39 Quotes by Thomas Metzinger

If we lose the ability in question for a single moment only, we are immediately being hijacked by an aggressive little “Think me!” and our mind begins to wander.

Of course, I strongly sympathized with Habermas and the philosophers representing the Frankfurt school, but I also saw the lack of conceptual clarity, and perceived the not-so-revolutionary self-importance in the epigones of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas.

As a philosopher, you define constraints for any good theory explaining what you are interested in, then you go out and search for help in other disciplines.

Retribution is really a stone age concept.

Someone who cannot stop his outer flow of words will soon be unable to communicate with other human beings at all.

Developing a consciousness culture has nothing to do with establishing a religion or a particular political agenda. On the contrary, a true consciousness culture will always be subversive, by encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own lives.

I could never understand how someone would embark on their life without having first confronted and clarified the truly fundamental questions.

As far as inner action is concerned, we are only rarely truly self-determined persons, for the major part of our conscious mental activity rather is an automatic, unintentional form of behavior on the subpersonal level.

You cannot be a rational subject without veto-control on the level of mental action.