more on this theme
|
more from this text
Single Idea 4167
[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 4. Anti-realism
]
Full Idea
The world has two poles - the knowing subject and crude matter, which are both completely unknowable, the former because it is the knower, the latter because without form and quality it cannot be perceived.
Gist of Idea
The knowing subject and the crude matter of the world are both in themselves unknowable
Source
Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], I Supp)
Book Ref
Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'The World as Will and Idea', ed/tr. Berman,Jill and David [Everyman 1995], p.20
A Reaction
A nice concept, that all of reality comes from their relationship, but the two components are intrinsically unknowable. Does God the Knower know his own mind?
The
88 ideas
from Arthur Schopenhauer
4187
|
'There is nothing without a reason why it should be rather than not be' (a generalisation of 'Why?')
[Schopenhauer]
|
4190
|
All understanding is an immediate apprehension of the causal relation
[Schopenhauer]
|
4189
|
Time may be defined as the possibility of mutually exclusive conditions of the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
4191
|
What we know in ourselves is not a knower but a will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4192
|
All necessity arises from causation, which is conditioned; there is no absolute or unconditioned necessity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21368
|
The knot of the world is the use of 'I' to refer to both willing and knowing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21379
|
Man's three basic ethical incentives are egoism, malice and compassion
[Schopenhauer]
|
21375
|
Reason can be vicious, and great crimes have to be rational
[Schopenhauer]
|
21376
|
Philosophy treats animals as exploitable things, ignoring the significance of their lives
[Schopenhauer]
|
21921
|
Concepts are abstracted from perceptions
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21362
|
Necessity is physical, logical, mathematical or moral
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
21920
|
No need for a priori categories, since sufficient reason shows the interrelations
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21361
|
For Schopenhauer, material things would not exist without the mind
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
21918
|
Sufficient Reason can't be proved, because all proof presupposes it
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21919
|
Object for a subject and representation are the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21917
|
The four explanations: objects by causes, concepts by ground, maths by spacetime, ethics by motive
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21363
|
Motivation is causality seen from within
[Schopenhauer]
|
21378
|
We clearly feel responsible for our deeds, because we are quite certain that we did them
[Schopenhauer]
|
21924
|
As the subject of willing I am wretched, but absorption in knowledge is bliss
[Schopenhauer]
|
21915
|
To deduce morality from reason is blasphemy, because it is holy, and far above reason
[Schopenhauer]
|
21916
|
Philosophers can't be religious, and don't need to be; philosophy is perilous but free
[Schopenhauer]
|
21474
|
Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation
[Schopenhauer]
|
21473
|
All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable
[Schopenhauer]
|
21476
|
A priori propositions are those we could never be seriously motivated to challenge
[Schopenhauer]
|
21475
|
All of our concepts are borrowed from perceptual knowledge
[Schopenhauer]
|
21372
|
Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21477
|
We don't control our own thinking
[Schopenhauer]
|
21478
|
Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises
[Schopenhauer]
|
21479
|
Knowledge is not power! Ignorant people possess supreme authority
[Schopenhauer]
|
21480
|
Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21470
|
For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21485
|
The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another
[Schopenhauer]
|
21486
|
Poverty and slavery are virtually two words for the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21487
|
The freedom of the press to sell poison outweighs its usefulness
[Schopenhauer]
|
21482
|
The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty
[Schopenhauer]
|
21481
|
Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices
[Schopenhauer]
|
21483
|
Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal
[Schopenhauer]
|
21484
|
A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action
[Schopenhauer]
|
21469
|
Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact
[Schopenhauer]
|
21466
|
Pleasure is weaker, and pain stronger, than we expect
[Schopenhauer]
|
21467
|
Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable?
[Schopenhauer]
|
21468
|
The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible
[Schopenhauer]
|
21471
|
If suicide was quick and easy, most people would have done it by now
[Schopenhauer]
|
21488
|
The beautiful is a perception of Plato's Forms, which eliminates the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21472
|
Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people
[Schopenhauer]
|
5649
|
Will casts aside each of its temporary fulfilments, so human life has no ultimate aim
[Schopenhauer, by Scruton]
|
7187
|
Schopenhauer was caught in Christian ideals, because he didn't deify his 'will'
[Nietzsche on Schopenhauer]
|
21370
|
Schopenhauer is a chief proponent of aesthetic experience as 'disinterested'
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
8116
|
The will-less contemplation of art brings a liberation from selfhood
[Schopenhauer, by Gardner]
|
21926
|
Schopenhauer, unlike other idealists, says reality is irrational
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21923
|
Schopenhauer can't use force/energy instead of 'will', because he is not a materialist
[Lewis,PB on Schopenhauer]
|
4162
|
The world only exists in relation to something else, as an idea of the one who conceives it
[Schopenhauer]
|
4163
|
All perception is intellectual
[Schopenhauer]
|
4164
|
Direct feeling of the senses are merely data; perception of the world comes with understanding causes
[Schopenhauer]
|
12171
|
Absurdity is incongruity between correct and false points of view
[Schopenhauer]
|
21922
|
We know reality because we know our own bodies and actions
[Schopenhauer]
|
21365
|
Only the will is thing-in-itself, seen both in blind nature and in human action
[Schopenhauer]
|
21367
|
I know both aspects of my body, as representation, and as will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21371
|
We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires
[Schopenhauer]
|
21928
|
The Sublime fights for will-less knowing, when faced with a beautiful threat to humanity
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21374
|
We should no more expect ethical theory to produce good people than aesthetics to produce artists
[Schopenhauer]
|
21913
|
Kant rightly separates appearance and thing-in-itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
21366
|
Metaphysics must understand the world thoroughly, as a principal source of knowledge
[Schopenhauer]
|
4166
|
A consciousness without an object is no consciousness
[Schopenhauer]
|
4167
|
The knowing subject and the crude matter of the world are both in themselves unknowable
[Schopenhauer]
|
4165
|
Descartes found the true beginning of philosophy with the Cogito, in the consciousness of the individual
[Schopenhauer]
|
4168
|
Matter and intellect are inseparable correlatives which only exist relatively, and for each other
[Schopenhauer]
|
21927
|
Schopenhauer emphasises Ideas in art, unlike most romantics
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
4169
|
Every true act of will is also at once and without exception a movement of the body
[Schopenhauer]
|
4170
|
Man's actions are not free, because they follow strictly from impact of motive on character
[Schopenhauer]
|
4171
|
Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else
[Schopenhauer]
|
4172
|
Happiness is the swift movement from desire to satisfaction, and then again on to desire
[Schopenhauer]
|
21369
|
We have hidden and unadmitted desires and fears, suppressed because of vanity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21380
|
The only aim of our existence is to grasp that non-existence would be better
[Schopenhauer]
|
4173
|
If we were essentially intellect rather than will, our moral worth would depend on imagined motives
[Schopenhauer]
|
4174
|
Man is more beautiful than anything else, and the loftiest purpose of art is to reveal his nature
[Schopenhauer]
|
4175
|
It is as perverse to resent our individuality being replaced by others, as to resent the body renewing itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
4176
|
We all regard ourselves a priori as free, but see from experience that character and motive compel us
[Schopenhauer]
|
4177
|
Most people would probably choose non-existence at the end of their life, rather than relive the whole thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
4178
|
Christianity is a pessimistic religion, in which the world is equated with evil
[Schopenhauer]
|
4179
|
The essence of nature is the will to life itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
4180
|
Religion is the mythical clothing of the truth which is inaccessible to the crude human intellect
[Schopenhauer]
|
4181
|
Every good is essentially relative, for it has its essential nature only in its relation to a desiring will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4182
|
A principal pleasure of the beautiful is that it momentarily silences the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4183
|
Only self-love can motivate morality, but that also makes it worthless
[Schopenhauer]
|
4184
|
Virtue must spring from an intuitive recognition that other people are essentially like us
[Schopenhauer]
|
4185
|
Altruistic people make less distinction than usual between themselves and others
[Schopenhauer]
|
4186
|
Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual awareness
[Schopenhauer]
|