Arthur Schopenhauer studying the facets of a lit crystal

The movement that remains as crystal

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher. In a crystal he brings together two apparent opposites: the movement that produces a shape and the stillness in which that shape remains visible.

The moment of setting

Schopenhauer approaches the solid body through its formation. The movement does not continue in the hardened crystal like the growth of a living organism. What remains visible is a trace.

Therefore, rigidity at once seizes that momentary movement, of which only the trace remains as the crystal.

– Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, III, p. 37.[1]

Will without intention

“Will” here does not mean a decision taken by a stone. He seeks a connection between forces that act without knowledge and what we experience in our own bodies as willing.