The World as Will and Idea — Schopenhauer — John Shaqi
The World as Will and Idea
Schopenhauer · German
As regards the second kind of teleology, according to the division made
above, the _outer_ design, which shows itself, not in the inner economy of
the organisms, but in the support and assistance they receive from
without, both from unorganised nature and from each other; its general
explanation is to be found in the exposition we have just given. For the
whole world, with all its phenomena, is the objectivity of the one
indivisible will, the Idea, which is related to all other Ideas as harmony
is related to the single voice. Therefore that unity of the will must show
itself also in the agreement of all its manifestations. But we can very
much increase the clearness of this insight if we go somewhat more closely
into the manifestations of that outer teleology and agreement of the
different parts of nature with each other, an inquiry which will also
throw some light on the foregoing exposition. We shall best attain this
end by considering the following analogy.
The character of each individual man, so far as it is thoroughly
individual, and not entirely included in that of the species, may be
regarded as a special Idea, corresponding to a special act of the
objectification of will. This act itself would then be his intelligible
character, and his empirical character would be the manifestation of it.
The empirical character is entirely determined through the intelligible,
which is without ground, _i.e._, as thing-in-itself is not subordinated to
the principle of sufficient reason (the form of the phenomenon). The
empirical character must in the course of life afford us the express image
of the intelligible, and can only become what the nature of the latter
demands. But this property extends only to the essential, not to the
unessential in the course of life to which it applies. To this unessential
belong the detailed events and actions which are the material in which the
empirical character shows itself. These are determined by outward
circumstances, which present the motives upon which the character reacts
according to its nature; and as they may be very different, the outward
form of the manifestation of the empirical character, that is, the
definite actual or historical form of the course of life, will have to
accommodate itself to their influence. Now this form may be very
different, although what is essential to the manifestation, its content,
remains the same. Thus, for example it is immaterial whether a man plays
for nuts or for crowns; but whether a man cheats or plays fairly, that is
the real matter; the latter is determined by the intelligible character,
the former by outward circumstances. As the same theme may be expressed in
a hundred different variations, so the same character may be expressed in
a hundred very different lives. But various as the outward influence may
be, the empirical character which expresses itself in the course of life
must yet, whatever form it takes, accurately objectify the intelligible