DIE SCHERE #24: Notes

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Ernst Jünger, DIE SCHERE #24: Text, Translation, Notes

Text
> 24
>  
>  Es spricht für Schopenhauers geistige Unbefangenheit, daß er sich
>  eingehend mit dem Grenzproblem des Zweiten Gesichts beschäftigt hat. Er
>  rechnet es dem »transzendenten Fatalismus« zu-der Überzeugung von der
>  Vorausbestimmung künftiger Dinge, die auf persönlicher Erfahrung beruht.
>  	Für Schopenhauer ist die Weltgeschichte eigentlich nur die Abfolge
>  zufälliger Konstellationen-real dagegen ist der Einzelne. Ihm allein
>  kommt eine unmittelbare metaphysische Beziehung zu. »Daher ist sein
>  Lebenslauf, so verworren er auch scheinen mag, ein in sich
>  übereinstimmendes, bestimmte Tendenz und belehrenden Sinn habendes
>  Ganzes, so gut wie das durchdachteste Epos.«
>  
DIE SCHERE #24: Walter's Translation
24
It is a sign of Schopenhauer's intellectual ingenuity that he studied in
detail the border-phenomenon of the second vision. He renders it among
"transcendental fatalism"  -  the conviction of the determination of oncoming
events which rests on personal experience.

To Schopenhauer world history is the mere sequence of random constellations  -
in opposition real is the individual. Only to him there is a direct
metaphysical relation.
"Because of this his curriculum vitae, as entangled as it may seem, is a
matching whole with an educating sense and a certain tendency, as good as a
well composed epic."


DIE SCHERE #24: Notes

Earlier in this book, in ##16 and 20, EJ used the technique which is to be found again in 
the present aphorism. After having "outed" himself by means of a daring though highly 
metaphorical statement of his metaphysical beliefs in the previous aphorism he sets out anew 
on a deliberately matter-of-fact note. Here he reports some seemingly far-fetched details 
from the history of philosophy just after having let us know his belief in life after death. 
EJ praises the independence of mind Schopenhauer shows in his discussion of occult 
phenomena. I think this independence is likewise to be admired in EJ. The rest of part I of 
DIE SCHERE he will look at "experiences beyond everyday experiences", and never will he 
lapse into New Age preaching but always prove the analyst's distance and the acuity which he 
demonstrated when writing about astrology (in the introductory part of AN DER ZEITMAUER) or 
on drugs and their effects on the mind (ANNÄHERUNGEN). 

EJ, though an admirer of Schopenhauer, neither shares the view of the Frankfurt sage that 
all world history is ruled by chance only nor does he adopt his "transcendental fatalism". 
However, he mentions two other tenets of Schopenhauer's in order to illustrate his own 
views. There is the "immediate metaphysical significance of the individual life" being 
meaningful like a well-constructed epic.(1) (EJ put forward his idea of a life lived being a 
work of art as early as in #3.). Moreover, there is the paradox inherent in the term 
"transcendental fatalism": it is a belief grounded in personal experience but embracing 
phenomena beyond any possible experience -- because they will happen only in the future but 
exactly as they were, in the past,  predestined and foreseen to happen. This paradox will be 
a focus of EJ's reflexions in the aphorism that follow. 

(1) "Transcendente Spekulation über die anscheinende Absichtlichkeit im Schicksale des 
Einzelnen" (1851) in PARERGA UND PARALIPOMENA vol. II

Günter Rebing