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Single Idea 21483

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature ]

Full Idea

Man is at bottom a dreadful wild animal.

Gist of Idea

Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], VIII:114)

Book Ref

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.138

A Reaction

As an example he cites the slave owners in the United States.

The 24 ideas from 'Parerga and Paralipomena'

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]
21481 Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices [Schopenhauer]
21482 The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty [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]
21468 The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible [Schopenhauer]
21467 Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable? [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]