The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 2 of 3) — Schopenhauer — John Shaqi
The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 2 of 3)
Schopenhauer · en
In the “Critique of Pure Reason,” p. 67-69; V. 92-94; p. 89, 90; V. 122,
123; further, V. 135, 139, 153, he repeats and insists: the understanding
is no faculty of perception, its knowledge is not intuitive but
discursive; the understanding is the faculty of judging (p. 69; V. 94),
and a judgment is indirect knowledge, an idea of an idea (p. 68; V. 93);
the understanding is the faculty of thinking, and thinking is knowledge
through conceptions (p. 69; V. 94); the categories of the understanding
are by no means the conditions under which objects are given in perception
(p. 89; V. 122), and perception in no way requires the functions of
thinking (p. 91; V. 123); our understanding can only think, not perceive
(V. pp. 135, 139). Further, in the “Prolegomena,” § 20, he says that
perception, sensation, _perceptio_, belongs merely to the senses; judgment
to the understanding alone; and in § 22, that the work of the senses is to
perceive, that of the understanding to think, _i.e._, to judge. Finally,
in the “Critique of Practical Reason,” fourth edition, p. 247;
Rosenkranz’s edition, p. 281, he says that the understanding is
discursive; its ideas are thoughts, not perceptions. All this is in Kant’s
own words.
From this it follows that this perceptible world would exist for us even
if we had no understanding at all; that it comes into our head in a quite
inexplicable manner, which he constantly indicates by his strange
expression the perception is _given_, without ever explaining this
indefinite and metaphorical expression further.