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     Es ist eine Eigenschaft unseres Denkens, dass es sich
selbst berichtigt, dass es sich selbst korrigiert, It is a
characteristic of thought that it is self-correcting, that
it finds contradiction repugnant.  dass ihm die
Widerspruechlichkeit widerstrebt Consequently it not only
aims at initial validity, but finds itself also inveterately
pre-occupied with making emendations, making corrections;
emending correcting itself.

     It is this ingrained propensity to self-correction
which induces thought (thinking) to think about itself, to
make a deliberate attempt to eradicate, to compensate for
its inadequacies.  This purposeful thinking about thought is
commonly referred to as philosophy.  perhaps with some
etymologic justification, inasmuch as thinking about thought
does not come easily, and requires the motivation of an
extraordinary passion.

     Virtually all thought processes and their products are
recognized to be potentially in error, and thus susceptible
to being the subject of doubt.  (are susceptible to being
doubted.)

[All product of thought is in error.  All process of thought
is valid.]

Historically in modern philosophy the origin (Ausgangspunkt)
(point of departure) of all critical thought has been the
awareness of self implicit in all deliberate conscious
mental activity, an awareness felicitously and cogently
expressed in Descartes Cogito ergo sum.

     The experience of conscious thought confirms not only
the existence of self (as distinct from thought); it
confirms also the experience of thought as an activity of
mind.  The experience of conscious thought confirms also
that subject which is thought about, i.e. the fact that
something is thought about, leaving entirely unanswered the
question of the reality (or nature) of that which is thought
about.  This is the salient limitation of Plato's theory of
ideas, that it is based upon the uncritical adoption and
adaptation of certain characteristics of the processes of
thought.

     The process of the syetmatic correction of thought is
fruitful already, perhaps most fruitful at its inception;
where there occurs the decisive recognition of the failure
faultiness, Hinfaelligkeit of thought, expressed by Socrates
in the dictum "I (only) know that I know nothing."  to which
Descartes "Cogito ergo sum" exhibits a remarkable
correspondence (congruity): since Descartes impies that he
is ignorant of the certainty of anything but his existence,
while Socrates dramatically asserts the certainty of his
existence when he claims to have knowledge of his ignorance,
but of nothing else.

     In a very important sense (in bedeutender Hinsicht) the
Socratic-Cartesian assertion simultaneously of self-
consciousness and ignorance is never superseded.  kommt man
nie ueber die gleichzeitige Beteurung des Bewusztseins und
des Nichtwissens hinaus.  Jedenfalls besteht fuer das
wahrheitsgetreue Denken die unablaessige Notwendigkeit
dahin, zu seinem Ausgangspunkt des Nichtwissens,
zurueckzukehren.  Es ist nicht nur der Ausgangspunkt: es ist
zugleich der Endpunkt (termination, Ziel, Abschluss,
conclusion) allen Denkens.

     Denn der Wert, die Wirksamkeit des Denkens besteht
nicht in irgendeinem Ergebnis, nicht in irgendeinem
Resultat, nicht in irgendeiner Reproduktion oder
Verdoppelung des Wirklichen.  Sondern im Vorgang (im
Prozess, im Verfahren) des Denkens: im Verstehen des
Gedachten, in seiner Anwendung in seinem Gebrauch.

     Es ist einer der schwerwiegendsten Irrtuemer des
Denkens das Wort, den Namens, der Wirklichkeit
gleichzusetzen.  Jedes Ding ist ein "Goetzending."  Die
Anbetung des Dinges ist eine Art Goetzendienst.

     Darum, weil es auf den Vorgang des Denkens, und nicht
auf sein Ergebnis ankommt, ist das Lernen von so groszem
Wert, und ist tatsaechlich der einzige Weg der Wirklichkeit
nahe zu kommen, die Wirklichkeit zu begreifen, die
Wirklichkeit zu ergreifen.

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