New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-02
Ill.
NEGLECT AND A NEW HEARING.

NEGLECT AND A NEW HEARING.
Now. in general. men will not turn to such a
philosophy of Illusion until they find them
selves In the midst Of problems for which there
is no solution. Schopenhauer grew up In So
ciety that bewildered by the Napoleonic
upheaval His philosophy in It's most unpeas-
ant phases is Just a photograph Of the dire con-
fusion, the unrest the hopeless establishment
Of world whose cherished traditions had all
been overturned But he wrote for a genera
ton which had settled down comfortably
among its ruins. Apparently. he wrote in vain.
The people did not foresee any trouble and
they were too weary of the past to for
anything but rest. But as soon as things began
to fall into confusion again. when the National
idea began to spread in Germany, when every
body found that democracy had its draw
backs. that bureaucracy like that OF old Prus-
STA a narrow and rksome thing, when
the SNUG perfection Of Hegels dalectic
which Is so beautifully rational when everything
goes we'll and profoundly irritating when
chaos comes. ceased to be read. then the world
called for new edition Of Schopenhauer and
read 1t. "Schopenhauer's philosophy" says Pro-
fessOr Caldwell really began to take hold of
the minds of only when they were to
great extent unable to reckon with the world
and with the problems of their time" In such
a time mere intellectually is of small ac-
count, and the philosopher who seems to have
overthrow mind as the controller Of the world,
and gathered all the unknown forces and blind
impulses Of life into a single handy phrase
the will to live" gets an attentive hearing.
But something in particular had happened in
those years while Schopenhauers philosophy
lay almost unheeded. That was the rise of mod
biology. Schopenhauer was one Of the first
among NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. to the drift of
thought and observation That universal blind
will which he had asserted we'll adapted
to the theory of Lamarci,. Against the intel
ectualism of all the older philosophers. here
was science itself arranging all life in an order
of development The whole realm OF nature was
a striving TO be, will to live manifested in
all the things that grow, whether mineral. veg
etable. or animal. Thus. az Professor Weber
points out in his history of philosophy so well
translated by Professor Thllly Schopenhauer
made out Will to be the producer and not the
product Of organization. He thus rid himself
once for all Of the notion OF design In the
world, and laid the basis of a metaphysic
actly suited to the favored phrases of modern
science about natural selection, Survival of the
Tittest and so on yet without quite abandoning
his relationship with Kant. There is. after all.
something mental about the word will" 1t
is not as far away from thought" which the
older philosophers chung to, as the force
serted by the downright materialists. But the
difference is only in the associations of the two
words This WILL" as Professor Weber says.
(which strives exclusively for existence, differs
neither in principle in fact from the force
of the materiaists." But in the confusion
of his thinking, Schopenhauer marked the
transition from Kant to Darwin. Whether he
accurately interpreted it or not. he was thor
oughly aware of the revolution which in
progress. and this happened because. in spite
of the transcendent alism in which he had been
trained he aimed TO see the world just as it u.s.
and this is why scientific men. remarks Pro-
fessor Caldwell. "often agree with his philoso-
ply, while philosophers do not"