Q0448
“Everyone takes the limits of his own field of vision for the…” — Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Parerga and Paralipomena. Theme: knowledge.
English
Everyone takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Parerga and Paralipomena and files it under Voluntarism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher of pessimism whose The World as Will and Representation fused Kantian phenomena with a blind metaphysical will. Largely ignored while Hegel dominated Berlin, he later won fame influencing artists and psychologists.
Interpretation
Schopenhauer is diagnosing a specific error: mistaking the limits of one's own experience for the limits of what exists. The mechanism is that we cannot see outside our own field of vision, and the absence of anything visible is easily read as an absence of anything. He applies it to disagreements about what is possible, where each party treats their own horizon as the boundary of the world. The remark is aimed at complacency about the range of one's own experience.
Why it matters
It is a good check on confident claims about what cannot be done. The question it raises is whether the limit is in the thing or in what you can see from where you stand.
Concepts in this quote
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Arthur Schopenhauer. (n.d.). Everyone takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0448
MLA: Arthur Schopenhauer. “Everyone takes the limits of his own field….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0448.
Chicago: Arthur Schopenhauer. “Everyone takes the limits of his own field….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0448.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Everyone takes the limits of his own field…”?
The passage is attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena. The archive attributes this English wording to Parerga and Paralipomena and files it under Voluntarism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Arthur Schopenhauer mean by knowledge?
Epistemology asks whether knowledge is justified true belief, reliable tracking of the world, or something else; it also asks how perception, testimony, memory, and reason contribute. This passage enters that discussion through knowledge.