In the baptismal letter to his newborn great-nephew, uncle Dietrich looks toward the world his namesake will inherit. These paragraphs introduce a theme that is at the core of his Ethics, “responsibility,” and being prepared to take action.
We have live too much in a world of ideas, and we thought it would be possible to secure every action so that it would happen by itself, simply by weighing the alternatives beforehand. We have learned a little too late that it’s not the idea but the willingness to accept responsibility that is the origin of action.
. . .
We believed that we could prevail in life through reason and right, and when these both collapsed we saw ourselves at the end of our options. We always overestimated the importance of what is reasonable and right in the course of history too.
You–who are growing up in a world war which ninety percent of all people did not want and for which they are giving up property and life-are experiencing from childhood on that powers control the world, against which reason can accomplish nothing. You will therefore more soberly and more successfully deal with these powers.
