The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)Schopenhauer, Arthur
Philosophy
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Idea (Philosophy); Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy; Will
We become most vividly conscious of the glaring contrast between the two
methods of considering the intellect opposed to each other above if we
carry the matter to the extreme and realise that what the one, as
reflective thought and vivid perception, directly assumes and makes its
material is for the other nothing more than the physiological function of
an internal organ, the brain; nay, that we are justified in asserting that
the whole objective world, so boundless in space, so infinite in time, so
unsearchable in its perfection, is really only a certain movement or
affection of the pulpy matter in the skull. We then ask in astonishment:
what is this brain whose function produces such a phenomenon of all
phenomena? What is the matter which can be refined and potentiated to such
a pulp that the stimulation of a few of its particles becomes the
conditional supporter of the existence of an objective world? The fear of
such questions led to the hypothesis of the simple substance of an
immaterial soul, which merely dwelt in the brain. We say boldly: this pulp
also, like every vegetable or animal part, is an organic structure, like
all its poorer relations in the inferior accommodation of the heads of our
irrational brethren, down to the lowest, which scarcely apprehends at all;
yet that organic pulp is the last product of nature, which presupposes all
the rest. But in itself, and outside the idea, the brain also, like
everything else, is _will_. _For existing for another is being perceived;
being in itself is willing_: upon this it depends that on the purely
objective path we never attain to the inner nature of things; but if we
attempt to find their inner nature from without and empirically, this
inner always becomes an outer again in our hands,—the pith of the tree, as
well as its bark; the heart of the animal, as well as its hide; the white
and the yolk of an egg, as well as its shell. On the other hand, upon the
subjective path the inner is accessible to us at every moment; for we find
it as the _will_ primarily in ourselves, and must, by the clue of the
analogy with our own nature, be able to solve that of others, in that we
attain to the insight that a being in itself independent of being known,
_i.e._, of exhibiting itself in an intellect, is only conceivable as
willing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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