From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



When, conformably to the palingenesis of which 

 Schopenhauer speaks, it builds up another living per- 

 sonality, it brings to the latter all its permanent gains, 

 and is further enriched by those of the new objectification. 



It is thus that the will, originally unconscious, 

 becomes a conscious will. 



It is curious to note that Schelling and Hegel, whose 

 systems preceded those of Schopenhauer and von 

 Hartmann, but are much less precise, had nevertheless 

 declared this progress from the unconscious to the 

 conscious and had drawn idealist and optimist conclusions 

 from it. The metaphysics of the two last-named 

 philosophers though more precise and better supported 

 from the scientific point of view, show an unfortunate 

 regression regarded from the idealist standpoint. 



Schelling's universe is the result of an ' activity ' 

 essentially unconscious. This activity becomes at least 

 partially self-conscious in man. 



For Hegel the essential unconscious activity, how- 

 ever, possesses some kind of reason. The creation which 

 it brings into existence is rational, and we may find 

 in evolution and the progress it implies, some 

 reasonable finality. Thus reason gradually grows 

 into consciousness. Evolution is the means which 

 the universal and creative reason uses to acquire self- 

 consciousness. 



No positive objection can be taken to this concept, 

 but that does not suffice for its acceptance ; it is necessary 

 to co-ordinate it with facts. 



In the light of the new facts the errors, the contra- 

 dictions, and the lacunae, as well as the heartrending 

 pessimism, all disappear. These new facts and the 

 inferences they carry with them, allow us to replace the 

 Philosophy of the Unconscious which, though marred 

 by these errors and omissions, is a truly great work of 

 genius, by another, similar indeed in its premises and 

 its essence, but leading by a different development to 



TOO 



