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ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER OntheFourfoldRootofthePrincipleofSufficientReason andOtherWritings The purpose of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer is tooffertranslationsofthebestmodernGermaneditionsofSchopenhauer’s workinauniformformatsuitableforSchopenhauerscholars,togetherwith philosophicalintroductionsandfulleditorialapparatus. This volume of new translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will andRepresentation.InOntheFourfoldRoothetakestheprincipleofsufficient reason,whichstatesthatnothingiswithoutareasonwhyitis,andshowshow itcoversdifferentformsofexplanationorgroundthatpreviousphilosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wroteashisdoctoraldissertation,asanessentialpreliminarytoTheWorldas WillandRepresentation.OnWillinNatureexaminescontemporaryscientific findingsinsearchofcorroborationofhisthesisthatprocessesinnatureare allaspeciesofstrivingtowardsends;andOnVisionandColoursdefendsan anti-NewtonianaccountofcolourperceptioninfluencedbyGoethe’sfamous colourtheory.ThisisthefirstEnglisheditiontoprovideextensiveeditorial notesonthedifferentpublishedversionsoftheseworks. david e. cartwright is a Professor of Philosophy and Religious StudiesandthechairoftheDepartmentofPhilosophyandReligiousStudies attheUniversityofWisconsin–Whitewater.Hehasnumerouspublications onnineteenth-centuryGermanphilosophyandhaseditedandtranslateda numberofSchopenhauer’sbooks,mostrecentlywithEdwardE.Erdmann, TheTwoFundamentalProblemsofEthics(2010);heistheauthorofSchopen- hauer:ABiography(2010). edward e. erdmann isanemeritusfacultymemberoftheUniversity ofWisconsin–Whitewaterwithascholarlybackgroundinclassicalandearly modernrhetoricaltheory.Hewritesregularlyonsubjectsinagricultureand haseditedGermantranslationsoftextbooksandscientificreportsonorganic agriculture. christopher janaway isProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversity of Southampton. He has published widely on nineteenth-centuryGerman philosophy,includingSelfandWorldinSchopenhauer’sPhilosophy(1989),The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (1999), Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction (2002), and Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche’s Genealogy (2007). He is General Editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer,inwhichhehastranslatedTheTwoFundamentalProblemsof Ethicsandco-translatedTheWorldasWillandRepresentation,Volume1. THE CAMBRIDGE EDITION OF THE WORKS OF SCHOPENHAUER general editor ChristopherJanaway Titlesinthisseries: TheTwoFundamentalProblemsofEthics translatedandeditedbyChristopherJanaway TheWorldasWillandRepresentation:Volume1 translatedandeditedbyJudithNorman,AlistairWelchman andChristopherJanawaywithanIntroduction byChristopherJanaway OntheFourfoldRootofthePrincipleofSufficientReasonandOtherWritings translatedandeditedbyDavidE.Cartwright,EdwardE.Erdmannand ChristopherJanawaywithanIntroductionbyDavidE.Cartwright andEdwardE.Erdmann ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason On Vision and Colours On Will in Nature translated and edited by DAVID E. CARTWRIGHT EDWARD E. ERDMANN CHRISTOPHER JANAWAY withanIntroductionby DAVID E. CARTWRIGHT EDWARD E. ERDMANN cambridge university press Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown, Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity CambridgeUniversityPress TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb28ru,UK PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521872713 (cid:2)C DavidE.Cartwright,EdwardE.ErdmannandChristopherJanaway2012 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2012 PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Schopenhauer,Arthur,1788–1860. [Works.Selections.English.2012] Onthefourfoldrootoftheprincipleofsufficientreason;Onvisionandcolours;Onwillinnature/ ArthurSchopenhauer;editedandtranslatedbyDavidE.Cartwright,EdwardE.Erdmann,and ChristopherJanaway;withanintroductionbyDavidE.CartwrightandEdwardE.Erdmann. pages cm.–(TheCambridgeeditionoftheworksofSchopenhauer;volume4) Includesindex. isbn978-0-521-87271-3 I.Cartwright,DavidE. II.Erdmann,EdwardE. III.Janaway,Christopher. IV.Schopenhauer, Arthur,1788–1860.U¨berdievierfacheWurzeldesSatzesvomzureichendenGrunde.English. V.Schopenhauer,Arthur,1788–1860.UeberdasSehnunddieFarben.English. VI.Schopenhauer, Arthur,1788–1860.U¨berdenWilleninderNatur.English. VII.Title. b3108.c37 2012 193–dc23 2012018809 isbn978-0-521-87271-3Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. Contents Generaleditor’spreface pagevii Editorialnotesandreferences x Introduction xii Notesontextandtranslation lv Chronology lx Bibliography lxiii CollationofthetwoeditionsofOntheFourfoldRoot lxvii 1 on the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason 1 Preface 3 FirstChapter: Introduction 7 SecondChapter: Surveyofwhatismostimportantin previousteachingsabouttheprincipleofsufficientreason 11 ThirdChapter: Inadequacyofpreviousaccountsandsketch ofanewone 29 FourthChapter: Onthefirstclassofobjectsforthesubject andtheformoftheprincipleofsufficientreasongoverning init 33 FifthChapter: Onthesecondclassofobjectsforthesubject andtheformoftheprincipleofsufficientreasongoverning init 93 SixthChapter: Onthethirdclassofobjectsforthesubjectand theformoftheprincipleofsufficientreasongoverninginit 123 v vi Contents SeventhChapter: Onthefourthclassofobjectsforthesubject andtheformoftheprincipleofsufficientreasongoverning init 133 EighthChapter: Generalremarksandresults 143 Variantsindifferenteditions 153 2 on vision and colours 199 Prefacetothesecondedition 201 Introduction 207 FirstChapter: Onvision 213 SecondChapter: Oncolours 225 Variantsindifferenteditions 288 3 on will in nature 303 Preface 305 Introduction 323 Physiologyandpathology 331 Comparativeanatomy 351 Plantphysiology 371 Physicalastronomy 389 Linguistics 401 Animalmagnetismandmagic 405 Sinology 431 Referencetoethics 441 Conclusion 447 Variantsindifferenteditions 449 Glossaryofnames 461 Index 477 General editor’s preface Schopenhauerisoneofthegreatoriginalwritersofthenineteenthcentury, and a unique voice in the history of thought. His central concept of the willleadshimtoregardhumanbeingsasstrivingirrationallyandsuffering in a world that has no purpose, a condition redeemed by the elevation of aesthetic consciousness and finally overcome by the will’s self-denial and a mystical vision of the self as one with the world as a whole. He is in some ways the most progressive post-Kantian, an atheist with profound ideasaboutthehumanessenceandthemeaningofexistencewhichpoint forwardtoNietzsche,Freud,andexistentialism.Hewasalsothefirstmajor WesternthinkertoseekasynthesiswithEasternthought.Yetatthesame time he undertakes an ambitious global metaphysics of a conservative, moreorlesspre-Kantiankind,andisdrivenbyaPlatonicvisionofescape fromempiricalrealityintoarealmofhigherknowledge. Schopenhauer was born in 1788, and by 1809 had gone against his family’sexpectationsofacareerasamerchantandembarkedonauniversity career. He completed his doctoral dissertation On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in 1813, then spent several years in intensive preparation of what became the major work of his life, The World as Will and Representation, which was published at the end of 1818, with 1819 on the title page. Shortly afterwards his academic career suffered a setback when his only attempt at a lecture course ended in failure. Thereafter Schopenhauer adopted a stance of intellectual self-sufficiency andantagonismtowardsuniversityphilosophy,forwhichhewasrepaidby a singular lack of reaction to his writings. In 1836 he published On Will in Nature, an attempt to corroborate his metaphysics with findings from the sciences, and in 1841 two self-standing essays on free will and moral philosophy, entitled The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics. A large supplementary second volume to The World as Will and Representation appeared in 1844, accompanied by a revised version of the original which nowappearedasVolume1;thenin1851anothertwo-volumework,Parerga vii viii Generaleditor’spreface andParalipomena,acollectionofessaysandobservations.Onlyinthe1850s didseriousinterestinSchopenhauer’sphilosophybegin,withafavourable review appearing in an English journal and a few European universities offering courses on his work. In this final decade before his death in 1860hepublishedathirdeditionofTheWorldasWillandRepresentation and a second edition of The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics. After Schopenhauer’s death his follower Julius Frauensta¨dt produced the first six-volume edition of his works in 1873, providing the basis for many subsequent German editions up to the Sa¨mtliche Werke edited by Arthur Hu¨bscher, which we use as the basis for our translations in the present edition. ThoughSchopenhauer’slifeandthegenesisofhisphilosophybelongto theearlypartofthenineteenthcentury,itisthelatterhalfofthecentury that provides the context for his widespread reception and influence. In 1877 he was described by Wilhelm Wundt as ‘the born leader of non- academic philosophy in Germany’, and in that period many artists and intellectuals, prominent among them Richard Wagner, worked under the influenceofhisworks.Thesinglemostimportantphilosophicalinfluence wasonNietzsche,whowasincriticaldialoguethroughouthiscareerwith his‘greatteacherSchopenhauer’.Butmanyaspectsoftheperiodresonate with Schopenhauer’s aesthetic theory, his pessimism, his championing of theUpanishadsandBuddhism,andhistheoryoftheselfandtheworldas embodiedstriving. Over the last three decades interest in Schopenhauer in the English- speaking world has been growing again, with a good number of mono- graphs, translations, and collections of articles appearing, where before therewereveryfew.Moregeneraltrendsinthestudyofthehistoryofphi- losophyhaveplayedaparthere.Therehasrecentlybeenadramaticrisein philosophicalinterestintheperiodthatimmediatelyfollowsKant(includ- ing the German Idealists and Romanticism), and the greater centrality now accorded to Nietzsche’s philosophy has provided further motivation forattendingtoSchopenhauer.Yetuntilnowtherehasbeennocomplete English edition of his works. The present six-volume series of Schopen- hauer’s published works aims to provide an up-to-date, reliable English translationthatreflectstheliterarystyleoftheoriginalwhilemaintaining linguisticaccuracyandconsistencyoverhisphilosophicalvocabulary. Almost all the English translations of Schopenhauer in use until now, published though they are by several different publishers, stem from a single translator, the remarkable E. F. J. Payne. These translations, which were done in the 1950s and 1960s, have stood the test of time quite well
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