Page:On the Fourfold Root, and On the Will in Nature.djvu/344

 THE WILL IN NATURE.

in them, i.e. the higher they stand on the scale of beings; whereas, they become more and more comprehensible the smaller the amount of their empirical content, be cause they remain more and more within the sphere of mere representation, the forms of which, known to us a priori, are the principle of comprehensibility. Accordingly, it is only so long as we limit ourselves to this sphere that is to say, only when we have before us mere representation, mere form without empirical content, that our comprehension is complete and thorough: that is, in the a priori sciences, Arithmetic, Geometry, Phoronomy [geometric science of motion] and Logic. Here everything is in the highest degree comprehensible; our insight is quite clear and satisfactory: it leaves nothing to be desired, since we are even unable to conceive that anything could be otherwise than it is. This comes from our having here exclusively to do with the forms of our own intellect. Thus the more we are able to comprehend in a relation, the more it consists of mere phenomenon and the less it has to do with the thing–in–itself. Applied Mathematics, Mechanics, Hydraulics, &c. &c., deal with the lowest degrees of objectification of the will, in which the largest part still remains within the sphere of mere representation; nevertheless even here there is already an empirical element which stands in the way of entire comprehension, which makes the transparency less complete, and in which the inexplicable shows itself. For the same reason, only few departments of Physics and of Chemistry continue to admit of a mathematical treatment; whereas higher up in the scale of beings this has to be entirely done away with, precisely because of the preponderance of content over form in these phenomena. This content is will, the a posteriori, the thing–in–itself, the free, the causeless. Under the heading "Physiology of Plants," I have shown how in beings that live and have knowledge, motive and act of will, representation and volition, separate

PHYSICAL