Chapter 26 Book II The World as a Preliminary Treatise on the Will §26

The lowest level of objectification of the will manifests itself as the most general force of nature.Part of this natural force is present in every substance without exception, such as heaviness and impenetrability; part belongs to all existing substances, some for this kind of substance, some for that kind of substance. , thus becoming special substances, such as solidity, liquidity, elasticity, electricity, magnetism, chemical properties and various physical properties.These are direct expressions of the will, no different from human actions; and being groundless as such direct expressions, are no different from human character; laws; they themselves cannot be called effects or causes, but are the preconditions of all causes and effects.It is through these causes and effects that their own essence is exhibited and presented.Therefore, it is meaningless to ask the reason of gravity, the reason of electricity.These are primitive forces, though their expression proceeds according to cause and effect, and even their individual phenomena have a cause, and this cause is such an individual phenomenon that determines that the expression of the force must be in time. and space; but the force itself is neither the effect of a cause nor the cause of an effect.Therefore it is also wrong to say that "gravity is the cause of the falling of the stone"; in fact, it should be said that the earth is near the cause of the falling of the stone, because it is the earth that attracts the stone; if the earth is removed, the stone will not fall. would fall, although gravity still exists, the force itself is completely outside the chain of cause and effect.The causal chain is premised on time, and it can only be meaningful in terms of time, but the force itself is outside of time.Individual changes are always caused by an individual change of the same kind, not by the force, whose manifestation is the individual change.For no matter how many times a cause occurs, it is a force of nature which always imparts effects to the cause; and as a force of nature it is groundless, that is, entirely outside the chain of causes, and at all outside the sphere of the principle of sufficient reason; Philosophically it is conceived as the immediate objectivity of the will, the "in-itself" [in itself] of the whole of nature; etiologically—here in physics—it is referred to as the primordial force, i.e. It is a "hidden property".

In the higher order of the objectivity of the will we see the emergence of marked individuality, especially in man, [this individuality] appears as great differences of individual characters, that is to say complete personalities; Appearance already has external manifestations, and a person's appearance includes the entire body shape.The differences in personality of animals are far less than that of humans, and only the highest animals can still be traced; in animals, "species" still occupy an absolute dominant position, so individual appearances are not obvious.In the lower animals, the more traces of individuality are lost in the general character of the species, which have only a single appearance. [In the species of animals] one can make accurate judgments about each individual in advance by knowing the physical characteristics of a race, whereas in the species of man each individual has to be studied individually and explored individually. , because [man has] the possibility of disguise inherent in reason, it is extremely difficult to judge man's behavior in advance with a certain degree of certainty.The difference between man and all other species may have something to do with the fact that in birds the cerebral cortex is completely devoid of folds, and in rodents it is still very faintly wrinkled, and that even in the higher animals it is more wrinkled than in man.[ Left and right] are more even on both sides, and there is less variation in the similarity of each individual compared with people.In addition, a phenomenon that can be seen as a difference between humans and birds with or without individual characteristics is that animals have no obvious choice when seeking "sexual" satisfaction, but in humans this choice is of course independent of any reflective thinking, instinctive [What is done] under the manner, is so emphasized that the choice turns into a strong passion.Each individual is therefore to be regarded as a specially determined, characteristic phenomenon of will, and to a certain extent even as a particular Idea; while animals as a whole lack this individual character, since only the species retains an individuality. a special meaning.The greater the distance from man, the more disappears the traces of individual character; and plants have no individual character at all, except those special properties which are fully accounted for from the favorable or unfavorable influences of soil, climate, and other accidental influences.Finally, in inorganic nature, all individuality has disappeared.Only the crystal can be regarded in a sense as an individual, a unit of impulse towards a fixed direction, frozen in ossification to leave a vestige of that impulse.At the same time it is also an aggregate of its original forms, united by an idea, just as a tree is an aggregate of separately developed tissue fibers.In every vein of the leaf, in every leaf, in every branch, this fiber is present and repeated; and each of these things can be regarded in a certain sense as individual The growing, parasitic on a larger growth for nourishment, is therefore, like the crystal, a systematic aggregate of small plants; but the whole [of the tree] is an indivisible idea, that is, the objectification of the will. The full performance of this fixed level.But the individuals of the same kind of crystals can have no other difference than that brought about by external chance; one can even make any kind of crystals larger or smaller at will.But the individual as an individual, that is, the individual with traces of individual characteristics, is absolutely not to be found in inorganic nature.All phenomena of inorganic nature are manifestations of universal natural forces, that is, degrees of objectification of the will which are wholly independent of differences of personalities, (as in organic nature), which are partly surface The whole idea——is expressed only by the genus; and this genus is expressed completely and without any difference in each individual phenomenon.Time, space, multiplicity, and determination by cause belong neither to the will nor to the Idea (the degree of the objectification of the will), but only to their individual phenomena, then, in such a force of nature,— Gravity, electricity—among millions of phenomena, natural forces as natural forces can only behave in exactly the same way, and only external circumstances can change [a] phenomenon.This unity of the essence of natural forces in all its phenomena, the unchanging routine of these phenomena when they occur, as long as there are conditions for their occurrence under the thread of causality, is called a natural fluid.Since the characteristics of a natural force are expressed and fixed in a natural law, once such a natural law is known through experience, the appearance of this natural force can be determined and calculated with great accuracy.This regularity of the phenomena of the lower order of objectification of the will gives them a different appearance from that of the same will at the higher, i.e. clearer, degree of its objectification, i.e. from the In animals, in man and in the phenomena of the will in man and his actions, and in these phenomena individual characteristics appear more or less strongly, and [behaviors] motivated by motives—the motives are in cognition and are always present to the spectator. It is hidden and invisible—so that [people] have not yet realized that the inner essence of these two types of phenomena is the same.

If people start from the knowledge of individual things instead of from the knowledge of ideas, the infallibility of natural laws will be somewhat unexpected and surprising, and sometimes even terrified.People may be surprised that nature never forgets its own laws. For example, as long as it conforms to a natural law and under certain conditions, certain substances will produce chemical reactions when they meet, release gas, and burn. ; and so when the conditions are right, whether due to our facilities or purely by accident (the accuracy is all the more surprising since the original was not expected), certain phenomena will take place immediately and without delay, as is the case today, It was the same way a thousand years ago.We have the sharpest sense of this astonishing fact in rare phenomena which occur only under extremely complicated circumstances - but which in these circumstances tell us in advance that [will occur] - For example, when some metals have acidified moisture, one kind after another alternates next to each other, and a small piece of silver foil is placed between the ends of this series of metals, this piece of silver foil must be will suddenly burn itself up in green flames, or under certain conditions hard diamonds will also turn themselves into carbonic acid.Natural forces seem to have an omnipresent mind, and this is what amazes us, while things that do not attract our attention in daily phenomena, we can all see here that the connection between cause and effect is so mysterious and realistic. It is no different from people's fictitious connection between talismans, mantras and ghosts and gods, saying that ghosts and gods will inevitably appear under the call of talismans.On the other hand, if we have penetrated deeply into the philosophical knowledge that a force of nature is a degree of objectification of the will, that is, of what we consider to be our innermost essence; The multiplicity conditioned by time and space does not belong to the will, nor does it directly belong to the level of its objectification, that is, it does not belong to the will. Belonging to ideas, but only phenomena that belong to ideas, knowing that the law of causality is only meaningful in terms of time and space, because the law of causality is just a phenomenon in which various ideas are multiplied in time and space, and the phenomenon in which the will manifests itself, determine their place, determine the order into which these phenomena must enter;—I say, if in these knowledges we understand the inner purpose of Kant's great doctrine, that space, time and causality have nothing to do with things in themselves but only phenomena All, but the form of our "knowledge" rather than the nature of things in themselves, then we can understand [people] the regularity and accuracy of the action of natural forces, the complete uniformity of the billions of phenomena of natural forces, and the complete uniformity of these phenomena. The astonishment of the inerrancy, etc., is comparable in fact to that of a child or a savage looking at a flower for the first time through polygonal glass, and being amazed at the exact sameness of countless flowers he sees. Count the petals of each flower separately.

So every universal, original force of nature is in its inner essence nothing but the objectification of will at the [lowest] level.Each of these levels we call an eternal idea in the sense of Plato.The laws of nature are the relation of ideas to the forms of their phenomena.This form is time, space and causality, and the three have a necessary and inseparable connection and mutual relationship with each other. Ideas multiply by themselves into countless phenomena through time and space, but phenomena follow the order that enters the form of diversity. All are strictly regulated by the law of causality.The law of causality is like the limit of the critical point between those phenomena of different ideas, and space, time and matter are allocated to those phenomena according to this limit.The limit, therefore, is necessarily related to the identity of all existing matter, which in turn is the common and unchanging substrate of all those different phenomena.If these phenomena do not all depend on the common substance, and the substance does not need to belong to the phenomenon, then there is no need for such a law to regulate the requirements of the phenomenon, and the phenomena can all be juxtaposed at the same time, filling the endless space through infinite time. .Therefore, for the sake of the Eternal Idea alone, all those phenomena are dependent on the same matter, and there must be rules of matter going in and out [of phenomena], without which there would be no mutual yielding between phenomena and phenomena.It is thus that the law of causality is essentially related to the permanence of substances, and the two derive their meaning from each other; but space and time have the same relation to both.It turns out that the simple possibility of having contradictory determinations on the same substance is time, and the simple possibility of the same substance perpetuating under all contradictory determinations is space.We have therefore interpreted matter in the preceding book as the unity of time and space; this unity in turn appears as the transformation of the contingent properties during the permanence of the substance, and the universal possibility of this transformation is nothing but causality or change.We have therefore also said that matter is causal through and through.We have interpreted the understanding as the subjective counterpart of causality, and said that matter (i.e., the whole world as representation) exists only for the understanding, and that the understanding, as the necessary counterpart of matter, is the condition and the fulcrum of matter , All of this [here] is just to recall, by the way, what was discussed in the first article.To fully understand the first and second passages, it is necessary to notice the inner agreement between the two passages, because the two inseparable aspects united in the real world, will and appearance, are separated in these two passages, [ And the reason for doing this is to] in order to have a clearer understanding of [these two aspects of the world] in isolation.

It would perhaps not be superfluous to take another example in order to show more clearly how the law of causality has meaning only in relation to time, space, and matter existing in the unity of the two. [The significance of the law of causality] lies in the fact that it defines the limits according to which the phenomena of natural forces appropriate matter; and that the original natural forces themselves, as the direct objectification of the will, as a thing in itself, are not subject to the law of sufficient reason, Not in these forms; [also] only in these forms, then every etiological account has validity and meaning.It is for this reason that etiological explanations can never touch the inner essence of nature. —For the sake of example, let us consider a machine constructed according to the principles of mechanics.The iron weights move by their gravity; the brass discs resist by their solidity; by their impenetrability they push each other, lift and push each other, lift the lever etc.Here, gravity, solidity, and impenetrability are primitive and unexplained forces; mechanics only points out that these natural forces are used to express themselves, to appear, and to control certain conditions of matter, time, and space. and way.If now a very strong magnet acted upon the heavy iron, counteracting the force of gravity, the machine would come to a standstill, and the matter here would at once become the arena of an entirely different force of nature.For this natural force, the etiological explanation likewise only points out the conditions for the emergence of this force, magnetism, and nothing else.Or put the copper plate of the machine on the zinc plate, and introduce an acidic liquid between the two, which plunges the original substance of the machine into another original force, that is, into the chemical discharge of the metal. ; and the chemical discharge then dominates matter according to its own laws, and manifests its own phenomena in this matter.With regard to these phenomena, etiology can only point out some situations and laws of the appearance of the phenomena, and nothing more.Now [again] let us increase the temperature, introduce pure oxygen again, and the whole machine will burn, which means that once again a completely different force of nature, that is, chemical action, irresistibly takes possession of that here and now. Matter, a fixed level in matter manifested as Idea and objectified by will.The resulting metal chalk is then combined with some acid to produce a salt and crystals.This is yet another phenomenon of an idea, which itself is completely inexplicable, and whose appearance depends on conditions that can be pointed out by causal science.The weathering of crystals and their mixing with other material elements, from which vegetable life grows again, is yet another phenomenon of the will.And so on to infinity, it is possible to trace the ever-existing matter and see now a force of nature, and now that force of nature acquires the right to dominate it, seeing that these forces inescapably hold this right to appear [into the world] exhibit its essence.The determination of this right, the point at which this right becomes valid in space and time, is pointed out by the law of causality, but the explanation based on this only stops here. "Force" itself is the phenomenon of will, and it is those forms that do not obey the law of sufficient reason, that is, it is groundless. "Force" is omnipresent outside all time, and seems to be constantly waiting for circumstances to arise in order to appear under these circumstances, so that, after displacing those forces that have hitherto dominated a given matter, able to possess that substance.All time exists only for the phenomenon of "force", for. "Force" by itself is meaningless.Some of the "forces" of chemical action may lie dormant for thousands of years in a substance, and are not liberated until they come into contact with reactants, at which point they manifest: but time is for this manifestation, not for the "forces" themselves. some.The metal discharge effect can be buried in copper and zinc for thousands of years, and copper, zinc and silver are put together without any problems; and once these three come into contact with each other under the necessary conditions, silver will inevitably turn into flames.Even in the organic realm we see a shriveled seed, which after three thousand years preserves the power dormant [in it], and finally, when favorable circumstances arise, become a plant again.

If as a result of this consideration we make clear the difference between a force of nature and all its phenomena; if we realize that force of nature is the will itself objectified at this fixed level; The multiplicity of phenomena belongs only to phenomena, and the law of causality only determines the position of individual phenomena in time and space; then we will realize the full truth and profound significance of Malebranch's theory of accidental causes.Malebranch expounds this doctrine in his Inquiry into Truth, especially in the third chapter of the second paragraph of the sixth book of the book and the exposition of this chapter in the appendix, comparing his theory with what I have here At a glance, it can be found that although the two theories are very different in the line of thought, they are completely consistent, and such a comparison is worth the hard work.Yes, Malebranch was completely confined by the prevailing creeds which his age had irresistibly imposed on him, yet in such a bondage, under such a burden, he was able to be so lucky and so rightly To find the truth, and to be good at unifying this truth with those creeds, at least in words; this is what I have to admire.

It turns out that the power of truth is unbelievable, and its longevity is also immeasurable.In all the dogmatic creeds of all ages and countries, even in the most promiscuous and absurd, we find many traces of truth; A strange mix, but always recognizable.So truth is like a plant that sprouts among the rocks, and yet grows towards the sun, twists and turns, stooped, pale, wronged,—and yet grows towards the sun. Malebranch is certainly right: every natural cause is an accidental cause, offering only the occasion, the occasion, for the manifestation of the one and indivisible will; and the will is all things in themselves. , whose progressive objectification is the entire visible world.Not the whole of the phenomenon, not the inner essence of the phenomenon, but only this appearance, this transformation into visible, here and now appearance and transformation is caused by a cause, and is dependent on a cause only in this sense.The inner essence of phenomena is will itself, to which the law of sufficient reason does not apply, and therefore also groundless.There is nothing in the world that has a reason for its fundamental, total existence, but only a reason why it is precisely here and now.Why a stone now exhibits gravity and now solidity depends on causes, on external actions, and can be explained by these causes or actions; but those properties themselves, which are the whole essence of the stone, The essence constituted by these attributes and expressed in the ways just mentioned, so the stone is such and such a thing at all, [why] it exists at all, these are wills without root but without ground "Visibility".So all the reasons are accidental.As we find this in ignorant nature, so it is also in the actions of men and animals where, instead of causes and spurs, motives determine when and where phenomena appear.For on these occasions, and in nature, there is manifested one and the same will, which differs greatly in its degree of manifestation, and is reproduced in every degree of phenomenon; According to the law, it in itself is independent of all this.Motivation does not determine a person's character, but only determines the appearance of this character, that is, determines action: only the external form of the life process, not its internal meaning and connotation.The latter two come from human character, and character is the direct expression of will, so they are groundless.Why this one is bad and that one is good does not depend on motives or external influences, such as precepts or preaching, but is simply inexplicable in this sense.But a villain is either showing himself bad in the little circle around him by petty injustices, cowardly tricks, and base mischief, or he is persecuting nations as a conqueror, and throwing the world into a miserable state. The abyss, which caused millions to bleed [sacrifices]; but these are the outward forms of his appearance, which are phenomenal, insubstantial, depending on the circumstances in which fate places him, by circumstances, External influences, motives are diverted, yet [one] can never explain his decision on these motives from these aspects, the decision comes from the will, and the phenomenon of this will is the man.On this point, wait for the fourth chapter.The manner in which character develops its character is quite comparable to the manner in which every object in ignorance of nature expresses its nature.Water, with its intrinsic properties, is always water.Whether the water reflects [the scenery] by the lake as a still lake, or the foam splashes pouring down from the rocks, or is shot up like a long line by man-made installations--these depend on external causes ; and either this or that is equally natural to water, but it behaves in one way or another according to the circumstances; it is in the same state of readiness for any [possible] condition , and in each case it remains true to its own character, always showing only that.In the same way the character of each individual will be revealed in all circumstances, but the resulting phenomena will depend on the individual circumstances.