Single Idea 4191

[catalogued under 16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 2. Knowing the Self]

Full Idea

What we know in ourselves is never what knows, but what wills, the will.

Gist of Idea

What we know in ourselves is not a knower but a will

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (Abstract of 'The Fourfold Root' [1813], Ch.VII)

Book Reference

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'The World as Will and Idea', ed/tr. Berman,Jill and David [Everyman 1995], p.274


A Reaction

An interesting slant on Hume's scepticism about personal identity. Hume was hunting for a thing-which-experiences. If he had sought his will, he might have spotted it.