Essay Questions

How does an author’s subjectivity impact writing? (On Authorship And Style)

Arthur Schopenhauer explicates, “Subjectivity, which is an error of style in German literature, is, through the deteriorated condition of literature and neglect of old languages, becoming more common. By subjectivity I mean when a writer thinks it sufficient for himself to know what he means and wants to say, and it is left to the reader to discover what is meant. Without troubling himself about his reader, he writes as if he were holding a monologue; whereas it should be a dialogue, and, moreover, a dialogue in which he must express himself all the more clearly as the questions of the reader cannot be heard. And it is for this very reason that style should not be subjective but objective, and for it to be objective the words must be written in such a way as to directly compel the reader to think precisely the same as the author thought.” Subjective writing diminishes the prospects for the author having a significant dialogue with the reader. Instead of imposing subjective judgments on the reader, an author should exploit objective rhetorical appeals which influence the reader about the author’s stance. The author should evaluate the implication of the language that he uses in his/ her writing to guarantee that it is neither exceedingly subjective nor predisposed to warranty trustworthy opinions throughout the writing.

Expound Arthur Schopenhauer’s ideology on artificial education as set forward in “On Education”.

Schopenhauer elucidates, “On the other hand, an artificial education is having one's head crammed full of ideas, derived from hearing others talk, from learning and reading, before one has anything like an extensive knowledge of the world as it is and as one sees it. The observations which produce all these ideas are said to come later on with experience; but until then these ideas are applied wrongly, and accordingly both things and men are judged wrongly, seen wrongly, and treated wrongly. And so it is that education perverts the mind; and this is why, after a long spell of learning and reading, we enter the world, in our youth, with views that are partly simple, partly perverted; consequently we comport ourselves with an air of anxiety at one time, at another of presumption. This is because our head is full of ideas which we are now trying to make use of, but almost always apply wrongly.” Artificial education is equivalent to mastering of other people’s ideologies; thus, it is principally superficial. The odds of mishandling such ideologies are high because they are not based on one’s autonomous philosophy. Over-dependence on ‘artificial education’ reduces one’s common logic resulting in extraordinary ignorance because it subsidizes to contraction of one’s viewpoints subject to the principles of ‘artificial learning.’