The World as Will and Idea, Vol. II — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp

On the other hand, that the will itself is sick, as Brandis repeatedly expresses himself in his book, " Ueber die Anwendung der KaXte" which I have quoted in the first part of my essay, " Ueber den Willen in der Natur," is a gross misunderstanding.

When I weigh this, and at the same time observe that in his earlier book, " Ueber die Lebenskraft" of 1795, Brandis betrayed no suspicion that this force is in itself the will, but, on the contrary, says there, page 1 3 : " It is impossible that the vital force can be that which we only know through our consciousness, for most movements take place without our consciousness.

The assertion that this, of which the only characteristic known to us is consciousness, also affects the body without consciousness is at the least quite arbitrary and unproved ; " and page 14 : " Haller's objections to the opinion that all living movements are the effect of the soul are, as I believe, quite unanswerable ; " when I further reflect that he wrote his book, " Ueber die Anwendung der Kdlte" in which all at once the will appears so decidedly as the vital force, in his seventieth year, an age at which no one as yet has conceived for the first time original fundamental thoughts ; when, lastly, I bear in mind that he makes use of my exact expressions, " will and idea," and not of those which are far more commonly used by others, " the faculties of desire and of knowledge," I am now convinced, contrary to my earlier supposition, that he borrowed his fundamental thought from me, and with the usual honesty which prevails at the present day in the learned world, said nothing about it The particulars about this will be found in the second (and third) edition of my work, " Ueber den Willen in der Natur," p. 14.

Nothing is more fitted to confirm and illustrate the thesis with which we are occupied in this chapter than Bichat's justly celebrated book, " Siir la vie et la mort." His reflections and mine reciprocally support each other, for his are the physiological commentary on mine, and mine are the philosophical commentary on his, and one

p. 489

will best understand us both by reading us together.

This refers specially to the first half of his work, entitled " Recherehes physiologiques sur la vie" He makes the foundation of his expositions the opposition of the organic to the animal life, which corresponds to mine of the will to the intellect Whoever looks at the sense, not at the words, will not allow himself to be led astray by the fact that he ascribes the will to the animal life; for by will, as is usual, he only understands conscious volition, which certainly proceeds from the brain, where, however, as was shown above, it is not yet actual willing, but only deliberation upon and estimation of the motives, the conclusion or product of which at last appears as the act of will.

All that I ascribe to the will proper he ascribes to the organic life, and all that I conceive as intellect is with him the animal life : the latter has with him its seat in the brain alone, together with its appendages : the former, again, in the whole of the remainder of the organism. The complete opposition in which he shows that the two stand to each other corresponds to that which with me exists between the will and the intellect.

As anatomist and physiologist he starts from the objective, that is, from the consciousness of other things; I, as a philosopher, start from the subjective, self-consciousness ; and it is a pleasure to see how, like the two voices in a duet, we advance in harmony with each other, although each expresses something different.

Therefore, let every one who wishes to understand me read him ; and let every one who wishes to understand him, better than he understood himself, read me.

Bichat shows us, in article 4, that the organic life begins earlier and ends later than the animal life ; consequently, since the latter also rests in sleep, has nearly twice as long a duration ; then, in articles 8 and 9, that the organic life performs everything perfectly, at once, and of its own accord ; the animal life, on the other hand, requires long practice and education. But he is most interesting in the sixth article, where he shows that the animal life is com490 SECOND BOOK. CHAPTER XX.