The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1 by

Arthur Schopenhauer

Original Title: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1

ISBN: 0486217612
ISBN13: 9780486217611
Autor: Arthur Schopenhauer/E.F.J. Payne (Translator)
Rating: 4.2 of 5 stars (1819) counts
Original Format: Paperback, 534 pages
Download Format: PDF, TXT, ePub, iBook.
Published: June 1st 1966 / by Dover Publications / (first published 1818)
Language: English
Genre(s):
Philosophy- 668 users
Nonfiction- 79 users
European Literature >German Literature- 26 users
Classics- 25 users

Description:
Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung is one of the most important
philosophical works of the nineteenth century, the basic statement of one important stream of
post-Kantian thought. It is without question Schopenhauer's greatest work. Conceived and
published before the philosopher was 30 and expanded 25 years later, it is the summation of a
lifetime of thought.
For 70 years, the only unabridged English translation of this work was the Haldane-Kemp
collaboration. In 1958, a new translation by E. F. J. Payne appeared that decisively supplanted the
older one. Payne's translation is superior because it corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in
the Haldane-Kemp translation, and it is based on the definitive 1937 German edition of
Schopenhauer's work prepared by Dr. Arthur Hbscher. Payne's edition is the first to translate into
English the text's many quotations in half a dozen languages. It is thus the most useful edition for
the student or teacher.

About Author:
Arthur Schopenhauer 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.

Other Editions:

- (ebook)

- The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)

- The World as Will and Presentation, Vol. 1 (The Longman Library of Primary Sources in
Philosophy)

- Lumea ca vointa si reprezentare #1 (Hardcover)

- The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1 (Kindle Edition)

Books By Author:
- Essays and Aphorisms

- The World as Will and Representation, Vol 2

- The Art of Always Being Right

- On the Suffering of the World (Penguin Great Ideas)

 - Studies in Pessimism: The Essays

Books In The Series:

- The World as Will and Representation, Vol 2

Related Books On Our Site:

- Culture and Value

- The Philosophy of Schopenhauer

- Untimely Meditations
- Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology

- Critique of Judgment

- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

- The Sickness Unto Death (Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 19)

- Nietzsche and Philosophy (European Perspectives)

- Naming and Necessity

- Philosophical Essays

- Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy

- Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

- A Treatise of Human Nature

- Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist

- The Essence of Christianity

 - Matter and Memory

- Word and Object

Rewiews:

Mar 30, 2015

Mark Flores
Rated it: it was amazing
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Two years ago, while reading a philosophy textbook, Ive learned that for German philosopher
Gottfried Leibniz, our world is the best of all possible worlds. This is because God, who is good
and omnipotent, chose to create our world of all the possible worlds. But contrary to that, the
textbook pointed out, another German philosopher will say one hundred years later that our world
is instead the worst of all possible worlds. I found that funny then, being young and innocent, and
somewhat a b
Two years ago, while reading a philosophy textbook, Ive learned that for German philosopher
Gottfried Leibniz, our world is the best of all possible worlds. This is because God, who is good
and omnipotent, chose to create our world of all the possible worlds. But contrary to that, the
textbook pointed out, another German philosopher will say one hundred years later that our world
is instead the worst of all possible worlds. I found that funny then, being young and innocent, and
somewhat a believer of the human race, but nevertheless that was my first encounter with the
philosopher whose philosophy will today serve as my guiding light. That was my first encounter
with Arthur Schopenhauer.
But I didnt study Schopenhauer immediately after I read about him. Back then, I have no reason
to study someone who says our world is the worst of all possible worlds. His philosophy was
simply too bleak, too dark, too pessimistic for me who then believed in utilitarianism, in the
greatest happiness principle. And yet, as my life slowly got screwed up, as I started to make
mistakes that I normally dont, as I got disillusioned with everything I believed onparticularly with
myselfI sometimes said privately that perhaps this Schopenhauer guy is correct, that we live in
the worst of all possible worlds. Yet I still projected a very optimistic character. I still made myself
believe that something better is waiting for me and for everyone else in the future.
It all changed during the summer of 2012. Its a very memorable summer and I think its the turning
point of my life towards maturity. It divided a period of youth and innocence on the one hand, and
the current period of adulthood and disillusionment on the other. Ive lost many things in my
personal life that summer, but Ive gained a lot in my intellectual life. Among others, thats when I
first become acquainted with Scott Fitzgerald and Woody Allen. Thats also the time when I first
seriously read Ernest Hemingway. And more importantly, I started studying Schopenhauer during
the summer of 2012. My first formal meeting with him was through Will Durants The Story of
Philosophy, and the first thing Ive read from Schopenhauer was his infamous essay On Women.
And I wasnt even able to finish Durants chapter on Schopenhauer. I was just too amazed to finish
it. Schopenhauers philosophythe negative way he sees things, his misanthropy, and the hope
that lies in itattracted me. It was what I needed. And because Durant quoted heavily from
Schopenhauer, I had been provided a glimpse of Schopenhauers brilliant writing technique. I was
used to reading complicated and boring philosophers, but when Ive read passages from
Schopenhauer, I realized philosophy could also be interesting and relaxing, like literature, while
keeping its profundity. Ive realized that I could really enjoy philosophy, and not just pretend to
enjoy it, as I had been doing before I met Schopenhauer. I liked philosophy, I believed on it, but I
never enjoyed it. It was painful for me to read all those complicated wanderings about things that
dont make sense. But with Schopenhauer, everything started to make sense.
But I only considered Schopenhauer seriously during the last days of 2012, after I read Irvin
Yaloms novel The Schopenhauer Cure. Reading that novel was one of the most profound literary
experiences that Ive had. Because of it, I realized many things about life my life, and Philip Slate,
the solitary scientist-turned-philosopher, became a mirror of my own mad self. Although I didnt
like the novels ending, I nevertheless got its pointthat Schopenhauer was a cure for those who
are disillusioned, destroyed, and nearly-defeated. And thats when I decided that my thesis would
be about solitudethe novels central theme, one of the virtues glorified by Schopenhauerand
how solitude could lessen our sufferings. It would be about the solaces of solitude in light of Arthur
Schopenhauers curative philosophy. And writing about that, I thought, would not only give me an
undergraduate thesis, it will also provide me a philosophical guide for my life. A guide that I could
use to go away and escape from the muck that has become of my life.
*
After reading The Schopenhauer Cure, I read articles and books about Schopenhauer to know
more about him. I also read some of his essayslike On Authorship and Style, The Emptiness
of Existence, and Metaphysics of Loveto learn more about his philosophy. But I only started to
read his chief work The World as Will and Representation six months later. Perhaps it was
because I was very busy last school year, and I was rather occupied this summer, so I only had
the time to read his chief work during the start of the new school year last June. But albeit being
relatively free this school year, I still felt that I didnt have the time to read it. I just pressured myself
to read the book because by that time I only had less than a year to write my thesis. I needed to
read The World as Will and Representation already, even if I would read it slowly and a few pages
at a time. Thats better compared to not reading it at all.
Aside from the academic necessity, I really wanted to read the book. I was then facing so much
emotional stresses that I was in desperate need to be cured by Schopenhauer. Reading articles
about him helps, reading his essays eases the pain, but I know that their curative effects are
nothing compared to the cure itself that I could acquire only from reading The World as Will and
Representation. As Schopenhauer himself pointed out, all else that Schopenhauer wrote are but
footnotes to his chief work. If you really want to know Schopenhauer, you got to read the four
books of The World as Will and Representationtheres no shortcut, no easier way, no other way.
And so, when the semester has started, whenever Im free, I read ten and sometimes twenty
pages at a time from the book. Sometimes I read fast, but sometimes, when the pages are heavily
filled with wisdom, I read slowly to enjoy the philosophic experience. I took notes, I underlined
Schopenhauers well-written passages, and I related his expositions about the nothingness of life
to my own life.
I read the book on McDonalds, on my dorm at Manila, on my room at Tarlaceverywhere. But
there are days when I failed to read from the book, particularly when Im busy with school and
occupied reading other books or doing other things, so I didnt finish the 400-paged book in a short
period of time. In fact, after five months, when the semester has already ended, I still havent
finished the book. I was just, then, on the fourth and last book of The World as Will and
Representation.
But last 13 November 2013, while I was on our universitys library, alone, waiting for a meeting, I
read from Schopenhauer that for those in whom the will has turned and negated itself, this world
of ours which is so very real with all its suns and galaxies isnothing. And that was the end of it.
That was the last line of Schopenhauers chief work. Of course there was still the appendix which
contained Schopenhauers critique to Kantian philosophy, and his supplements for the four books
of The World as Will and Representation, but for my current purposes what I read was already
enough. I had already grasped Schopenhauers philosophy. The rest, of course, are merely
academic trifles, and there will be time in the future to read them. But right now, I had already read
what I needed, I had already acquired a decent understanding of Schopenhauers philosophy, and
more than those, I had already consumed the curative Schopenhauerian pessimism. Im only
waiting for it to take effect.
*
And what did I learn from the book? Many things, of course. But each book from The World as Will
and Representation contains one important concept from which other concepts would come from.
From the first book, Ive learned that the world is divided between will (Wille), the thing in itself,
and representation (Vorstellung), the appearance of the thing in itself. The world we perceive is
the world of representation, and this world is in space and time, and it is governed by the principle
of individuation and the principle of sufficient reason. But the world of representation is not real. It
is just a copy world, an illusion. And that is why everything that we perceive in this world,
particularly the individuality of everythingour differentiation from the world and everything in
itis just an illusion. This is because what is real is the will, which is just one, and everything else
are but appearances and manifestations of the will.
The reality of the will is what I learned from the second book. The reality that you and me and
everyone else, and everything else, is a manifestation of this ever hungry, ever striving will. And
so, being manifestations of the will, its hunger and striving is also manifested on us. We feel a lack
in our egos and in our bodies, we desire for many things, but because the will is never satisfied,
we are also never satisfied. We have this hunger for material things, for fame and power, and sex,
and our hunger could be satisfied once in a while, but never wholly, never totally. Our hunger is
essentially insatiable. And so, we spend most of our lives dissatisfied and in pain. Sometimes, the
pain could be negated and that is what we call happiness, but happiness lasts only for a while,
only to be replaced by a new pain, or boredom. Because when we are always satisfied, we would
still suffer from ennuisuffering is thus our constant state.
The third book gave me hope. It argued that our sufferings could stop once we stop being
controlled by the will, once we free ourselves from the whims and caprices of the will, once we
stop willing. But the third book didnt give the cure itselfit just gave an appearance of the cure,
which could be found in art, the clearest appearances of the will. According to Schopenhauer,
works of artpaintings and sculptures, literary works, and musical pieceshas the ability to calm
and silence the will. Because of their beauty, because of their almost accurate manifestation of the
will, works of art gives us an aesthetic experience. And this aesthetic experience could make us,
at least for a while, a pure, will-less, painless, timeless subject of cognition. We forget about our
own individuality when we perceive things aesthetically, we identify ourselves with everyone and
everything elsealbeit ephemerallyand we almost see the world as it really is. And this, for a
while, relieves us from pain and boredom, from suffering.
But the path that would free us totally and wholly from the will, the path that will bring us to lasting
peace, is discussed on the fourth book. Aside from discussing his ethicshis concept of egoism,
malice, and compassionSchopenhauer discussed on the fourth book of The World as Will and
Representation his concept of the denial of the will. Once we deny the will, Schopenhauer argues,
all of our sufferings would vanish. Because when we deny the will, we would lose our egos, our
individuation from the world, and we would now see everyone as our fellow-sufferer and
everything in the world as fellow-manifestations of the same will. We would understand the illusion
that is the world of representation, and instead we would realize that we are that. As I see it, the
denial of the will is the absolute acceptance of realityof all the evils and hungers and ennuis of
reality.
There are two ways how one could deny the will. The first is through ascetism, which is perfect
chastity and intentional poverty, and this is how Eastern monks and Christian saints had denied
the will. The second path is through experiencing a great amount of suffering and resigning from
life because of it. The second path is the rarer path, and it only happens when the personal
experience of suffering had broken ones will, making one renounce everything that he had
previously desired. Either way, Schopenhauers presentation is rather suggestive and
Orientaland very romanticmeaning his arguments does not rest on reason, but on intuition,
and his emphasis is not on theory, but on application. But I, at least, understood what
Schopenhauer wants to say. I had heard his suggestions. And through his philosophy, I saw the
nothingness of life and the hope albeit that nothingness.
*
I couldnt express how Schopenhauers philosophy is a cure. Perhaps its a rather personal
experience and you just wait for it to happen. And I dont even know if it would really cure me from
my sufferings. Nevertheless, to truly feel Schopenhauers curative philosophy, you must read his
chief work. You must read The World as Will and Representation, the four books of it, and you
must not read Schopenhauers chief work critically, academically, and philosophicallybecause
you will not get Schopenhauers point through that. To appreciate the curative effects of
Schopenhauers philosophy, you must read him innocently, romantically, and aesthetically. You
must let Schopenhauers prose carry you away from the web of my (illusion) and into the bliss of
nirva (enlightenment)thats the only way for you to appreciate Schopenhauers philosophy.
But theres no guarantee that Schopenhauers philosophy would work for you. Like any other
medicine, Schopenhauers curative philosophy is just for certain illnessesit could not solve all
pathologies. But I felt that it could solve mine, and I hope that it will, because the problem with me
is my restlessness and madnesswhich are characteristic of the will. I dont know if I have the
fortitude to become an ascetic, but I had already experienced a personal suffering that almost led
me to renouncing life. Perhaps I could take the second path, and I am trying to take that path, but
it is not easy because Schopenhauers path to the denial of the will is like the Taoit is
paradoxical, elusive, and mystical.
Right now, I view this world, our world, as the worst of all possible worlds. Of course this doesnt
mean that the world really is the worst of all possible worlds. All that evil and suffering and
boredom exists only in my world, in my perspective. But the world as it really is, the will itself,
could neither be the best or the worst of all possibilities. This is because the will is the one and
only possibility, and human concepts such as good and evil does not apply to it. Nothing applies to
the will. And that is what the world itself, with all its philosophies and art and love, isnothing. I
could already see the nothingness of reality, and although my perspective is still vulnerable to the
violent desires of the will, although it is still susceptible to the disturbances of circumstances,
although I am still a servant of the past, I had already seen nothingness.
And I know I would one day get away from my entanglement in the web of my. I know I would
eventually recognize the illusoriness of my many fears which brings me suffering, as I would
accept the illusoriness of the few joys that causes me happiness. Im very hopeful that that would
happen, and having hope in this hopeless existence is the effect of Schopenhauers pessimism.
Mystical optimism is the cure hiding in Schopenhauers philosophy. And the paradox lies in making
the worst of all possible worlds the best of all possible worlds. And you do that through art, not
philosophy.
24 November 2013
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