ABSTRACT

Self-consciousness does not have space, but only time as its form; this is the reason for thinking does not, like the perceiving, take place in three dimensions, but merely in one, hence along a line without breadth and depth. From this stems the greatest of the essential imperfections of the intellect. For the people can, be cognizant of all things only successively, and are conscious of only one at a time, indeed, even of that one only on the condition that for the time being we forget all others, thus are not conscious of them at all, hence to that extent they cease to exist for people. In view of this property, the intellect is comparable to a telescope with a very narrow field of vision; for consciousness is not in fact something stationary, but rather fluid. The intellect, namely, apprehends only successively, retaining nothing of it but traces that grow ever weaker.