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Single Idea 4181

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / d. Subjective value ]

Full Idea

Every good is essentially relative, for it has its essential nature only in its relation to a desiring will.

Gist of Idea

Every good is essentially relative, for it has its essential nature only in its relation to a desiring will

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], IV.65)

Book Ref

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'The World as Will and Idea', ed/tr. Berman,Jill and David [Everyman 1995], p.224

A Reaction

A nice way of stating the core of moral relativism. To me, though, it just seems a rejection of morality. Conflicting wills bring moral paralysis. Might is right.

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

21923 Schopenhauer can't use force/energy instead of 'will', because he is not a materialist [Lewis,PB on Schopenhauer]
21926 Schopenhauer, unlike other idealists, says reality is irrational [Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
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]
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]
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]
4184 Virtue must spring from an intuitive recognition that other people are essentially like us [Schopenhauer]
4186 Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual awareness [Schopenhauer]