Single Idea 21369

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 2. Unconscious Mind]

Full Idea

We often do not know what we desire or fear. For years we can have a desire without admitting it to ourselves ....because the intellect is not to know anything about it, since the good opinion we have of ourselves would inevitably suffer thereby.

Gist of Idea

We have hidden and unadmitted desires and fears, suppressed because of vanity

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], II 210), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 5 'Will'

Book Reference

Janaway,Christopher: 'Schopenhauer' [OUP 2002], p.59


A Reaction

The idea of unconscious thought crept up well before Freud. It is in La Rochefoucauld, and important in Nietzsche. Neuroscience seems to give it a strong priority over the conscious mind, which is a revolutionary idea.