The Philosophy of the Unconscious

Eduard von Hartmann, a German philosopher, is known as "the philosopher of the unconscious". His seminal work, The Philosophy of the Unconscious (1870), attempts to reconcile rationalism and irrationalism by highlighting the significance of the unconscious mind. Hartmann proposed that the unconscious evolves through three stages. The first stage is a unified spiritual principle of reason and will. Following humanity's "fall," reason and will separate, with will becoming a blind impulse. The second, or "cosmic," stage, which Hartmann believed humanity currently inhabits, involves the struggle between irrational will and rational mind, leading to both misery and civilization. He posited that only after reaching a peak of misery and decay could a third stage emerge where reason prevails. Hartmann's philosophy, while ultimately optimistic about humanity's future, has been interpreted as pessimistic due to its focus on the struggles of the present.1