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Schopenhauer (and the Indians): *
One of Schopenhauer’s main doctrines, that of “representation” has affinities in Indian thought. ‘The World as Will and Representation’ asserts representation is the only certainty we have. He asserted Kant had shown that forms of intuition (time, space, causality) were built into (a priori conditions) of our minds, before empirical experience. For Schopenhauer the empirical world exists “in the consciousness of every individual as a continuously shifting pattern of representations”. Perceptions of reality in both Buddhism & Hinduism share this idea of realities beyond thought and language. They teach that the empirical reality, the perspective on the world originates from the individual self. This is similar to Schopenhauer’s reflection on reality as representation and the two Indian schools’ perception of the world as illusion. This reflects a significant link between Schopenhauer’s idea of representation and Indian thought.
The main pillar of Schopenhauer’s philosophy was Will; he believed his main contribution to philosophy was making ‘the transition from the phenomenon to the thing-in-itself’. There are numerous points of convergence between Schopenhauer’s Will and Indian thought. Both believe the existence of a metaphysical force from which the empirical world is formed. Schopenhauer called it Will, in Hindu philosophy it is called, causal body, and/or store-consciousness. For both Schopenhauer and the Indians, this metaphysical force constitutes the origin of living beings (for Schopenhauer Will contains energies of continual renewal). This force sacrifices individuals in Schopenhauer’s philosophy, in Hindu philosophy it binds the individual to painful rebirths. Both see it as a force of suffering. Both also place this force outside the boundaries of human cognition. Both identify an intermediate state, between the unknowable metaphysical force and the material world, for Schopenhauer it was the Platonic Ideas, for the Hindu school it is was ‘Golden Embryo’. Finally both Will and Indian idea of Śakti are creative forces that supports the material world; and just as sexual impulse is the kernel of Schopenhauer’s will, the ‘symbols of Śāktism are sexual in nature’
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Darwin (via Malthus): *
Malthus (1766-1834) in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) proposed while populations increase exponentially, resources increase only linearly. Thus increasing resources would simply result in population growth, rather than a general improvement in socioeconomic conditions. In 1838 Darwin read this famous work:
"I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work..."
(Darwin, in his Autobiography)
Later that same year he noted a similarity between the act of breeders selecting traits and a Malthusian Nature selecting among variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected". He refers to Malthus by name in the Origin of Species (1859). He describes the struggle resulting from population growth: "It is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms." In Chapter III Darwin includes "slow-breeding man" among other examples of Malthusian population growth.
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Darwin (and the "Manchester School"): *
Although the Origin of Species avoids linking humanity & the natural world, in his later Descent of Man (1871) Darwin makes it explicitly clear that humans are subject to Natural Selection as well. The Malthusian paradigm necessitates human rivalry for scarce foodstuffs & in the wake of such rivalry comes poverty. Economic competition is endemic in Darwin's theory. In Descent Darwin considers the welfare of mankind & concluded the poor may aid their condition by foregoing marriage until they can afford to raise children (Malthus's advice). However, whereas Malthus argued that ending poverty was impossible, Darwin added that such a goal (ending poverty) was also undesirable, as it would work to end future evolutionary development. He made it clear that he opposed laws restricting free competition. He asserted that the moderate accumulation of wealth was not inimical to natural selection, as the children of the nouveaux riches would usually compete in trades or professions allowing the best in mind & body to succeed. He condemned primogeniture as it broke Natural Selection. He even endorsed class division stating that economic competition was part of the struggle for existence, if society was divided into the intellectually superior and the inferior, the former would succeed in all occupations and would leave more offspring, thereby promoting evolution.