The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) — John Shaqi
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)Schopenhauer, Arthur
Philosophy
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Idea (Philosophy); Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy; Will
required to test and illustrate the system by innumerable facts, to
support it by the most different kinds of proof, to throw light on it from
all sides, and then to place the different points of view boldly in
contrast, to separate thoroughly the multifarious materials, and present
them in a well-arranged whole. Therefore, although it would, no doubt,
have been more agreeable to the reader to have my whole work in one piece,
instead of consisting, as it now does, of two halves, which must be
combined in using them, he must reflect that this would have demanded that
I should accomplish at one period of life what it is only possible to
accomplish in two, for I would have had to possess the qualities at one
period of life that nature has divided between two quite different ones.
Hence the necessity of presenting my work in two halves supplementary to
each other may be compared to the necessity in consequence of which a
chromatic object-glass, which cannot be made out of one piece, is produced
by joining together a convex lens of flint glass and a concave lens of
crown glass, the combined effect of which is what was sought. Yet, on the
other hand, the reader will find some compensation for the inconvenience
of using two volumes at once, in the variety and the relief which is
afforded by the handling of the same subject, by the same mind, in the
same spirit, but in very different years. However, it is very advisable
that those who are not yet acquainted with my philosophy should first of
all read the first volume without using the supplementary books, and
should make use of these only on a second perusal; otherwise it would be
too difficult for them to grasp the system in its connection. For it is
only thus explained in the first volume, while the second is devoted to a
more detailed investigation and a complete development of the individual
doctrines. Even those who should not make up their minds to a second
reading of the first volume had better not read the second volume till
after the first, and then for itself, in the ordinary sequence of its
chapters, which, at any rate, stand in some kind of connection, though a
somewhat looser one, the gaps of which they will fully supply by the
recollection of the first volume, if they have thoroughly comprehended it.
Besides, they will find everywhere the reference to the corresponding
passages of the first volume, the paragraphs of which I have numbered in
the second edition for this purpose, though in the first edition they were
only divided by lines.
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