UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES: CHARACTER AND SELF- KNOWLEDGE IN CONRAD AND SCHOPENHAUER By NORMAN STINCHCOMBE A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham September 2010 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT That Conrad was familiar with Schopenhauer’s philosophy has been proposed by literary scholars and seconded, in passing, by philosophers. This has resulted in one-way studies of literary influence. This thesis is instead a two-way study in the philosophy of literature. It shows how Schopenhauer’s philosophy can illuminate Conrad’s fiction and how the fiction can become an analytical tool for exploring the philosophy. There are two strands in Schopenhauer’s philosophy. One is uncompromisingly concerned with salvation and will-denial. The second focuses on self- knowledge and character, which leads to self-fulfilment and accommodation with the world. It is the latter strand, with character at its core, where the interests of the philosopher and creative writer coincide. My methodology is different from previous studies in that I propose Conrad’s direct source for Schopenhauer was not The World as Will and Idea but his essays, which are directed more towards the worldly strand of his philosophy. I argue that the use by literary scholars of Schopenhauer’s magnum opus as Conrad’s direct source has diverted them from his main area of interest in the philosophy, namely its approach to self-knowledge and character, and that this misplaced focus has tended to distort interpretations of his fiction. Dedicated to the memory of my parents Lucy and Harry ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deep and lasting thanks go to my supervisor Joss Walker. His many suggestions and comments, both on fine points of interpretation and broader philosophical issues, were stimulating and provocative. Our open-ended supervisory sessions – intense, challenging, and very enjoyable – also helped me immensely in clarifying my own ideas. Thanks also to my friend Nick Roberts for his support and our many morale-boosting sessions over a pint. My research was made possible by a three-year scholarship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1. Evidence for the influence of Schopenhauer’s philosophy on Conrad.....p.1 Self-knowledge and character are Conrad’s primary interests 2. The essays as Conrad’s direct source for Schopenhauer’s thought………………………………………………….………………………p.6 3. Two elements of Schopenhauer’s philosophy: salvationist and worldly…p.13 An outline of salvationism 4. An outline of Schopenhauer’s worldly philosophy …………………….…..p.24 Schopenhauer’s concept of “acquired character” Two different senses of “self” and of “self-knowledge” 5. An overview of the thesis……………………………..……………………....p.32 Chapter 1 Character in Theory 1. Two aspects of character: intelligible and empirical………………………..p.38 Our character is mirrored in our deeds 2. The concept of “acquired character”………………………………………….p.42 3. Knowledge cannot change our character, only our behaviour……………..p.47 4. The worldly concept of “repentance”: out-of-character actions…………. ..p.50 The salvationist concept of “pangs of conscience” 5. The relationship between intellect and individual will……………...…..……p.58 Genuine deeds require intellectual freedom 6. Atwell’s criticisms of acquired character……………………………….……..p.63 Responses to Atwell’s criticisms 7. Character and free will – Schopenhauer’s transcendental freedom…..…..p.69 Aseity and the problem of moral responsibility 8. Moral responsibility and freedom in Conrad’s fiction..………………………p.79 Kossler’s view of character and freedom Chapter 2 Egoism, Individuality and Ethics 1. Individuality and egoism: Schopenhauer’s ethics of compassion……....p.86 2. The distinction between Schopenhauer’s ethics and salvationism…......p.91 Cartwright’s naturalized form of compassion 3. Compassion as the only moral incentive: Caius and Titus……………….p.98 Atwell on non-compassionate but virtuous acts An example from Conrad – Captain MacWhirr in Typhoon 4. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Schopenhauer’s “On Ethics”………….p.105 Kurtz, unbridled egoism and moral restraint Kurtz’s final words – salvationist and worldly interpretations 5. Heart of Darkness and naturalized compassion…………………………..p.120 6. The puzzle of the restrained cannibals……………………………………..p.124 7. The potential dangers of compassion seen in Conrad’s fiction…………..p.130 Chapter 3 Lord Jim: Character in Action 1. An outline of the events in Lord Jim………………………………………..p.138 Marlow’s “superficial how” and “fundamental why” 2. Is Jim’s leap from the Patna a genuine action or out of character? …….p.141 3. The evidence of the training ship incident………………………………….p.146 4. Stein and the problem of “How to be”................................................…...p.156 5. Self-knowledge, facing and shirking the ghost: the case of Brierly……...p.160 The basis of Jim’s heroism as collective not singular 6. Jim’s encounter with Gentleman Brown: misplaced compassion………..p.170 7. Gentleman Brown and Schopenhauer’s concept of cruelty………………p.173 8. To what is Jim faithful? ……………………………………………………….p.183 9. Lord Jim considered as a salvationist tragedy……………………………..p.186 Jim’s death – the evidence for a salvationist interpretation 10. Jim’s death – a worldly interpretation…………………………………..…..p.192 11. The danger of extreme romanticism and Jim’s “mightier faith”………….p.198 Chapter 4 Sexual Love: The Metaphysical Illusion 1. Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of sexual love………………………..…….p.206 2. Sexual love, repentance, and acquired character…………………………p.212 3. A worldly version of Schopenhauer’s notion of sexual love………………p.218 4. Sexual love and sexual illusion in Conrad’s fiction………………………...p.223 5. Conrad’s use of Schopenhauer’s “On Women” in Chance……………….p.229 Chapter 5 Chance: Sexual Love and Self-Deception 1. Father and son – Carleon and Roderick Anthony ………..……………….p.234 2. Really seeing the beloved; Roderick’s personal illusion…………………..p.240 3. Flora and “the pathos of being a woman”………………………………......p.245 4. Marlow and Flora…………………………………………….…………….….p.248 5. Marlow’s self-deception and the lost chance of love…………..………….p.255 Marlow’s journey to self-knowledge: becoming reconciled to one’s character Chapter 6 Victory: “To thine own self be true” 1. Axel and his father; being oneself and trying to be someone else………p.261 2. Schopenhauer as the model for Heyst: Erdinast-Vulcan’s objection…….p.268 3. Detachment in the philosophies of Heyst and Schopenhauer……………p.276 4. Schopenhauer and the concept of the “common” person……………...…p.283 5. Detachment, fastidiousness and the inhibition of action…………………..p.288 6. Commonness, sexuality and asceticism………………………………...….p.293 7. Salvationism, disgust and world rejection…………………………………..p.298 Nietzsche’s Zarathustra; the coal and diamonds imagery in Victory 8. The two voices of Victory – Lena and the dead Heyst………………..…..p.304 9. Lena’s love and her moral growth…………………………………………..p.313 10. Lena’s victory and Axel’s death…………………..………………….……...p.316 . Concluding Remarks……………………………………………………….p.325 Bibliography………………………………………………………………….p.328 1 INTRODUCTION 1. That Conrad’s fiction was influenced by his reading of Schopenhauer has become almost a critical orthodoxy. Literary scholars laid the foundations by interpreting Conrad’s fiction in the light of Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Johnson (1971 p.45) wrote that “Much of Conrad’s work” was “a tribute” to the influence of Schopenhauer’s thought. Bonney (1980 p.9) said that an understanding of Schopenhauer’s work was “necessary for any comprehensive response to Conrad’s fiction” and Panagopoulos (1998 p.16) agrees. Wollaeger (1990 p.32) sees “important affinities” between Conrad’s and Schopenhauer’s writing on art. Madden (1999 p.42) sees Conrad as owing a “debt” to Schopenhauer while Edward Said claimed that the relationship was one of “veneration” on the novelist’s part. (Mallios 2005 p.290) Philosophers frequently include Conrad in their lists of creative artists said to have been influenced by Schopenhauer; for example Jacquette (1996 pp.1-2), Magee (1997 p.413) and Neill (2008 p.179). Diffey (1996 p.229) and Young (2005 p.234) both quote Magee’s list. When evidence of this influence is cited it comes, in a form of academic division of labour, from literary scholars. Magee (1997 p.409) cites Kirschner and Bonney in support of his claim that Conrad was “significantly influenced by Schopenhauer”. Both Young (2005 p.236) and Magee (1997 p.409) quote the same passage, from 2 Cedric Watts’ introduction to a volume of Conrad’s letters, (CLG p.25) 1 as establishing the connection and its nature, which is said to be their shared pessimism. I also believe that Conrad’s work was influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy but in a different way, and by different means, than those proposed by the majority of literary scholars. My contention is that Conrad’s primary interest lay in Schopenhauer’s philosophy of character. I also argue that Conrad’s direct source for Schopenhauer was not The World as Will and Idea, which appeared in a three-volume English translation by Haldane and Kemp between 1883 and 1886, but his essays which were immensely popular in English translation in the late nineteenth century. My aim, however, is not to produce a one-way study in literary influence but, instead, a two-way study in the philosophy of literature. I plan to show not only that understanding Conrad’s response to Schopenhauer’s thought helps in a critical exegesis of his fiction but that the fiction, in turn, can be used as an analytical tool for exploring the philosophy.