Literary notes about speculation (AI summary)
The word "speculation" in literature carries a rich and varied significance, often bridging abstract intellectual inquiry with concrete real-world consequences. In some writings it is used to denote a mode of philosophical musing—where thinkers venture into realms beyond observable fact, as seen in discussions of pure, abstract reasoning [1, 2, 3]—while in other works it denotes practical or even market-driven risk, such as ventures into land or commerce [4, 5, 6]. Authors also harness the term to evoke a sense of imaginative inquiry or to dramatize uncertain outcomes, whether pondering metaphysical questions [7, 8] or critiquing the folly of baseless conjecture [9, 10]. In this way, speculation embodies a duality, oscillating between the sophisticated realm of abstract thought and the more immediate sphere of everyday decision-making and risk-taking [11, 12].
- It enters upon the path of pure speculation; but in vain.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - The transcendental speculation of reason relates to three things: the freedom of the will, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of God.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - Thus, pure reason, in the sphere of speculation, does not contain a single direct synthetical judgement based upon conceptions.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - It was a land speculation as usual, and it had gotten complicated with a lawsuit.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - When he gets rich in his legitimate business, he is told of a grand speculation where he can make a score of thousands.
— from The art of money getting : by P. T. Barnum - He sees a chance for speculation outside of his business.
— from The art of money getting : by P. T. Barnum - The spiritual world is, on the other hand, a constant theme for poetry and speculation.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - There is no religion that is not a cosmology at the same time that it is a speculation upon divine things.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - But it must be remembered that all this is speculation.
— from Secret societies and subversive movements by Nesta Helen Webster - This is not an assertion founded merely in speculation or conjecture.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - Speculation is a round game; the players see little or nothing of their cards at first starting; gains may be great—and so may losses.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - He felt keenly conscious of how barren all intellectual speculation is when separated from action and experiment.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
