The World as Will and Idea by Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer is a German philosopher who raises question on existing assumption about free will. He stands in favor of the existence of free will. In other words, he means to say that in the state of willlessness, free will operates in the activities of human being. According to him, idea is will objectified. When will becomes object the idea of thing, becomes eminent.

His 'aesthetic ' forms a part of his philosophical system. He holds the belief that the senses cannot apprehend (grasp) the reality, in saying so, he sound Platonic. But he is rather Kantian in saying that intellect provides knowledge at the same time that it shuts up off (stop) from an apprehension of “things in themselves”. We assume rationality in things and events based on 'principal of sufficient reason’. In accordance with this principle and its laws, our mind contract the concept of the world as idea or representation, but the world so constructed is only the world of appearance.

The world of will is another aspect of the world, which can be known directly only if we manage to release ourselves from the principle of sufficient reasoning. Indeed all phenomena manifest or represent will. We can be aware of will rationally only in its impurity’. When the mind is released from the principle of sufficient reason, the work of art takes on a transcendent universality and the mind achieves a kind of freedom, confronting pure will. Aesthetic freedom however is fleeting. Man always returns from aesthetic experience to the area of human conflict, where the various manifestations of the will endlessly strive against each other.

Schopenhauer is an idealist influenced by eastern philosophy. Primarily, he divides the world in to two categories: the world of reality and the world of appearance. The world we perceive through sense organs is the world of appearance. It is also the world of sufficient reasoning. The world of reality, on the other hand, is beyond the world of sufficient reasoning. The world of reality can be divided in to two categories: the world of idea and the world of will. Will is nothing, but the desire. The will is the ultimate cause of suffering. The present reality is will and when it is broken, we can reach to willingness (pure will). The world of willlessness is free and equal to the ideal world of Plato. The world of will is the world of desire like the "Veil of Maya". We are guided by will, which is formless (like Schiller's sensuous drive). The reason of our suffering is just because we are conscious.

There are two forces in this world- will and reasoning. Both of them are the cause of our suffering. Therefore, we have to transcend this world to go to the world of willlessness. There are two ways to got to the world of willlessness- aesthetic art and platonic contemplation. The art has temporary willlessness but the Platonic contemplation is permanent, sages achieve this. There is no desire, no will in this contemplation.

Only the pure willless knowing can relate us with everything perfect. But this state of perfection is short lived. We fall back to the same state because we lack genius. He divides aesthetic experience or art in to two parts: beautiful and sublime. Beautiful is the object of our aesthetic contemplation and sublime is that state of pure knowledge, which is attained by a forcible and conscious breaking away from the relation of the same object to the will.

Beauty gives pleasure without any effort but to get sublime art, we have to labor. Art however has transitory effect of pleasure, temporary state of willlessness but contemplation, which treats the person as the subject of idea not as individual has permanent willlessness and get freedom in the state of willlessness.

According to Schopenhauer, tragedy is a summit of poetic art. It is the representation of the terrible ride of life. It further, reveals the nature of the world and the existence. It is strife of will with itself. In this sense, tragedy carries the tragic vision of life. Then he talks about lyric. In lyric, who represents and what is represented are related to One. Lyric reflects the inner nature of all mankind. In it, the idea of man is truly represented.