[One Thousand Characters a Day] Hermann von Keyserling's 'The Wandering Philosopher' <1>

Editor's Note＜The Wandering Philosopher＞ is a travelogue by German philosopher Hermann von Keyserling, documenting his philosophical reflections at major temples and cultural heritage sites during his world tour centered on India, East Asia, and North America from 1911 to 1912. Born into a wealthy noble family in Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire and now Estonian territory, he studied geology and chemistry at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, the University of Tartu in Estonia, and Heidelberg University in Germany, and earned his doctorate in geology and philosophy at the University of Vienna in Austria. Even before his world tour, he was renowned as a geologist and essayist, but after completing his travels, he published ＜The Wandering Philosopher＞ in 1919, which garnered significant attention from the European intellectual community. This book also became one of the most widely read books in postwar Europe. Here we introduce part of the content from the first translated edition in Korea. Word count: 681.

The essence of poetry is not the self.

It is everything and nothing.

There is no individuality.

Isn't the poet an enigma?

Always, they just jump into something else to possess it.

Why did Keats say that poets must inevitably be selfish? Did he think one must be selfish to fulfill one's role? Aren't philosophers selfish in a nobler sense than poets? The relationship between philosophers and poets is like that between poets and actors. Actors perform, but poets create. Philosophers secretly desire expression and creation. They do not want to be bound by any special form or to be like anyone else. Their consciousness must melt into the consciousness of the universe. They must view each phenomenon from a higher perspective. And above all, they must first focus on themselves and their own philosophy in this way.

My hometown was not suitable for deep reflection. Like others, I thought the universe might operate on some special energy. I wondered if humans were fundamentally individual and accidental beings. Holding these thoughts, I began to become a 'person.'

Pythagoras and Plato lived traveling even in old age?how wise they were! They tried not to become rigid until the end. Shouldn't one live like Proteus as much as possible? Only with a flexible mind like that ever-changing temperament is one qualified to study philosophy. In the end, I decided to return to the world again.

- Hermann von Keyserling, ＜The Wandering Philosopher＞, translated by Hong Moon-woo, Param Book, 32,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.