Zum verhältnis von Vorstellung und Traum
On the Relationship Between Idea and Dream

Summary/Abstract: This article explains Schopenhauer's ʺEssay on Spirit Seeingʺ and his physiology of dream production and sets it in contrast to Nietzsche's understanding of dreams. The relationship of dreams to wakeful ideas about the world according to Schopenhauer is further developed with reference to passages from the Manuscript remains. As a result, the author proposes that the contrast between dream and wakeful realities sharpens the appreciation of wakefulness, and is not in conflict with reality (as Nietzsche had proposed). The sphere of representation as the location shared by dreams and wakeful realities is substantiated further with examples of dreams from the literary fiction of Wilkie Collins, Heiner Müller and Thomas Bernhard. These serve to emphasize the suprapersonal dynamics of dreams described by Schopenhauer. In conclusion, the author establishes parallels between dreams and literary fiction and notes that literary fiction, while not reality, may well be - in some instances at least - the truth about reality.

• Details
• Contents