A Guide to Philosophy in Six Hours and Fifteen Minutes Read Free Page B

Nietzsche’s, and it is there where Schopenhauer is important.
    Let us move from this vision of Schopenhauer to the Schopenhauerian world.
    This is the first time that philosophy touches life.
    What is the will to live for Schopenhauer?
    He himself says that he uses these words because nothing better comes to mind.In truth, it is more the will to be, because for Schopenhauer, not only do man and animals want to live, but also the rock that resists and the light that persists.Schopenhauer says that this is the Kantian noumenon , this is the absolute.
    IMPORTANT For Schopenhauer, in the metaphysical sense (beyond physical), this concerns a single will to be, absolutely identical for me and for this table.
    This will to live, in order to be seen as phenomenon, must assume [ sentence incomplete ].
    It must exist in space and time, in the numerical order of things.It is a single entity, because the numerical world knows neither time nor object, nor anything of the kind.
    But when this will to live passes to the phenomenological world, becoming a phenomenon limited by time and space, then it inevitably becomes divided.By the effect of a law that Schopenhauer called principium individuationis , it becomes individual, specific.I repeat: Kant demonstrated that we can never penetrate the world of noumena; for instance, it is impossible, with reasoning, to prove the existence of God.In this sense, Kant said that our reasoning is limited to the phenomenological world.Time and space are not beyond us, it is the thinking subject which introduces them into the world, therefore we cannot perceive anything infinite, universal like God.
    It is only in time and space that the noumenon can manifest itself as phenomenon.It is for this reason that Schopenhauer says that the will to live is a noumenon .It is beyond time and space, it is within itself and can manifest itself only when it becomes a phenomenon (limited in time and space).
    When the will to live is manifested in the phenomenological world, it is divided into a countless number of things that consume one another in order to live.The wolf feeds on the cat, the cat on the mouse, etc.
    Schopenhauer’s great merit is to have found that decisive thing: death, pain, the eternal war that each being must wage in order to survive.
    I always considered that philosophy must not be intellectual but something which starts from our sensibility.For example, for me, the simple fact that I am aware of the existence of a tree has no importance until it brings me pleasure or pain.Only then does it become significant.It is this idea which I try to introduce in interviews, etc.
    We are in an absolutely tragic world.They say that Schopenhauer is pessimistic.That is not saying very much.It is a grandiose and tragic vision which, unfortunately, coincides perfectly with reality.Schopenhauer deduces several conclusions from his system.
    For example, nature is not concerned only with individuals but with the species.Millions of ants must die in order to generate the species.Likewise, if a man sacrifices himself in a battle, it is alsofor the same reason.Finally, Schopenhauer was a raging misogynist for the very simple reason that women are involved with the continuation of the species.He said that in love as well, personal happiness cannot exist because the individual is sacrificed for the species.It is very moving, that attentive way in which a young man looks at a young girl, and vice versa .They only want to know whether they can have children “of good quality.”
    We look for our opposites in the opposite sex: big nose, small nose, etc. Man can never attain individual happiness.Our will to live forces us to consume others or to be consumed by them.As a result, Schopenhauer analyzes various noble feelings (example: the woman’s love for the child); he demonstrates that all that goes against individual happiness.After that, he likewise shows that what one calls happiness or pleasure is nothing more than the