The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 2 of 3) — John Shaqi
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
nature of Kant’s procedure, and of the determination formed beforehand of
finding what would correspond to the analogy, and could assist the
architectonic symmetry; indeed this is here the case to such a degree as
to be almost comical. For when he assumes schemata of the pure (empty) _a
priori_ conceptions of the understanding (categories) analogous to the
empirical schemata (or representatives through the fancy of our actual
conceptions), he overlooks the fact that the end of such schemata is here
entirely wanting, For the end of the schemata in the case of empirical
(real) thinking is entirely connected with the _material content_ of such
conceptions. For since these conceptions are drawn from empirical
perception, we assist and guide ourselves when engaged in abstract
thinking by now and then casting a momentary glance back at the perception
out of which the conceptions are framed, in order to assure ourselves that
our thought has still real content. This, however, necessarily presupposes
that the conceptions which occupy us are sprung from perception, and it is
merely a glance back at their material content, indeed a mere aid to our
weakness. But in the case of _a priori_ conceptions which as yet have no
content at all, clearly this is necessarily omitted. For these conceptions
are not sprung from perception, but come to it from within, in order to
receive a content first from it. Thus they have as yet nothing on which
they could look back. I speak fully upon this point, because it is just
this that throws light upon the secret origin of the Kantian
philosophising, which accordingly consists in this, that Kant, after the
happy discovery of the two forms of intuition or perception _a priori_,
exerted himself, under the guidance of the analogy, to prove that for
every determination of our empirical knowledge there is an _a priori_
analogue, and this finally extended, in the schemata, even to a mere
psychological fact. Here the apparent depth and the difficulty of the
exposition just serve to conceal from the reader that its content remains
a wholly undemonstrable and merely arbitrary assumption. But he who has
penetrated at last to the meaning of such an exposition is then easily
induced to mistake this understanding so painfully attained for a
conviction of the truth of the matter. If, on the contrary, Kant had kept
himself here as unprejudiced and purely observant as in the discovery of
_a priori_ intuition or perception, he must have found that what is added
to the pure intuition or perception of space and time, if an empirical
perception arises from it, is on the one hand the sensation, and on the
other hand the knowledge of causality, which changes the mere sensation
into objective empirical perception, but just on this account is not first
derived and learned from sensation, but exists _a priori_, and is indeed
the form and function of the pure understanding. It is also, however, its
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