Chapter 56 Book IV The World as Will Revisited §56

This freedom, this omnipotence,—the entire visible world, that is, its phenomena, exists as its expression and reflection, and develops according to the laws brought about by the form of knowledge,— —Now in its most perfect appearance, when it has acquired a complete and proper awareness of its own nature, it can reproduce itself, that is to say, it appears [in two ways], or it thinks The highest peak of maturity and self-awareness still desires what it has blindly and unconsciously desired, so cognition is here still always its motive, individually or as a whole; or vice versa. As soon as awareness becomes its tranquilizer, it calms down and cancels all desires.Retting refers to the affirmation and negation of the will to life that was mentioned in general terms above. This kind of affirmation or negation, as far as the transformation of the individual is concerned, only corrects the general expression of will and does not correct individual will expressions, and only corrects and does not destroy the development of character. , nor in individual acts, but either because of the intensification of the preceding whole pattern of behavior, or, conversely, by the cancellation of these Those highest norms which are freely adopted upon recognition. —To formulate all this more clearly, i.e. [explaining] the main task of the last chapter, we are now much easier and more prepared, thanks to intervening considerations of freedom, necessity, character, etc. .It will be easier and more prepared after we have postponed the task again, and have first examined life itself, which is the great question.And we shall consider life itself in such a way that we shall strive to know in general terms the will itself which is at all times the innermost essence of life, and what will be the result of its affirmation?In what manner and to what extent must this satisfy the will?How can the will be satisfied?In a word, what should the situation of the will in its own world, which belongs to it at any rate, be regarded in general and essentially?

First of all I would like people to recall here the survey with which we conclude the second part.The question raised there concerning the aim and purpose of the will prompts us to conclude Part II with that examination.What was then before us was not the answer to this question, but how the will, at all levels of its appearance, from the lowest to the highest, is utterly devoid of a final aim and purpose; Struggle is its only essence; how no attained goal can end it, and therefore struggle can have no final satisfaction, can be checked only by obstacles, and is itself infinite.This is what we have seen in the simplest natural phenomenon, gravity.Gravity keeps pushing towards an infinite center, even if the whole universe has been shrunk into a ball, it will not stop, and reaching this center will be the destruction of gravity and matter.This is also what we see in other simple natural phenomena: the solid always struggles towards the liquid state, either by melting or by dissolution.Only in the liquid state can the original chemical properties of the solid be free, because solidity is the prison of these properties, and these properties are closed in this prison by the low temperature.The liquid is always struggling to the gaseous state. As long as all kinds of pressure are removed, the transformation [liquid state to gaseous state] will occur immediately. There is no object without affinity, that is, there is no tendency to struggle, that is, Jacob Pimm will Said: no desire and greed.Electricity is endlessly conducting its inner self-differentiation, although the mass of the earth swallows this action.As long as the power supply metal pillar is still active, chemical power generation is also a self-differentiation and neutralization function that repeats without purpose.The existence of plants is also such an endless, insatiable struggle, a non-stop impulse, through successive ascending forms until the seed as the end is again the [new] beginning; A goal, nowhere has final satisfaction, nowhere has a rest.At the same time we shall recall from the second book that various forces of nature and forms of organic matter are everywhere competing with each other for matter.These natural forces and forms of organic matter both have to appear in matter, so that what the one occupies can only be taken from the other, and this always maintains a life-and-death struggle.The chief thing to arise from this struggle is a resistance that everywhere hinders the struggle that constitutes the innermost essence of everything, makes it vainly impulsive without being able to escape from its own essence, and tortures itself until a phenomenon disappears. Another phenomenon greedily grabs the status and substance of the previous phenomenon.

We have long identified the struggle that constitutes the in-itself and inner core of each thing with that which expresses itself in us most clearly and in the radiance of the fullest consciousness, called will.We then call suffering, when the will is hindered by an obstacle that stands between it and its immediate aim.On the contrary, the achievement of the will to its ends is called contentment, well-being, happiness.We may also apply these names to phenomena of a lesser degree, but essentially the same, in the Unconscious.We see these phenomena all too often without suffering, without lasting happiness.It turns out that all pursuit and struggles are caused by defects and dissatisfaction with one's own situation; so every day of unsatisfied will be a day of pain.Moreover, no satisfaction is lasting, and each satisfaction is just the starting point of a new pursuit.The struggle we see is everywhere multiplied, everywhere in struggle; so as long as it exists, the struggle will always be seen as suffering.Pursuing struggle has no final goal, so suffering is also immeasurable and endless.

This [situation], which can only be discovered with great effort by intensive attention in the world of unknowing nature, is clearly before us in the world of knowing nature, in the life of animals, and it is easy to point out. It's often painful too.But we do not stop at this intermediate stage [of the animal kingdom] but immediately turn elsewhere, to the life of man.In human life, all of the above are illuminated by the clearest understanding, and therefore seen most clearly.It turns out that as the phenomenon of the will becomes more and more perfect, the pain becomes more and more pronounced.In plants there is no sensuality, and therefore no pain [sense].The lowest animals such as trichomonas and radiant animals can have a very weak pain [sense].Even insects have a limited capacity for sensation and pain.These faculties do not appear to a higher degree until the vertebrates have a complete nervous system: and the more developed the intellect, the higher the degree of [painful].Therefore, as the understanding becomes clearer and the consciousness stronger, the pain also increases, which is a direct ratio.When it comes to human beings, this kind of pain has reached the highest level; and the higher a person's intelligence and clearer understanding, the more painful it will be.Those who are gifted suffer the most.I understand and quote Kochlert's words in this sense, that is, in terms of the degree of cognition rather than pure abstract knowledge. He said: "Whoever increases in knowledge is suffering. increase.” ——The philosopher-painter or the painter-philosopher Dickbein once cleverly expressed the precise proportional relationship between the degree of consciousness and the degree of pain in one of his paintings in an intuitive and easy-to-know image.The upper half of the picture depicts some women, because their children have been taken away, each in a group, expressing the deep pain, anxiety and despair of a loving mother in various gestures.The second half, in exactly the same layout and arrangement, again shows some ewes being taken from their lambs.Therefore, every head, every posture of the human being in the upper half is contrasted with the heads and postures of animals with similar modalities in the lower half.In this way, people can clearly see the relationship between the possible pain in the animal's vague consciousness and the great trauma [suffered]; sex is possible.

Therefore, we have to examine the inner and essential destiny of the will in the existence of human beings.Anyone will readily see this fate of the will also in animal life.But dimmer, and in different degrees; and there is also ample proof from the suffering animal kingdom how all life is essentially suffering.