Chapter 8 Part I The World as Representation § 8

Just like going from under the direct sunlight of the sun to under the indirect reflection of the moon, we now turn from the intuitive, immediate, self-represented and self-guaranteed appearance to reflective thinking, to rational abstraction , The concept of reasoning.Concepts are known only from intuition, and have their full content only in relation to intuitive knowledge.As long as we have been acting purely intuitively, everything is clear, fixed, and definite.At this time, there are no questions, no doubts, and no fallacies; people will no longer ask for anything, and they can no longer ask for anything. People have already felt at ease in the intuition, and have satisfied themselves in the present moment.Intuition is self-sufficient, so anything purely produced by intuition and faithful to intuition, such as a true work of art, can never be wrong, nor can it be overthrown by any age, because it does not express an opinion, but only provides the thing itself.But along with abstract knowledge, along with reason, doubts and fallacies appear in theory, and apprehension and remorse appear in practice.In intuitive representations, false appearances can distort facts in the present moment; in abstract representations, error can dominate for decades, can put its iron shackles on entire peoples, and can stifle the noblest impulses of mankind. ; and by its slaves, those whom it deceives, and even those it cannot deceive, put in fetters.With regard to this enemy, the great philosophers of the past have fought against it with great disparity in strength; only what the great philosophers captured from it has become the wealth of mankind.It is good, therefore, to arouse our vigilance against this enemy as soon as we first set foot in the territory to which he belongs.Though it has been said that we should pursue the truth, even when no advantage is seen, because its benefits are indirect and can reappear accidentally at intervals; yet I will add here, Say: Even if no harm could be seen, one would have to make the same effort to expose and eradicate every error, because its harm is also indirect and can appear when people are not on guard; Toxic.If it is human intellect, human knowledge that makes man the master of the earth, then there are no innocuous fallacies; if it is those that are dignified and holy, they are even less harmless.In order to comfort those who in any way and on any occasion have given their strength and life to the noble and arduous struggle against error, I cannot help but interject here: Before the truth has not appeared, error can still flourish. For a time. As owls and bats are nocturnal; but if truth, having been known, and clearly and fully expressed, can be driven back again, and the old error shall rest comfortably in its place. A wide field, then, makes it more likely that owls and bats will frighten back the rising sun in the east.This is the power of truth. Although its victory is won through hardships and difficulties, it is enough to make up for this regret. Once the truth wins this victory, it will never be taken away.

So far, the representations we have considered can be reduced to time, space, and matter if viewed from the perspective of the object; if viewed from the perspective of the subject, they can be reduced to pure sensibility and understanding (that is, causality). sexual awareness).In addition to these appearances, among all the creatures living on the earth, human beings alone have also appeared a kind of cognitive ability, and initiated a completely new consciousness.This awareness is quite rightly called reflective thinking, with a phantom accuracy.It is true that this consciousness is in fact a reflection, and is derived from intuitive knowledge; but it has a nature and constitution quite different from intuitive knowledge, and it does not know the forms that belong to intuitive knowledge; even if it dominates The principle of sufficient reason, which governs all objects, also has a completely different form here.This new, more capable consciousness, this abstract reflection of all intuitive things, in the non-intuitive concepts of reason,—it alone endows man with the power of thought.This is the difference between human consciousness and animal consciousness.It is because of this difference that man behaves on earth so differently from his irrational brother species.Man surpasses them in power, and in the same degree in pain.They live only in the present, while man lives in the future and the past at the same time.They satisfy only the needs of the present, while man, by his ingenuity, prepares for the future, even for ages which he cannot see.They are entirely at the mercy of immediate impressions, the action of intuitive motives; but it is abstract concepts that do not restrict the present that determine man.Therefore, people can carry out predetermined plans, and act according to the provisions of regulations; they can disregard [momentary] circumstances, and disregard current accidental impressions.For example, people can make arrangements for their own death indifferently, and can pretend so that people can't see the flaws, so that they can take their secrets to the grave.Finally, he has a real choice among a larger number of motives.For only in the abstract, when these motives are juxtaposed in consciousness at the same time, can it bring about the realization that, since motives are mutually exclusive, there must be a contest of strength to see who can dominate the will.The dominant motive in the contest, that is, the decisive motive, is the considered choice of the will, and this motive is a sure sign of the nature of the will.Animals, on the contrary, are determined by the impressions in front of them; only the fear of the current coercive force can control their desires. When this fear becomes a habit, they will be bound by the habit in the future. This is the training imposed on animals.Animals have feelings and intuition; humans also need to think and know.Desires are common to both humans and animals.Animals communicate their feelings and emotions with gestures and sounds, and humans use language to convey or conceal thoughts from others.Language is the first product of his reason and the necessary tool of reason, so in Greek and Italian language and reason are expressed by the same word: in Greek it is "logos" logos, in Italian It is "discorso" ildiscorso. [In German,] reason ["Vernunft"] Vernunft comes from "understand" ["Ferne gate"] Vernehmen, which in turn is not synonymous with "hear" HÖren, but understands The meaning of thought expressed in language.It is only by means of language that reason can accomplish its most important tasks, such as the concerted action of many individuals, the planned cooperation of thousands; civilization, the state: then there is science, the preservation of past experience, the generalization of common Things in one concept, the communication of truth, the dissemination of error, thoughts and poems, creeds and superstitions, etc., and so on.Animals know death only when they are dying, and man is walking towards his own death consciously hour by hour.Even if a person has not yet recognized the perpetual destruction of the whole of life, the gradual approach to death can sometimes make life dreadful.Man has various philosophies and religions mainly for this reason.However, in human behavior, we have reasons to value certain things above everything else, such as consciously righteous actions and noble sentiments based on the heart; whether these things can be called the consequences of philosophy or religion is not certain. not clear.On the contrary, it must be the product of both philosophy and religion, it must be the product of reason on this road, but it is the strange opinions of philosophers of various schools, and the strange opinions of monks of various schools. , and sometimes cruel custom.

It is the common and unanimous opinion of all ages and peoples that all these various and far-reaching achievements spring from one common principle.This principle is the special spiritual power that makes man superior to animals.People call it reason, and in Greek it is called logos, logistikog, and logimon; in Latin it is called ratio.All people also know how to understand the performance of this ability, and also know what is rational and what is irrational; they know where rationality is proportional to other abilities and other attributes of human beings.Finally, man also knows that, because of the lack of reason in animals, there are certain things that cannot be expected of him, even though he is the most intelligent of them.Philosophers of all ages have also agreed with reason as a general knowledge; besides, they have pointed to some special and important manifestations of reason, such as the control of emotions and passions, the power to draw conclusions, and the ability to formulate general principles. abilities, even [ascertaining] those principles which are made clear without waiting for experience, etc.Notwithstanding [there has been agreement in these places], all their accounts of the true nature of reason are still vacillating, loosely defined, dissociated; neither unified nor centered, a moment to stress this expression , and then focus on that performance for a while, so [various schools] often differ from each other.In addition, there are many philosophers who start from the opposition between reason and revelation when they talk about the nature of reason.This opposition is completely irrelevant in philosophy and only adds to the confusion.The most peculiar thing is that until now, no philosopher has strictly attributed all those manifold manifestations of reason to a single function.This function, which can be recognized in all manifestations one by one, and can explain them all, so this function should constitute the unique inner essence of reason.Although the eminent Locke, in Book II, Chapter XI, Sections 10 and 11, quite rightly points out that abstract general concepts are the distinguishing feature between man and beast; This point is fully agreed with and repeated by Locke in A New Treatise on Human Understanding, Volume II, Chapter XI, Sections 10 and 11; When it comes to explaining reason in verses 32 and 32, he forgets the only important feature of reason, and he falls into the same position as others, [only] to give some fragmentary and derivative expressions of reason. A wavering, uncertain, incomplete statement.Leibniz's parallels to the passages listed above are, on the whole, identical to Locke's, only more confused and more ambiguous.As for how Kant confused and distorted the concept of the nature of reason, I have discussed it in detail in the appendix of this book.Whoever takes the trouble to read through the numerous philosophical works published after Kant will realize that when kings make mistakes, the whole nation must make up for them; The pernicious influence is propagated throughout whole generations, even centuries; and the error grows, multiplies, and at last degenerates into grotesques.And all this again stems from Berkeley's saying, "A few think, but all must have an opinion."

The understanding has only one function, that of knowing directly the relation of cause and effect.And the intuitions of the real world, and all cleverness, tact, inventive genius, etc., however varied their application, are evidently manifestations of this single faculty, and nothing else.Reason, like understanding, has but one function, that of constituting concepts.Starting from this single function, all the above-mentioned phenomena which distinguish human life from animal life are easily explained, and are explained quite naturally.And whenever and wherever people say "reasonable" or "unreasonable", it all means that the unique function is applied or not applied.