48 Essays 1911- 1914

[On the Essay]

19141
This is probably Mllsiis most important statement of /tis conception of tile
nature of the essay as an intennediate and mediating form of discourse be-
tween morality and life and between science and art. Musil's approac/t to
this problem is wll/sual in tllat li e was a writer wl,o was also higlily tmined
as a mathematician alld scientist alld deeply read in philosophy, and the
form of the essay offered a congenial place in which he could brillg these
areas and problems togetlwr and cOllfrollt tl, em.
For me, ethics and aesthetics are associated with the word essay.
It is said to come from "weighing.." and is mostly used by scholars only
to characterize the smaller excrescences, those not written with full com-
mitment, of their life's work; it is also called "attempt." I can also make use
u{ it ill dlis fll((t;!,' St:II:>t:!, (u wliit:lL, liuwt!vt!c, 1 wuulJ likt:! (U give iI Ji{{cn:nt
content.
Is the essay something left over in an area where one can work pre-
cisely .... Or: the strictest form attainable in an area where one cannot
work pra:isely.
I will seek to demonstrate the second case.
Description of the field: on one side lies the domai n of epi stemology, the
science of knowledge. On the other side, the domain of life and art. At the
outset it cannot be put any more exactly; for this reason we must ask how
the domain of knowledge is circumscribed. For our purposes it is not best to
say that it excludes subja:tivity completely; "completely" goes too far. For
a certain cold, rational subja:tivity is preserved, but there are spontaneous
and accidental factors as well. We might better say: Its results are objective.
It is dominated by the criterion of truth. This is an objective criterion; it lies
in the nature of the field. There are mathematical and logical truths. There
are facts and a combining of facts that are generally valid. That are s y s t e m ~
atic or in accord with laws. In both ruses-and at the same time this is the
least of the claims we make for them- they admit a far-reaching spiritual
order.
And there are areas that do not admit of such an order. Try detaching
from writers' books the characters they have channed into them, and apply-
ing to this fictional society the moral laws of human society. One will find
that every book-person consists of several people, that he is simultaneously
good and reprehensible, that he has no character, is not consistent, does not
act causally; in short, that there is no way one can order and classify the
[On the EssayJ 49
moral forces that move him. One can indicate for this person no other path
than the accidental path determined by the acti on of the book. The question
whether Torless was right or wrong to torture Basini, whether, further, his
indifference to this question is to be taken as a sign of right or wrong,
simply cannot be answered. The question why it does not even arise could
be answered only in a genui ne essay.-As people belonging to a moral
circle, with duties, obligations, and intentions, we read a poem and, as we
read, all this changes a little in a fashion that can be pinned down almost
only by feelings, which quickly dissipate.-50mething similar may be said
of those experiences we undergo in unusual moments such as those of love,
of an anger out of the ordinary, or of any unaccustomed relation to people
and things.
The essay lies between these two areas. It takes its form and method
from science, its matter from art. {The expression "from life" is not correct,
because it encompasses the matter of laws as well. What in life is analogous
to art is what was meant above by the "area of life."} The essay seeks to
establish an order. It presents not characters but a connection of thoughts,
that is, a logical connection, and it proceeds from facts, like the natural sci-
ences, to which the essay imparts an order. Except that these facts are not
generally observable, and also their connections are in many cases only a
Singul arity. There is no total solution, but only a series of particular ones.
But the essay does present evidence, and investigates.
Maet[erlinckl' once said: Instead of a truth the essay gives three good
probabilities. We will later raise the question when such a probability is to
be called "good." But for the moment we 'NOuld like to ask once again how
there can be areas in which it is not truth that dominates, and in which prob-
ability is something more than an approach to truth.
It must lie in the nature of the objects. That which is logical in an ex-
tended sense remains the same. Heretofore, to be sure, the distinction had
been sought in such an extended sense of the function. Intuitive knowing
was pl aced in opposition to the ordinary kind, and the attempt was made to
derive from intui ti ve knowing the dignity of mystical knowledge. There is
also intuition in the purely rational sphere. Beyond Ihis, this conception is
applied scientifically to .... But the mystical function is not this intuition,
hut a far more encompassing and conceptually less pure one. Man not only
thinks, he feels, desires, senses, acts. Just as there are purely automatic ac-
tions without the participation of thought, so there are also purely rational
ideas without the participation of the feelings or the will. And there are
olhers as well. When a thought seizes us, bowls us over, etc., it does in the
area of feelings what a revolutionary insight docs in the purely rational
area. The depth of its effect is a sign of how great masses of feeling are em-
50 Essays 1911- 1914
pathetically involved. Masses: for here it is not a question of feel ings in the
narrower sense of the tenn, but of basic feelings, dispositions of feeling, out
of which individuality is composed. This is still a largely uninvestigated
area. But one can assume that one factor here is the general emotional
makeup of the individual, what has been call ed temperament, reactivity,
stimulatability, etc.; a relatively stable state. Another factor is the personal
experiences, incl udi ng mental oncs. These arc preserved in a series of com-
plexes interwoven with trains of thought. Depression is a so-called emo-
tional disorder, but it consolidates its dominance with the aid of connected
ideas which it colors. Philosophical pessimism, stoicism, Epicurean wisdom,
are by no means simply rational structures, but also experiences. Now a
rational course of thought Gm be true or false, as can an affective one, but
aside from that it "speaks to us" or doesn't speak to us. And there are trains
of thought that really work only through the mode of feelings. For a person
who has no car for them they arc completely confusing and incomprehen-
sible. But here it is nevert heless visibly a matter of an entirely legitimate
means of understanding, e..-en if it is not of binding gene.;;1 v;,Hdity. The
number of such ways of reaching understanding among people is moreover
greater than assumed (chimpanzee couples, effect of a leader through cha-
risma, etc.). Even the individual person has the experience that the same
thought can be dead for him at one time, a mere series of words, alive at
another.
This sudden coming alive of an idea, this lightninglike reforging of a
great complex of feeli ng (most penetratingly imaged in Sauls becoming
Paul) by means of the idea, so that one suddenly understands the world and
oneself differently: this is intuitive knowledge in the mystical sense.
On a small er scale it is the constant movement of essayistic thought.
Feeli ngs, ideas, complexes of will are involved in it. These are not excep-
tional functions, but on the contrary normal ones. But the thread of an idea
tears the other functions out of their situation, and their rearrangement-
even if it is only virtual-conditions the understanding, the resonance, the
second dimension of the idea.
Since the difference does not lie in the function, it can only be grounded
in the nature of the field. We know how much more limited the circle of our
knowledge is than that of our interests.
We now exclude mystical interests because their object is metaphysical
and because they clai m superior knowledge, while we clai m for the essay
only the reshaping of what is human.
Maeterlinck. Emerson, Nietzsche, in part Epi curus, the Stoics: leavi ng
aside the transcendental, the mystics, but also Dilthey, Taine, and nomothetic
Literary CI!fOl/ide 51
historical research, all belong in the circle of the essay. Here lies t he human
branch of religion.
We are confronting a new division of intellectual activity. That which is
directed at knowledge, and that which is di rected at a transfol1l1ation of man.
Complexes of feeling struggle for dominance. Leadi ng ideas of centuries or
generations. New kinds of relati onships among people are showi ng up.
Now of course a rational reworking of the various results is valuable. At
least a systematic ordering. It is Simply that it must struggle wi th di fficulties
that am never be entirely overcome because of the ambigui ty of expression.
History of the spiritual movement.
Postscripts: Here Hegel's tri ple scheme of t he rise of t he concept is
minant.
Rathenau is t he example of the degeneration of an essayist into
a phil oslophicalJ dil ettante.
A furt her boundary area of essayism is poli tical writing in t he
dail y press. It is exploitative wit hout increasi ng the resources.
Schleiennacher, Schelling, Hegel, Lassall e.
8
. .... . ... .
I ne laCK at systematic mmlOng aetermtnes that people wnte
poetry and live like swine. Detennines Romanticism,
sionism, eccentrici t y. Speaki ng past one anot her.
Literary Chronicle
19141
Musil sl/Ows himself bemused at the impulse to wri te; as always in these
essays, Ilis irollic rumillation is directed at himself as well as others. Ullder-
/yiflg it is Iris serious concern witli establislring a proper relationship be-
tween the difficult problems of aesthetics and specialiUltion 011 tile one
hand, alld people's everyday lives 011 the otlrer.
People who write. If one were to express in miles of line lengths or pounds
of paper everything published every yea r just in Germany, one would im-
mediatel y see that one was dealing wi th one of the most peculiar of social
The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the contribution of
Inter Nationes toward the publication of this book.
Originally published in volumes Sand 9 of Musil's Gesammelte Werke
edited by Adolf Copyright C 1978 by Rowohh Verlag Gmbh Reinbek
b<:i Hamburg.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, LId., London
C 1990 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Pul>lished 1990
Paperback edition 1994
Primed in the United States of America
99 98 97 543
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Musil, Robert,
[Selcctions. English. 1990]
Precision and soul: essays Bnd addresses I Robert Musil;
edited and translated by Burton Pike and David S. Luft.
p. em.
Translation of selections from v. 8- 9 of Gesammehe Werke in neun
Biinden.
ISBN 0-226-55408-2 (doth)
ISBN 0-226-554090 (paper)
1. Musil, Robert, 1880-1942-Transbtions, English. I. Pi ke,
Bun on. II . Luft, David S. III. Title.
PT2625.USA25 1990
833'.912-dc20 90-10828
CIP
@Thepaperused in this publication mC'Cts the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Scienccs--Permanencc of Paper
for Pri nted Library Materials, ANSI Z39.4S-1984.