Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General editor's preface
- Editorial notes and references
- Introduction
- Notes on text and translation
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- PARERGA AND PARALIPOMENA, VOLUME 2
- Contents
- Sporadic yet systematically ordered thoughts on multifarious topics
- Chapter 1 On philosophy and its method
- Chapter 2 On logic and dialectic
- Chapter 3 Some thoughts concerning the intellect in general and in every respect
- Chapter 4 Some observations on the antithesis of the thing in itself and appearance
- Chapter 5 Some words on pantheism
- Chapter 6 On philosophy and natural science
- Chapter 7 On colour theory
- Chapter 8 On ethics
- Chapter 9 On jurisprudence and politics
- Chapter 10 On the doctrine of the indestructibility of our true essence by death
- Chapter 11 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the nothingness of existence
- Chapter 12 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the suffering of the world
- Chapter 13 On suicide
- Chapter 14 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the affirmation and negation of the will to life
- Chapter 15 On religion
- Chapter 16 Some remarks on Sanskrit literature
- Chapter 17 Some archaeological observations
- Chapter 18 Some mythological observations
- Chapter 19 On the metaphysics of the beautiful and aesthetics
- Chapter 20 On judgement, criticism, approbation and fame
- Chapter 21 On learning and the learned
- Chapter 22 Thinking for oneself
- Chapter 23 On writing and style
- Chapter 24 On reading and books
- Chapter 25 On language and words
- Chapter 26 Psychological remarks
- Chapter 27 On women
- Chapter 28 On education
- Chapter 29 On physiognomy
- Chapter 30 On noise and sounds
- Chapter 31 Similes, parables and fables
- Some verses
- Versions of Schopenhauer's text
- Glossary of names
- Index
Chapter 6 - On philosophy and natural science
from PARERGA AND PARALIPOMENA, VOLUME 2
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General editor's preface
- Editorial notes and references
- Introduction
- Notes on text and translation
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- PARERGA AND PARALIPOMENA, VOLUME 2
- Contents
- Sporadic yet systematically ordered thoughts on multifarious topics
- Chapter 1 On philosophy and its method
- Chapter 2 On logic and dialectic
- Chapter 3 Some thoughts concerning the intellect in general and in every respect
- Chapter 4 Some observations on the antithesis of the thing in itself and appearance
- Chapter 5 Some words on pantheism
- Chapter 6 On philosophy and natural science
- Chapter 7 On colour theory
- Chapter 8 On ethics
- Chapter 9 On jurisprudence and politics
- Chapter 10 On the doctrine of the indestructibility of our true essence by death
- Chapter 11 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the nothingness of existence
- Chapter 12 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the suffering of the world
- Chapter 13 On suicide
- Chapter 14 Additional remarks on the doctrine of the affirmation and negation of the will to life
- Chapter 15 On religion
- Chapter 16 Some remarks on Sanskrit literature
- Chapter 17 Some archaeological observations
- Chapter 18 Some mythological observations
- Chapter 19 On the metaphysics of the beautiful and aesthetics
- Chapter 20 On judgement, criticism, approbation and fame
- Chapter 21 On learning and the learned
- Chapter 22 Thinking for oneself
- Chapter 23 On writing and style
- Chapter 24 On reading and books
- Chapter 25 On language and words
- Chapter 26 Psychological remarks
- Chapter 27 On women
- Chapter 28 On education
- Chapter 29 On physiognomy
- Chapter 30 On noise and sounds
- Chapter 31 Similes, parables and fables
- Some verses
- Versions of Schopenhauer's text
- Glossary of names
- Index
Summary
§70
Nature is the will insofar as the will beholds itself outside itself, for which its standpoint must be an individual intellect. This is likewise its product.
§71
Instead of demonstrating the wisdom of God from the works of nature and of artistic drives like the English, one should learn from these things that everything that comes about through the medium of representation, hence of the intellect, even if this were one enhanced to the level of reason, is mere bungling compared with that which proceeds directly from the will, as the thing in itself and unmediated by any representation, as are the works of nature. This is the theme of my essay On Will in Nature, which I therefore cannot sufficiently commend to my readers; in it one finds expounded more clearly than anywhere the true focus of my teaching.
§72
If one observes how nature watches over the preservation of the species with such excessive care, by means of the omnipotence of the sexual drive and by virtue of the incalculable surplus of seeds which is prepared in plants, fishes and insects to replace the individual often with hundreds of thousands, while nature on the other hand is little concerned about individuals, then one arrives at the assumption that just as the production of individuals is something easy for nature, the original production of a species is extremely difficult for it. Accordingly we never see these newly arising. Even spontaneous generation, when it occurs (as it does without doubt especially in the case of epizoa and parasites generally) produces only known species; meanwhile the very few extinct species of the fauna currently inhabiting the earth, e.g. the dodo bird (didus ineptus) cannot be replaced by nature, even though they were part of its plan. Therefore we stand amazed at how our eagerness has succeeded in playing such a trick on it.
§73
In the glowing primordial nebula of which the sun that extended to Neptune consisted according to the cosmogony of Laplace, the chemical elements could not exist actually, but instead merely potentially. However, the first and original separating of matter into hydrogen and oxygen, sulphur and carbon, nitrogen, chlorine, etc., as well as into the different metals that are so similar and yet sharply separated, was the first striking of the common chord of the world.
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- Schopenhauer: Parerga and ParalipomenaShort Philosophical Essays, pp. 95 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015