An Analysis of the Six Dimensions of Modernity in Schopenhauer's Philosophy

1. Introduction

After the Renaissance, human beings who were constructed as ego were rescued from
the greater self as God, but this seemingly freed actually lost their support.
Since then, God as all guarantees and transcendental premise of human beings has
been cancelled. . It is true that once God is cancelled, it means that human beings
have lost a universal guarantee. Therefore, the construction of the subject and
self has become the core proposition of modern philosophical theory. Therefore,
human beings began to repeatedly demonstrate the reality of the world and the self,
and constantly constructed the meaning of existence for life. Therefore,
Schopenhauer is a critical inheritance of Kant's philosophy. Therefore, on the
basis of his criticism of Kant's philosophy, Schopenhauer constructed six
dimensions of modernity in philosophical theory.

2. The Six Dimensions of Modernity in Schopenhauer's Philosophy

1. Subjectivity

In philosophy, Kant discovered man as a transcendental pure form, thus establishing

"man" and constructing man's cognitive ability. It can be seen that it was Kant who
discovered man, but Schopenhauer thought that Kant was not brave enough to state
the truth in his philosophy. As a post-Kantian philosophy, Kant's philosophy
naturally becomes the theoretical premise of Schopenhauer's philosophical research,
that is, Schopenhauer's philosophy naturally aims to construct philosophical
subjectivity, that is, Schopenhauer is based on the construction of subjectivity.
and cognitive abilities are constructed. Different from Kant, Schopenhauer
constructs the world as the representation of "I", which highlights the logical
priority of the subject, thus highlighting the key to the existence of the subject;
in terms of human cognitive ability, Kant's philosophy still retains God position,
while Schopenhauer's philosophy cancels God and attributes reason to human beings.
Therefore, one of the modern characteristics of Schopenhauer's philosophy is
subjectivity.

2. Rationality

Different from Kant's theoretical construction, Schopenhauer attributes reason to

human beings, and believes that human beings are the sole owners of reason.
Schopenhauer listed the differences between humans and animals: "Animals have
feelings and intuition; humans also need to think and know. Desires are common to
humans and animals. Animals use gestures and sounds to convey their feelings and
emotions, while humans It is the use of language to convey thoughts to others or to
conceal thoughts. Language is the first product of his reason and is a necessary
tool for reason...Only with the help of language can reason accomplish its most
important tasks.” [1] P71 From this , Schopenhauer believes that only humans can
understand the world, and construct an abstract world with language. Therefore, the
second characteristic of the modernity of Schopenhauer's philosophy is rationality.

3. Voluntarism

Schopenhauer stated at the beginning of his masterpiece "The World as Will and
Representation" that the world is my representation. Schopenhauer constructed will-
only ontological philosophy, which regards will as the origin of the world. The
construction of will theory is not only based on the criticism of Kant's
philosophy, but also absorbs the essence of Indian Vedanta philosophy. According to
Schopenhauer, there is nothing we [can] know or conceive of except will and
appearance. If we were to attach to this world of bodies the greatest reality we
know, which exists immediately only in our representations, we would give it that
reality which each of us has in our own body, Because the body is the most real
thing for anyone. [1] P167 From this, Schopenhauer constructed the philosophy of
the body, holding that the body "is essentially different from all other objects.
Among all objects, it is the only one that is both will and appearance, while the
rest, on the contrary, are only appearances. They are just illusions; therefore his
body is the only real individual in the world, that is, the only phenomenon of will
and the only direct object of the subject." [1] P155 Therefore, the third
characteristic of Schopenhauer's philosophical modernity is Will only.

4. Humanism

In the construction of Schopenhauer's philosophical theory, the subject, as the

logical predecessor of the world, is the only subject. Therefore, whether it is the
existence of the world or the understanding of the world, everything can only start
from the subject. In Schopenhauer's view, "If people put aside the subject, all
objective things will disappear completely." Therefore, the characteristic of
Schopenhauer's philosophy lies in humanism, that is, everything is human-centered,
and everything starts from human beings. "All objects that have no organs at all,
no response to stimuli, no knowledge of motives, their motion must obey these
invariable laws. Therefore we must take the key to understand the nature of things
themselves-this is only direct knowledge. Our essence can only be obtained - to
understand the phenomena of the inorganic world, which is the phenomenon that is
farthest from us among all phenomena.” [1] P173 Everything in the world is blind
and ignorant, and only human beings are located in the objectification of will
Superlative—as the sole owner of reason. Therefore, the fourth characteristic of
the modernity of Schopenhauer's philosophy is humanism.

5. Nihilism

Just because Schopenhauer constructed the ontology of will in philosophy, it seems

that firstly the world is emptied, and at the same time the subject is emptied.
Therefore, both the world and the subject become impulsive existences full of
blindness and ignorance. "has succeeded in conveying the definite truth that the
world in which we live and exists is, in its entirety, wholly will and at the same
time wholly representation, that is, the representation itself presupposes a form ,
that is, the form of object and subject, so representation is relative. If we ask
what remains after removing this form and all subordinate forms expressed by the
principle of sufficient reason, then this is different in kind from representation
It cannot be anything other than will.” [1] P231 Therefore, Schopenhauer’s
philosophy inevitably gives people the feeling of nothingness, and therefore, the
fifth characteristic of the modernity of Schopenhauer’s philosophy is nihilism.

6. Utilitarianism

As the representation of will, Schopenhauer believes that the phenomenal world has
three characteristics, which are external purpose, unity of representation and
will, and adaptability and accommodating. The so-called external purposiveness
means that things are presented as the inevitable appearance of the will, as
Schopenhauer said, "But we also see the internal and appropriate objects of the
will that are arranged in a hierarchy. The inseparable necessity of nature is
manifested by an external necessity in all will phenomena.” [1] P220 The so-called
unity of appearance and will refers to the will-only ontology mentioned above, that
is, Neither the world nor the subject is irrepressibly the representation of the
will. The so-called adaptability and accommodating nature of the phenomenal world
refer to the relationship between things and the coordination of survival. As
Schopenhauer said, "We must assume a general mutual accommodation and mutual
accommodation between all the phenomena of one will; but we shall see more clearly
that all temporal determinations should be here Except, because the Idea is outside
of time. Accordingly, every phenomenon must be adapted to the environment into
which it enters, but the environment must also be adapted to the phenomenon,
although the phenomenon occupies a later place in time. much.

3. Remaining remarks

In fact, long before Schopenhauer, philosophy of doctrine had already emerged.

Philosophers such as Descartes and Berkeley constructed theories of subjectivity,
but in Schopenhauer's view, these theories did not profoundly reveal the situation
of the subject. As a loyal successor of Kant's philosophy, Schopenhauer believes
that Kant's philosophy has actually clearly revealed the fundamental truth, and
this becomes the theoretical starting point of Schopenhauer's philosophy, that is,
the world as appearance and will. Therefore, the will-only ontology constructed by
Schopenhauer is of great significance.