On Arthur Schopenhauer

I forget the precise moment that I first encountered Schopenhauer, but what I do remember is that when I discovered him, in my early twenties, I found his books to be atrociously impenetrable. It was only a few months after I’d discovered him that I went back to him and read him.

A few years thereafter, while reading a lot of what Michel Houellebecq had to offer, I came across his In the Presence of Schopenhauer which I found to be immensely rewarding. It is only now that I have finally decided to pen some thoughts on Schopenhauer, hopefully correctly capturing his thought—primarily from his The World as Will and Representation.

From the outset, one can’t help but notice that Schopenhauer builds on (and departs from) Kant, in the sense that he transforms the thing-in-itself into a dark striving force. Arthur Schopenhauer’s undeniably reiterates Kant by suggesting that the world of phenomena is representation (vorstellung), representation structured by space, time, and causality. Schopenhauer goes on to conjecture that the underlying reality (thing-in-itself) is Will. He further suggests that Will is a blind, insatiable, non-rational drive. He also conjectures that life is endless striving without ultimate purpose, that satisfaction is fleeting, leading to boredom or renewed desire. This can be confidently stated as Schopenhauer’s core insight.

When Schopenhauer discusses metaphysics, he suggests that Will manifests itself as endless conflict in nature (that is predation, reproduction) and human life (that is egoism, suffering). He also suggests that individuality is illusory (that principum individuationis = space or time) and that true reality is one undifferentiated Will. Schopenhauer, under the same breath, conjectures that existence is suffering, non-existence preferable, and that it’s better to never have been born.

When Schopenhauer gets into aesthetics, he suggests that art, especially music, offers temporary respite, from existence (which he conjectures is suffering), by allowing contemplation of Platonic ideas (objectifications of Will) without personal desire. He then suggests that the sublime confronts terrifying vastness, revealing the subject as pure Will-less knower. Schopenhauer conjectures that ultimate liberation comes as a result of denial of the will-to-live—that is, ascetic renunciation, compassion (viewing others as identical in suffering), and mystical quietude.

And finally, when he discusses ethics, he slightly contradicts Kant and conjectures that morality arises not from reason, but from intuitive insight into the unity of all in Will—leading to compassion as the basis for ethics. He also suggests that egoism is natural but illusory, and that true virtue denies self in favour of others.