[228F-LER: p. 119]
“ … what is first for man, or at least for his faculty of abstraction, is last for or in nature; but because man turns the subjective into the objective, because he transforms what is first for him into the first as such or in nature, he regards space and time as the first foundations of nature, and since the universal, that is, the abstract, has thus become the foundation of the real, man comes to regard the being who is nothing but a bundle of universal concepts, the thinking, spiritual being, as the first being, as the being who precedes all other beings not only in rank but also in time, who is indeed the ground and cause of all being and the Creator of all beings.” [228F-LER: p. 119]
[229F-LER: p. 125]
“ … man sees the world in terms of himself; he transfers his view of his own works to the works or effects of nature; he looks upon the world as a dwelling, a workshop, a clock, in short, as a human artifact. But since he draws no essential distinction, but at most specific distinctions, between the products of nature and his own artifacts, he finds the cause of nature’s products in a human, purposive, thinking being. And since the products of nature infinitely exceed those of man, he conceives this essentially human cause as a superhuman being, a being having the same attributes as man, having the intelligence, will, and strength required to carry out his projects, but in a degree infinitely exceeding the powers and capacities of man. This being he calls God.” [229F-LER: p. 125]
[230F-LER: p. 126]
“Sensuous things are not letters which stand in no necessary relation to each other and therefore have to be put in place by a printer; things in nature attract each other, they need and desire each other, for one cannot be without the rest; they enter into relationships of their own accord, they combine by their own power … .” [230F-LER: p. 126]
[231F-LER: p. 128]
“There is a necessary relationship between the organic and the inorganic. (…) Man … owes his existence and origin to the interrelation of all nature. (…)
(…) The earth is what it is only because of the place it occupies in the solar system, and it was not so placed in order that man and animals might be able to live on it, but the other way around. Because it occupies this position by necessity, in accordance with its fundamental nature, in short, because it is as it now is, such organic beings as are found on earth came into being on it and live on it. On the earth itself we observe how particular countries and regions produce particular animals and plants, … how organic and inorganic nature go inseparably hand in hand and are indeed essentially one.” [231F-LER: p. 128]
[232F-LER: p. 129]
“A temperature in which water can exist not as vapor or ice but as water, where there is water that men can drink and plants absorb, air that can be breathed, light of an intensity compatible with the eyes of men and animals – there we have the elements, the first grounds and origins of animal and
