Chapter 30 Part Three Revisiting the World as Appearance§ 30

representation independent of the principle of sufficient reason Plato's ideas object of art What is that which is everlasting instead of happening, forever changing and passing away and never really being? - Plato Now that we have examined in the second book the world seen in the first book as a mere representation, as an object for a subject, from the other side of the world, we have found that this other side is the will.Only will is that which the world is anything but appearances.Henceforth, on the basis of this knowledge, we call the world, whether taken as a whole or in parts of it, representation, the objectivity of the will.In this sense, the objectivity of representation or will means will that has become an object—the object is representation.Furthermore, we now remember that this objectification of the will has many but fixed degrees in which the essence of the will enters the representation, that is, appears as an object, with increasing clarity and completeness.So long as these degrees signify the original, unchanging forms and properties of a given species or of all natural bodies, organic and inorganic, the universal forces which reveal themselves according to the laws of nature, we shall, in Part II, Plato's ideas have been seen on those levels.All these Ideas taken together and exhibited themselves in countless individuals and individual units, the relation of the Idea to the individual is that of the individual's type to the copy of the Idea.This multiplicity of individuals is conceivable due to time, space, and its arising and passing away [impermanence] due to causality.In all the forms of time, space, and causality, we only recognize some different forms of the law of reason; but the law of reason is the highest principle of all finite things and all individuation.And the principle of sufficient reason is also the general form of representations when they enter this individual "knowledge."On the contrary, the idea does not enter into this highest principle, so that an idea can neither be called multiplicity nor change.The Idea is manifested in the individual, and the number of the individual is innumerable, and is constantly arising and passing away; but the Idea, as the same Idea, is unchanging; the principle of sufficient reason is also meaningless to it.However, since the principle of sufficient reason is everything to the subject: the form of "knowledge", as long as the subject is knowing as an individual, then these ideas will be completely outside the scope of this individual's cognition. Therefore, if these ideas are to become cognition object, this can only be done by eliminating the individuality in the knowing subject. We shall first proceed to explain this point in more detail hereafter.