Thinking in the Service of Understanding the World 45Only when the philosopher regards the absolutelylast
thing as the first can the goal be reached. But this absolute-
ly last thing achieved by world evolution isthinking.
Some say that, even so, we cannot know for certain
whether our thinking in itself is correct, and therefore
that, to this extent, the point of departure remains a doubt-
ful one. This statement is just as reasonable as to entertain
doubts about whether a tree in itself is correct. Thinking
is a fact, and to speak about the correctness or falsehood
of a fact is meaningless. At most, I can have doubts about
whether thinking is used correctly, just as I can doubt
whether a certain tree gives the right wood for a certain
tool. The task of the present work is precisely to show
how the application of thinking to the world is right or
wrong. I can understand someone doubting that thinking
can know something of the world, but it is incomprehen-
sible to me that anyone could doubt the intrinsic correct-
ness of thinking itself.
Addendum to the new edition (1918)The preceding discussion points to the significant differ-
ence between thinking and all other activities of the soul,
a fact that reveals itself to truly unprejudiced observation.
Anyone who does not strive for such unprejudiced obser-
vation will be tempted to make such objections as: “When
I think about a rose, this thinking expresses only a rela-
tionship of my “I” to the rose, just as it does when I feel
the beauty of the rose. A relationship exists between the
“I” and the object in thinking just as it does, for example,