Notre Dame Scholastic, Vol. 31, No. 19

'PlSQE'QV^Sl-SEAP'Ci^-N/icjV/i^'S- •\/ivt-9V^Sl-Qf^AS-/\0i\lTv/l^\/S- VOL. XXXL NOTRE DAME, INDIANA, FEBRUARY 12, 1898. No. 19. 'For several decades these philosophers led The Nixies philosophic thought to a culmination in opti mistic Utopias. But experience' gradually FRANK EARLE- HERING, '98. taught men that the deductions of this school were not always true or satisfactory, and a HEN 1th e stars in the twinkling lake growing spirit of discontent and oppositioh W Pierrcc e the breast of sullen night, was manifested. Pierce tlie gloom with shafted light, It was a difficult struggle for pessimism to And gleam in the ripples' wake; gain recognition, and it was the more difficult Then the hawthorn trees tinct the wanton breeze, as professors of the optimistic systems Held And the blades of the marsh-grass shake, Where the nixies play, in their grotesque way, the chairs of philosophy in the great univer With the stars in the twinkling lake. sities; consequently an attack on optimism was an attack on the universities. But disciple's When the stars in the twinkling sky were found in the great middle class, who, Gleam yellow and silver and blue. tired of hopeful but delusive fantasies, swung Seem orange and garnet and blue. to the other extreme, and Schopenhauer found As a cloud-veil passes by; himself floated into popular favor on the tidal Then the dews fill up the lobelia's cup wave of pessimism. And the gentians nod and sigh. Since the year 1845 there has been an in Where the nixies play, in their grotesque way. creasing interest manifested in Schopenhauer's With the stars in their twinkling sky. works, and although until recently there was only one chair of philosophy, at the University of Berlin, where: pessimistic doctrines' were Schopenhauer: "The "Vanity and Suffering- of taught, these have attained to wide vogue Life." among the Philistines. : Schopenhauer published his "Die Welt als CTION and re-action are equal VVille und Verstellung" at Leipzig in 1819; but but opposite in direction," seems it was not until 1840 that it attracted-any .con as applicable in the philosophy siderable attention. This system stands midway of thought as in that of nature. between Kant's and Hegel's. Kant says, "I Philosophic speculations in soci know nothing;" Hegel, "Iknow everything;" ology commonly tend toward opti Schopenhauer, "I know something." Scho mism or pessimism. The German penhauer disclaimed entirely the distinction philosophers of the present century belong, between mind and matter. He held that the for the-most part, to the former school. But world is divisible into the real and ideal. Thfe a reaction has begun. Kant leaned toward real is ding an sich; the ideal is the" illusory optimism, although not to a pronounced extent. phenonienal world of sensation and thought/' Hegel, Fichte and Schelling belonged to the The real world is "Will;" the ideal world 'is Absolute School, and claimed to have attained- the "concrete world of actuality." ' ^ • - -• to absolute truth. They portrayed man as We have chosen for presentation the-views" semi-divine, and the future of society as of Schopenhauer on " The Vanity arid'Suffering necessarily good, / - of Life," and to treat it properly, it is heces- NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC. sary to examine his doctrine of the Will. He Without discussing the striving in nature, posited two great propositions: Schopenhauer turns at once to man, where (i) The world is my presentation. suffering manifests itself in its fullest form, and (2) The world is my,will. ,^-. , where it is most easily proved. In the plant He founded his system of ethics on the first; there is no sensibility, and hence no pain. The his views of the world on the second. Con suffering of insects is limited, and reaches lis sequently, we shall find our subject' classified highest degree in vertebrate animals which under the second proposition. have a complete nervous system, increasing To preserve unity it may be well to give an with the degree of intelligence. "In proportion epitome of the system. Schopenhauer's view of as knowledge attains to distinctness, as con the world shows us his principle of action is science ascends, pain also increases, and thus derived from "the world is my will"; but that reaches its highest degree in man." The more which is willed, he says, is never obtained. The intelligence a man possesses the more pain he will has no goal. There is an eternal evolu feels, and a man of genius suffers most of all. tion toward a goal that is never reached. This There is truth in the saying of the preacher, willing is evident in all nature. It begins to " Qui .auget scientiam, auget et dolorem." be prominent in sensible nature. It .finds its Willing and striving is the nature of man. highest expression in humanity. Humanity is Since this is true, how can life be regarded as an individualization of this. It is essential to a blessing? "If life were a blessing, the exit man to will. A volition toward something would not need to be guarded by such fearful implies the lack of something. This lack of sentinels as death and its terrors." Who would something is the cause of pain. The wish to endure life if it were not for the pain of dying? live is a cause of pain. According to Schopen Or who would meditate on death if life were hauer we are to picture the whole world as in pleasure? Thus if we regard man as a being want; as willing to have something. Is this whose life is a punishment and an expiation, want supplied? Here is the fundamental doc we regard him in the true light. There is no trine of pessimism. pleasure in life. If the nature of man \s to This want is never supplied. So soon as will and strive; if the striving expresses need the will for anything is supplied, the longing and necessity, then there is pain even if we begins once more. To satisfy a want is to attain what we strive for. For at the moment create a new one. Perfect satisfaction is emiui of attainment, strife begins anew; or if we have and weariness, Man is the centre of a thou a surplusage, we suffer from emmi. "Life is sand needs. He is the highest expression of a pendulum swinging backward and forward the will; therefore, he is the most needy of all between pain and e?nmi." creatures. The will to live is not satisfied, for He maintains that this constant striving, it ends in death. The motive of the struggle which constitutes the inner nature of will, has for life is a fear of death; tlie will or desire is its foundation in the fact that the will mani pain; the satisfaction of the desire weariness, fests itself as a living body, with the imperative and then a repetition of everything. decree to nourish it. " The body is the objecti There is a constant striving in the world. We fied will to live." Man, as the most complete see this illustrated in the simplest of all natural objectification of the will, is consequently the phenomena, gravity, which does not cease to most necessitous of beings. The life of most strive and press toward a mathematical centre, men is a constant struggle to sustain itself to reach-which would be the annihilation of with the certainty of death. The incentive to both itself and matter. The existence of a maintain the struggle is not love of life, but plant is another such restless, dissatisfied striv fear of death. Thus we see, he says, pain is ing through ascending forms until it culmin inevitable. ates ill seeds, which serve as the basis for But concerning the will in question. Exces new striving. sive suffering and keen joy always occur in The hindrance between this ceaseless striv the same person. Errors of hope or delusion ing and 'attainment we call suffering; and its lie at the base of extreme mental anguish. opposite, happiness. This striving, this dis Since this is the truth, it follows that the man content with one's state, is everywhere hindered, who suffers least is he who philosophically everywhere in conflict, and always in the form accepts the inevitable as it is, avoiding exces of suffering. If there is no ultimate end of sive joy and pain; for if one does not raise high striving, there is no cessation of suffering. hopes, the subsequent disappointment will be ^^•''*^'**^^^'^™^™?gg*'^aaWfiJJ<a>ilWiiBPa^ • NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC, 327 less poignant. We know that pain is inevitable figures and nature. These things are beautiful from countless experiences; that suffering is "to look at; but to be them!" A teleologist essential to life, and therefore part of being, praises the wise construction of the universe, nevertheless, we constantly seek external cause by virtue of which the sun heats the earth, the for it. • planets keep their orbits, and seasons succeed "All satisfaction, or what is called happiness, one another at regular intervals, but these are is essentially only negative and never positive." conditions sine qiiibus non. If the universe*is to We feel pain, but not the lack of pain; care, exist, it must not be so poorly put together but not want of care; fear but not security, that it can come to pieces, One niay say, cbn= We feel things positively only when they are tends Schopenhauer, this is the worst possible absent. Hence the three greatest blessings of world;—not the worst possible of imaginative life—youth, health and freedom — are not construction, but of actual being.

Load more