On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition)Schopenhauer, Arthur
Philosophy
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature: Two Essays (revised edition)
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Sufficient reason; Will
But it would be downright chicanery, nothing else, to try and
compare, let alone identify, such an honest, deep, thorough analysis
of empirical perception as the one I have just given, which proves all
the elements of perception to be subjective, with Fichte's algebraic
equations of the _Ego_ and the _Non-Ego_; with his sophistical
pseudo-demonstrations, which in order to be able to deceive his readers
had to be clothed in the obscure, not to say absurd, language adopted
by him; with his explanations of the way in which the _Ego_ spins
the _Non-Ego_ out of itself; in short, with all the buffoonery of
scientific emptiness.[96] Besides, I protest altogether against any
community with this Fichte, as Kant publicly and emphatically did in a
notice _ad hoc_ in the "Jenaer Litteratur Zeitung."[97] Hegelians and
similar ignoramuses may continue to hold forth to their heart's content
upon Kant-Fichteian philosophy: there exists a Kantian philosophy and
a Fichteian hocus-pocus,--this is the true state of the case, and will
remain so, in spite of those who delight in extolling what is bad and
in decrying what is good, and of these Germany possesses a larger
number than any other country.
[96] _Wissenschaftsleere_ (literally, _emptiness of science_), a
pun of Schopenhauer's on the title of Fichte's _Wissenschaftslehre_
(_doctrine of science_), which cannot be rendered in English.
(Tr.'s Note.)
[97] Kant, "Erklärung über Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre." See the
"Intelligenzblatt" of the Jena Literary Gazette (1799), No. 109.
§ 22. _Of the Immediate Object._
Thus it is from the sensations of our body that we receive the data for
the very first application of the causal law, and it is precisely by
that application that the perception of this class of objects arises.
They therefore have their essence and existence solely in virtue of the
intellectual function thus coming into play, and of its exercise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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