Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

that is unsymmetrical and inharmonious — even flawed? But small imperfections seem to make the world more beautiful, not less. In fact, as they say, the cracks are where the light gets in. So is it that the imperfections and disharmonies are somehow deliberate, or are they simply unavoidable?

The parallels between the Greek thought described above and Christian theology can just about be seen. Christianity normally refers to the ‘Godhead’ when discussing the ultimate nature of God, or of the universe itself.

The existence of God has often been used to justify particular philosophical theories. For instance, Descartes used God to justify the existence of external reality and the reliability of sensory data.

As we’ve noted earlier, it’s been put forward that there must be a reason for everything. For Leibniz this idea was known as the principle of sufficient reason. According to him, God is a necessary being. But the existence of God can be denied without contradiction. So Leibniz was wrong in his reasoning here (or maybe just avoiding controversy, in an age where denial of God was a serious problem).

Kant, although he seems to have been a believer in the Christian faith, did not ascribe any religious connotation to his metaphysical theory, which we explored in Chapter 7. (Although, in his work on moral philosophy, he did make a case for belief.) But with Schopenhauer, that connection starts to be made. The Will — in Schopenhauer’s thought —

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