/lit/ - Literature

>>9215867

"It is then all the same whether we see the setting sun from a prison or from a palace."

- The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1

>>8506860

First: Neither space nor time is a thing-in-itself; that is, neither exists apart from the mind(s) perceiving the spatiotemporal universe. Space and time are innate functions by which the mind organizes brute sensory input into orderly experience; pure space and pure time, without any colors or odors or tactile sensations or data of any kind, are pure forms of sensibility - all of our conscious experience is of some formed, intelligible sensation, and sensations are always and only formed in time or in time and space. They are pure a priori forms of cognition, and we can know they are a priori in at least two ways: we can imagine away everything from within space and time, but we can't imagine space and time themselves disappearing; and we can know with certainty the geometric properties of space in advance, non-empirically, as when we calculate and know the mathematical properties of angles and surfaces and structures even before we build a real, physical structure with those exact dimensions.


Getting there...

>>8209360

My pleasure!

>>8209385

According to Schopenhauer, an Idea occupies a lower or higher level of objectivity according to how fully it manifests the restless self-conflict of the will-in-itself. The Idea of Humanity is highest because humans display maximal destruction of their own members, especially in the forms of warfare and exploitive control of labor; all organisms are suited to find food and mates by their body parts or instincts or other special abilities, but these abilities are all below the (self-)destructive capacities of human intellects.

Personally, I agree about this being simplistic; I think his retaining the ancient/medieval concept of a Great Chain of Being is one of the things that makes his system antiquated, especially since evolutionary theory has blurred the lines between organic kinds (Schopenhauer's own evolutionary hypothesis was less gradualistic than Darwin's). But he does it out of his Platonic influence and affection, and because his aesthetic claims about the objective truth and the disinterested pleasure of artistic contemplation require it.

>>8212455

Schopenhauer recommended reading On Vision and Colors before reading Fourfold Root? That would be unexpected. Where?

>>8212977

>Schopenhauer identifies the thing-in-itself as striving/desire/intending, or will

"Intending" seems like a misleading term, since an intention is some conscious goal (no?), whereas consciousness is additional to willing; will per se doesn't intend to do or be anything.

> being the bridge between mind and body, phenomena and the world at large.

Not totally clear on what this part means - but it doesn't entail that Schopenhauer thought the thing-in-itself was *within* phenomena/perception (in case you were even claiming otherwise). Kant and Schopenhauer agreed that the thing-in-itself could not be known, could not be adequately accessed, by perception of the outer world or by introspection of the self.

>>8213062

Schopenhauer's writing style is usually easy to follow compared to his famous contemporaries - but the underlying nests of concepts are often extremely difficult.

>>6233141
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2504822?sid=21105554320461&uid=4&uid=2