(_f._) As to _Willkühr_ (_arbitrium_, literally '_will-choice_'), after a great deal of consideration I have chosen (_relative_) _free-will_ as the nearest approach to the German sense, or at any rate, to that in which Schopenhauer uses it. _Willkühr_ means in fact what is commonly understood as free-will; _i.e._ will with power of choice, will determined by motives and unimpeded by outward obstacles: _arbitrium_ as opposed to _voluntas_: conscious will as opposed to blind impulse. This relative free-will however is quite distinct from _absolute free-will_ (_liberum arbitrium indifferentiæ_) in a metaphysical sense, _i.e._ will in its self-dependency. When its arbitrary character is specially emphasized, we call _Willkühr_, _caprice_, but this is not the usual meaning given to it by Schopenhauer. Besides the meaning of these German words, I have still to define the sense in which I have used the term _idea_ in this translation; for this word has greatly changed its meaning at different times and with different authors, and is even now apt to confuse and mislead. Schopenhauer has himself contributed in one way to render its signification less clear; since, in spite of his declaration in the "Fourfold Root"[4] to the effect, that he never uses the word _idea_ in any other than its original (Platonic) sense, he has himself employed it to translate _Vorstellung_, in a specimen he gives of a rendering of a passage in Kant's "Prolegomena" in a letter addressed to Haywood, published in Gwinner's "Biography of Schopenhauer." This he probably did because some eminent English and French philosophers had taken the word in this sense, thinking perhaps that Kant's meaning would thus be more readily understood. As however he uses the word '_idea_' everywhere else exclusively in its original (Platonic) sense, I have preferred to avoid needless confusion by adhering to his own declaration and definition. Besides, many English writers of note have protested against any other sense being given to it, and modern German philosophers have more and more returned to the original meaning of the term. [4] See p. 113, § 34 of the original, and p. 133 of the present translation. Some readers may take exception at such expressions as _à priority_, _motivation_, _aseity_; for they are not, strictly speaking, English words. These terms however belong to Schopenhauer's own characteristic terminology, and have a distinct and clearly defined meaning; therefore they had to be retained in all cases in which they could not be evaded, in order not to interfere with the Author's intention: a necessity which the scholar will not fail to recognise, especially when I plead in my defence that fidelity and accuracy have been my sole aim in this work.