Book contents
- Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Texts, Translations, and Abbreviations
- Introduction: Schopenhauer in the Time of Pandemic
- Chapter 1 Different Kinds of Willing in Schopenhauer
- Chapter 2 Resignation
- Chapter 3 Appreciating Nature Aesthetically in The World as Will and Representation: Between Kant and Hegel
- Chapter 4 The Hour of Consecration: Inspiration and Cognition in Schopenhauer’s Genius
- Chapter 5 Experiencing Character as a Key for a Present-Day Interpretation of Schopenhauer
- Chapter 6 Schopenhauer in Dialogue with Fichte and Schelling: Schopenhauer’s Critique of Moral Fatalism and His Turn to Freedom from Willing
- Chapter 7 Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Religion: (Hopeless) Romanticism?
- Chapter 8 Maja and Nieban in The World as Will and Representation
- Chapter 9 Schopenhauer, Universal Guilt, and Asceticism as the Expression of Universal Compassion
- Chapter 10 Seeing Things: Schopenhauer’s Kant Critique and Direct Realism
- Chapter 11 The Sciences in The World as Will and Representation
- Chapter 12 Pushing Back: Reading The World as Will and Representation as a Woman
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Chapter 5 - Experiencing Character as a Key for a Present-Day Interpretation of Schopenhauer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2022
- Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Texts, Translations, and Abbreviations
- Introduction: Schopenhauer in the Time of Pandemic
- Chapter 1 Different Kinds of Willing in Schopenhauer
- Chapter 2 Resignation
- Chapter 3 Appreciating Nature Aesthetically in The World as Will and Representation: Between Kant and Hegel
- Chapter 4 The Hour of Consecration: Inspiration and Cognition in Schopenhauer’s Genius
- Chapter 5 Experiencing Character as a Key for a Present-Day Interpretation of Schopenhauer
- Chapter 6 Schopenhauer in Dialogue with Fichte and Schelling: Schopenhauer’s Critique of Moral Fatalism and His Turn to Freedom from Willing
- Chapter 7 Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Religion: (Hopeless) Romanticism?
- Chapter 8 Maja and Nieban in The World as Will and Representation
- Chapter 9 Schopenhauer, Universal Guilt, and Asceticism as the Expression of Universal Compassion
- Chapter 10 Seeing Things: Schopenhauer’s Kant Critique and Direct Realism
- Chapter 11 The Sciences in The World as Will and Representation
- Chapter 12 Pushing Back: Reading The World as Will and Representation as a Woman
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Summary
Matthias Koßler argues that Schopenhauer's theory of character is relevant to the recent revival of the concept in the social sciences. He argues that the theory of character Schopenhauer presented in his later essays is inconsistent with the theory developed in The World as Will and Representation. In the prize essays, Schopenhauer develops the Kantian distinction between intelligible and empirical character, treating the former as an innate, unchangeable metaphysical entity, while in WWR Schopenhauer clearly emphasizes the importance of empirical evidence, even for his metaphysics, so that intelligible character must be thought of in relation to experience. Furthermore, reason itself is an essential component of being human, and rationality involves the possibility of partly resisting the effect of a motive on the will, hindering it from achieving expression in action. Thus, human species character cannot just be a set of fixed properties, but rather a general field of possibilities by means of which we use our rationality to individualize ourselves. In conclusion, Koßler recommends avoiding the Kantian terminology of intelligible versus empirical character that achieves prominence in the prize essays. Instead, we should speak of a general concept of personhood that is necessarily specialized into an individual character.
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- Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation'A Critical Guide, pp. 104 - 122Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022