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
For the observer, as a purely cognising individual, any movement of
his body is simply an empirically perceived fact. It would be just as
possible in the second as in the first instance, to invert the order of
succession in the change, were it as easy for the observer to move the
ship up the stream as to alter the direction of his own eyes. For Kant
infers the successive perception of different parts of the house to be
neither objective nor an event, because it depends upon his own will.
But the movement of his eyes in the direction from roof to basement
is one event, and in the direction from basement to roof another
event, just as much as the sailing of the ship. There is no difference
whatever here, nor is there any difference either, as to their being
or not being events, between my passing a troop of soldiers and their
passing me. If we fix our eyes on a ship sailing close by the shore on
which we are standing, it soon seems as if it were the ship that stood
still and the shore that moved. Now, in this instance we are mistaken,
it is true, as to the cause of the relative change of position, since
we attribute it to a wrong cause; the real succession in the relative
positions of our body towards the ship is nevertheless quite rightly
and objectively recognised by us. Even Kant himself would not have
believed that there was any difference, had he borne in mind that his
own body was an object among objects, and that the succession in his
empirical perceptions depended upon the succession of the impressions
received from other objects by his body, and was therefore an objective
succession: that is to say, one which takes place among objects
_directly_ (if not indirectly) and independently of the will of the
Subject, and which may therefore be quite well recognised without any
causal connection between the objects acting successively on his body.
[99] _Ibid._ p. 189 of the 1st edition; more fully, p. 232 of the
5th edition. (English translation by M. Müller, p. 166.)
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