Sunday, August 20, 2006

The World As Will & Idea : Arthur Schopanhauer







The World as will & idea, although this book was rejected by most of the contemprory thinkers of Schopenhauer but still, I fell in love with this book as soon as I started reading it. The book was published in 1844.
What strikes me most is the style of this book. Here is no chinese puzzle of kantian terminology, no hegelian philosophy but there is blunt honesty, refreshing vigour & uncompromising directness.

The book starts with the first sentence of Schopenhaeur , 'The world is my idea'.
The most vital part of the first section is the attack on materialism. 'How can we explain mind as matter, when we know matter only through mind ?'.

In the second section i.e. The world as will he writes ' Consciousness is the mere surface of our mind, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside but only the crust'.

He ends this book with a sentence which I think partly became the cause of rejection of this masterpiece ' No time can be more unfavorable to philosophy than that in which it is shamefully misused on the one hand to further political objects, on the other hand as a means of livelyhood.

This book, I love a lot.

No comments: