated with a bizarre and intricate terminology (hence the paucity of direct quotation in this chapter).

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Science Is Organized Knowledge. Wisdom Is Organized Life

References

References
1 1854 May, The North British Review, Article 5: The Art of Education by Herbert Spencer, Start Page 137, Quote Page 152, Published by W. P. Kennedy, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link
2 1938, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. New Revised Edition, Section: Kant and German Idealism, Sub-Section: Transcendental Analytic, Quote Page 295 and 296, Published by Garden City Publishing Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified on paper)
3 1943, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, Second Edition, (Footnote 13), Quote Page 201, Published by Garden City Publishing Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with scans)
4 1938, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, New Revised Edition, Section: Kant and German Idealism, (Footnote 2), Quote Page 289, Published by Garden City Publishing Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified on paper)

Science Is Organized Knowledge

Immanuel Kant? Herbert Spencer? Thomas Henry Huxley? R. Strachey?

Dear Quote Investigator: The following two part adage is usually attributed to the famous 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant:

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

I have not seen any citation in German or English showing that Kant ever wrote or said this. Would you please explore this saying?

Quote Investigator: This entry examines only the first sentence of this two sentence quotation, and a separate entry explores the full quotation.

Immanuel Kant died in 1804, and the earliest evidence found by QI appeared many years later. In May 1854 the prominent English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer published an essay titled “The Art of Education” in “The North British Review” which included the adage. Boldface has been added to excerpts.[1] 1854 May, The North British Review, Article 5: The Art of Education by Herbert Spencer, Start Page 137, Quote Page 152, Published by W. P. Kennedy, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link

A leading phenomenon in human progress is, that every science is evolved out of its corresponding art. It results from the necessity we are under, both individually and as a race, of reaching the abstract by way of the concrete, that there must be practice and an accruing experience with its empirical generalizations, before there can be science. Science is organized knowledge; and before knowledge can be organized, some of it must first be possessed. Every study, therefore, should have a purely experimental introduction; and only after an ample fund of observations has been accumulated, should reasoning begin.

QI believes that Spencer should be credited with this definitional phrase. The statement has been ascribed to him in multiple reference works, e.g., “A New Dictionary of Quotations” compiled by H. L. Mencken[2]1942, A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources, Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken), Topic: Science, Quote Page 1065, Column 1, … Continue reading and the “FPA Book of Quotations” selected by Franklin Pierce Adams.[3] 1952, FPA Book of Quotations, Selected by Franklin Pierce Adams, Section: Science, Quote Page 703, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. (Verified on paper)

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Science Is Organized Knowledge

References

References
1 1854 May, The North British Review, Article 5: The Art of Education by Herbert Spencer, Start Page 137, Quote Page 152, Published by W. P. Kennedy, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Google Books Full View) link
2 1942, A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources, Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken), Topic: Science, Quote Page 1065, Column 1, Alfred A. Knopf. New York. (Verified on paper)
3 1952, FPA Book of Quotations, Selected by Franklin Pierce Adams, Section: Science, Quote Page 703, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. (Verified on paper)

We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are

Anaïs Nin? Babylonian Talmud? Immanuel Kant? G. T. W. Patrick? H. M. Tomlinson? Steven Covey? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Our preconceptions can dramatically alter the way we perceive the world. There is a saying attributed to the prominent writer Anaïs Nin that reflects this idea:

We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.

These words have also been assigned a Talmudic origin. In addition, the popular motivational author Steven Covey used this maxim. Would you please explore this saying?

Quote Investigator: Anaïs Nin did employ this statement in her 1961 work “Seduction of the Minotaur”. She also presented two illustrations of distinctive perceptions in passages that occurred shortly before she wrote the adage. In the first example, two characters named Lillian and Jay reacted very differently to the Seine River in France:[1]1961 copyright, Seduction of the Minotaur by Anaïs Nin, Quote Page 124, The Swallow Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Afterword added in 1969; sixth printing in 1972) (Verified on paper in sixth printing … Continue reading

Lillian was bewildered by the enormous discrepancy which existed between Jay’s models and what he painted. Together they would walk along the same Seine river, she would see it silky grey, sinuous and glittering, he would draw it opaque with fermented mud, and a shoal of wine bottle corks and weeds caught in the stagnant edges.

In the second example, Nin described a homeless woman who slept in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the Panthéon in Paris:

…when they tried to remove her to an old woman’s home she had refused saying: “I prefer to stay here where all the great men of France are buried. They keep me company. They watch over me.”

When Nin wrote the adage she did not take credit for the notion. Instead, she pointed to a major religious text:[2]1961 copyright, Seduction of the Minotaur by Anaïs Nin, Quote Page 124, The Swallow Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Afterword added in 1969; sixth printing in 1972) (Verified on paper in sixth printing … Continue reading

Lillian was reminded of the talmudic words: “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

In 2005 an article in Newsweek magazine contained an epigraph that matched the adage under investigation. The statement was identified as an English translation of a comment from a section within the Talmud:[3] 2005 January 9, Newsweek, How We See Sharon—and Israel by Marc Gellman (Newsweek Web Exclusive) (Online Newsweek archive at newsweek.com; accessed January 14, 2014) link

“We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.”— Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani, as quoted in the Talmudic tractate Berakhot (55b.)

This modern citation may help to give insight into the recurrent ascriptions to the Talmud in previous decades. However, the referenced part of the Talmud was concerned with the interpretation of dreams. Another translation indicated that the original statement was within this domain of dream analysis. Thus, the Newsweek translation may be somewhat loose:[4]Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth, Folio 55b, Translated into English by Maurice Simon, Under the editorship of Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein. (Online at halakhah.com – accessed March 8, 2014) … Continue reading

R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in the name of R. Jonathan: A man is shown in a dream only what is suggested by his own thoughts…

The maxim has a long history and close matches in English were in circulation by the 1800s as detailed below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are

References

References
1, 2 1961 copyright, Seduction of the Minotaur by Anaïs Nin, Quote Page 124, The Swallow Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Afterword added in 1969; sixth printing in 1972) (Verified on paper in sixth printing 1972)
3 2005 January 9, Newsweek, How We See Sharon—and Israel by Marc Gellman (Newsweek Web Exclusive) (Online Newsweek archive at newsweek.com; accessed January 14, 2014) link
4 Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth, Folio 55b, Translated into English by Maurice Simon, Under the editorship of Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein. (Online at halakhah.com – accessed March 8, 2014) link
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