Arielle

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Arielle is Currently Reading

Arielle is currently reading

Autobiography of Red

by Anne Carson

bookshelves: poetry, currently-reading

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Arielle is currently reading

Lectures on Literature (Harvest Book)

by Vladimir Nabokov

bookshelves: literary-criticism, currently-reading

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Feb 25, 2026 03:39AM

Arielle is currently reading

The World as Will and Representation, Volume I

by Arthur Schopenhauer

bookshelves: currently-reading, philosophy, books-i-own

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Arielle said: " 9/15/25: In book 1, Schopenhauer showed that the world is representation, object for a subject. He explained how the world appears, but not what it truly is. At the start of book two, he warned that if we stop at representation only, reality is "a pa 9/15/25: In book 1, Schopenhauer showed that the world is representation, object for a subject. He explained how the world appears, but not what it truly is. At the start of book two, he warned that if we stop at representation only, reality is "a passing dream": ghostly, empty, without substance. The phenomenal world is intelligible but hollow.

This demand for something deeper leads him to seek the 'thing in itself', the inner essence behind appearances, Kant's noumenon. And the only thing we can ever truly know is ourselves. By looking inward, we can discover the Will: the essence that exists in everything. Everything that appears in representation is an expression of Will. He defines the Will as endless, irrational striving, making true satisfaction impossible. Every desire fulfilled gives way to another. Life, to Schopenhauer, is therefore characterized by suffering, restlessness, and frustration.

Bleak. But is he wrong?

9/9/25: Schopenhauer starts with such a banger line: "The world is my representation". Already loving his confidence. He then immediately starts talking about Kant, as one does: the world we know is not "things in themselves" but appearances, shaped by the subject. He emphasizes the inseparability of subject and object; we can’t speak of an object without a subject to perceive it.

Schopenhauer disregards Kant's twelve categories (thank god): there are only two forms of intuition, space and time, and one category, causality. His link between matter and causality is still somewhat nebulous for me, and I'll return to that later when I have a better understanding. But he agreed with Kant that the world is phenomenal, not noumenal, and added the interesting point that science, logic, and mathematics are also limited to the representational world. They can never reach that "thing in itself"; they only react to what's already been created, reconstructing backwards and never penetrating true essence. He's questioning if science or reason have the capacity to fulfill our desire for truth, which is quite the bold statement...

Also, the man was incredibly well-read. His constant references were impressive, especially to Vedic tradition, noting that it also considers the phenomenal world an illusion, a veil over our ultimate reality. He was extremely ahead of his time. And I'm a sucker for dream references and imagery, and he got me there too with his quote from Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." Loved it. Can't wait to see where he goes in book 2.

8/29/25: Let's go! Going in blind, but hoping for Kantianism, eastern philosophy, and depression.

"I don't know what daimon whispered to me: 'Take this book home'." -Nietzsche on stumbling upon Schopenhauer's work in a second-hand bookstore when he was 21. ...more "

progress:

(page 175 of 534)
— Sep 15, 2025 08:46AM

Sep 15, 2025 07:21AM · see review

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Arielle’s Quotes

“To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.”
― Ram Dass, Be Here Now

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“How clever you are, to know something of which you are ignorant.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

tags: stress, travel

664 likes

“Sunrise is the time to feel that you will be able to find out how to help somebody close to you, who you think needs help even if he doesn't think so. At sunrise, everything is luminous, but not clear.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

2 likes

“Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

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