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Lot 831
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788-1860) German philosopher. Autograph Manuscript Signed, being a draft for the 6th chapter of the second volume of Schopenhauer's last work, "Parerga and Pralipomena," 12pp (3 double folio sheets), in German, n.p., n.d. (1851). Written on one column of each page, with extensive corrections, deletions and insertions written in the other column; the entire first page has numerous marked-out lines through it but is still legible. Light toning, else fine. The manuscript is housed in a custom-made, red leather case with gold lettering and decorative border.
Schopenhauer attempts to determine why the planets are in the locations where they appear, why they have the velocity of revolution that they retain, and why they have a given particular density. He discusses these questions and uses the theories of Newton, Keppler, and Kant to corroborate his conclusions. In particular, he theorizes that the sun occupied the entire solar system, rotating slowly (according to Keppler's laws) and also contracting in size (and increasing in rotational velocity according to Keppler's laws). As it reached a critical size it would release material at its surface, leaving that material as a revolving planet with a velocity of revolution equal to the rotation of the sun at that time. He even shows that the inclination of the plane of revolution of each planet approaches the inclination of the plane of revolution of the sun the closer one gets to the sun. He discusses the existence or non-existence of these phenomena based on the existence of a consciousness to record them.
A brief excerpt: "Generally speaking, it is not entirely safe to infer an absence of life from a lack of air and water….The phenomenon of animal life might easily be brought by means other than respiration and blood circulation; for the essential point of all life is simply the constant change of matter with permanence of form. Of course, we can imagine this as happening only through the medium of what is fluid and vaporous. But matter generally is the mere visibility of the will which, however, everywhere aims at the enhancement step by step of its phenomenal appearance. The forms, ways and means of attaining this may be very varied. On the other hand, it should again be borne in mind that most probably the chemical elements not only on the moon, but also on all the planets, are the same as those on the earlth. For the whole system has been evolved from the same primordial luminous nebula to which the present once extended. This certainly permits one to surmise a similarity also of the higher phenomena of the will."
After numerous observations and considerations, Schopenhauer writes: "Thus, on the one hand, it must be admitted that all those physical, cosmogonical, chemical, and geological events existed even before the appearance of a consciousness and so outside this since, as conditions, they were necessarily bound to precede such an appearance by a long interval of time. Yet, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that, as those events first appear in and through the forms of a consciousness, they are absolutely nothing outside it and are not even conveivable. In any case, it might be said that, by virutue of its forms, consciousness is the condition of the physical events in question, but that again these condition it by virtue of their matter. At bottom, however all those events that cosmogony and geology urge us to assume as having occurred long before the existence of any knowing creature are themselves only a translation into the language of our intuitively perceiving intellect from the essence-in-itself of things which to it is incomprehensible. For those events have never had an existence-in-itself; any more than have present events. But with the aid of the principles a priori of all possible experience and following a few empirical data, the regressus leads back to them; it is itself; however, only the concatenation of a series of mere phenomena that have no absolute existence. Therefore even in their empirical existence, in spite of all the mechanical accuracy and mathematical precision of the determination of their appearance, those events still always retain an obscure and enigmatical core, like an inscrutable mystery lurking in the background. Thus we see it in the natural forces that manifest themselves in those events, in the primordial matter that bears these, and in the necessarily beginningless and hence incomprehensible existence of such forces. to explain this obscure and enigmatical core on the empirical path is impossible. Here, then, metaphysics must appear which, in the will in our own true nature, makes us acquainted wiith the kernel and core of all things. In this sense, Kant has also said that 'the primary sources of the effects of nature must obviously be dealt with entirely by metaphysics.' And so from the standpoint which we are here considering and it is that of metaphysics, the physical explanation of the world which is acquired by such an expenditure of effort and ingenuity appears to be inadequate…".
Estimated Value $75,000 - 10,000.
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