The World As Will And Idea

by Arthur Schopenhauer

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Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, German Literature

198 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 3, 2012

About the author

Arthur Schopenhauer was born in the city of Danzig (then part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; present day Gdańsk, Poland) and was a German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer attempted to make his career as an academic by correcting and expanding Immanuel Kant's philosophy concerning the way in which we experience the world.

He was the son of author Johanna Schopenhauer and the older brother of Adele Schopenhauer.

Reviews

[Ryan Binz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schopenhauer is one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century, and yet is often left out of curricula or studies due to his gut wrenching pessimism. I would argue that this "pessimism" is misinterpreted. It is not a cry for nihilism, that all of life as will is endless striving and suffering. Rather, it is emptying the skeletons in the closet of humanity. Schopenhauer does not insist that you cannot strive, pursue goals, enjoy sexual pleasures etc. He instead pontificates that we acknowledge that these strivings are ultimately meaningless. We ought to seperate ourselves to some degree from the strivings of the will. By my interpretation, it is not necessary to embrace ascetisim in it's entirety, taking a vow of chastity, partaking in extreme fasts and giving away to others all that one has. What is required is that we do not rely entirely on the strivings of the will for our happiness.

The daunting title is actually a rather simple synthesis. Riding the Kantian wave(which was a tsunami at the time) Schopenhauer divides the world into two. The world as idea is the phenomenal world. It is named such because it is necessarily conceived within the subject object relationship, as ideas in the subject of the objects in the world. Thus in one sense the world only exists as idea in the minds of subjects.
Yet where Schopenhauer diverges from Kant is regarding the 'noumenal' world of things in themselves. Kant maintained we cannot have knowledge of noumena, only phenomena. Schopenhauer, on the contrary, says we can have knowledge of the noumenal world. He claims that through our wants and desires we have access to noumena. For example, say you feel thirsty, you desire a drink. There is no sense experience that triggered your thirst, you do not need to see a glass of water nor feel the heat of the sun inorder to be thirsty. Thus the world as will, the noumenal world, is revealed to us. Through sexual desire, desire to eat and drink, social desire etc. We feel the influence of the will directly, a priori to sense experience. This will, or will to life, pervades all phenomena, and connects all things, from a pebble to a human being to a star.

One can do what one wills, but one cannot will what one wills. We cannot influence the ways the will pulls us. We can, however, refuse to abide by its demands. This is the best way to live life for Schopenhauer, as ascetic rejection of the will. So doing will mean one no longer suffers, for one who does not strive does not yearn nor mourn.

[— · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first volume of Arthur Schopenhauer's most elaborate contribution to philosophy, The World as Will and Idea, outlines a rigorous systemization of an insurgent transcendental idealism. Filled with reference and quotation, whether of other figures or Schopenhauer himself, even the very first volume is itself meant to consumed with a large body of materials, whether of the author or his contemporaries, or previous thinkers, it is meant to be far-reaching and interrelated to works outside of its own composition. None of this makes it worse, as, for the most part, it's all quite cogent. I can see already in this approach an attempt to incorporate all that is possible to incorporate, as in this vein it is apparent that Schopenhauer's goal is a provide more than just vagueries or tautologies, he wishes to strike at the heart of the matter and expose with vigorous investigative competence the most he can.

I can now appreciate further than I could previously the potential influence this work had, it exceeds all the work even in his essays and aphorisms.

Now, hopefully, I will go on to see the full picture of Schopenhauer's thought in volumes 2&3.

[Victor N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult text but wonderfully written/translated. I want to reread it particularly because Schopenhauer says I must, if I want to comprehend it, but mainly to get a better sense of Schopenhauer’s understanding of free will.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding, dense, and truly brilliant exposition. A philosophical masterpiece where East meets West. I particularly enjoy Schopenhauer’s exposition on the Will - it is clear the influence this had on Aleister Crowley as well as on Nietzsche.

[Kevin Megill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed being able to learn how Schopenhauer thought. I don't particularly feel a need to re-read it.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schopenhauer's takes mostly on Kant. some gems here and there but mostly filler.