Chapter 65 Book IV The World as Will Revisited §65

With all [our] previous examinations of human behavior we have prepared ourselves for this last one, and have made our [following] task much easier.Our task is to bring to abstract and philosophical clarity the true ethical meaning of the act, and to demonstrate it as a link in our thematic thought.This kind of ethical meaning is marked by the words good and evil in people's [daily] life, and this method can completely make people understand each other. Our philosophical writers today treat the two concepts of good and evil very strangely, as simple, that is, as concepts that cannot be further analyzed.But first of all I want to restore these two concepts to their original meaning, so that people will not be bound by a vague illusion and think that these two concepts contain more than they actually contain, that they I have already said everything that should be here.This is something I can do, because I myself have never found a hiding place behind the words beauty or truth before, and now I do not intend to find such a hiding place behind the word good in ethics either. So I added a word to the end of the word--this method seems to have a special effect today, and can be used to relieve troubles on many occasions--in order to make people believe that I am telling the truth with a dignified face. When I used the words "beauty", "beauty" and "goodness", I did not just use them to refer to three concepts that are far-fetched, abstract, and thus not rich in content, and have different sources and meanings.Whoever is acquainted with the literature of the day, and has to see a thousand times how every least thinking person believes, has only to utter those three words with a wide mouth and an enthusiastic goat's face, and he is What great wisdom has been said; then, after seeing these, although those three words originally denoted such a noble thing, now in fact, who does not think that it has become a nasty thing? ?

The concept of truth is explained in Chapter 5 of I, On the Law of Reason, from § 29 onwards.The content of the concept of beauty is only due to be elucidated for the first time in the third part of [the book].We shall now reduce the concept of the good [good] to its original meaning, and this can be done without much effort.The concept is basically relative, referring to the fitness of an object to a fixed requirement of the will.Everything, therefore, which suits the will, no matter in which of its own manifestations the will may be in itself, so long as it satisfies the purpose of the will, and no matter how different these things may be in other respects, is good. ] This concept to think.We therefore speak of good food, good roads, good weather, good weapons, good omens, etc.; ], and it can be exactly the opposite for another person.The concept of good [or good] is further divided into two classes, namely pleasant and beneficial [two classes]. —As for the opposite concept, if it refers to things that have no cognitive function, it is marked by the word bad; the less used and more abstract is the word evil, but they all refer to things that do not conform to the will. Everything you ask for this time.Like everything else that can be related to the will, people call good those who happen to be helpful, helpful, and friendly to the end desired by [oneself], in the same sense as other things are called good, and Always retains a relative meaning; for example, the popular saying: "This person is good to me, but not good to you" expresses this kind of relativity.But there are those who, by nature of their character, do not hinder at all, but promote the will-efforts of others, who are always helpful, kind-hearted, amiable, and benevolent, and who, because of their manner of conduct, affect the will of others There is such a relationship at all, so they are all called good people.As for the concept opposite to this, in the past hundred years or so, the German used to signify cognitive creatures (animals and humans) and non-cognitive things are different. The word [sign former].But in almost all other languages ​​there is no such distinction, and Greek, Latin, Italian, and English all use the word "bad" both for persons and for inanimate things; [of course] these persons Everything is opposed to a particular purpose of the will.Therefore, this investigation must start from the negative aspect of the good, and then turn to the positive aspect of the good, so that we can no longer discuss the so-called "action" in relation to others but in relation to the "doer" himself. The way good people behave. [At this time] especially endeavors shall be made to explain [in two respects], the purely objective respect which the act evidently arouses in other [minds], and the respect which it evidently arouses in him [in himself]. A special kind of satisfaction, since he even got both at the expense of another sacrifice.It is also necessary to explain the opposite of the two, and to explain the pain in the heart.For all the external benefits a bad heart brings to those who have it, a bad heart is always associated with inner pain.From this arose those systems of ethics, both philosophical and others dependent on religious dogma.These two systems of ethics are always trying to connect happiness and virtue somehow.The former approach is either to use the law of contradiction or the law of sufficient reason, that is, to equate virtue with happiness, or to make happiness a consequence of virtue.But this is all sophistry.The latter approach asserts that there is a world beyond what experience can possibly know [and thus connect happiness and virtue].On the contrary, according to our considerations, the inner nature of virtue would appear as an effort directed in the very opposite direction, rather than towards happiness: and happiness is happiness and life.

According to the above statement, goodness in its concept is the [goodness] of this to that, so any "goodness" is relative in nature.This is because the good has its essence only in its relation to the will to a desire.Accurately, the absolute good is a contradiction: both the highest good and the supreme good mean contradiction, that is, the final satisfaction of the will, after which no new desire appears; Satisfaction of a will that will never be shattered.Such things are inconceivable in the light of the considerations we have made heretofore in this fourth book.Just as time cannot have a beginning and an end, so the will cannot be stopped by any kind of satisfaction without wanting something anew.A lasting gratification which forever quiets the impulse of the will is something which the will has not; the will is the bucket of Thanaid.There is no supreme, absolute good for the will, but only a momentary good forever.At the same time, if people like, an "honorary post" can also be awarded to an old saying that is used and does not want to be completely lost, just like an honorary post is awarded to a retired official, that is, people can figuratively, figuratively The complete self-cancellation and negation of the will, the true desire for nothing, is called the absolute good, the supreme good, and is regarded as the only good medicine for curing serious illnesses, while all other "goods" are just some [palliative] palliatives, analgesics ; [for] only this silences the impulse of the will for ever, only this provides that satisfaction which cannot be broken any longer, only this has the effect of liberation from the world; and this is what we are now considering in our whole to be discussed at the end.In this sense, the Greek term for ultimate purpose, and the Latin term for goodness, are more relevant to the subject. ——That's all I've said about the words good and evil, so let's get down to business now.

We call a man evil if he is always inclined to do unrighteousness whenever he has the opportunity and no external force prevents him from doing so.According to our interpretation of injustice, this means that the person not only affirms the will to life to the extent that it appears in him, but in this affirmation goes so far as to negate the will that appears in other individuals.And this in turn is expressed in the fact that he calls upon the forces of others to serve him; also in his desire to destroy them if they oppose the tendencies of his will.High egoism is the final source here, and the essence of egoism has been analyzed before.Two things are immediately noticeable here: first, that in such a person there is revealed in such a person a will to life which is too strong, far beyond the affirmation of his own body; Confined to the principle of individuation, he clings rigidly to all the distinctions which this principle establishes between himself and all others; therefore he seeks only his own comfort, and is completely indifferent to that of others; He has nothing to do, and there is a gap between him and his existence.Yes, really speaking, he just sees other people as masks without any reality. ——So these two characteristics are the basic factors of bad character.

But the high intensity of desire is itself the immediate and permanent source of suffering.First, because all desires, as desires, arise from imperfection, that is, from pain. (So ​​the momentary silence of all desires is already a major factor in aesthetic pleasure. From the third chapter, we can also recall that this temporary silence of desires is that we, as the subject of knowledge, are pure and without will , [that is, the counterpart of the idea] will appear every time you concentrate on the contemplation of beauty.) Second, this is because the causal relationship of things makes most of the desires unsatisfied, and the will is blocked than the will is smooth. There are many more opportunities, Yu.Is intense and a lot of desire will also bring intense and a lot of pain.It turns out that all suffering is nothing but unsatisfied and thwarted desires.Even when the body is wounded or mutilated, bodily pain can [also] be pain simply because the body is nothing but the will itself which has become an object. ——It is for this reason, because a great deal of intense pain is inseparable from a great deal of intense desire, that the imprint of inner pain is stamped between the eyebrows of the great villain.Notwithstanding all apparent happiness, these people often look wretched when they are not enjoying themselves, or when they are not pretending to be.And out of this inner pain, out of the pain that is quite directly their essence, and finally even a joy that does not proceed from mere selfishness, but is not beneficial to oneself and is based solely on the pain of others, this is the real truth. vicious.Viciousness can further evolve into cruelty.As far as malice is concerned, the suffering of others is no longer a means to an end of one's own will, but an end in itself.The following is a more detailed explanation of this phenomenon: because man is a phenomenon of will illuminated by the clearest knowledge, he always takes the reality, the satisfaction of his will, and "knowledge" to point out to him, It is only possible to satisfy the contest of length.From this arises envy: every defect [of oneself] appears infinitely enhanced by the enjoyment of others, and [conversely] one's own is lightened by knowing that others suffer from the same defect.All the miseries which are common to all human beings and which are inseparable from human life do not trouble us very much, nor do the defects pertaining to climate or the whole country.Reminiscing about suffering greater than our own has a calming and analgesic effect, and seeing images of someone else's suffering makes our own less painful.Now if a person has an excessively violent will impulse, he wants to grab everything with fiery greed in order to quench the [hunger] thirst of egoism [insatiable demands], and at this time it is inevitable.He must experience that all contentment is only an appearance, that what is attained never fulfills the promise it made when we pursued it--the final tranquility of the mighty and stubborn impulse of the will, but in attaining [satisfaction ] Then it is only the wish that changes its form, and tormentes in another form; finally, if the wish has no other form, and the impulse of the will stops at itself without a recognized motive, and now A terrible sense of desolation and emptiness brings hopeless pain; and if out of all this the desire in the ordinary [violent] degree is only felt in a lesser degree, it produces only the ordinary degree. In another person, he is a phenomenon of will that has reached a markedly malevolent degree, which will inevitably produce a too strong inner pain, eternal restlessness, and incurable wound; then, he will seek indirectly. The consolation he is incapable of gaining directly is to assuage his own suffering by seeing the sight of another's suffering and at the same time seeing it as an expression of his power [at work].For him, the suffering of others is now an end in itself, a spectacle he can enjoy to his heart's content.This is how the real phenomenon of cruelty, the phenomenon of bloodthirsty, arises.This is not uncommon in history, as can be seen in emperors such as Nero and Domitian, the masters in Africa, and people like Robespierre.

The psychology of revenge has become similar to viciousness. It is to repay grievances instead of thinking about the future.Thinking about the future, that is the nature of punishment.Revenge is purely for what has happened and what has passed, and it is not for self-interest, not as a means but as an end, in order to "appreciate" the pain that people themselves inflict on their enemies.What makes vengeance different from mere malice, and which can be excused somewhat, is that vengeance has some semblance of justice; What is sanctioned by the collective, prescribed in advance and enforced by well-known rules, would be punishment, and would be justice.

To the pain already described, which springs from the same root as malice, from a very strong will, and is therefore inseparable from malice, we must now add a quite different and peculiar pain. Pain is linked with malice.This is the pain which is felt in any malice, whether it be of selfish simple injustice or of real malice; —Whoever, with regard to the contents of this fourth book before and after, and especially with regard to the truth already stated at the beginning of the book, says that life itself, as the reflection or mirror of the will, is always a sure possession of the will to life; — if the memory is still fresh, then he will find that, according to these considerations, a reproach of conscience can have no other meaning than the following; :—In this content one [again] divides into two parts, and these two parts have to be fully integrated and must be conceived as a completely unified one.

Although the veil of Maya is so closely veiled over the mind of the wicked man, that is to say, though the wicked man is so rigidly confined to the principle of individuation that he regards himself according to this principle as absolutely different from every other human being, the middle is divided by a gulf; and this knowledge, since it alone corresponds to his egoism, is the pillar of his egoism, so [again] it is he who grasps [holds] with all his might, just as "knowledge" is almost always He was bought by the will,——even so, there is still a kind of latent enlightenment wriggling in the deepest part of his consciousness.What I have realized is]: After all, such an order of things is only a phenomenon, but it is another matter entirely in terms of the ontology.That is to say, although time and space separate him from other individuals and the innumerable sufferings suffered by these people, and even from the sufferings suffered by him, showing them as things that have nothing to do with him; Regardless of the appearance and some of its forms, it is still the same will-to-live that manifests in all of them [those individuals], and this will-to-live here misidentifies itself and takes up its own weapon against itself.And when the will seeks increased happiness in one of its phenomena, it is in this way that it inflicts the greatest pain on some of its other phenomena; and he, the villain, is precisely the whole will [ himself], so he is not only the perpetrator, but also the victim.What separates him from the pain of his victim, and saves him [from suffering], is but a dream in the form of time and space, and if this dream is gone, then, as it is true, he must regard pain as The price to pay for the joy.And all the pain, which he thought was only possible pain, actually came to him as the will of life; because possibility and reality, the distance and nearness in time and space are only the cognition of the individual, and it is only through the individual. It is the principle of transformation that makes a difference; it is not so in ontology.This truth is expressed in mythology, that is, the truth expressed in reincarnation [the theory of reincarnation] by making it conform to the principle of sufficient reason; but it is the purest expression without any by-products. But in that vague and inconsolable pain.This pain is called a troubled conscience. —But the uneasiness of conscience arises besides this from a second and immediate "knowledge" which is closely related to the first, namely, from the knowledge that the will to life affirms it in the malevolent individual. The intensity of itself, so far beyond its individual phenomena, completely negates the same will manifested in other individuals.Therefore, the disgust and hatred that a villain has in his heart for his own behavior, which he has to hide from himself, apart from vaguely feeling the nihility and superficiality of the principle of individualization and the boundary between people and self established by it, At the same time, it includes the awareness of the intensity and violence of his own will; this intensity is what he uses to grasp life and to hold himself tightly to life.It is this life, its terrible side, that the villain sees in the pain of those he oppresses, and yet the villain is so closely intertwined with this pain that precisely because of this, then As a means for him to affirm his own will more fully is the cruelest thing initiated by himself.He realizes that he is a concentrated manifestation of the will to live, and feels how far he has fallen into life, and from this he feels how far into those countless sufferings that are essential to life; for life has infinite time and infinite space in order to abolish the distinction between possibility and reality, so that all pain that is now merely recognized by him becomes felt pain.It is true that the endless life of millions of years only exists in the concept, just like the whole past and the future; but the time with content, the form in which the will appears, is only "now".Time is always new to the individual: the individual feels himself forever new.It turns out that life cannot be separated from the will to live, and the form of life is only "now".Death is like the setting of the sun (forgive me for repeating the metaphor).The sun only appears to be swallowed up by night, but it is the source of all light, ever burning to bring new days to new worlds, always rising and always sinking.Both beginning and ending refer only to the individual, by means of time, by means of [the individual] The form of the phenomenon exists for representation.Outside of time there is only will, which is Kant's thing-in-itself, and its proper objectivity, which is Plato's Idea.Suicide therefore offers little relief: what every man desires in the deepest part of his being must be that too, and that is what every man is he desires. —So what pricks the conscience is the self-knowledge of one's own will and its intensity, in addition to the knowledge of mere feeling, of the superficiality and emptiness of the form of appearances that divide individuals .The life process weaves a portrait of the cognitive character, and the blueprint of this portrait is the cognitive character.The villain must have been amazed at the sight of this portrait, whether it had been woven in such gigantic outlines that the world could share with him a sense of abhorrence, or only in such delicate threads that a single Only he saw it, because it was he who had to do with the portrait.If character, so long as it does not deny itself, does not feel that it is independent of all time, that it remains unchanged through all time, then the past, as a mere phenomenon, may be If it is insignificant, it may not be able to disturb the conscience.

[However, this is impossible,] Therefore, things that have passed for a long time still have to weigh on the conscience.For example, the prayer: "Lord, do not let me be tempted" is [equal to] saying, "Let me not see what I am." —It is this renunciation or denial of the will which the wicked man reckons is far from him in the violence with which he affirms life, in the violence which appears to him from the pain he inflicts on others, [Giving up or denying the will to live] is the only possible release from the world and its sufferings.He sees how attached he is to this violence, how firmly he is bound to it.The pain he recognizes in others will not move him, he will simply fall into the hands of life and the pain he feels.Whether this can be destroyed to overcome the vehemence of his will remains to be seen.

This analysis of the meaning of evil and its inner nature, if taken as a mere feeling, that is, not as a definite abstract cognition, is the content of uneasiness of conscience; The goodness of the attribute, and, finally, the complete dispassion and holiness arising from it, after having considered it to the highest degree, acquire greater definiteness and completeness, because opposites always reciprocate. In terms of analysis, Spinoza said it very well: "The day reveals itself, and it also reveals the night."