Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/14

x according to the degree of consciousness which accompanies it.

But the two words which have proved most difficult to translate, have been Vernehmen and Willkühr.

(e.) Vernehmen means, to distinguish by the sense of hearing. This word conveys a shade of thought which it is almost impossible to render in English, because we have no word by which to distinguish, from mere sen suous hearing, a sort of hearing which implies more than hearing and less than comprehension. The French entendre comes nearer to it than our hearing, but implies more comprehension than vernehmen.

(f.) As to Willkühr (arbitrium, literally will-choice ), after a great deal of consideration I have chosen (relative) free-will as the nearest approach to the German sense, or at any rate, to that in which Schopenhauer uses it. Willkühr means in fact what is commonly understood as free-will; i.e. will with power of choice, will determined by motives and unimpeded by outward obstacles: arbitrium as opposed to voluntas: conscious will as opposed to blind impulse. This relative free-will however is quite distinct from absolute free-will (liberum arbitrium indiferentiæ) in a metaphysical sense, i.e. will in its self -dependency. When its arbitrary character is specially emphasized, we call Willkhr, caprice, but this is not the usual meaning given to it by Schopenhauer.

Besides the meaning of these German words, I have still to define the sense in which I have used the term idea in this translation ; for this word has greatly changed its mean ing at different times and with different authors, and is even now apt to confuse and mislead. Schopenhauer has himself contributed in one way to render its signification less clear; since, in spite of his declaration in the "Fourfold Root" to the effect, that he never uses the word idea in