The World as Will and Representation

The World as Will and Representation (original German title, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung; sometimes translated as The World as Will and Idea) is the central work of Arthur Schopenhauer and one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century.

Criticism

• Kant saw inner-sense as subject to time. Schopenhauer was thus violating Kant's laws when he said that the thing-in-itself could be known through inner-experience.
• His notion that we can know things about the will but never actually directly know the will is very clumsy and vague.
• The concepts of time and space in the work have since been supplanted by physical knowledge of spacetime.
• The will is seen as blind and chaotic, yet it manifests itself in teleological nature, in the phenomenal realm. To explain this, he employs Plato's Ideas as an intermediary, yet does not explain whether they are part of the will or the representation. He later says that art involves the study of the Platonic Idea, yet this would be hard to apply to paintings of obscure objects.
• His view on suicide is widely ridiculed. It seems to have been taken from Buddhist teachings on the subject, yet Schopenhauer did not believe in thorough-going reincarnation. It seems to be of little importance to the man that has committed suicide and left the horrors of the world behind that the will lives on afterwards.
• He contradicts himself over asceticism. At times, he says that it involves the most terrible pain, yet he also says that it leads to a cheerfulness that contrasts with the restless suffering of those that still will. Also, he mentions accounts of ascetics feeding themselves to crocodiles and being buried alive as examples of the denial of the will, but then says that the only form of suicide that involves a denial of the will comes from starvation.
• Perhaps, the biggest criticism for most people is that Schopenhauer preached asceticism as the answer to the problems of the world, yet made no attempt to practise what he preached. He conserved his money strigently, ate at fancy restaurants and had more than one affair. He wrote, "In general, it is a strange demand on a moralist that he should commend no other virtue than that which he himself possesses." (The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, § 68) However, some accounts of his life, in philosophy dictionaries, tend to pay a little too much attention to his private life and exaggerate parts. Bertrand Russell produced a very derogatory article on Schopenhauer, in this tone. The infamous story of him throwing a woman down a stairs is often told without mentioning the provocation he received beforehand or the possibility of deception on her part, and there is evidence that he was a very polite and courteous man in his dealings with others at his favourite restaurant.
• Spinoza's understanding of Hinduism is popular misconception. The concept "Thou art That" suggests not negation but assimilation (of the individual with the whole).
• If one understands that Life is eternal, as he says, life need not be evil (even if life is all suffering, we still continue to live, as he himself said individual die but species do not.
• The principle of Buddha that "desire is the root cause of all sorrow" means controlling the five senses and by desire Buddha did not mean "Will" and Will to Live is not want but instinct.
• Schopenhauer says if all desires (Will) is conquered, ennui sets in, but it actually does not. When desires are controlled - Mind is controlled not the feelings. Feelings remain but they are refined and face no obstacles from Reson. It opens up vistas to Bliss not ennui.