Beyond the Nirvana Principle
Submitted under the supervision of Professor Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui and Professor Edwin Bryant to the Comparative Literature Program at Rutgers University May 8th, 2023 Only after the inner being of nature[…]has ascended[…]through the long and broad series of animals, does it finally attain to reflection for the first time with the appearance of reason (Vernunft), that is, in man. It then marvels at its own works, and asks itself what it itself is. And its wonder is the more serious, as here for the first time it stands consciously face to face with death […] Therefore with this reflection and astonishment arises the need for metaphysics that is peculiar to man alone. (Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation , II 160) [1] Death My motivation for writing this essay was as an attempt to understand (what appeared to be) a contradiction which I felt sat at the heart of the so-called modern academic “critic...