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
[100] In German _Zufall_, a word derived from the _Zusammenfallen_
(falling together), _Zusammentreffen_ (meeting together), or
coinciding of what is unconnected, just as τὸ συμβεβηκός from
συμβαίνειν. (Compare Aristotle, "Anal. post.," i. 4.)
Elsewhere Kant asserts, that a representation only shows reality
(which, I conclude, means that it is distinguished from a mere
mental image) by our recognising its necessary connection with other
representations subject to rule (the causal law) and its place in a
determined order of the time-relations of our representations. But
of how few representations are we able to know the place assigned to
them by the law of causality in the chain of causes and effects! Yet
we are never embarrassed to distinguish objective from subjective
representations: real, from imaginary objects. When asleep, we are
unable to make this distinction, for our brain is then isolated from
the peripherical nervous system, and thereby from external influences.
In our dreams therefore, we take imaginary for real things, and it is
only when we awaken: that is, when our nervous sensibility, and through
this the outer world, once more comes within our consciousness, that we
become aware of our mistake; still, even in our dreams, so long as they
last, the causal law holds good, only an impossible material is often
substituted for the usual one. We might almost think that Kant was
influenced by Leibnitz in writing the passage we have quoted, however
much he differs from him in all the rest of his philosophy; especially
if we consider that Leibnitz expresses precisely similar views, when,
for instance, he says: "La vérité des choses sensibles ne consiste que
dans la liaison des phénomènes, qui doit avoir sa raison, et c'est
ce qui les distingue des songes. ---- Le vrai Critérion, en matière
des objets des sens, est la liaison des phénomènes, qui garantit les
vérités de fait, à l'egard des choses sensibles hors de nous."[101]
[101] Leibnitz, "Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement," lib. iv. ch.
ii. sect. 14.
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