The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 2 of 3)Schopenhauer, Arthur
Philosophy
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 2 of 3)
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Idea (Philosophy); Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy; Will
content, the empirical perception, comes into consciousness. But then it
would have become apparent what part the _understanding_ has in this, and
thus also in general what the _understanding_ is, and, on the other hand,
what the _reason_ properly is, the critique of which is being written. It
is most remarkable that he does not once properly and adequately define
the latter, but merely gives incidentally, and as the context in each case
demands, incomplete and inaccurate explanations of it, in direct
contradiction to the rule of Descartes given above.(4) For example, at p.
11; V. 24, of the “Critique of Pure Reason,” it is the faculty of
principles _a priori_; but at p. 299; V. 356, it is said that reason is
the faculty of _principles_, and it is opposed to the understanding, which
is the faculty of _rules_! One would now think that there must be a very
wide difference between principles and rules, since it entitles us to
assume a special faculty of knowledge for each of them. But this great
distinction is made to lie merely in this, that what is known _a priori_
through pure perception or through the forms of the understanding is a
rule, and only what results from mere conceptions is a principle. We shall
return to this arbitrary and inadmissible distinction later, when we come
to the Dialectic. On p. 330; V. 386, reason is the faculty of inference;
mere judging (p. 69; V. 94) he often explains as the work of the
understanding. Now, this really amounts to saying: Judging is the work of
the understanding so long as the ground of the judgment is empirical,
transcendental, or metalogical (Essay on the Principle of Sufficient
Reason, § 31, 32, 33); but if it is logical, as is the case with the
syllogism, then we are here concerned with a quite special and much more
important faculty of knowledge—the reason. Nay, what is more, on p. 303;
V. 360, it is explained that what follows directly from a proposition is
still a matter of the understanding, and that only those conclusions which
are arrived at by the use of a mediating conception are the work of the
reason, and the example given is this: From the proposition, “All men are
mortal,” the inference, “Some mortals are men,” may be drawn by the mere
understanding. On the other hand, to draw the conclusion, “All the learned
are mortal,” demands an entirely different and far more important
faculty—the reason. How was it possible for a great thinker to write the
like of this! On p. 553; V. 581, reason is all at once the constant
condition of all voluntary action. On p. 614; V. 642, it consists in the
fact that we can give an account of our assertions; on pp. 643, 644; V.
671, 672, in the circumstance that it brings unity into the conceptions of
the understanding by means of Ideas, as the understanding brings unity
into the multiplicity of objects by means of conceptions. On p. 646; V.
674, it is nothing else than the faculty which deduces the particular from
the general.
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