From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



The unconscious has the predominant part in the 

 vital phenomena of the individual; in it is the essence 

 of life; it forms the organism and maintains it, repairs 

 internal and external injuries, and is the ultimate guide 

 of its movements. 



It plays an essential part in psychological phenomena. 

 It is the source of instincts, of intuition, of the aesthetic 

 sense, and of creative genius. 



Finally, the unconscious is the basis of ' supernormal 

 phenomenology,' which is a mere manifestation of its 

 divine power, independent of contingencies relating to 

 time, space, psychological, dynamic, and material repre- 

 sentations. 



For Von Hartmann, as for Schopenhauer, there is an 

 abyss between the unconscious and the conscious. 



The former is divine, and the latter purely human. 



Nevertheless, consciousness (when sufficiently 

 developed) permits us to pass judgment on the universe 

 and on life. And this judgment is not favourable. 

 As consciousness is both ephemeral and unproductive, 

 it cannot participate in the divine infinite. 



It suffers from a limitation without compensations 

 and without hope, from many painful contingencies, 

 more painful in proportion to its degree of development, 

 in individual existence. Its last resource would be self- 

 extinction; but perhaps even this sacrifice would be 

 useless, as the indestructible unconscious creator would 

 no doubt recommence another evolution destined to end 

 in the same conscious realisation with the same desolating 

 results. 







4. CRITICISMS OF THE SPECIFIC DISTINCTION BETWEEN 



THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS 



Two things strike one at the outset in the systems 

 of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, in the first place 

 the clarity of the reasoning and its quasi-scientific rigour; 



197 p 



