Ludwig Klages - The Science of Character
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10/25/2006 04:33 PM Ludwig Klages - The Science of Character Page 1 of 2 http://dispater.atspace.com/ causes him offence. Supposing a Stock Exchange speculator, empty of soul and suffering boredom on the shores of the Mediterranean, to see a person whom the spectacle of the sea evidently transports with joy. He does not know what this person experiences, and the conclusion he reaches about this by analogy of his own shallow pleasures will certainly be wrong. But the fact, obvious for him too, that this person experiences pleasures denied to himself suffices to make him the malicious rival of his disposition–a rival whose enmity is the stronger since he has no source of experience left save in the breaking of opposition. The opposite procedure, by which a student of character, untouched by life- envy, succeeds in unfolding the “ressentiment”, will be touched on in the next chapter. This explanation of the reason which allows life-envy to be discovered, although sketchy, may perhaps suffice to remove the difficulty which seemed to stand in the way of the principle of participation. We now turn in greater detail to the procedure which enable us to mobilize the essential material, which we contain, for the purpose of cognitive penetration of alien characters. This is abstracting self-reflection.
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Transcript of Ludwig Klages - The Science of Character
10/25/2006 04:33 PMLudwig Klages - The Science of Character
Page 1 of 2http://dispater.atspace.com/
causes him offence.Supposing a Stock Exchange speculator, empty of soul and suffering boredom on
the shores of the Mediterranean, to see a person whom the spectacle of the sea evidentlytransports with joy. He does not know what this person experiences, and the conclusionhe reaches about this by analogy of his own shallow pleasures will certainly be wrong.But the fact, obvious for him too, that this person experiences pleasures denied tohimself suffices to make him the malicious rival of his disposition–a rival whose enmityis the stronger since he has no source of experience left save in the breaking ofopposition. The opposite procedure, by which a student of character, untouched by life-envy, succeeds in unfolding the “ressentiment”, will be touched on in the next chapter.This explanation of the reason which allows life-envy to be discovered, althoughsketchy, may perhaps suffice to remove the difficulty which seemed to stand in the wayof the principle of participation. We now turn in greater detail to the procedure whichenable us to mobilize the essential material, which we contain, for the purpose ofcognitive penetration of alien characters. This is abstracting self-reflection.
10/25/2006 04:33 PMLudwig Klages - The Science of Character
Page 2 of 2http://dispater.atspace.com/
