Philosophy 422 ADM

Reaction to 7 September 1992

Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer describes genius as what comes when man shrugs off his will
and is “no longer the individual,” but instead “only the pure subject of
knowledge” (S., 198). Until a man is able to release knowledge from his
will, he is merely at the verge of genius, and finds himself at an
uncomfortable crossroads, because he likes very much to learn, but still
occasionally will lament, “It is of no use to me”, and he will be unable
to find ease or knowledge in solitude. The world, the experience of
living, is itself knowledge, and the pre-genius must learn this and learn
that there is no need for a companion or intermediary in the relationship
of man and knowledge.
I would like somehow to build Nietzsche’s conception of the
Apollinian and the Dionysian into this Schopenhauerian notion, and I
think the dream experience could offer the kind of genius Schopenhauer
discusses. Conrad wrote that we live as we dream: alone. And
Schopenhauer seems to suggest that we live as we learn, and therefore we
can learn alone. Dreams bring knowledge directly to the dreamer, free of
will, free of intermediary, and they can deliver knowledge without
corruption or adulteration, and seemingly without perspective. They are,
then, objective representations of reality, and dreams seen through the
filter of sleep could even be said to be more real than the original
experience that inspired the dreams.
The difficulty of matching these two ideas originates in trying to
blend Nietzsche’s “It is a dream! I will dream on!” with Schopenhauer’s
surrendering of the will to knowledge. One could argue that Nietzsche’s
exalted declaration in a way is a surrender to the new reality, the new
knowledge that is the dream, and the willingness to explore it is the
flip side of the unwillingness to return to waking reality and the
problems of will and knowledge that conscious reality brings.