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SCHOPENHAUER

Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, who was an active opponent, philosophically and personally, of Hegel, lived a.d. 1788–1860. To many he is known as the apostle of pessimism, although his general philosophy has attracted great attention, particularly in Germany. His general philosophy is known as Voluntarism, or the doctrine that ultimate reality is to be conceived of as an universal will, instead of an universal reason. He held that reality, or the universal “Thing-in-Itself,” is the principle of will, which manifests itself in various degrees and phases as physical, chemical, magnetic and vital force in nature, its most striking phase, however, being the “Will-to-Live” which manifests through all living forms, seeking expression and objective life. The “Will-to-Live,” he held, is instinctive rather than rational, and acts as “blind nature” in the struggles to perpetuate life, in the struggle for existence and the reproduction of the species. He claimed that the instinct of self-preservation and of sexual attraction is but the urge of the “Will-to-Live” seeking channels of expression. He held that reason is merely a “by-product” of Will—an excrescence, so to speak—and that reason cannot expect to apprehend reality, for the latter is Will. The force of intellect, he holds, is inferior to that of the Will, and is subordinated to the latter, eventually, whenever, as often happens, the two come in conflict. In Will, he claims, we view nature from the inside, while in intellect we view her from the outside. The phenomenal world he regards as merely “presentation” to the Will—in fact, an illusion similar to the Maya of the Hindus. Schopenhauer, in fact, was a Western Buddhist, and his philosophy follows that latter school in many essential details.

Schopenhauer held that the World-Spirit, which he calls Will, does not act according to reason, but rather by caprice instigated by a desire or lust for expression. His Will is ever at work building up; tearing down; replacing; repairing; changing—always at work—always acting—always doing. It is ever filled with intense longing to express itself into shape and form and force—ever desiring change . Finally it develops self-consciousness and reason in man, and then turns its gaze inward upon itself, studying its own nature through man’s philosophy and metaphysics. In man the instinctive Will rises to reason, and for the first time is able to control its own instinctive nature. In creating intellect the Will forges an instrument destined to master and conquer itself.

This, briefly, is Schopenhauer’s conception of the World-Spirit, derived largely from Buddhistic sources, and destined to play an important part in later Western thought.

VON HARTMANN

Edward von Hartmann (1842–1906), the German philosopher, built largely upon Schopenhauer’s foundation, although differing from him greatly in his final conclusions. He accepted Schopenhauer’s idea of the World-Spirit, ever at work building up and tearing down—ever seeking change in shape, form and manifestation of force—but he held that the conception of Will without rational idea was illogical and unthinkable, just as Hegel’s conception of rational idea without Will was illogical. He thereupon, seeks to harmonize and reconcile the two conceptions. He postulates the existence of a World-Spirit in which Will and rational idea are combined as the two phases, or two poles, just as the color and perfume of the rose are complementary and essential. But he holds that the rational idea phase of the World Spirit is unconscious, and, in fact, he applies the term “the unconscious” to his conception of the World-Spirit. This unconscious spirit he pictures as using its powers of ideation and Will in the work of objective manifestation, ever at work creating new shapes and forms, and manifesting change and variety. Like a somnambulist it proceeds with its work, according to logical ideas, instinctively but according to the laws of rationality. Finally the unconscious manifests consciousness, and then self-consciousness in man, and may even proceed to higher forms of consciousness in higher beings yet to be evolved. But, in itself, it is unconscious and must ever remain so, its only consciousness being obtained through its created manifestations. Such is von Hartmann’s conception of the unconscious World-Spirit. His conception of unconscious mind has been used, often without due credit, but later writers and investigators of the “subliminal mind;” the “subjective mind;” the “subconscious mind;” etc., in man. It is very probable that his philosophy will be developed in greater detail by future philosophers and workers along the lines of psychic research.

NIETZSCHE

Frederick Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900), that brilliant but erratic German philosopher whose extreme and radical conceptions have startled the modern world of thought, flamed into the sky of philosophy like a comet, and disappeared therefrom in like manner. Brilliant to an extreme, he spent his mental energy in running around the circle of thought until he was exhausted, and insanity brought his work to an end. Building upon the foundation of Schopenhauer, and influenced to a degree by von Hartmann, he conceived the idea of a World-Spirit which is ever striving to achieve power in objective manifestation, shape and form, through evolution. He held that “the struggle for existence,” and “the survival of the fittest,” as taught by the evolutionists, is a cosmic law—and rightly so, for it serves to bring out the strongest and fittest of the manifestations of “The Will,” or World-Spirit. He carried the principles of Darwin into the field of ethics and conduct, holding that nature has given us direct teaching upon the subject; and that “might is right,” and that it is to the best interest of the race that the strong conquer and persist, and the weak go to the wall and be destroyed. From this struggle and survival, he held, will rise the Over-Man, in whose evolution man is but an instrument and a step. He denounces Christian morality as the “morality of slaves,” tending to develop and preserve the weak, and thus interfere with the purposes of the Will. To him the strong is ever the good. But, inconsistent, as are nearly all thinkers, his teaching contains within itself a strong trace of altruism, for does he not teach that we, the race of men, are to model our morals, ethics and lives, upon the idea, and for the purpose of, producing and evolving the Over-Man? By many he is regarded as the prophet of a terrible doctrine of extreme Egoism, but later writers are beginning to see in him but the teacher of a rigid, stern and cruel creed having for its purpose the upbuilding of a strong and powerful race or species of Over-Men. His elemental cruelty and lack of sympathy has made his teaching very repellent to those who are in sympathy with the humanitarian spirit of the age. By such his teaching is regarded as monstrous. But, to others, he seems to have but over-emphasized one phase of the evolutionary urge.

SHAW

To many, the mention of the name of George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in a list of modern philosophers, may seem strange, so accustomed are the majority of persons to think of this erratic genius as a playwright, essayist, critic, and sociologist. But Bernard Shaw has a philosophy which he subtly introduces in his writings without specifically claiming it to be such. His idea of a fundamental something is expressed by his term “The Life Forces,” which he considers as manifesting very much in the same way as does Schopenhauer’s “Will to Live,” von Hartmann’s “Unconscious,” or Bergson’s “Life Principle.” He does not tell us just what the Life Forces are “in themselves,” or “in itself,” in fact, he at times seems to express the idea that they cannot be known abstractly or independent from objective manifestation. But, at any rate, his Life Forces seem to be seeking along the lines of evolution for higher and more fitter forms of expression, testing and trying first this path, and then that one, often finding themselves in a blind-alley or cul-de-sac , and then retreating therefrom only to try another path. Shaw has even intimated that in man the life forces may have run up a cul-de-sac , and may be compelled to beat a retreat after a time. Like Nietzsche, Bernard Shaw has a dream of a future greater-man, which he calls the super-man, toward the production of whom the life forces are striving.