Артур Шопенгауэр
«Афоризмы житейской мудрости»

Немецкий философ Артур Шопенгауэр – мизантроп, один из самых известных мыслителей иррационализма; денди, увлекался мистикой, идеями Востока, философией своего соотечественника и предшественника Иммануила Канта; восхищался древними стоиками и критиковал всех своих современников; называл существующий мир «наихудшим из возможных миров», за что получил прозвище «философа пессимизма». «Понятие житейской мудрости означает здесь искусство провести свою жизнь возможно приятнее и счастливее: это будет, следовательно, наставление в счастливом существовании. Возникает вопрос, соответствует ли человеческая жизнь понятию о таком существовании; моя философия, как известно, отвечает на этот вопрос отрицательно, следовательно, приводимые здесь рассуждения основаны до известной степени на компромиссе. Я могу припомнить только одно сочинение, написанное с подобной же целью, как предлагаемые афоризмы, а именно поучительную книгу Кардано «О пользе, какую можно извлечь из несчастий». Впрочем, мудрецы всех времен постоянно говорили одно и то же, а глупцы, всегда составлявшие большинство, постоянно одно и то же делали – как раз противоположное; так будет продолжаться и впредь…»(А.  Шопенгауэр) Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless experience and the less harmless conversation between the two gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named. Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student – that is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment, or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the Rhine, – it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now – a dream framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we imagine we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some incomprehensible power. Listen, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, while I recount my harmless experience and the less harmless conversation between the two gentlemen whom, so far, I have not named. Let us now imagine ourselves in the position of a young student – that is to say, in a position which, in our present age of bewildering movement and feverish excitability, has become an almost impossible one. It is necessary to have lived through it in order to believe that such careless self-lulling and comfortable indifference to the moment, or to time in general, are possible. In this condition I, and a friend about my own age, spent a year at the University of Bonn on the Rhine, – it was a year which, in its complete lack of plans and projects for the future, seems almost like a dream to me now – a dream framed, as it were, by two periods of growth. We two remained quiet and peaceful, although we were surrounded by fellows who in the main were very differently disposed, and from time to time we experienced considerable difficulty in meeting and resisting the somewhat too pressing advances of the young men of our own age. Now, however, that I can look upon the stand we had to take against these opposing forces, I cannot help associating them in my mind with those checks we are wont to receive in our dreams, as, for instance, when we imagine we are able to fly and yet feel ourselves held back by some incomprehensible power. The whole of his Leipzig days proved of the utmost importance to my brothers career. There he was plunged into the very midst of a torrent of intellectual influences which found an impressionable medium in the fiery youth, and to which he eagerly made himself accessible. He did not, however, forget to discriminate among them, but tested and criticised the currents of thought he encountered, and selected accordingly. It is certainly of great importance to ascertain what those influences precisely were to which he yielded, and how long they maintained their sway over him, and it is likewise necessary to discover exactly when the matured mind threw off these fetters in order to work out its own salvation. “I should not, of course, deny – unless I were a fool – that many actions which are called immoral should be avoided and resisted; and in the same way that many which are called moral should be performed and encouraged; but I hold that in both cases these actions should be performed from motives other than those which have prevailed up to the present time. We must learn anew in order that at last, perhaps very late in the day, we may be able to do something more: feel anew.” This type must not be regarded as a fanciful figure: it is not a nebulous hope which is to be realised at some indefinitely remote period, thousands of years hence; nor is it a new species (in the Darwinian sense) of which we can know nothing, and which it would therefore be somewhat absurd to strive after. But it is meant to be a possibility which men of the present could realise with all their spiritual and physical energies, provided they adopted the new values. Артур Шопенгауэр «Афоризмы житейской мудрости»

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