Abstract

In his notebook from 1813, Schopenhauer hoped of his philosophy that one day someone would come along to "restore the antique." I "restore" Schopenhauer's position in the history of philosophy by relating it to his predecessors and his successors. Three main problems are explored: the relationship between reason and the passions; free-will and determinism; and the tension between consciousness and the unconscious. ;In chapter one, I show the connections between Schopenhauer's views regarding free-will and determinism and the relationship between intellect and will as they parallel the empiricist tradition from Bacon to Hume. In chapter two, I lay out Schopenhauer's modifications of Kant's positions concerning causality, transcendental freedom, and also Schopenhauer's rejection of Kant's "Refutation of Idealism." The connections to the empiricist and Kantian positions show that Schopenhauer clearly belongs in the 'mainstream' of the history of philosophy. ;The third chapter marks a transition to Schopenhauer's successors, in which I discuss Nietzsche's rejection of Schopenhauer's position on transcendental freedom, as well as providing a transition to my next chapter by pointing out Nietzsche's conception of the unconscious. In the fourth chapter, Freud's ego/id distinction is compared to Schopenhauer's intellect/will distinction. Additionally, I discuss Freud's death instinct in relation to Schopenhauer's advocacy of a denial of the will-to-live. In the final chapter, I show Schopenhauer's presence in the writings of the early Wittgenstein. In particular, I consider Wittgenstein's views regarding freedom and causality, solipsism, and value in the Tractatus. By clarifying the connections between Schopenhauer and these three later thinkers, I stress the importance of Schopenhauer for twentieth century culture and philosophy