19th century philosophy

Author: KAIA WORRELL

Knowing ‘Will’

In book 2 of WWR, Schopenhauer says “If now every action of my body is the manifestation of an act of will in which my will itself in general, and as a whole, thus my character, expresses itself under given motives, a manifestation of the will must

be the inevitable condition and presupposition of every action” (WWR, vol. 1, bk. 2, §20). What he means by this is that will is the driving force behind all human actions and experiences; every action is an expression of will. He believes that our will entails desires and motivations, and thus the manifestation of will is a condition for every action. Without a will, action would be impossible, so it makes sense that “teeth, throat, and bowels are objectified hunger” (WWR, vol. 1, bk. 2, §20), is used as an example. If this is true, then the same must apply to mouths and eyes (yawning) being objectified tiredness. We desire and have a will for sleep, so the manifestation of this will present itself as a yawn and thus leads to the exhibited action.

The manifestation of will is a presupposition for every action; before we can perform any action, our will must be present (WWR, vol. 1, bk. 2, §20). This is why hunger can be objectified through teeth, throat, and bowels, and tiredness through mouths and eyes (yawning).

Becoming-of-Itself

§20. “The true is the whole. However, the whole is only the essence completing itself through its own development. This much must be said of the absolute: It is essentially a result, and only at the end is it what it is in truth. Its nature consists just in this: to be actual, to be subject, or, to be the becoming-of-itself”.

The growth of a seed into a tree illustrates the notion of becoming and the process through which the seed comes to be what it is fully meant to be. 

Essentially, the process of a seed growing into a tree represents a sort of completeness, or “the whole”. The seed itself, in its beginning stages, has the potential to become a tree, but it is only through the process of growing, which entails absorbing nutrients and energy, that it will eventually be realized as a whole tree. There is a non-linear natural process that occurs that ultimately results in the “absolute”, which highlights the “the true is the whole” idea that Hegel presents; in this sense, the whole (the tree) can only be acknowledged and appreciated once it has fully gone through its own development. Though the seed always had the potential to become a tree, it was only actualized once the becoming of itself was complete. 

This ultimately connects to Hegel abstract ideas because similarly, truth is something that is revealed over time through developmental processes, as the tree is something that is only acknowledged once it is fully developed.