By ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER*
Excerpt from the recently published book
Affirming the will to live
The affirmation of the will is the constant will itself, undisturbed by any knowledge, as it fills the life of man in general. Thus, man's life from the point of view of nature: the real secundum natural vivere. We will consider the nature of this will more closely, though always only in general. Since the body of man is already the object of the will as it appears in this stage and in this individual; thus, his will, which develops over time, is, as it were, only the paraphrase of the body, the explanation of the meaning of the whole and its parts; it is another way of representing the same thing in itself, whose appearance is already the body.
Therefore, instead of affirming the will, we can also say the affirmation of the body. The basic theme of all the manifold acts of the will is the satisfaction of needs, which are inseparable from the existence of the body in its health, and therefore already have their expression in the body itself: they can be traced back to the preservation of the individual and the propagation of sex. But indirectly, the most diverse motives gain power over the will and produce the most diverse acts of will.
Each of these acts of will, however, is only a sample, specimen, example of the will that appears here in general. What kind of sample this is, what shape the motif has and communicates with it, is not essential; but what happens here is just that there is a will and with what degree of vehemence. The will can only become visible in motives, as the eye can only express its power of vision in light.
The motive in general stands before the will like a multiform Proteus: it always promises complete satisfaction, quenching the thirst of the will: but, when it is achieved, it immediately returns to being there in another form, and in this it moves the will again, always in a different way. according to the degree of its vehemence and its relationship with knowledge, both of which, precisely through these tests and examples, become evident as empirical in nature.
From the beginning of his consciousness man finds himself lacking, and, as a rule, his knowledge remains in constant relation to his will. He first seeks to know completely the objects of his will; then, the means for these. Now he knows what he has to do and, as a general rule, he does not strive for other knowledge. He acts and impels: the consciousness that he is always working towards the goal of his will keeps him straight and active: his thought concerns the choice of means.
Such is the life of almost all men: they want it, they know what they want, they fight for it, with as much success as will protect them from despair and as much failure as will protect them from boredom and its consequences. Then comes a certain serenity, at least a composure: wealth and poverty don't really change anything in this: for the rich, like the poor, they don't enjoy what they have, since this, as has already been demonstrated, only has an effect negative; but what they hope to achieve through their activity.
This is how they move forward, very seriously, even with an important air: this is also how children play. – It is always only an exception when such a course of life suffers a disturbance, insofar as from an independent recognition of the service of the will, which is therefore directed to the essence of the world in general, arises either the aesthetic call to contemplation, or even the ethical call to renunciation.
Two paths that lead beyond the mere affirmation of the individual body
Thus, the affirmation of the body, or the will to live, is precisely the continuation of acting according to reasons whose basic theme is the needs that the body itself already expresses through its nature. The body provides the needs, but also the strength to bring them satisfaction. The simple affirmation of the body, in the true sense, consists in the fact that the body is maintained by the work of the powers of that organism. – But rarely will the will remain within these limits of the mere affirmation of the body.
There are two ways of wanting that go beyond this: (i) the affirmation of will beyond one's own body; (ii) the affirmation of one's own will through the denial of the will represented in other individuals. – The first is the satisfaction of the sexual instinct and, therefore, the procreation of a new individual (illustration). Let us consider both in detail. The first (satisfaction of the sexual instinct) still belongs to this chapter of the affirmation of the will to live or of the body: for it is merely the affirmation beyond the appearance of the body itself. – The second, injustice, we will then consider in a separate chapter, which will at the same time contain the main features of the doctrine of law. (crazy)
Affirmation of will beyond one's own body (procreation)
The simple affirmation of the will, insofar as it appears as a living body, thus consists in the preservation of that body, through the powers of that same body, that is, the acquisition of pressing needs through work. Obviously, this is a very small degree of affirmation of will. Food for the body always satisfies the will and is a pleasure, that is, an affirmation of the will: but this pleasure is totally surpassed by the effort and toil of work. Eat your bread with the sweat of your brow.
Willing does not go beyond what the preservation of the body makes it necessary: consequently, wanting here is only provoked by the existence of the body, is conditioned by it and is limited to it: therefore, with the abolition of the existence of this body, the will would also be abolished. Therefore, we can assume that if in an individual it is not only strength, but the will itself that does not go beyond the preservation of the body through its work, that is, the individual voluntarily limits its purposes to the preservation of the body through work of this same thing body, then with the body the will also ceases, then, through the death of the body, the will that appeared in it will also be extinguished.
How man can come to voluntarily restrict his will to such an extent, we will examine later. But now I will talk about going beyond this point. From the affirmation of will beyond the existence of the body. For this is the gratification of the sexual impulse. This impulse is already given by the existence and nature of the body. But his satisfaction is not the mere desire to exist, the preservation of his own body; but a desire for voluptuousness, that is, an affirmation of the will to live to a much higher degree: satisfaction shows itself as a superior power of the comfort of the feeling of life; lust.
The affirmation of the will is not limited here to the conservation of the body: rather the will to live in general is affirmed; it asserts beyond the existence of the individual, which occupies so little time: life as such asserts itself in increased power, beyond the death of the individual himself in a completely indefinite period of time. The inner meaning of the act of procreation is, therefore, the affirmation of life as such, and not just the affirmation of the individual himself.
Nature, always true and consistent, even if here naive, openly exposes before us the inner meaning of the act of procreation, expresses it vividly. Namely: conscience itself, the vehemence of the impulse, the pleasure in its satisfaction, teaches us that in this act the most decisive affirmation of the will is expressed, purely and without any addition, for example, that of the denial of other individuals (injustice). .
And now nature vividly presents the same thing to representation: what thus happens in the being in itself, in the will, it shows in the world as representation, as the image of that being in itself: that is, in time and in the causal series , a new life, a new individual appears as a consequence of the act of procreation: the repetition of the appearance of life. The generated being is in front of its parent; they are different in appearance, but identical in themselves (as will) or in idea (as man).
In relation to the parent, procreation is only the expression, the symptom, of his decided affirmation of the will to live in general: in relation to the generated, it is not the reason, the cause, of the will that appears in him, since the will in itself it knows neither cause nor consequence; but, like all causes, it is only an occasional cause of the appearance of this will at this time and in this place. The same will as a thing in itself, which was so simply affirmed in the parent, reappears in the generated being as a manifestation of that will.
As a thing in itself, the will of the parent and the generated being is no different, since only the appearance, and not the thing in itself, is subject to influence. Principium individuationis. Through the act of procreation, as the highest expression of the affirmation of the will to live, life is thus affirmed in general: thus it presents itself as a new individual: the whole phenomenon begins anew. Man's surrender to nature is thus consummated: it is, so to speak, a renewed prescription to life and its law.
With this affirmation, beyond the body itself, until the presentation of a new one, suffering and death are also affirmed once again, as belonging to the appearance of life: but there was in the parent the possibility of none of this happening, namely through renunciation, through the voluntary limitation of his will for the preservation of his own body and the renunciation of lust. We will also see that this would be the denial of the will for life and redemption of the world.
This existing possibility of redemption (through the highest knowledge, which is present in every human being) is this time declared fruitless by the act of procreation: here is the deep reason for the shame about the act of procreation. This shame actually expresses everything that has been said so far about procreation. Why does a deep shame and, so to speak, a consciousness of guilt accompany the act of procreation? – Precisely because of what was said. It is shame about the renewed devotion to life, about the affirmation of it beyond existence itself.
This vision is mythically presented in the dogma of Adam's fall through sin, presented by Christian doctrine. This original sin obviously refers to the satisfaction of sexual desire. We must all be participants in this fall through birth and therefore guilty of suffering and death. This Christian dogma is profound: it goes beyond the common way of seeing things according to the principle of reason and Principium individuationis: recognizes the idea of man, in which we are all understood and whose unity breaks down to cognition according to the principle of reason in innumerable individuals, but is also there restored by the bond of procreation, which holds everyone together.
Everyone already carries guilt for their existence, that is, the guilt of this very existence, because he himself is the will that appears in this existence. In accordance with this, Christian dogma sees each individual, on the one hand, as identical with Adam, the symbol of the affirmation of life, and to that extent suffering and death as victims of sin (original sin): on the other hand, Because this dogma embraces the idea of humanity, it also sees each individual as identical with the Redeemer, the symbol of the denial of the will to live and, to that extent, as a participant in his self-sacrifice, redeemed and saved from the bonds of sin and death, that is, is, of the world, by his merit (Rom., 5:12-21.) Persephone, p. 474.
The satisfaction of the sexual drive is, therefore, the most decisive and strongest affirmation of the will to live and, as such, it is also confirmed by the fact that it is the ultimate goal, the highest goal of life for animals and people alike. purely sensual. His first aspiration is self-preservation; but as soon as he takes care of this, he strives only for procreation: he can do no more as a purely sensual being.
Precisely because the inner essence of nature is the will to live itself, nature impels man, like the animal, to procreate with all his strength. As soon as the individual has served this, nature has achieved her purpose with him, and is now quite indifferent to his fall, since, as the will of life itself, she is concerned only with the preservation of the species, the individual being nothing to she. – Because in the sexual instinct the inner essence of nature, the will to live, is expressed more strongly.
The ancient poets and philosophers – Hesiod, Parmenides – said very significantly that Eros was the first, the creative, the principle from which all things emerge (Arist., Metaph., I, 4.88). As an allegorical representation of this, we see, in ancient works, Cupid, or also Eros and Anteros, carrying the terrestrial globe. Also the Maya of the Hindus, whose work and fabric is the entire illusory world, is a parallel of Cupid. The genitals, more than any other external member of the body, serve only the will and not the knowledge (not the will, but the blind will – illustration): in fact, the will appears here to be almost as independent of knowledge as in the parts that serve only vegetative life, reproduction, and in which the will functions as blindly as in nature without knowledge.
Because procreation is only reproduction for a new individual: it is, so to speak, reproduction to the second power; as if death were just excretion to the second power. Thus, lust is the superior power of the comfort of the feeling of life that mere food gives. According to all this, the genitals are the very focus of the will and therefore the opposite pole of the brain, which is the representative of knowledge, the other side of the world, the world as representation.
The drive of lust constantly burns within us because it is the expression of the basis of our life, of the radical element of our existence, of the will: it must be constantly suppressed and repressed by the imagination if we just want to remain in the state of clear consciousness, that is, of the state of knowledge opposed to wanting: but this impulse takes every opportunity to emerge: as a wild animal always strives to get out of its cage.
The genitals are the life-preserving principle that ensures endless life span: knowledge, on the other hand, gives the possibility of the abolition of wanting, of redemption through freedom, of the annihilation of the world. Previously, at the end of chapter 2, I explained the affirmation of the will to live in general and abstractly, and I said: the will asserts itself, that is, in its objectivity, that is, if the world, or life, is completely and clearly given its very nature as a representation, this knowledge in no way impedes its wanting; but precisely this life thus recognized is also desired as such; before, without knowledge, as a blind desire, now, with knowledge, consciously and prudently.
I have already shown you how the affirmation of the will to live is expressed, what mode of action is its expression. I already explained to you in chapter 2 that death does not snatch life from this affirmation, but that life is always certain of the will to live. I showed you there what relationship the will has in its affirmation towards death, how death does not challenge it, because it is there as already belonging to life and included in it: its opposite, procreation, completely balances it and guarantees it. and ensures, despite the individual's death, the will to live life for an infinite time.
That's why Shiva have the lingam. I also explained to you how someone who positions himself with perfect serenity from the point of view of resolute affirmation of life awaits death without fear. He faces her without fear, but also without hope. For he knows that death will not take away life and its pleasures; but it also cannot take you away from the sufferings of life. So there is nothing more to say here. Without clear reflection, most people take this point of view; his will continually affirms life.
The world is there as a mirror or expression of that statement, with countless individuals, in endless time and space and endless suffering, between procreation and endless death. – However, there is no further complaint to be made about this on any side. For the will plays the great game of sorrow and pleasure at its own expense, and is also its own spectator. The world is exactly like this because the will, whose appearance is the world, is such because it wants it that way. The justification for suffering is that the will also asserts itself in response to this appearance: and this assertion is justified and balanced by the fact of enduring suffering.
Here we already have a glimpse of eternal justice as a whole: later on we will recognize it more closely and more clearly, also in detail. In relation to the affirmation of the will to live. I previously showed how this statement could be limited to the existence of the body itself, that is, that what is possible for man does not go beyond what the existence of his body requires. – Then he said that it rarely stays at that point, but that man affirms the will to live beyond the existence of his body in two ways: namely, on the one hand, through the satisfaction of the sexual drive, which is the affirmation of the will to live .
The second way in which man goes beyond the affirmation of his own body is that his affirmation of his own will becomes the denial of the will that appears in other individuals: this is injustice. For in wanting his own goal and pursuing his own ends, man is confronted with the wills and ends of other individuals: so he often seeks to destroy the will and existence of these other individuals in order to assert his own will unhindered: his affirmation of one's own will becomes a negation of one's own will to live as it is represented in other individuals.
This process is injustice, which we will now consider in a separate chapter. From injustice, its correlate, law, also becomes completely understandable: that is why the content of this chapter will also be the doctrine of law. Therefore, I will now give you an easy and clear vision of the entire essence of the doctrine of law, presenting all its foundations and essential principles. In taking the path to this end, I will first make clear to you the essence of selfishness and deduce it: for it is the source of the struggle of individuals from which the question of just and unjust arises.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a philosopher and writer. Author, among other books, of The world as will and representation (Counterpoint).
Reference
Arthur Schopenhauer. Metaphysics of customs. Translation: Eli Vagner Francisco Rodrigues. New York, New York, 2024, 276 pages. [https://amzn.to/4cTg3rS]
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