THE WORLD AS WILL AND IDEA by ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER. VOLUME I CONTAINING FOUR BOOKS. CONTENTS FIRST BOOK: THE WORLD AS IDEA FIRST ASPECT. THE IDEA SUBOBDI NATF. P TO THE PRINCIPLE or SUFFICIENT REASON THE OBJECT OF EXPERIENCE AND SCIENCE , SECOND BOOK: THE WORLD AS WILL FIRST ASPECT. THE OBJECTIFICATIO OF THE WILL. THIRD BOOK: THE WORLD AS IDEA SECOND ASPECT. THE IDEA INDEPENDENT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON THE PLATONIC IDEA THE OBJECT OF ART 217. FOURTH BOOK: THE WORLD AS WILL SECOND ASPECT. AFTER THE ATTAINMENT OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. ASSERTION AND DENIAL OF THE WILL TO LIVE 347. TRANSLATORS PREFACE: THE style of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung is sometimes loose and involved, as is so often the case in German philosophical treatises. The translation of the book has consequently been a matter of no little diffi culty. It was found that extensive alteration of the long and occasionally involved sentences, however likely to prove conducive to a satisfactory English style, tended not only to obliterate the form of the original but even to imperil the meaning. Where a choice has had to be made, the alternative of a somewhat slavish adherence to Schopenhauers ipsissima verba has accordingly been pre ferred to that of inaccuracy. The result is a piece of work which leaves much to be desired, but which has yet consistently sought to reproduce faithfully the spirit as well as the letter of the original. As regards the rendering of the technical terms about which there has been so much controversy, the equiva lents used have only been adopted after careful consider ation of their meaning in the theory of knowledge. For example, Vorstellung has been rendered by idea, in preference to representation, which is neither accurate, intelligible, nor elegant. Idee, is translated by the same word, but spelled with a capital, Idea. Again, Anschauung has been rendered according to the con text, either by perception simply, or by intuition or perception 1 Notwithstanding statements to the contrary in the text, the book is probably quite intelligible in itself, apart from, the treatise On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. It has, however, been considered desirable to add an abstract of the latter work in an appendix to the third volume of this translation. To point out here how this book must be read in order to be thoroughly understood. By means of it I only intend to impart a single thought. Yet, not with standing all my endeavours, I could find no shorter way of imparting it than this whole book. I hold this thought to be that which has very long been sought for under the name of philosophy, and the discovery of which is therefore regarded by those who are familiar with history as quite as impossible as the discovery of the philosophers stone. I. According as we consider the different aspects of this one thought which I am about to impart, it exhibits itself as that which we call metaphysics, that which we call ethics and that which we call aesthetics and cer tainly it must be all this if it is what i Have already acknowledged I take it to be. A system of thought must always have an architectonic connection or coherence, that is, a connection in which one part always supports the other, though the latter does not support the former, in which ultimately the foundation supports all the rest without being supported by it, and the apex is supported without supporting. On the other hand, a single thought, however comprehensive it may be, must preserve the most perfect unity...