Chapter 64 Book IV The World as Will Revisited §64

But we shall now proceed from our non-mythological, but philosophical formulation of eternal justice to some related examinations of the ethical importance of conduct and of conscience, which is the simple "sensation" for eternal justice. "Acquainted. —At this point, however, I would also like to point out two peculiarities of human nature which will help to understand how every human being is at least vaguely conscious of the essence of eternal justice, of the will in all its Oneness and sameness in appearance; and upon this rests eternal justice. It has nothing to do with the purpose of the state's use of punishment, and the purpose that has been proved to be the original purpose of the criminal law. It happens to suffer equally, which pleases not only the presumably vengeful victims, but also the disinterested bystanders as well.I think that the [message] revealed here is nothing but the consciousness of eternal justice; but this consciousness is then misunderstood and falsified by an unpurified mind; for this mind is limited to the principle of individuation In it, it commits the problem of sublimating semantics, trying to demand from phenomena what only things in themselves have, and also fails to see to what extent the persecutor and the victim are essentially one [not two], and cannot see To the same essence is that which does not recognize itself in its own appearance, bears both pain and guilt, but demands to see pain also in the sin-bearer. ——Therefore, most people will ask for a person with a highly evil heart and at the same time an extraordinary energy far superior to human beings, a person who can inflict unspeakable disasters on millions of people, such as the one who conquered the world,— ——Many people have an evil heart, but it’s better to have other characteristics in this kind of person——, I say, most people will ask that such a person [someday] will be quality-controlled at a certain time and place The same pain to compensate for all those disasters [he caused].This is because most people do not realize how the tormentor and the tormented are one [not two]; they do not realize that the will to exist and live by them [both] is also the same one manifested in the former. will, and it is precisely through the former that the nature of this will is most clearly revealed; failing to realize that this will suffers as much in the oppressed as in the oppressor, and that as the consciousness of the oppressor becomes clearer and more distinct, the will becomes more definite. Intense, the oppressor correspondingly more painful. ——As for the more profound knowledge, which is no longer limited to the principle of individualization, and the knowledge from which all virtues and noble sentiments emerge, then there is no need for revenge. This is proved by Christian ethics. of.This kind of ethics simply does not allow any revenge for wrongs, but [only] is at the mercy of eternal justice, as if in the realm of things in themselves different from appearances. ("Revenge is my business, and I will take revenge, God said." Letters to the Romans, twelfth and nineteenth.)

There is a more striking, though rarer, feature of human nature.This characteristic not only reveals a kind of requirement—requiring to bring eternal justice into the scope of experience, that is, into the scope of individuation—but also implies a sense of consciousness, that is, the feeling that the will to life is to take oneself as we said earlier. The capital is acting out the grand tragicomedy, feeling that it is the same will that lives in all appearances.Here, I say, is such a peculiarity that we now and then see a man who is so deeply indignant at the great atrocities he can encounter, or merely witnesses, that he calmly, in revenge for the perpetrator of the crime, He did not hesitate to put his life on the line without hesitation.We may see such a man spying on a powerful persecutor for years, finally killing him, and then dying on the scaffold himself, as he foresees: even [this consequence] is often not what he intends. escaped, since his life was of value to him only as a means of vengeance. — There are examples of this especially among the Spaniards.If we take a closer look at that fanatical spirit of revenge, we shall find that this fanaticism is quite different from ordinary revenge.Ordinary hatred consists in assuaging one's own pain by seeing the pain one inflicts on one's enemy.We think that the purpose of vindictive mania is better called punishment than vengeance, because in this mania there is inherently the intention of impressing posterity by example; The purpose of selfishness is neither for the individual who takes revenge, because he is destroyed in revenge, nor for a society, because the society guarantees its safety by law.This punishment is enforced by individuals, not by the state, nor for the purpose of enforcing a law.Rather, it often refers to a crime that the State is unwilling or unable to punish, and to which the State does not agree.This indignation, which drives a man so far beyond all self-love, seems to me to arise from the deepest consciousness that he is the whole will to live itself.This will is manifest in all men and things, through all ages; therefore the most remote future belongs to this man as much as the immediate present.He cannot be indifferent to it.Having affirmed this will, he went on to demand that in the drama of his essence, such horrific crimes should not happen again, and to frighten by the example of revenge that no fortress can defend, and the fear of death can not stop. Live any future thugs.Here, although the will to life still affirms itself, it is no longer tied to individual phenomena, not to individuals, but embraces human ideas, to keep this rational phenomenon pure and free from the appalling and outrageous offense.It is a rare, meaningful, even sublime quality of character.Because of this characteristic, the individual sacrifices himself in the effort to make himself the right-hand man of eternal justice, but he still misses the true nature of "eternal justice".