Arthur Schopenhauer’s foundational work, The World as Will and Idea, introduced several new concepts to the Western world of philosophy. He was among the first to provide a moral framework without asserting God as its source, he considered the world fundamentally irrational, and he also was the first to incorporate Eastern (Buddhist) thought into a Western system of philosophy. For these reasons alone he is remarkable, but even more so are his thoughts on beauty which continue to inspire artists and thinkers alike. Today, we will take a brief overview at The World as Will and Idea; explore the lofty value Schopenhauer placed on art, and on music specifically; list some of the thinkers and artists he has influenced, and conclude with my thoughts on this engaging work of philosophy.
Schopenhauer fundamentally characterizes the will as a blind drive, an unfulfilled longing fated to always continue and never be satiated. Because this will has no purpose, it can never be satisfied. He fittingly describes this will as a source of pain in the human condition:
“This great intensity of will is in itself and directly a constant source of suffering.”
Book 4
“All willing arises from want, therefore from deficiency, and therefore from suffering.”
Book 3
Brief Summary of “The World as Will and Idea”
This will is what keeps the world moving constantly, though not progressing toward any end or purpose. Having established the duality of our existence, in seeing ourselves both objectively and subjectively, he continues this idea, positing that this duality must be present in all things. Therefore, the will exists in all things, though in varying degrees. For example, forces of nature, like gravity and electricity, are the will exhibiting itself on the most basic, natural level. This continues into the animal kingdom in the form of instinct, and is finally shown in humans’ ability to think and subsequently act on motive. Our motives are, necessarily he says, only self-serving, as we can only perceive the world through our own experience. For Schopenhauer, the will always expresses itself through physical action, and therefore our inner thoughts not considered acts of the will. Ultimately, Schopenhauer’s system hinges on the will being unknowable, and incapable of being fulfilled, providing a rather bleak outlook on humanity. This pessimism is what he is largely remembered for, although nestled within The World as Will and Idea, is his lovely addressing of aesthetics. In this third book, we find beautifully written prose, proclaiming the heights of art of which we humans are capable.
Schopenhauer on Beauty
Considering how pessimistic his concept of human existence is, the fact that he finds beauty and tranquility in art and music is remarkably surprising. Indeed, these sources of beauty are the only wellsprings of peace or transcendence in his conception of a fundamentally harsh and painful human existence, and he writes with sweeping prose on the subject:
“But when some external cause or inward disposition lifts us suddenly out of the endless stream of willing, delivers knowledge from the slavery of the will, the attention is no longer directed to the motives of willing, but comprehends things free from their relation to the will, and thus observes them without personal interest, without subjectivity, purely objectively, gives itself entirely up to them so far as they are ideas, but not in so far as they are motives. Then all at once the peace which we were always seeking, but which always fled from us on the former path of the desires, comes to us of its own accord, and it is well with us.”
The intellect, for Schopenhauer, is considered to be always in service to the will, and one’s thoughts are therefore always tainted by subjective strivings.
Beauty, here, consists in art accurately reflecting the ideas inherent in the world. The mark of genius, which Schopenhauer outrageously and explicitly restricts to men, is in being able to recognize these ideas, and thus transcend their own self interest.
“This freeing of knowledge lifts us as wholly and entirely away from all that, as do sleep and dreams; happiness and unhappiness have disappeared; we are no longer individual; the individual is forgotten; we are only pure subject of knowledge; we are only that one eye of the world which looks our from all knowing creatures, but which can become perfectly free from the service of man in will alone.”
“[The common man] can turn his attention to things only so far as they have some relation to his will, however indirect it may be.”
He discusses all manner of beauty in the third book, including light, architecture, sculpting, and painting, as well as animal and human beauty. He continues by discussing the aims of the artist, and concludes with music, which he considers to be noble and in a separate class from the representative visual arts.
“Yet [music] is such a great and exceedingly noble art, its effect on the inmost nature of man is so powerful, and it is so entirely and deeply understood by him in his inmost consciousness as a perfectly universal language…”
“Music is thus by no means like the other arts, the copy of the Ideas, but the copy of the will itself, whose objectivity the Ideas are. This is why the effect of music is so much more powerful and penetrating than that of the other arts, for they speak only of shadows, but it speaks of the thing itself.”
Schopenhauer’s Legacy
In many ways, Schopenhauer was ahead of his time; a sign of thinkers to come.
His characterization of the will as an unknowable force is seen in Freud’s revolutionary development of the id, ego, and superego. His writings on art and beauty influenced Leo Tolstoy. His philosophy directly influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is considered the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, and possibly the most influential thinker since Immanuel Kant. Einstein admired him so much kept a bust of Schopenhauer in his study.
Schopenhauer’s legacy is that of inspiring composer Richard Wagner, novelists such as Joseph Conrad, and perhaps most famously, Friedrich Nietzsche. Schopenhauer’s love for the arts is echoed in Nietzsche’s exaltations of them, and in his considering the arts more valuable to humanity than science. He is credited as a framer of existentialism, and his pessimism surely influenced the surliness of French writers in the post-War era.
Though largely overshadowed in his lifetime by his contemporaries, Schopenhauer’s words and theories have endured to inspire thinkers generations later.
Closing Thoughts
Schopenhauer’s work is challenging even for the most seasoned student of philosophy. While I find his writing to be exciting and entertaining, I consider his conception of a blind will fruitlessly consuming itself, and that will being the center and end of existence to be woefully bleak. I believe human life to have more dignity and purpose than the Schopenhauer system allows, as well. What I do admire, however, is his love and respect for art and music, and his descriptions of the transcendent affect they can have on our moods. The unrelenting brutality of his philosophical system is reflected in the beauty he with which he communicates his thoughts on art; to the extent he found the world to be violent and irrational, he found just as much beauty in art and music. His words on the powerful influence of music are especially beautiful, and they are among my favorite writings on the subject. Schopenhauer represents to me that there is something admirable in everyone, so long as you are willing to find something to learn and appreciate.
Ed. note: This is the twenty-second entry in a series looking at the three schools of philosophy for perspectives on navigating our modern world. Inspired by Emerson’s “The American Scholar,” we are exploring timeless wisdom which endures to inform our approaches to learning, relationships and leadership.Click here for all the posts in this series.
