Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; On Human Nature By: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) |
---|
![]()
OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER TRANSLATED BY T. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A.
ON HUMAN NATURE.
CONTENTS. HUMAN NATURE
GOVERNMENT
FREE WILL AND FATALISM
CHARACTER
MORAL INSTINCT
ETHICAL REFLECTIONS
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The following essays are drawn from the chapters entitled Zur Ethik
and Zur Rechtslehre und Politik which are to be found both in
Schopenhauer's Parerga and in his posthumous writings. As in my
previous volumes, so also in this, I have omitted a few passages which
appeared to me to be either antiquated or no longer of any general
interest. For convenience' sake I have divided the original chapters
into sections, which I have had to name; and I have also had to invent
a title which should express their real scope. The reader will find
that it is not so much Ethics and Politics that are here treated,
as human nature itself in various aspects. T.B.S.
HUMAN NATURE.
Truths of the physical order may possess much external significance,
but internal significance they have none. The latter is the privilege
of intellectual and moral truths, which are concerned with the
objectivation of the will in its highest stages, whereas physical
truths are concerned with it in its lowest. For example, if we could establish the truth of what up till now is
only a conjecture, namely, that it is the action of the sun which
produces thermoelectricity at the equator; that this produces
terrestrial magnetism; and that this magnetism, again, is the cause of
the aurora borealis , these would be truths externally of great, but
internally of little, significance. On the other hand, examples
of internal significance are furnished by all great and true
philosophical systems; by the catastrophe of every good tragedy; nay,
even by the observation of human conduct in the extreme manifestations
of its morality and immorality, of its good and its evil character.
For all these are expressions of that reality which takes outward
shape as the world, and which, in the highest stages of its
objectivation, proclaims its innermost nature. To say that the world has only a physical and not a moral significance
is the greatest and most pernicious of all errors, the fundamental
blunder, the real perversity of mind and temper; and, at bottom, it
is doubtless the tendency which faith personifies as Anti Christ.
Nevertheless, in spite of all religions and they are systems which
one and all maintain the opposite, and seek to establish it in their
mythical way this fundamental error never becomes quite extinct, but
raises its head from time to time afresh, until universal indignation
compels it to hide itself once more. Yet, however certain we may feel of the moral significance of life
and the world, to explain and illustrate it, and to resolve the
contradiction between this significance and the world as it is, form
a task of great difficulty; so great, indeed, as to make it possible
that it has remained for me to exhibit the true and only genuine
and sound basis of morality everywhere and at all times effective,
together with the results to which it leads. The actual facts of
morality are too much on my side for me to fear that my theory can
ever be replaced or upset by any other. However, so long as even my ethical system continues to be ignored by
the professorial world, it is Kant's moral principle that prevails in
the universities. Among its various forms the one which is most in
favour at present is "the dignity of man." I have already exposed
the absurdity of this doctrine in my treatise on the Foundation of
Morality .[1] Therefore I will only say here that if the question were
asked on what the alleged dignity of man rests, it would not be long
before the answer was made that it rests upon his morality. In other
words, his morality rests upon his dignity, and his dignity rests upon
his morality. [Footnote 1: ยง 8.] But apart from this circular argument it seems to me that the idea of
dignity can be applied only in an ironical sense to a being whose will
is so sinful, whose intellect is so limited, whose body is so weak and
perishable as man's... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Philosophy |
Science |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Arthur Schopenhauer |
Wikipedia – The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; On Human Nature |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|