The great thinkers think for humanity, and the great writers write for humanity. The great teachers are teachers of humanity. Buddha was such a one and so were Jesus and Socrates. We lesser lights think and write to clear our heads, and to appropriate what we have inherited.
Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast,
erwirb es, um es zu besitzen!What from your fathers you received as heir,Acquire if you would possess it.(Goethe's Faust, Part I, Night, lines 684-685, tr. W. Kaufmann)
We think and write to know our own minds, to form our minds, and attract a few of the like-minded. As Aristotle says somewhere, we philosophize best with friends. Philosophy does not make progress in us so much as we make progress in philosophy. We are teachers of humanity only at second-hand, and only to a few. But we too participate in the great tradition and are grateful for the vocation to such participation.
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