Schopenhauer's Will
Imagine every morning when you get out of bed, you're thrust into an existential crisis. That's probably what life was like for Arthur Schopenhauer. Throughout Schopenhauer's education in Europe, he was taught skepticism and critiques on previous philosophers that denounced faith and a divine plan, rather to focus on self-consciousness and rationalization of self. This philosophical education gave Schopenhauer thoughts on the supreme principle and he came up with his own conceptual consciousness. This concept of Schopenhauer's Will is explained through his separation of Will and Intellect, the cohesion of mind and body, and his presupposition of the inexistence of God.
Schopenhauer takes the traditional idealist theories of German philosophers and elevates them to a new level. Whereas before, philosophers believed in introspection which would lead to the discovery of self, and more importantly self actualization; for Schopenhauer, he believed that introspection will not lead to a discovery of self-consciousness, but rather one finds their "Will," or a mindless, non-rational urge to produce actions based off of our instincts.
This Will is the natural force that drives everything in nature to function as it does and is the reason the world continues to exist. This doesn't mean that humans are simply acting as animals with not thought for consequences or outcomes, but it separates causality from action. The Will is the raw force that causes humans to clash into each other in daily interaction, (Stanford.edu). It is why we do everything, it encompasses hope, fear, repulsion, attraction, etc. It is our subconscious motivation for everything we do. The people and places and objects and scenery that make up our world are part of our individuated intellect and are considered separate to our Will, according to Schopenhauer.
The Intellect is the part of ourselves where we store the...