Arthur Schopenhauer
1788-1860 · German Idealism · Renowned
Schopenhauer was a German pessimist who said that underneath the world you see lies a blind striving Will, hungry and aimed at nothing, and that every living thing is that Will made visible. So wanting never ends and satisfaction never holds. He read Kant through Indian thought and left three ways out: art, pity, and the refusal to want anything at all. Music, he held, reaches the Will itself.
Signature
The position Schopenhauer is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed
- Human Nature
- Will-to-Power / Irredeemably Corrupted
Positions on the 12 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Mechanistic (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Individualism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- The Divine
- strongly leans Indescribable (100 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Identity
- leans Changing (75 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed (0 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity (0 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Ethics
- leans Means (75 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (75 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
8 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Schopenhauer refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Atheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Other
What is your ideal form of government? - Good and Evil
- Moral Tragedy
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Annihilation
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Conceptual Mediation
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Intuition / Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Relational
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Hard Determinism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Other
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Cyclical Return
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Self-Sovereignty
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Expression
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Other
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Annihilation / Union with the One
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Irrational Driver
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Will-to-Power / Irredeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- All Beings
What is your primary bond and loyalty?