There is no point: nothing lasting and concrete can be achieved without the spirit constantly turning towards it. Even affliction itself is only consolidated by habit. And just as it grows to monstrosity when regularly fed, so does its opposite when cultivated with courage and constancy. Life always ends up tending towards what repetition has clamored for it to become.
Tag: philosophy
An Authentic Philosopher
The impression we get after going through these almost six hundred pages of Schopenhauer’s biography signed by David Cartwright is just one: Schopenhauer is an authentic philosopher. This can be seen because, for anyone familiar with Schopenhauer’s work, his biography holds no surprises, which is tantamount to saying that his life was consistent with his philosophy or, rather, that his philosophy was real. To measure the difficulty, and perhaps the greatness of this feat, it is enough to compare it to the abundant miseries described by Paul Johnson in the lives of his intellectuals. In Schopenhauer, we see a personality engraved in every act, in every reaction; we see a man who, despite what can be said about him, neither betrayed nor falsified himself. Such integrity, which is extremely rare, deserves the highest recognition.
It Is Hard to Find Any Anguish…
On closer inspection, it is hard to find any anguish that does not stem from a choice, past or present. This alone would be enough to awaken in the mind the certainty that it largely traces its destiny, and certainly reaps the fruits of what it has sown. If it does not recognize this, it is because it has not matured enough to take charge of its own decisions, and until it does, it will remain in a state of imaginary submission that will add to the evils of anguish those of ignorance.
The Self-Respecting Intellectual Must…
The self-respecting intellectual must not only have as a starting point, but also as a constant notion, that his life is a spark in a world that has already existed and will continue to exist. Without this, one is easily swallowed up by a vanity that is ultimately laughable. And when we see how many modern intellectuals fall for this primal illusion, when we see how shameless self-love has become, we see a detachment from reality that prehistoric man could never allow himself, and even for animals, allowing it would mean extinction.