Abstract

Schopenhauer is acknowledged as “the philosopher of pessimism” and author of a system that teaches how art and morality can help humans navigate life in “the worst of all possible worlds.” This dominant image has cut off an important branch of Schopenhauer’s tree of philosophy—metaphysics of nature and its constant dialogue with the sciences of the time. Beginning with a reappraisal of Schopenhauer’s system as a whole—which he defined as a “single thought”—this book interprets his metaphysics as a knowledge that brings value and meaning to our lives. More specifically, Schopenhauer’s writings show that he saw science as adding value to metaphysical knowledge. Understanding Schopenhauer’s metaphysics therefore requires both an understanding of the dialogue he maintained with the natural sciences and an appreciation of the role of the natural sciences in his philosophical project. And exploring the relationship between science and metaphysics provides a new perspective on his metaphysics and its development between the first edition of The World as Will and Representation (1819) and 1844, when Schopenhauer added a second volume of Supplements to his work. In 1819, he valued Schelling’s philosophy of nature as a model for establishing a link between metaphysical speculation and science. In the years that followed, he assessed the implications for metaphysics of the transformation of scientific research into a practice increasingly independent of philosophy. Such an assessment also affected his metaphysics, and even the will and Ideas underwent a process of revision.