The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 3 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~190,000 words · 890 passages
Cite this work
- APAArthur Schopenhauer. (n.d.). The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-3-of-3
- MLAArthur Schopenhauer. The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-3-of-3.
- ChicagoArthur Schopenhauer. The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-3-of-3.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The third and last volume, closing the whole with the aesthetics and the denial of the will.
Context and history
This English translation spreads across three volumes what in German is two: the book of 1818 and the volume of supplements Schopenhauer added in 1844, twenty-six years later. The supplements are not minor appendices: they run as long as the original work, and his ideas are often better read there, since by then he is writing without having to persuade anyone of the architecture. He asked himself that the whole be read twice.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
manifold. Therefore she sent forth man without clothing, without natural means of protection or weapons of attack, nay, with relatively little muscular power, combined with great frailty and little endurance of adverse influences and wants, in reliance upon that one great tool, in addition to which she had only to retain the hands from the next grade below him, the ape. But through the predominating intellect which here appears not only is the comprehension of motives, their multiplicity, and in general the horizon of the aims infinitely increased, but also the distinctness with which the will is conscious _of itself_ is enhanced in the highest degree in consequence of the clearness of the whole consciousness which has been brought about, which is supported by the capacity for abstract knowledge, and now attains to complete reflectiveness. But thereby, and also through the vehemence of the will, which is necessarily presupposed as the supporter of such a heightened intellect, an intensifying of all the _emotions_ appears, and indeed the possibility of the _passions_, which, properly speaking, are unknown to the brute. For the vehemence of the will keeps pace with the advance of intelligence, because this advance really always springs from the increased needs and pressing demands of the will: besides this, however, the two reciprocally support each other. Thus the vehemence of the character corresponds to the greater energy of the beating of the heart and the circulation of the blood, which physically heighten the activity of the brain. On the other hand, the clearness of the intelligence intensifies the emotions, which are called forth by the outward circumstances, by means of the more vivid apprehension of the latter.…