The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp
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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.
the case of such beings as have knowledge, that the individual is the supporter of the knowing subject, and the knowing subject is the supporter of the world, i.e., that the whole of Nature outside the knowing subject, and thus also all other individuals, exist onl7 in its idea ; it is only conscious of them as its idea, thus merely indirectly as something which is dependent on its own nature and existence ; for with its consciousness the world necessary disappeara, for it. i.e.. it§ZFdflg.^andlnQn-bein^ become synonymous and indistinguishable.
Every knowing individual is thus in truth, and fin^ itself as the whole will to Hve, or the inner being of the world itself, and also as the complemental condition of the world as idea, consequently as a microcosm which is of equal value with the macrocosm. Nature itself, which is everywhere and always truthful, gives him this knowledge, originally and independently of all reflection, with simple and direct certainty.
Now from these two necessary properties we have given the fact may be explained that every individual, though vanishing altogether and diminished to nothing in the boundless world, yet makes itself the centre of the world, has regard for its own existence and well-being before everything else; indeed, from the natural standpoint, is ready to sacrifice everything else for this — is ready to annihilate the world in order tp mainl^ its .own self, &is drop in the ocean, a Jittle longer. This ^position Is essential to overytKing in
Natoe. Yet it is just through egoism that the inner wnflict of the will mth itpelf. atteins to such terrible revelation ; for this egoism has ite continuance aiid being in that opposition of the microcosm and macrocosm, or in the fact that the objectification of will has the prindpivm individvMtionis for its form, through which the will manifests itself in the same way in innumerable individuals, and indeed entire and completely in both aspects (will and idea) in each. Thus, while each individual is given to itself directly as thep. 429 whole will and the whole subject of ideas, other individuals are only given it as ideas. Therefore its own being, and the maintenance of it, is of more importance to it than that of all others together. Every one looks upon his own death as upon the end of the world, while he accepts the death of his acquaintances as a matter of comparative indifference, if he is not in some way affected by it. In the consciousness that has reached the highest grade, that of man, egoism, as well as knowledge, pain and pleasure, must have reached its highest grade also, and the conflict of individuals which is conditioned by it must appear in its most terrible form. And indeed we s^^his everywhere before our eyes, in small things as in f^reat. _ Now we see its terrible side in the lives of great tyrants anT~miscreante, and in yforld- desolating wars; nowlts absurd side, in which it is the theme of comedy, and very specially appears as self-conceit and vanity. Eoche tduca^t understood this better than any one else, and presented it in the abstract. We see it both in the history of the world and in our own experienca But it appears most distinctly of all when any mob of men is set fret from all law and order ; then there shows itself at onct in the distinctest form the helium omnium contra omnes, which Hobbes has so admirably described in the first chapter De Give. We see not only how every one tries to seize frpm the other wEat he wants himself, but how often one will destroy the whole happiness or life of anbther foi^thg sake of En insig^ addition to Ms own happiness. ^Is is the highest expression of egoismj_the manifestations of which in this reiard are pSy surpassed by those of actual wickedness^ which seeks, quite disinterestedly, tETEurt and suffering of others, without any advantagQo this we shall speEk soon. Wito this exhibition of the source of egoism the reader should compare the presentation of it in my prize-essay on the basis of morals, §14.
A chief source of that suffering which we found above
p. 430
THE WORLD AS WILL.
BK. IV.
to be essential and inevitable to all life is, when it really appears in a definite form, that i-Vis, the conflict of all individuals, the expression of the contradiction, with which the will to live is affected in its inner self, and which attains a visible form through the principmm individuationis. Wild-beast fights are the most cruel means of showing this directly and vividly. In this original discord lies an unquenchable source of suffering, in spite of the precautions that have been taken against it, and which we shall now consider more closely.
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