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But, in truth, man is like the rest, a poor animal, whose powers are calculated only to maintain him during his existence; therefore he requires to have his ears always open to announce of themselves, by night as by day, the approach of the pursuer. Thrasymachos. Tell me briefly, what shall I be after my death? Be clear and precise. Philalethes. Everything and nothing. Thras.
It is in some sort doing violence to the latter by misusing it for ends it was never meant to serve. Thrasymachos. Look here, I shan't give twopence for your immortality unless I'm to remain an individual. Philalethes. Well, perhaps I may be able to satisfy you on this point.
Suppose I guarantee that after death you shall remain an individual, but only on condition that you first spend three months of complete unconsciousness. Thrasymachos. I shall have no objection to that. Philalethes. But remember, if people are completely unconscious, they take no account of time.
Thrasymachos. The mighty Schleiermacher, for instance, and that gigantic intellect, Hegel; and at this time of day we've abandoned that nonsense. I should rather say we're so far beyond it that we can't put up with it any more. What's the use of it then? What does it all mean? Philalethes.
From all this it is clear that individuality is not a form of perfection, but rather of limitation; and so to be freed from it is not loss but gain. Trouble yourself no more about the matter. Once thoroughly recognize what you are, what your existence really is, namely, the universal will to live, and the whole question will seem to you childish, and most ridiculous! Thrasymachos.
At any rate you may be sure you would be perfectly ignorant of the whole thing. Further, if you knew that the mysterious power which keeps you in your present state of life had never once ceased in those ten thousand years to bring forth other phenomena like yourself, and to endow them with life, it would fully console you. Thrasymachos. Indeed!
So, when you are dead, it's all the same to you whether three months pass in the world of consciousness, or ten thousand years. In the one case as in the other, it is simply a matter of believing what is told you when you awake. So far, then, you can afford to be indifferent whether it is three months or ten thousand years that pass before you recover your individuality. Thrasymachos.
You mean, I suppose, that your individuality is such a delightful thing, so splendid, so perfect, and beyond compare that you can't imagine anything better. Aren't you ready to exchange your present state for one which, if we can judge by what is told us, may possibly be superior and more endurable? Thrasymachos. Don't you see that my individuality, be it what it may, is my very self?
It's no wonder that a contradiction ensues. Thrasymachos. What do you mean by transcendental questions and immanent knowledge? I've heard these expressions before, of course; they are not new to me. The Professor was fond of using them, but only as predicates of the Deity, and he never talked of anything else; which was all quite right and proper.
The word immortality Unsterblichkeit does not occur in the original; nor would it, in its usual application, find a place in Schopenhauer's vocabulary. The word he uses is Unzerstörbarkeit indestructibility. But I have preferred immortality, because that word is commonly associated with the subject touched upon in this little debate. Thrasymachos.
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