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 3 - Some thoughts concerning the intellect in general and in every respect
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
§27
In philosophy every method that is allegedly without assumption is hot air, since something must always be regarded as given in order to proceed from it. This in fact is stated in the Archimedean ‘Give me a foothold!’, which is the ineluctable condition of all human activity, even of philosophizing, because we can float about in the ether neither physically nor mentally. But such a point of departure in philosophizing, such a thing taken as given for the moment, must subsequently be compensated and justified. This then will be either something subjective, such as perhaps self-consciousness, representation, the subject, the will; or something objective, such as that which manifests itself in the consciousness of other things, perhaps the real world, external objects, nature, material, atoms, even a god, even a merely arbitrarily concocted concept such as substance, the Absolute, or whatever it might be. Thus in order to reconcile the arbitrariness committed here and to rectify the assumptions, one must subsequently change the standpoint and switch over to the opposite one, from which one now deduces what was originally taken as given in a supplemental philosophical argument. ‘Thus one thing sheds light on another.’
If for example one proceeds from the subjective, as did Berkeley, Locke and Kant, in whom this way of looking at things reached its peak, then, even though this way has the greatest advantage due to the actual immediacy of the subjective, one will nevertheless obtain a partly one-sided, partly not quite justified philosophy. This will result unless one supplements the philosophy by in turn taking as the point of departure what is deduced in it as given and hence, from the opposite standpoint, deduces the subjective from the objective, as previously the objective from the subjective. I believe I provided this supplement to Kantian philosophy, in the main, in chapter 22 of the second volume of my major work and in On Will in Nature under the heading ‘Physiology of Plants’; where proceeding from external nature I deduce the intellect.
If on the other hand one proceeds from the objective and at the same time takes quite a bit as given, such as matter along with the forces manifesting in it, then soon one has the whole of nature, insofar as such a way of looking at things yields pure naturalism, which I have more accurately called absolute physics.
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- Information
- Schopenhauer: Parerga and ParalipomenaShort Philosophical Essays, pp. 34 - 83Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015