Philosophy

 Pessimism is a characteristic of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy.  He sees pointlessness dreadfulness  in living as he writes: “Many miliions, united into nations, strive for the common good, each individual for his own sake; but many thousands fall into sacrifice for it.  Now senseless delusion, now intriguing politics, incite them to wars with one another.  All push and drive, some plotting and planning, others acting; the tumult is indescribable.  But what is the ultimate aim of it all? To sustain the ephemeral and harassed individuals through a short span of time, in the most fortunate case with endurable want and comparative painlessness.  Seized by this, every little thing works with the utmost exertion of its strength for something that has no value. But on closer consideration, we shall find here also that it is a rather blind urge, an impulse wholly without ground and motive (qtd. In Magee 146).”  What is this force that drives all individuals to strive so much for his own survival but renders life as meaningless at the same time?  Why does it induce senseless delusion and ultimately, destruction?  Schopenhauer credits all of this to the will-to-live.

Schopenhauer defines will as the foundation of everything and a blind force that drives humans to survive and keep on going. It is a strong but blind force but is devoid of knowledge.  Schopenhauer believes that the world's reality has two sides.  They are considered one but it is double-aspected; the world is both a will and a representation. They cannot be related by causality.  Will and representation can be compared to a the two sides of the coin.  They belong to different sides but they are ultimately found on one coin.  The world as a representation is a world that is composed of our ideas, representations, or of objects. The world as a will is the world as it in itself.  The will is a manifestation of all our ideas; the will is not the idea itself.  Rather, it is the thing-in-itself. It is the underlying reality of the world and all objective phenomena are dependent on it for their being.  The will is the manifestation of our own ideas and representations.

The will cannot be defined by as an aim or purpose of something because the will does not have a direction or a purpose.  It does not follow the principle of sufficient reason because the will transcends time, space, plurality, causality, reason, and motive - the elements that define the principle of sufficient reason.  Neither can it be described as conscious, because consciousness implies a relationship between a subject and an object.  Therefore, as will-driven humans, we are considered willing individuals but not knowing. We can never understand the will as the thing-in-itself.  The will is such a strong force, not even intellect can guide it.
 
Schopenhauer attributes all the negative human behavior to will because will is a blind impulse, aimless, lawless, free, and devoid of knowledge.  Will causes the human beings to strive for survival, most of the time at the expense of the others. We, willinglly but unknowingly, cause the daily sufferings in our lives because our actions are driven by will and not by a direct purpose.

Schopenhauer and Sigmund Freud have similarities in their schools of thought.  For instance, Freud's iceberg model of the id-ego-superego shows that id, the part of our mind that disregards conformity, decorum, and morals for individual pleasure, is the biggest part that is “submerged in the water.” Hence, the human is largely driven by his id but luckily, he has his a super-ego to help him recognize his morals and an ego to balance the super-ego and the id realistically.  Ayn Rand's philosophy does not conform to Schopenhauer's and Freud's.    Rand believes that the human is still driven by rationality and that the human has a proper moral purpose in life. Unlike Schopenhauer, Ayn posits that knowledge is essential to man's survival. She insists that ethics are necessary to help man achieve survival.  Schopenhauer's philosophy on will may be valid up to some point.  But it is also possible that it is not solely will that drives human beings to survive.

Human beings may be at war with each other often times but there are equally many instances that prove that human beings are able to cohabitate peacefully, with conscious effort.  Clearly, factors other than will are operant in a human's life.