The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (R. B. Haldane & J. Kemp). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
about concepts in the first book, and about Ideas in this book. I by no means wish to assert, however, that Plato really distinctly comprehended this difference; indeed many of his examples of Ideas, and his discussions of them, are applicable only to concepts. Meanwhile we leave this question alone and go on our own way, glad when we come upon traces of any great and noble mind, yet not following his footsteps but our own aim.
The concept is abstract, discursive, undetermined within its own sphere, only determined by its limits, attainable and comprehensible by^ him who has only reason, commumcaHe~by words without any other assistance, entirely exhausted by its definition.
The J^ea on the contraiy' aTthough defined as the adequate representative of the concept, is always object of perception, and although representing an infinite number of particular things, is yet thoroughly determined. It is never known by the individual as such, but only by him who has raised himself above all willing and all individuality to the pure subject of knowing.
Thus it is only attainable by the man of genius, and by him who, for the most part through the assistance of the works of genius, has reached an exalted frame of mind, by increasing his power of pure knowing.
It is therefore not absolutely but only conditionally communicable, because the Idea, comprehended and repeated in the woi^ of aff7 areals' to^evef j one only according to the measure ol liis own inteUectual jvjath* So that just the most excelknt works of every art, the noblest productions of~genius, must"always remain sealed^ books to tHe^uTI majority of men, inaccessible to them, separated from them~by~ar mde guH, just as Uie society of pri^^^ isThaccessible’ to tbe common people.
It is true that eveiTtlie^ dullest of them accept on authority recognisedly great works, lest otherwise they should argue their own incompetence ; ^ut they wait in silence, always ready to Tj^ress tKeir condemhatioh, as sopd ai^^ey^re allow^ toTidpe that they may do so without being leFt
p. 303
to stand alone ; and then their long-restrained hatred against air that is great and beautiful, and against the authors of it, gladly relieves itself ; for such things never appealed to them, and for that very reason were humiliating to them. For as a rule a man must have worth in himself in order to recognise it and believe in it willingly and freely in others. On this rests the necessity of modesty ~m all merit, and the disproportionately loud praise (^this yirtim, which alone of all its sisters is always included in the eulogy of every one who ventures to praise any ^SstiD^S^d ma^ in onTer' to a^^ease and quiet the wrath of the unworthy. Wluit tHenTs~mb^esty but hj^ocritical humility, 1^ means of which, in a world swelling with base envy, a man seeks to obtain parSon for excellences and merits from those who have none ? I'or'wlToeveT' ittributes to Himself no merits, Hecause He actually has none, is not modest but merely honest.
Tlie Tdea is the unity that falls into muftipligity on account of the temporal and spatial form of our intuitive apprehension; the comept, on the contrary, is the unity reconstructed out of multiplicity by the abstraction of our reason ; the latter may be defined as unitas post rem, the former as unitas ante rem. Finally, we may express the distinction between the Idea and the concept, by a comparison, thus: the concept is like a dead receptacle, in which, whatever has been put, actually lies side by side, but out of which no more can be taken (by analytical judgment) than was put in (by synthetical reflection) ; the (Platonic) Idea, on the other hand, develops, in him who has comprehended it, ideas which are new as regards the concept of the same name; it resembles a living organism, developing itself and possessed of the power of reproduction, which brings forth what was not put into it.
It follows from all that has been said, that the concept, useful as it is in life, and serviceable, necessary and productive as it is in science, is yet always barren
304 the world as IDEA. BK. HI.
No commentary for this page under the selected tracks.
There is commentary on page 1.