Chapter 16 - On the Practical use of Reason and Stoicism

Summary

In Chapter 7 I showed that, in the theoretical realm, starting from concepts leads to mediocre achievements, while superior achievements are drawn from intuition itself, as the well-spring of all cognition. But it is the other way around in the practical realm: here being determined by intuition is the way of animals, and this is unworthy of human beings whose actions are guided by concepts and who are thereby emancipated from the power of what lies before them in the intuitive present, the very present that has unconditional control over animals. A human being's actions can be called rational to the extent that he exercises this privilege, and it is only in this sense that we can we speak of practical reason, not in the Kantian sense, the untenability of which I discussed at length in the prize essay On the Basis of Morals.

However, it is not easy to be determined by concepts alone: the external world, as it lies before us with its intuitive reality, will intrude forcefully on even the strongest mind. But the human spirit shows its dignity and greatness precisely in vanquishing this impression, in negating its mocking illusion. So when someone's spirit is unmoved by the charms of pleasure and enjoyment, untouched by the threats and furies of enraged enemies, when his resolve is unshaken by the entreaties of misguided friends or the illusions surrounding him as a result of agreed-upon schemes, when his self-command is not shattered by the spite of fools and the masses so that he misjudges his own value – then he seems to stand under the influence of a spiritual world (it is the spiritual world of concepts) visible to himself alone, and that intuitive present that is open to everyone flees like a phantom before it. – On the other hand, what gives the external world and visible reality its great power over the mind is its proximity and immediacy. We can think of the needle of the compass that maintains its direction throughout the united effect of widely distributed natural forces across the entire earth, and yet can be disturbed and made to sway wildly by a tiny piece of iron that happens to come too close;