I don’t know the context in which Her Schopenhauer said or wrote this, but I’ll tackle it as a stand-along meme—which is how it came to me on Facebook.
As is, it’s a statement of priority—one in which being original is more important than being right. As for me, however, when my fuel gauge is reading “E”, I want to interpret that as “Empty”, no matter how many other humans have interpreted it that same way before me. What’s the point in being original here? I suppose I could interpret the “E” as short for “Endless Fuel”, and be happy that I’m the only human ever to do so. And I’d have plenty of time to ponder how smart I am while I’m walking to the nearest gas station in search of fuel.
Research Notes
I don’t have time to track down much of the original context yet, but I did find this bit from quoteinvestigator.com. The yellow highlights are mine, and I’ll discuss them afterward :
Quote Investigator: In 1851 Arthur Schopenhauer published a two volume work written in German titled “Parerga und Paralipomena” which contained a collection of long essays together with a series of short numbered passages. The piece numbered 76 included the following. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[1]
Daher ist die Aufgabe nicht sowohl zu sehen was noch keiner gesehen hat, als bei Dem was Jeder sieht, zu denken was noch Keiner gedacht hat. Darum auch gehört so sehr viel mehr dazu, ein Philosoph als ein Physiker zu seyn.
Here are two possible translations into English:
1) So the problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, as to think what nobody has yet thought concerning that which everybody sees. Also for this reason, it takes so very much more to be a philosopher than a physicist.
2) Therefore the problem is not so much, to see what nobody has yet seen, but rather to think concerning that which everybody sees, what nobody has yet thought. For this reason, it also takes very much more to be a philosopher than a physicist.
If one takes “philosopher” at face value (a lover of wisdom), it is difficult to understand Schopenhauer’s position, as he seems to be suggesting that a philosopher must see new wisdom, and not the wisdom already attested to by the ages.
If this is what he’s getting at, I reject the point completely, and find this a rather arrogant view. After a few minutes of searching on a busy morning, it appears I’ll not find an English translation of the particular essay in question.
But again, my primary interest was in pondering the excerpt put forth as a free-standing meme, apart from its original context.
