From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



that here that which knows and that which is known 

 coincide.' 



Will is the sole thing which really exists. It is the 

 Divine Absolute. It is one, indestructible, eternal, 

 outside Space and Time. It implies neither individual- 

 isation, nor beginning, nor end, nor origin, nor 

 annihilation. 



Will, in objectifying itself produces the diverse and 

 innumerable appearances of things. ' In the multiplicity 

 of phenomena which fill the world, which co-exist or 

 succeed one another as the succession of events, it is 

 Will only that is manifested. All these phenomena do 

 but make it visible and objective; it remains immovable 

 in the midst of all these variations. It is the Thing in 

 Itself; and, to take the words of Kant, every object is 

 manifestation and phenomenon.' 1 



Will is primitively and essentially unconscious. It 

 needs no motives for action. We see it active in animals; 

 active without any kind of knowledge, under the im- 

 pulsion of blind instinct. In man, Will is unconscious 

 in all the organic functions, indigestion, secretion, 

 growth, reproduction, and all vital processes. * It is 

 not only the actions of the body, it is the whole body 

 itself which is the phenomenal expression of Will, it is Will 

 objectified and become concrete; therefore everything 

 which happens in it must have emerged from Will; and 

 here, however, this will is not guided by consciousness 

 nor regulated by motives; it acts blindly . . .' 



Will shows itself as unconscious in the vast majority 

 of its representations; in the whole inorganic world, in 

 the plant-world, and in nearly the whole animal world. 



That which we call consciousness has nothing in 

 itself of an essential nature. It does not belong insepar- 

 ably to will. It is but a temporary realisation, ephemeral 

 and vain. 



1 The World as Will and Representation. 

 IQI 



