Schopenhauer's Encounter with Indian Thought: Representation and Will and Their Indian Parallels

Chapter Fifteen: Beyond the Will: “Better Consciousness” and the “Pure Subject of Knowing”

Chapter fifteen BeyondtheWill:“BetterConsciousness” andthe“PureSubjectofKnowing” There remains an aspect of Schopenhauer’s thought to which we have paid no attention. Until recently it received little notice in the majority of studies, for it does not feature, except in a shadowy and implied manner, in the writings published during his lifetime. Yet it is a matter of importance closely linked to the matters discussed in the last chapter, for it concerns the question of what, for Schopenhauer, is ultimately real. We have seen that the will, in spite of being the metaphysical core of existence, is not for Schopenhauer final reality. What, then, lies beyond the will? To find an answer we must turn to the philosophical notes made by Schopenhauer during the years 1812–1814, when his philosophy was taking shape, and subsequently published in the Manuscript Remains. The “Better Consciousness” in the Early Manuscript Remains In the early Manuscript Remains we find that final reality, which in The World as Will and Representation remains nameless and is experienced only when we deny the will, is discussed repeatedly and spoken of in positive terms. In these notes Schopenhauer refers to “the double nature of our consciousness ” (die Duplicität unsers Bewusstseyns), and speaks of “the mixture of eternity and temporality of which our consciousness consists and their struggle and striving to separate.”1 Elsewhere he notes that the one pole does not understand the other—indeed does not even exist for the other.2 These two forms of consciousness, opposite poles, are the empirical consciousness and what Schopenhauer calls the better consciousness (bessere Bewusstsein).3 The empirical consciousness is our habitual everyday awareness, our consciousness of the world and of ourselves as subjects in it. Of it Schopenhauer 194 schopenhauer’s encounter with indian thought writes: “If our temporal consciousness completely dominates us and we are in this way abandoned to desires . . . our entire nature is subjective, that is to say we see in things nothing but their relation to our individuality and its needs.”4 On the other hand, the better consciousness is “enthroned deep within us,” untouched and unshaken by the roaring of the world. It is personified in the Iliad by the blissful immortal gods, who calmly watch the tumult of battle from the heights of Olympus. It is “our refuge from the tribulations of the world.”5 The expression better consciousness first appears in notes made during 1812, when Schopenhauer was studying at the University of Berlin,6 and the idea it represents (though not the expression) remained present in his thought throughout the remainder of his life. Kossler affirms that it “was considerably influential in the development of Schopenhauer’s philosophy,”7 and Janaway writes, “Though he abandoned the term ‘better consciousness’ in his published works, the core of this vision remained with him. . . . All the positive value that really counts in Schopenhauer’s outlook . . . arises when the will ceases from its normal role of pursuing the ends inherent in individual life.”8 In the 1812 notes it is said that the better consciousness lies “beyond all experience and thus beyond all reason”—that is, it is beyond both the theoretical reason (Vernunft) of Kant and practical reason or instinct (which later merges into will in Schopenhauer’s doctrine); both of these have to do exclusively with the empirical consciousness or, as Schopenhauer puts it, with the must of experience—that is, with that which is determined by the principle of sufficient reason. Hence nothing positive can be said of the better consciousness, “for what we say lies in the province of reason [so that] we speak only negatively of the better consciousness.”9 In other places in the Manuscript Remains it is said that the better consciousness , when “very vivid,” reveals itself as the beautiful or the sublime, or it finds expression as saintly behavior.10 It is “the source of all virtue,”11 and vice is its negation.12 Lofty morality and kindness do not depend on the power of one’s reason and understanding, which do little “for the essential thing in man.”13 The moral element in conduct does not stem from reason (Vernunft) as Kant supposed—indeed, such a supposition is “blasphemy.” Moral conduct (which for Schopenhauer is compassionate action) is the ex- Beyond the Will: “Better Consciousness” and the “Pure Subject of Knowing” 195 pression in practice of the better consciousness, which lies “far above reason...