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Single Idea 4175

[filed under theme 16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 4. Denial of the Self ]

Full Idea

It is as perverse to desire the continuity of one's individuality which is being replaced by other individuals, as to desire the permanence of the body's substance which is always being replaced by new substance.

Gist of Idea

It is as perverse to resent our individuality being replaced by others, as to resent the body renewing itself

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], IV.54)

Book Ref

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'The World as Will and Idea', ed/tr. Berman,Jill and David [Everyman 1995], p.179

A Reaction

If I let that go, what am I supposed to hang on to? Nothing? Non-existence is not an attractive condition to aspire to.

The 43 ideas from 'The World as Will and Idea'

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]
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]
5649 Will casts aside each of its temporary fulfilments, so human life has no ultimate aim [Schopenhauer, by Scruton]
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]
4167 The knowing subject and the crude matter of the world are both in themselves unknowable [Schopenhauer]
4166 A consciousness without an object is no consciousness [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]
4178 Christianity is a pessimistic religion, in which the world is equated with evil [Schopenhauer]
4177 Most people would probably choose non-existence at the end of their life, rather than relive the whole thing [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]
4182 A principal pleasure of the beautiful is that it momentarily silences the will [Schopenhauer]
4181 Every good is essentially relative, for it has its essential nature only in its relation to a desiring will [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]
4183 Only self-love can motivate morality, but that also makes it worthless [Schopenhauer]
4186 Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual awareness [Schopenhauer]