Shopenhauer Essay - 568 Words

Shopenhauer Schopenhauer sought to understand and describe the world and the things of the world. Building off of the ideas of Plato, Descartes, and Kant, however doing away with the aspect of dualism in their theories, he developed the concept of Will and Representation. The world as Will according to Schopenhauer is all that exists for knowledge, only object in relation to subject, perception of a perceiver, in a word, idea. Everything in the world is a representation and everything one sees is a representation in one’s mind. That which forces the Representation into being is the Will. In Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the thing-in-itself, or the Will, he proposes that experience is made up of subject and object. There is no†¦show more content†¦In our cognitive experience we never touch the real; things-in-themselves are not to be known on any terms by any intelligence. But in inner experience, in the consciousness of internal states we do come across something that is more than phenomenal; this is the will. The will has both an inner and an outer side, inner for immediate consciousness and outer for intelligence. The inner is the act of willing and the outer is bodily motion. These two are not different; they only appear in different ways. Will is the real thing, or thing-in-itself, its manifestations phenomena. Thus at the root of existence in all its varied forms there is Will supporting them, manifesting itself in them. Will is not phenomenal, not given in Representation, not in time or space, not individualized, and not subject to the law of casualty. The Will in itself lies beyond the sphere of space, time and casualty, because these are subjective forms which spring into being only when a brain has been evolved. It can have no individuality, no distinction or difference, no end towards which it works. Similar to Kant’s noumena, will is a blind, incessant impulse, a thing in itself, that which exits independently of our ow n perceptions. It is an inner, consciousness of our own existence, our feelings and desires; Will is reality. In my reading of the article â€Å"Schopenhauer’s Philosophy† by Robert Adamson andShow MoreRelated Magical and Sublime Characteristics of A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings1142 Words   |  5 PagesWendy B. Magical Realism : Post Expressionism. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 163-190. Longinus. On the Sublime. Cambridge. Harvard UP, 1995. Shopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Idea! Philosophies of Art and Beauty. Eds. Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 448-468.   Read MoreAnalysis of All Quiet on the Western Front: The Real Horrors of the War1120 Words   |  5 Pagesideals they packed for war were but the illusions of those they left behind. Paul, as his brothers of arms, feel that nothing remotely transcedental can occupy their minds anymore as they learn that a bright button is weightier than four volumes of Shopenhauer. Food is insufficient and often not nutritious and Paul reckons the guilty relievement he and his friends felt when a miscalculation granted them a double ration of food, a miscalculation that meant dozens of their comrades had been killed. SomethingRead MoreThe Characteristics Of William Tolkien s The Great Gatsby 1494 Words   |  6 Pagesthere still, shift rapidly, and are often are at least greatly revealed in the soliloquies, even though they re not quite made simple for you. Of course Tolkien denied the Wagner connection; Freud also claimed he had never read Neitzche or Shopenhauer and Eliot claimed he had never read Whitman. A lot of time authors grow indignant when they feel near being pinned. I love Tolkein a lot better than Wagner, but it grates against his artistry that they had the same project within less than a century