Schopenhauers Views of the World as Will and Representation - Essay Example

Schopenhauer's Views of the World as Will and Representation The World as Will What is the world This question has been the object of man's searchfor an explanation of the existence of everything, including himself. Schopenhauer defines representation as a mental idea or image of anything we experience that is outside our minds. Furthermore, he states that the whole world is a representation of a single WILL of which our own is phenomenal. The world as will exists for knowledge, an object in relation to the subject. The object is that which is to be known. The subject is that which knows or the knowing part. In the activity of the mind, objects are constructed by the action of the intellect. Known and unknown forces act to form sensations. In our mental state we encounter some thing phenomenal-that is our will. The will inner side is for immediate consciousness or willing and the outer for intelligence or bodily motion. The will is beyond the realm of space, time and causality. It is a blind incessant impulse independent of our perception-an inner consciousness of our own existence, our feelings and desires. It is a reality. Schopenhauer mentioned that all objects of perception must comply with the following: 1. physical form - also known as the principle of becoming 2. mathematical form - principle of being 3. logical form - principle of knowing 4. moral form - principle of acting The principle of becoming governs the class of complete representations or totality of experience. The principle of knowing governs the class of objects which consists of the subjectivity of will. According to Schopenhauer, reason is the faculty of producing or comparing concepts, understanding is the faculty for comparing perception. Concepts maybe thought of but not perceived. The effects of concepts are language, action and science. Matter and intellect constitute the world as ideas and are inseparable because one is dependent upon the other when it acts. The will is not an object hence unknowable. Only an object can be known. An individual is a manifestation of the world. The will is irrational. It transcends time and space. The will manifests itself in the world of individual things, ideas or concepts. The will is independent of time, space and plurality. The World as Representation or Idea: Platonic Idea - only adequate objectification of the will. It is the object of art and hence knowable as an object of perception. The platonic idea is an independent idea and independent of the principle of sufficient reason. Idealism is a theory of the ultimate reality. Knowledge may either be intuitive or abstract. Intuitive knowledge is derived from primary idea; abstract knowledge from secondary idea. We may know ourselves as willing, but we cannot know ourselves as knowing. A knowing subject cannot become a known subject. The act of willing arises from a need or desire for something and is therefore a manifestation of deprivation or suffering. The fulfillment of a wish terminates the act of willing. The gratification of a desire or wish is a negative condition. It provides only temporary deliverance from the need of suffering. The will cannot be guided by the intellect but the intellect can be guided by the will. The freedom of the will is negative. It is only a denial of necessity. The will wants everything for itself. Egoism concentrates the self interest of each one. Voluntary renunciation of egoism is achieved by a denial of the will to live. Justice is achieved when the affirmation of the will to live by one individual does not conflict with the will to live of another individual. Conscience constitutes our self-knowledge of how our action may manifest the reality of the will. Virtue may proceed from the intuitive knowledge. Denial of the will is seen in asceticism. Suicide is not a denial of the will to live because it is not a rejection of personal well-being. The will is free to deny itself or suspend. The denial of the will does not produce nothingness which is a negative of being. Ethical conduct is negative and requires a denial of the will to live. Concern for others is contrary to self-interest. In order to redeem ourselves, we must suspend or deny our own willingness to determine our action. This is a form of self-contradiction. Schopenhauer's views are pessimistic. His pessimistic pervades almost all areas of his work. Life, according to him consists of suffering. The will as an underlying reality of the world does not have motive or purpose. Schopenhauer believes that suffering is caused by unfulfilled or frustrated volition. To overcome suffering, deny the will. The will resists its own negation but once completely negated, the world of representation is also negated. The world of representation turns to nothingness once the will is negated. Conclusion Although the scientific premises of his philosophy are now considered outdated, Arthur Schopenhauer's contribution to modern philosophy continues to be an enduring and endearing one. Despite the fact that he wrote in the framework of Kantian idealism -- (with its dual-world metaphysics of "phenomenon" and "thing-in-itself") -- his thought has branched out into several directions, proving to be influential on some of the literary and philosophical luminaries of the nineteenth as well as the twentieth centuries. In his metaphysics, he was a voluntarist, propounding the non rational, universal will as the ultimate reality (the "thing-in-itself") and the driving force behind all the manifestations of organic life as well as inorganic nature. The voluntarist doctrine of the will to power of Nietzsche was evolved from Schopenhauer, as well as the metaphysical vitalism of Bergson and, most patently, Freud's theory of the unconscious. In his epistemology, he was a phenomenologist and idealist, following the footsteps of Berkeley and the critical idealist Kant. In his aesthetics, he was a Platonist, holding the ontologically originary Form, or what he terms the "Platonic Idea" to be anterior to the aesthetic representation. In his ethics, he argued that to live means to desire and desire entails nothing but suffering. His reasoning was that desire induces suffering when it is frustrated from acquiring its object; upon overcoming its hindrances and realizing its object, desire results in boredom since it has a new object in view and the cycle continues indefinitely. As such, desire leads inevitably to suffering. Schopenhauer's answer is asceticism ("the denial of the will-to-live"). The wise man does not commit suicide, but abstains from this life of useless striving and hopes for an annihilating death. In the meantime, he will look with compassion and pity upon his suffering fellow creatures. This element of Schopenhauer's philosophy reflects his unremittingly melancholy and pessimistic temperament, culminating, according to his biographer, in intense paranoia and the habit of sleeping at night with a loaded pistol tucked under his pillow. His ascetic morality is unique in modern Western philosophy. Being an atheist, Schopenhauer was arguably the first philosopher to effect a thorough break with the Judaeo-Christian tradition and to introduce strong elements of Eastern religion in his thought. (His voluntarism and asceticism have Hinduist and Jain Buddhist roots in the doctrine of reincarnation "metempsychosis" and the application of austerities upon oneself to liberate the soul from the karmic matter which magnetises it and causes it to be painfully reborn into the world of pain.) In terms of his style, he was an undisputed master of German prose style, writing in a lucid, witty and jargon-free Romantic "essay-style". He has exerted an influence on a number of key modern literary figures, such as Mann, Conrad and Hardy. His stress on style anticipates contemporary philosophizing and its emphasis on literary form, as can be seen in the works of figures such as Derrida, Baudrillard, Heidegger, Deleuze et al. In addition, the unaffected purity of his philosophy is an indication of the great extent to which it approximates his own difficult and powerful personality. Only someone like Schopenhauer, whose character combined such a vehemence of desire along with such a brooding sensitivity to suffering, could have produced such a philosophy which argues for the most extreme restraining of desire. Altogether, "The World as Will and Representation or Idea" is a fascinating encounter with one of the most impressive thinkers of all time. Imagine it as an intellectual dialogue, an after-dinner debate in which you are challenged and entertained with the insights of a truly giant mind. Even if one does not share his assumptions, or agree with his conclusions, he still provokes those who read him with admiration and respect for his insight and genius. Read More