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defection from the truth in such a period: the defection from truth is not equal to immorality,
but to a conscious devotion to the demonic in practice. Both are considered as aspects of the
one act m which the fundamental alienation from the Unconditioned is accomplished. Of
course, there is a responsibility for the single act in the moral field as well as in knowledge.
That provides the possibility of transferring the responsibility in the sphere of truth to the
moral plane of technical exactness, conscientiousness or honesty, i.e., of doing away with the
element of decision contained in knowledge itself in favor of a moral attitude in scientific
work. This conception, familiar to modern culture, is possible only because the transcendental
relation to the true has been lost as well as the transcendental relation to the good. Whoever
wants to understand knowledge through analyzing the single act, must necessarily divide it
into a technical side (which can be expressed in scientific genius) and a moral side (which can
be enhanced as far as asceticism). He cannot see the third element, the quality of freedom and
fate belonging to knowledge. As soon as we break through this superficial consideration, the
responsibility on both sides becomes infinite and direct: the responsibility toward the true is
as great as the responsibility toward the good, or rather, it is one responsibility. There can be
no question here of a primacy of practical reason.
In this third element of knowledge its decisive character, its genuine historic quality, its
position in fate and in the Kairos is rooted.
D. Method and attitude in knowledge
We now ask what significance our line of thought may have for scientific work. Does it lead
to a new method or merely an interpretation of old methods? In reply we must first repeat that
the third element of perception is not an object which might occur in the act of perception
itself. Otherwise a new third element would have to be sought in turn for this act of
knowledge, etc. The third element is that which can never become an object in the act of
knowledge itself and which therefore naturally had to remain hidden from the formalistic and
empirical epistemology. It can become an object only for the metaphysics of knowledge. In
the same way, style never lies in the intention of the creative artist, not even when he
consciously follows a previous style. He can never consciously give himself his style. The
style (the third element in artistic creation) is apparent only to the historian or observer of art
(who under certain circumstances can be the same person as the artist). In the act of
knowledge, as well as in the act of artistic production, the duality of form and material is
realized. As soon as attention is directed to the third element, freedom and fate are lost, and
subjective arbitrariness controlled by psychological necessity replaces them. Only in the
severest methodical concentration can that objectivity be reached which can become the fate
of a time. Here lies the whole gravity of the task of knowledge, the necessary asceticism
which is not an asceticism toward the Kairos but toward subjectivity. For subjectivity is
always "akairos."( This warning is extremely important at the present moment, when servile
philosophers in dictatorial Countries abuse the philosophy of Kairos by identifying truth and
power, or truth and political leadership, or truth and blood. They distort the idea of decision in
knowledge by confusing decision and subjective arbitrariness. I am afraid that there is a
danger of this kind in Pragmatism too.) So, for example, in the interpretation of documents
from the past, it is not permitted to pass over the methodically correct comprehension of the
"actual meaning" of the text. All subjective interpretation is arbitrariness and servitude,
separating us from the truth. In this respect progress, improvement, and successful steps of
scientific asceticism are possible. And it is just when this happens, when methodical severity
combines with pure devotion to matter, that the understanding of the past becomes a living,
creative deed, re-creating the past an achievement of great historians. This is the effect of
the third element in knowledge. The same is true regarding nature, where every will to be
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