IX
THE QUESTION OF PONTIUS PILATE
"TRUTH," says the philosopher, answering
Pilate's question, "is the
unity of universal and subjective will."
But who is to elucidate for the Pilates of
our time the meaning of universal will?
I once made a heroic attempt to unhusk
the logic of Schopenhauer and to unravel
the metaphysical skein of Hegel. But something
forbidding, even obnoxious, seemed
to stand between me and my purpose. The
husk of generalization was too thick, too
hard, and, what is worse, too thorny. It
was the exogenous growth, particularly the
spinosity, of a purely subjective mind. The
philosopher's ego, in other words, adumbrated
the universal will. And in following
it, we follow a shadow that aspires to
Deity.
It aspires, moreover, in conflict, not in harmony. To put it mildly and plainly, there often lurks a personal interest in the generalization of philosophers. It is often
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