Philosophy and aphorisms of Arthur Schopenhauer. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: biography and works

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) belongs to that galaxy of European philosophers who had a significant influence on the philosophy and culture of their time and the subsequent century. In 1819, his main work, “The World as Will and Idea,” was published, in which he gave his system of philosophical knowledge. This book was not a success, because in Germany at that time there were enough authorities who controlled the minds of their contemporaries. Among them, perhaps the first figure was Hegel, who had very strained relations with Schopenhauer.

A peculiarity of A. Schopenhauer's personality was his gloomy, gloomy and irritable character, which was reflected in the general mood of his philosophy. It admittedly bears the stamp of deep pessimism. But with all this, he was a very gifted person with versatile erudition and great literary skill; spoke many ancient and modern languages and was one of the most educated people of his time.

In Schopenhauer's philosophy, two characteristic points are usually distinguished: - the doctrine of will and pessimism.

The doctrine of the will is the semantic core of Schopenhauer's philosophical system. The mistake of all philosophers, he declared, was that they saw the basis of man in the intellect, when in fact it lies exclusively in the will, which is completely different from the intellect, and only this is original. Moreover, will is not only the basis of man, but it is also the internal basis of the world, its essence. It is eternal, not subject to destruction, and in itself is baseless, that is, self-sufficient.

It is necessary to distinguish two worlds in connection with the doctrine of the will: I. The world where the law of causality reigns (the one in which we live), and II. A world where it is not the specific forms of things, not phenomena, that are important, but general transcendental entities (a world where we do not exist). In everyday life, the will has an empirical character, it is subject to limitation; if this had not happened, a situation with Buridan’s donkey would have arisen: placed between two armfuls of hay, on opposite sides and at the same distance from him, he, possessing free will, would have died of hunger, not being able to make a choice. A person constantly makes choices in everyday life, but at the same time he inevitably limits his free will.

Outside the empirical world, the will is independent of the law of causality. Here she is abstracted from the concrete form of things; it is conceived outside of any time as the essence of the world and man. Will is the “thing-in-itself” of I. Kant; it is not empirical, but transcendental in nature. In the spirit of I. Kant's reasoning about a priori (pre-experimental) forms of sensibility - time and space, about the categories of reason (unity, plurality, integrity, reality, causality, etc.), Schopenhauer reduces them to a single law of sufficient reason. Its simplest form is time.

The world, taken as a “thing-in-itself,” is baseless will, and its visible image is matter. The existence of matter is its “action”. Only by acting does it “fill” space and time. Well acquainted with natural science, Schopenhauer explained all manifestations of nature by the endless fragmentation of the world will, its multitude of “objectifications.” Among them is the human body. It connects the individual, his idea, with the world will and, being its messenger, determines the state of the human mind. Through the body, the world will acts as the main spring of all human actions.

Every act of the will is an act of the body, and vice versa. From here we come to an explanation of the nature of affects and motives of behavior, which are always determined by specific desires in this place, at this time, in these circumstances. The will itself is outside the law of motivation, but it is the basis of a person’s character. It is “given” to man and man, as a rule, is unable to change it. This idea of Schopenhauer can be disputed, but later it will be reproduced by S. Freud in connection with his doctrine of the unconscious.

The highest level of objectification of will is associated with the manifestation of individuality in the form of the human spirit. It manifests itself with the greatest force in art, where the will reveals itself in its pure form. Schopenhauer's theory of genius is associated with this: genius does not follow the law of sufficient reason (consciousness following this law creates sciences that are the fruit of the mind and rationality), genius is free, since it is infinitely distant from the world of cause and effect and, because of this, is close to insanity . Thus genius and madness have a common ground.

Schopenhauer declares that freedom should be sought not in our individual actions, as rational philosophy does, but in the entire being and essence of man himself. In our current life, we see many actions caused by reasons and circumstances, as well as time and space, and our freedom is limited by them. In this reasoning, freedom is not expelled, but only moves from the sphere of current life to a higher sphere, but not so clearly accessible to our consciousness. Freedom in its essence is transcendental. This means that every person is initially and fundamentally free and everything he does is based on this freedom.

The theme of pessimism is revealed in the fact that all pleasure, all happiness, which people strive for at all times, have a negative character, since they are the absence of something bad. Our desire stems from the acts of volition of our body, but desire is suffering due to the lack of what we want. A satisfied desire inevitably gives birth to another, and again we lust. If we imagine all this in space as conditional points, then the voids between them will be filled with suffering, from which desires will arise. This means that it is not pleasure, but suffering - this is the positive, constant, unchanging, always present thing that we feel.

Schopenhauer claims that everything around us bears traces of bleakness; everything pleasant is mixed with the unpleasant; every pleasure destroys itself, every relief leads to new hardships. We must be unhappy in order to be happy, moreover, we cannot help but be unhappy, and the reason for this is the person himself, his will. In fact, need, deprivation, sorrow are crowned with death; The ancient Indian Brahmins saw this as the goal of life (Schopenhauer refers to the Vedas and Upanishads). In death we are afraid of losing the body, and it is the will itself. This is immortality in time: in death the intellect perishes, but the will is not subject to death.

His universal pessimism was in sharp contrast to the mentality of Enlightenment philosophy and classical German philosophy. Schopenhauer led man to the idea of what is the highest value of life. Pleasure, luck, happiness in themselves, or everything that precedes them, is also valuable for us?

5. “Philosophy of life.”

In the last third of the 19th century, a movement was formed in Germany and France that received the general name “philosophy of life.” One of the researchers of the philosophy of life, G. Rickert, noted its desire not only to comprehensively consider life as a single entity, but also to make it the center of the worldview, the key to all philosophical knowledge.

On the one hand, showing interest in life was an act of humanism, because life as a value was taken under protection, attention was drawn to it, and its fundamental nature was emphasized. On the other hand, the concept of “life” turned out to be ambiguous and uncertain; therefore, the whole philosophy of life took on a discordant appearance. Accustomed to strict and rational forms, to precise knowledge and its practical usefulness, the European consciousness could hardly perceive the specific logic of the philosophy of life and its general striving “to nowhere”, the lack of a clear goal and direction.

One of the representatives of the philosophy of life, Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), a German cultural historian and philosopher, proceeded from the thesis that scientific knowledge is opposed to cultural-historical knowledge, that sciences about nature and sciences about spirit really exist.

The natural sciences are based on rational knowledge and have the reliability of their conclusions. They rely on categories, apply generally accepted procedures in their field, and are aimed at finding the causes of phenomena and natural laws. The sciences of the spirit are knowledge of a completely different kind. It has a fundamentally different basis. What is important here is not rational thinking, but an intuitive comprehension of the essence, experiencing the events of history and current life, the subject’s involvement in the subject of knowledge; it is especially valuable for the subject. The basis of the humanities is life itself, which is expressed in the teleological (i.e., in its inherent internal purpose) connection of experiences, understanding and interpretation of the expressions of this life.

Spiritual life arises on the soil of the physical world; it is included in evolution and is its highest stage. The conditions under which it arises are analyzed by natural science, which reveals the laws that govern physical phenomena. Among the physical bodies of nature there is also the human body, and experience is most directly connected with it. But with it we are already moving from the physical world to the world of spiritual phenomena. And this is the subject of the spiritual sciences, and their cognitive value is completely independent of the study of physical conditions. Knowledge of the spiritual world arises from the interaction of experience, understanding of other people, historical comprehension of communities as subjects of historical action and, finally, objective spirit. Experience there is a fundamental premise behind all of this.

It contains elementary acts of thinking (the intellectuality of experience), judgments about what has been experienced, in which the experience is objective. The subject of knowledge is one with his object, and this object is the same at all stages of objectification.

To comprehend the essence of life, Dilthey considered it important to see the general sign of external objects that appear in it. This sign exists time. This is already revealed in the expression “course of life.” Life always flows, and it cannot be otherwise. Time is given to us thanks to the unifying unity of our consciousness. The concept of time finds its final realization in the experience of time. It is perceived as a continuous movement forward, in which the present continuously becomes the past, and the future - the present. The present is a moment filled with reality, it is real, as opposed to memories or ideas about the future, manifested in hope, fear, aspiration, desire, expectation.

Being in the flow of life, we cannot comprehend its essence. What we take to be an essence is only its image, imprinted by our experience. The flow of time itself in the strict sense is not experienced. After all, wanting to observe time, we destroy it through observation, since it is established through attention; observation stops the current, the becoming.

Another important characteristic of life, according to Dilthey, is its connectivity. All components of life are connected into one whole. We master this whole through understanding, the presence of our own meaning in each life. The meaning of individual existence is completely unique and cannot be analyzed by any rational knowledge.

Famous French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) draws attention to the creative nature of life - it is continuous creativity. Creativity, as we know, is the creation of something new and unique. Therefore, no one can foresee a new form of life. Life has a fundamentally open character. To approach the principle of all life, one must rise to intuition. It is a form of cognition that abstracts from details and logical procedures and allows one to instantly grasp the subject being studied in its most general essential manifestations. The philosopher, however, leaves intuition as soon as its impulse is communicated to him, he surrenders to the power of concepts. Only intuitive philosophy, but not science, can comprehend life and spirit in their unity, although science with its arguments is capable of “sweeping away” philosophy, although it will not explain anything.

Perhaps the most paradoxical and at the same time famous representative of the philosophy of life was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). With his original works, among which the most famous are “Beyond Good and Evil”, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, “Antichrist”, etc., he created for himself a reputation as a thinker who made deep insights in those areas of philosophy and culture where everything seemed clear and established. He completely criticized the traditional values of European culture and, above all, the Christian religion and rational thinking. Nietzsche showed that all the wealth of the living world cannot be comprehended and mastered in the existing system of cultural values, and that life is far from being understood by us, and if it is understood, it is one-sided and wrong.

The basis of Nietzsche's worldview is natural instinct, expressed in the desire of all living things for dominance and power. Following A. Schopenhauer in assessing the world will as the primary principle of being, Nietzsche modifies this principle into the will to power.

Life, according to Nietzsche, is determined by the law of the subordination of the weak to the strong, and this is the extremely broad principle of existence. Dominance manifests itself in economic, political, social, interpersonal and even intimate relationships; it fills the real content of human history. It is also observed in nature. It can be hidden, it can be opposed as a principle, but it cannot be crossed out. The will to power as a principle splits society into slaves (weak) and masters (strong); hence two moralities: aristocratic and the morality of the crowd, the people, the masses. The latter is cultivated by Christianity and humanistic European culture, and is therefore rejected by Nietzsche.

The will to power is considered by Nietzsche as a manifestation of the instinct of freedom. But war fosters freedom, as well as domination. In war, male fighting qualities dominate and suppress all others - the instinct for happiness, peace, tranquility, compassion, etc. Peaceful life kills the will to power, makes a person a weak personality and turns him into a herd animal. In particular, such a concept as “conscience” makes a person a slave to the herd instinct. Nietzsche's measure of true value is freedom from the social norms of his contemporary society. So who is free? This is the one who is “beyond good and evil,” that is, outside the morality and laws of society. Nietzsche saw his hero in the image of a “blond beast,” that is, a man of Aryan origin, not burdened by conscience and moral doubts. He called N. Machiavelli and Napoleon the historical prototypes of such a hero.

If the philosophers of the era of reason saw progress in the history of mankind, that is, the rise of society from lower, primitive forms of life to higher forms, then Nietzsche saw in history a weakening of the will to live and the degradation of the natural principle in man and among peoples. Therefore, he was an opponent of progress, opposed the ideas of socialism and various projects for transforming society. Progress, from his point of view, would be the education of a new dominant caste for Europe, consisting of smaller but stronger human specimens. They would constitute a race of masters and conquerors, a race of Aryans.

Nietzsche's works bear the stamp of irrationalism and unconventionality. They are written in the form of parables, aphorisms, and require significant efforts of imagination and will when reading. But Nietzsche himself said that they were not written for everyone.

Nietzsche was one of the most educated people of the 19th century, but due to his inherent genius, he placed himself outside of society. His ideas were actively used in Nazi Germany to promote war and racism. They were not alien to revolutionaries in Russia and other countries. This, however, is not the main thing; all this happened against the will of Nietzsche himself. The main thing is different: with his work he warned about the inevitable, but ugly forms of development of Western civilization; he warned us about the coming alienation in the sphere of European culture, about its deep degeneration, about the massification and primitivization of spiritual life.

Topic 8. RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY

Introduction

Irrationalism and rationalism

Philosophy of life of A. Schopenhauer

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The period of the 19th century is the most significant in the history of the progressive revolution of the general scientific trend. This revolution was the most significant and positive in the development of various spheres of scientific activity, art, and the emergence of new streams of knowledge. Science has opened a new path for the development of society - a technogenic one, which is the leading one in our time. Art was revitalized by modernism, which led to the creation of new different approaches to perception and philosophical rethinking of the picture of the world. An example of this dramatic rethinking can be found in Western culture, but here there are contradictions between the old ethics and the new one that replaces them. Such a replacement will seem very paradoxical and surprising; philosophical concepts based on solid rationalism, which prevailed over all other philosophical directions, are being replaced by irrationalism, its opposite. The founder of this movement is Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). The theoretical sources of Schopenhauer's ideas are the philosophy of Plato, the transcendental philosophy of Kant and the ancient Indian treatise of the Upanishads. This is one of the first attempts to merge Western and Eastern cultures. The difficulty of this synthesis is that the Western style of thinking is rational, and the Eastern one is irrational. The irrational style of thinking has a pronounced mystical character, that is, it is based on the belief in the existence of forces that govern life that are not subject to the unprepared mind. These theories are united by the idea present in ancient mythology that the world in which we live is not the only reality, that there is another reality that is not comprehended by reason and science, but without taking into account the influence that our own life becomes contradictory with. His philosophy is inherently unique, since only he dared to give a completely different assessment of the understanding of being than other Western philosophers. Some directions of his philosophy will be outlined in this work.

IRRATIONALISM AND RATIONALISM

In the first half of the 19th century, two main currents of philosophical thought emerged: the philosophy of science, the second current - irrationalism.

IRRATIONALISM - (unreasonable, unconscious), a designation of trends in philosophy that, in contrast to rationalism, limit or deny the possibilities of reason in the process of cognition and make something irrational the basis for understanding the world, highlighting will (voluntarism), direct contemplation, feeling, intuition ( intuitionism), mystical "insight", imagination, instinct, "unconscious", etc. presupposes the recognition of the leading role of instinct, intuition, blind faith, which play a decisive role in knowledge, in the worldview as opposed to reason and reason. This is a worldview based on the absolutization of the role of irrational, unconscious motives in human activity. Irrationalism is not a single and independent philosophical movement. It is rather a characteristic and element of various philosophical systems and schools. More or less obvious elements of irrationalism are characteristic of all those philosophies that declare certain spheres of reality (God, immortality, religious problems, the thing-in-itself, etc.) inaccessible to scientific knowledge (reason, logic, reason). On the one hand, reason recognizes and poses such questions, but, on the other hand, scientific criteria are not applicable to these areas. Sometimes (mostly unconsciously) rationalists postulate extremely irrational concepts in their philosophical reflections on history and society.

RATIONALISM (from Latin ratio - reason) is a method according to which the basis of people's knowledge and action is reason. Since the intellectual criterion of truth has been accepted by many thinkers, rationalism is not a characteristic feature of any particular philosophy; in addition, there are differences in views on the place of reason in knowledge from moderate, when the intellect is recognized as the main means of comprehending the truth along with others, to radical, if rationality is considered the only essential criterion. In modern philosophy, the ideas of rationalism are developed, for example, by Leo Strauss, who proposes to use the rational method of thinking not by itself, but through maieutics. Other representatives of philosophical rationalism include Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Rene Descartes, Georg Hegel, and others. Rationalism usually acts as the opposite of both irrationalism and sensationalism.

Some philosophers tend to believe that irrationalism is a by-product of rationalism. This can be explained by the fact that the too rigid rationalization and organization of Western society caused a backlash, leading to a deep moral crisis. The most convincing explanation for this reaction can be explained using the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) who writes that social utopianism is the belief in the possibility of the final and non-stop rationalization of the public, regardless of whether all nature has been rationalized and whether the cosmic order has been established. This brief explanation reveals the main problem of the West, its unbridled craving for social utopia. Consequently, the positive attitude towards the cult of reason is gradually dying out, and with the advent of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, reason is finally defeated in criticism. In Schopenhauer's philosophy, the leading basis of life is no longer reason, but will. Will is understood as a universal cosmic phenomenon, and every force in nature is understood as will. All corporeality is “objectivity of will.” Man is a manifestation of the will, his nature is therefore not rational, but irrational. Reason is secondary to will. The world is will, and the will fights with itself. Thus, absolute rationalism was replaced by extreme voluntarism for Schopenhauer. Voluntarism is a direction of philosophical thought that exaggerates the importance of volitional principles in people’s activities, suggesting the ability to build and rebuild social processes in accordance with the most attractive projects, models, and ideologies.

Schopenhauer cultivates the “will to live”, i.e. blind aimless attraction to life. His follower Nietzsche cultivates the “will to power”, which permeates everything: the universe, nature, society, man, life itself. It is embedded in being itself, but it is not one, but multiple (since there are many fighting “centers” of forces). The will controls the world. Nietzsche created the prototype of a liberated person - a superman with an exaggerated will to power - a “blond beast” - they continued the development of the “philosophy of life”.

The irrationalists contrasted the thesis of rationalists about the rationality of the world with the opposite: the world is unreasonable, man is controlled not by reason, but by blind will, instinct, fear and despair.

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE OF A. SCHOPENHAUER

The philosophy of life refers to those philosophical movements of the 19th - early 20th centuries, in which some philosophers expressed their protest against the dominance of epistemological and methodological problems in the philosophy of the New Age, primarily in German classical philosophy. Representatives of the philosophy of life were against focusing on problems of knowledge, logic, and methodology. They believed that detailed philosophy was divorced from real problems, became entangled in its own ideal constructions, and became too abstract, that is, divorced from life. Philosophy must explore life.

From the point of view of most representatives of the philosophy of life, life is understood as a special integral reality, not reducible to either spirit or matter.

The first representative of the philosophy of life was the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The whole world, from his point of view, represents the will to live. The will to live is inherent in all living beings, including man, whose will to live is most significant, because man is endowed with reason and knowledge. Each individual person has his own will to live - not the same for all people. All other people exist in his view as dependent on the boundless egoism of man, as phenomena that are significant only from the point of view of his will to live, his interests. The human community is thus represented as the totality of the wills of individuals. A special organization - the state - somehow balances the manifestations of these wills so that people do not destroy each other. Overcoming egoistic impulses is carried out, according to Schopenhauer, in the sphere of art and morality.

In Schopenhauer's views one can notice some similarities with the ideas of Buddhism. And this is no coincidence, since he knew Indian culture, highly valued and used its ideas in his teaching. True, Schopenhauer did not join the eightfold path of the Buddha, but just like the Buddhists, he was pessimistic about the attempts and possibility of creating a just and happy society on Earth, devoid of suffering and selfishness. Therefore, Schopenhauer's teachings are sometimes called pessimism. Schopenhauer was one of the first philosophers who pointed out the important role in human life of the unconscious, instinctive impulses associated with the biological origin of man. Similar ideas were subsequently used by Freud in creating his theory. Schopenhauer's works were distinguished by their vivid style, metaphorical nature, and figurative expression. One of his original works was “Treatise on Love.” Schopenhauer believed that love is too serious a phenomenon to be left only to poets.

In Schopenhauer's “Treatise” there are many interesting, vivid images arising from his system, for example, love is a strong attraction that arises between two people of the opposite sex. Attraction, the mysterious force that attracts lovers, is a manifestation of the will of an unborn being, their unborn child - that is, nature “calculates” at the level of the organisms of two people that, from a biological point of view, the combination of these organisms will produce optimal offspring, and as a result, energy arises mutual attraction of these organisms.

Schopenhauer is usually called one of the founders of irrationalism, meaning by this term all those directions that belittled the role of the rational, conscious in human behavior. According to the views of supporters of some philosophical schools, irrationalism is a negative phenomenon.

It would be more accurate to say that Schopenhauer simply explained the basics of human behavior better, but not in the most flattering way for people.

Passive nihilism. The first European experience of revaluing the values of reason. Schopenhauer's ontology is a doctrine of will as the fundamental principle of being, the “will to live” is an irrational world principle unknowable by scientific means, actively operating, free and purposeless. This power is meaningless, like life itself. A person has only one way out - to extinguish the will to live. Will is a desire without purpose or end. Human life is nothing more than a tragicomedy, suffering crowned with death. Man has no other goal besides death.

The second component of the world is will, a kind of irrational force. Will is the impulse to life. Schopenhauer distinguishes the stages of activation of the will. Volitional principles: 1. attraction, 2. magnetism, 3. chemistry (inorganic). At the living level, the highest stage is 4. motivated will (in humans). Motives may come into conflict.

There is an initial reservoir of the volitional principle - absolute will. The initial world will is aggressive, evil in nature. Absolute blind will manifests itself at the level of inorganic nature. Breaks into the organic world in search of food. Since this process is objective, the world is developing in the same direction. Everything is for the worse. Resources are limited. Nothing can be done about all this, this is how the world works. Philosophy of global pessimism.

Schopenhauer spoke of Buddhism (a minimum of actions so as not to deepen suffering) as the foundations of his philosophy. He had an extremely negative attitude towards Christianity. Having realized such a structure of the world, a person can consciously tame his will. Suicide is death because life does not satisfy one's needs. The overall potential for ill will does not change as a result of suicide. A person must calmly look death in the face, for the will is indestructible. You need to try to tame your needs. Schopenhauer's ethics: you need to tame the will, not increase the amount of evil. Only art and morality are capable of creating a feeling of compassion, or rather, creating the illusion of overcoming selfishness. Compassion is identity with another, revealing to a person the suffering of another person. Schopenhauer's anthropology is the antipode of the Enlightenment teaching about man. Reason cannot be the measure of human existence; the irrational principle is reality. The state and law are factors restraining individual aggressiveness. Schopenhauer criticizes the mass consumer society. He is one of the first to consider this path of social development to be a dead end. Proclaims the priority of the artist as a genius by nature. Classification of genera and types of arts (for Hegel, literature is the highest form of art, more than anything spiritual). For Schopenhauer, on the contrary, music is closer to the manifestation of the forces of nature. Words become foggy. The dynamics of the human will, crystallized in music, reflect the dynamics of culture. Music is a mediator between the world of will and the world of representation. Representation is the starting point of the division into object and subject. The representation is taken in its developed form. The development of forms of representation occurs at the level of living nature. The idea arises in response to the movement of organisms in search of food. Schopenhauer, proceeds from the idea that idealism and materialism are illegitimate, vulnerable, erroneous, since the world is explained on the basis of other things.

Conclusion

Until the mid-19th century, all philosophical movements argued that humanity should and does have its own goal. This goal could be God or the development of nature, it could be a goal that has not yet been discovered, the goal could be the internal peace of the individual. And only in Schopenhauer does a new philosophical motive appear, that life has no goal at all, that it is a soulless movement, devoid of purpose. Will is a blind impulse, since this impulse acts without a goal, it is impossible to find any peace. This leads to the fact that a person is constantly tormented by a feeling of dissatisfaction. Therefore, life is a sum of small worries, and human happiness itself is unattainable. A person bends under the weight of life's needs, he constantly lives under the threat of death and fears it. Philosophy and religion, according to Schopenhauer, create the illusion of a life goal. Bringing temporary relief to people who believed in these mirages. A follower of Kant, Will in Schopenhauer’s philosophy is a “thing in itself”, representation is the world of individual things. Representation is the starting point of the division into object and subject. The representation is taken in its developed form. The development of forms of representation occurs at the level of living nature. The idea arises in response to the movement of organisms in search of food.

Modern philosophy owes much to irrationalism. Modern irrationalism has clearly expressed outlines, first of all, in the philosophy of neo-Thomism, existentialism, pragmatism and personalism. Elements of irrationalism can be found in positivism and neopositivism. In positivism, irrationalistic premises arise due to the fact that the construction of theories is limited to analytical and empirical judgments, and philosophical justifications, assessments and generalizations are automatically shifted into the sphere of the irrational. Irrationalism is found wherever it is argued that there are areas that are fundamentally inaccessible to rational scientific thinking. Such spheres can be divided into subrational and transrational.

Bibliography

1. Sokolov B.G., Babushkina D.A., Weinmester A.V., Philosophy of the 19th century. Personalities. Part I. Study guide. Publishing house of the Federal District of St. Petersburg. 2007

2. Brief philosophical encyclopedia. Moscow, Publishing group "Progress" "Encyclopedia", 1994.

3. P.S. Gurevich, V.I. Stolyarov "World of Philosophy" Moscow, Publishing House of Political Literature, 1989.

4. Berdyaev N. A. “The Fate of Russia” Moscow, Publishing House “EXMO” 2007

5. M.V. Draco, Schopenhauer A. Introduction to Philosophy; New relipomenes; About interesting things: Collection/Trans. with German; Art region - Mn.: Potpourri LLC, 2000.

6. Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary, M., 2000.

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Arthur Schopenhauer, even among famous and significant philosophers, is a controversial and outstanding person, of course, standing out with his views. The thinker was more than a century ahead of the philosophical sentiments of his time, which largely explains his limited fame. Until old age, even having created his main works and formulated his philosophical views, Schopenhauer remained very limitedly known only in certain circles, but he still received well-deserved recognition, or rather, his works in the field of science.

In this article I will try to present the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer briefly, despite the breadth of his views and creative fertility. For me personally, this philosopher is close not so much to his conceptual views as to his personal worldview, style of life and being, but these are personal details. The works of this thinker influenced many outstanding philosophers, and F.W. Nietzsche called him the leader of tragic discontent and showed solidarity with the views of Schopenhauer.

The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, nicknamed the philosophy of pessimism, largely coincided in an invisible dispute with the classical philosophy dominant in his time, which affirmed unstoppable and unlimited progress, supported by successes in science and technology. At the same time, the philosophy of the misanthrope Schopenhauer criticized the love of life and affirmed the irony of the struggle for existence with inevitable defeat in the form of death. That is, irrationalism in Schopenhauer’s philosophy criticized German classical philosophy and its objective idealism. The fruits of this intellectual struggle were the establishment in the irrationalist philosophy of Schopenhauer of three postulates in understanding the world:

The collision of mystical intuition of knowledge and the classical theory of knowledge. Schopenhauer argued that only art, where the creator is deprived of will, is capable of being a real mirror that truly reflects reality, that is, wisdom is not a product of some kind of education obtained by abstract study and thinking, but the achievement of concrete thinking;
Refutation of theories of progress and statements that the world is rationally and harmoniously designed, and its movement in every sense is the embodiment of this intelligent design. The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, from a truly misanthropic point of view, criticized the rationality of the structure of the world, and even more so the special and initially free place allocated to man in this world. The thinker believed that human existence is primarily torture;
Based on the previous two postulates, it seems logical for Schopenhauer’s irrationalist philosophy to consider existence as a criterion and methodology in understanding the world.

The problem of man in the views of the thinker is that man is not some abstract object of knowledge, but a being included in the world, a suffering, struggling, corporeal and objective being. And also very dependent on all these objective factors.

Another manifestation of irrationalism in Schopenhauer's philosophy was the consideration of wisdom, where it was presented as intuitive knowledge, free from the power of the will; refusal of the volitional act in cognition and provided the necessary weak-willed intuition necessary for exploring the world. Such weak-willed intuition could best be embodied in art: only a mind that has achieved genius in art, which is the embodiment of weak-willed contemplation, can be a true mirror of the universe.

Despite criticism of German classical philosophy, Schopenhauer highly valued rationalism itself and Kant in particular; in his office there was a bust of the German thinker, as well as a statuette of Buddha, since Arthur Schopenhauer found the philosophy of Buddhism very worthy. Motives and consistency with Asian philosophy in general, and with the philosophy of Buddhism, are clearly visible in Schopenhauer’s philosophy itself: the achievement of a weak-willed state and the renunciation of individuality is similar to the desire for nirvana, asceticism as a path to achieving the meaning of existence and overcoming the will is reminiscent of the views of Taoism and much more.

Schopenhauer's philosophy, in short, is more ethical and aesthetic than, for example, metaphysical; she considers many things, including knowledge of the world, from the standpoint of moral and aesthetic views, declares irrationalism, talks about the everyday life and existence of a particular individual, his morality, and so on. Despite all this, Schopenhauer’s philosophy is not called pessimistic for nothing, because he considered the existence of an ordinary person as a transition from boredom and idleness to suffering, and retention in these states by the will acting as a pest.

After all that has been said above, the reader may be shocked by the statement that in fact, in its albeit irrationalistic essence, Schopenhauer’s philosophy is a “philosophy of life.” Yes, this is so, the views of Arthur Schopenhauer, despite all the pessimism that comes through from them, are a philosophy of life; I'll explain. The fact is that the saying applies to the views of this thinker: “Having - we don’t appreciate it, having lost - we mourn.” Schopenhauer claims that everyone, absolutely every person, having three greatest values, does not protect them until they lose them; these values: freedom, youth and health. Moreover, the value of “youth” included the concept of initiative, motivation, aspirations and everything that is inevitably associated with this concept - “youth”. The philosopher in his works urged everyone to take a completely different look at their existence, overcome illusions and learn to appreciate these three great blessings given from birth: freedom, youth and health. And then every moment of existence will sparkle with new colors, become beautiful and valuable in itself, without the participation of anything obviously superfluous. That is why, despite pessimistic sentiments, Schopenhauer’s views are a philosophy of life. And by understanding the value of every moment and overcoming illusions, each person can begin to achieve genius in art and achieve a true reflection of the Universe.

I hope that after reading this article you, the reader, have understood a lot about this, albeit not the most famous philosopher, but no doubt worthy of attention, and also that a misanthrope with pessimistic views can be an apologist for the philosophy of life, as was the case with Arthur Schopenhauer . Of course, it is impossible to briefly outline the philosophy of Schopenhauer, like that of any outstanding thinker, in detail, so I suggest you familiarize yourself with his main works: “The World as Will and Idea”, “On the Fourfold Root of the Law of Sufficient Reason”, “On the Freedom of Human Will”, “Aphorisms of worldly wisdom”, “On the justification of morality”, “Parerga and Paralipomena (applications and additions)”.

Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer

Only in the 50s of the XIX century. Interest in Schopenhauer's philosophy began to awaken in Germany, and it grew after his death.

A peculiarity of A. Schopenhauer’s personality was his gloomy, gloomy and irritable character, which undoubtedly affected the general mood of his philosophy. It admittedly bears the stamp of deep pessimism. But with all this, he was a very gifted person with versatile erudition and great literary skill; he spoke many ancient and modern languages and was undoubtedly one of the most educated people of his time.

In Schopenhauer's Philosophy, two characteristic points are usually distinguished: the doctrine of the ox and pessimism.

The doctrine of the will is the semantic core of Schopenhauer's philosophical system. The mistake of all philosophers, he proclaimed, was that they saw the basis of man in the intellect, when in fact it - this basis, lies exclusively in the will, which is completely different from the intellect, and only it is original. Moreover, will is not only the basis of man, but it is also the internal basis of the world, its essence. It is eternal, not subject to destruction, and in itself is baseless, that is, self-sufficient.

Two worlds must be distinguished in connection with the doctrine of the will:

I. a world where the law of causality reigns (i.e., the one in which we live), and II. a world where it is not the specific forms of things, not phenomena, that are important, but general transcendental essences. This is a world where we are not (the idea of doubling the world was taken by Schopenhauer from Plato).

In our everyday life, the will has an empirical character, it is subject to limitation; if this had not happened, a situation would have arisen with Buridan’s donkey (Buridan is a scholastic of the 15th century who described this situation): placed between two armfuls of hay, on opposite sides and at the same distance from him, he, “having free will,” died would be from hunger, unable to make a choice. A person constantly makes choices in everyday life, but at the same time he inevitably limits his free will.
Outside the empirical world, the will is independent of the law of causality. Here she is abstracted from the concrete form of things; it is conceived outside of any time as the essence of the world and man. Will is the “thing-in-itself” of I. Kant; it is not empirical, but transcendental in nature.

In the spirit of I. Kant’s reasoning about a priori (pre-experimental) forms of sensibility - time and space, about the categories of reason (unity, plurality, integrity, reality, causality, etc.), Schopenhauer reduces them to a single law of sufficient reason, which he considers “the mother of all sciences.” This law is, naturally, a priori in nature. Its simplest form is time.

Further, Schopenhauer says that subject and object are correlative moments, and not moments of causal connection, as is customary in rational philosophy. It follows that their interaction gives rise to representation.

But, as we have already noted, the world, taken as a “thing-in-itself”, is baseless will, and its visible image is matter. The existence of matter is its “action”; only by acting, it “fills” space and time. Schopenhauer sees the essence of matter in the connection between cause and effect.

Well acquainted with natural science, Schopenhauer explained all manifestations of nature by the endless fragmentation of the world will, multitude; her “objectifications”. Among them is the human body. It connects the individual, his idea with the world will and, being its messenger, determines the state of the human mind. Through the body, the world will acts as the main spring of all human actions.
Every act of the will is an act of the body, and vice versa. From here we come to an explanation of the nature of affects and motives of behavior, which are always determined by specific desires in this place, at this time, in these circumstances. The will itself is outside the law of motivation, but it is the basis of a person’s character. It is “given” to man and man, as a rule, is unable to change it. This idea of Schopenhauer can be disputed, but it will later be reproduced by 3. Freud in connection with his doctrine of the subconscious.

The highest level of objectification of the will is associated with a significant manifestation of individuality in the form of the human spirit. It manifests itself with the greatest force in art, where the will reveals itself in its pure form. Schopenhauer's theory of genius is associated with this: genius does not follow the law of sufficient reason (consciousness following this law creates sciences that are the fruit of the mind and rationality), genius is free, since it is infinitely distant from the world of cause and effect and, due to this, is close to insanity. Thus, genius and madness have a common ground (Horace spoke of “sweet madness”).

In light of the above premises, what is Schopenhauer's concept of freedom? He firmly declares that freedom should be sought not in our individual actions, as rational philosophy does, but in the entire being and essence of man himself. In our current life, we see many actions caused by reasons and circumstances, as well as time and space, and our freedom is limited by them. But all these actions are essentially the same in nature, and that is why they are free from causality.
In this reasoning, freedom is not expelled, but only moves from the sphere of current life to a higher sphere, but it is not so clearly accessible to our consciousness. Freedom in its essence is transcendental. This means that every person is initially and fundamentally free and everything he does is based on this freedom. This idea will later be encountered in the philosophy of existentialism; J.-P. Sartre and A. Camus.

Now let's move on to the topic of pessimism in Schopenhauer's philosophy. Every pleasure, every happiness that people strive for at all times has a negative character, since they - pleasure and happiness - are essentially the absence of something bad, suffering, for example. Our desire stems from the acts of volition of our body, but desire is suffering due to the lack of what we want. A satisfied desire inevitably gives birth to another desire (or several desires), and again we lust, etc. If we imagine all this in space as conditional points, then the voids between them will be filled with suffering, from which desires will arise (conditional points in our case) . This means that it is not pleasure, but suffering - this is positive, constant, unchanging, always present, the presence of which we feel.

Schopenhauer claims that everything around us bears traces of bleakness; everything pleasant is mixed with the unpleasant; every pleasure destroys itself, every relief leads to new hardships. It follows that we must be unhappy in order to be happy, moreover, we cannot help but be unhappy, and the reason for this is the person himself, his will. Optimism portrays life to us as a kind of gift, but if we knew in advance what kind of gift it was, we would refuse it. In fact, need, deprivation, sorrow are crowned with death; The ancient Indian Brahmins saw this as the goal of life (Schopenhauer refers to the Vedas and Upanishads). In death we are afraid of losing the body, and it is the will itself.

But the will is objectified through the pain of birth and the bitterness of death, and this is a stable objectification. This is immortality in time: in death the intellect perishes, but the will is not subject to death. Schopenhauer thought so.

His universal pessimism was in sharp contrast to the mentality of Enlightenment philosophy and classical German philosophy. As for ordinary people, they are accustomed to being guided by the formula of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus: “Death does not concern us at all: while we exist, there is no death, and when there is death, there is no us.” But let's give Schopenhauer his due: he shows us the world not in one color, but rather in two colors, that is, more real, and thus leads us to the idea of what is the highest value of life. Pleasure, luck, happiness in themselves, or everything that precedes them is also valuable for us? Or maybe this is life itself?
Schopenhauer initiated the process of establishing the volitional component in European philosophy as opposed to a purely rational approach, which reduces a person to the position of a thinking instrument. His ideas about the primacy of the will were supported and developed by A. Bergson, W. James, D. Dewey, Fr. Nietzsche and others. They were the basis of the “philosophy of life”.

Topic 9. Western European philosophy of the 19th century

Plan

Materialistic understanding of the history of K. Marx
Positivism of O. Comte. Neo-Kantianism.
Irrational philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche

1. In the second half of the 19th century, industrial societies were established in Western Europe. The main value of society is technical progress. A “golden age” has arrived for science. Rationalism and optimism, faith in limitless progress are a characteristic feature of this era. Under these conditions, the materialistic understanding of history of K. Marx, positivism, neo-Kantianism, and later the irrational philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche and others were formed. K. Marx and F. Engels created a dialectical-materialist philosophy. This philosophy logically follows from Marx’s main philosophical discovery - the materialist understanding of history (historical materialism). Historical materialism is the extension of materialism to the area of social life, to the social world, to history. According to the teachings of Marx, it is not consciousness that determines being, but social being that determines social consciousness. From social (material) production all levels, all forms of manifestation of consciousness are born. Human history is a natural-historical process: not a single formation will become a thing of the past until the relations of production exhaust themselves, if they do not inhibit the further development of production forces. Marx and Engels viewed their philosophy not as a body of ready-made truths, but as a “guide to action,” meaning by such “action” the revolutionary transformation of society. Marx made the social aspects of the capitalist production process the object of his research: exploitation and alienation. He came to the conclusion that labor under capitalism is forced and alienated. At the free stages of social (now communist) development, social wealth will be determined not by working time, but by free time - remaining outside the boundaries of material production, i.e. truly human creativity. Of all the main wealth, the most important will be the all-round development of man.

During the period under review, there was an increased interest in socio-humanitarian knowledge. Positivism is emerging - a philosophical trend that asserts that only individual, specific (empirical) sciences can be the source of genuine, positive, “positive” knowledge, and philosophy as a special science cannot claim to be an independent study of reality. The founder of this trend is Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857). Positivism, seeking to strengthen the connection between philosophy and concrete sciences, to strengthen reliance on the achievements of science, absolutizes concrete scientific knowledge, replaces the philosophical subject and method with a concrete scientific subject and method. Positivism, starting with Comte, denies almost all of the previous development of philosophy and identifies philosophy and science. Meanwhile, philosophy is an independent field of knowledge, based on the achievements of the entire culture, incl. and on natural science, and on social sciences, and on art, and on the everyday experience of all mankind. The successors of positivism were empirio-criticism and Machism. One of the directions in the “philosophy of science” was neo-Kantianism, which today continues to have a strong influence on all European philosophy. Neo-Kantianism sought to revive some of Kant's important principles. Two philosophical schools emerged in it - Marburg (G. Cohen, P. Natorp, E. Cassirer) and Baden (W. Windelband, G. Rickert). They were mainly focused on the study of research methods, in particular the transcendental method of interpreting reality; philosophy was understood as a critical theory of science. Here cognition is understood not as a reflection of reality, but as an activity to describe the subject of cognition in general, and science in particular.

3. Western philosophy of the second half of the 19th century is also associated with the names of such irrationalist thinkers (non-classical philosophers) as A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche and many others. Irrationalism is a doctrine where the decisive factor in cognition, behavior, worldview, and in the course of the historical process is played not by the forces of reason, not by the rational principle, but by the irrational, i.e. unreasonable, unconscious (instinct, intuition, blind faith, feelings, etc.) beginning. The establishment of irrationalism occurs as the broad masses of people become disillusioned with the ideals with which philosophical rationalism operated. By the middle of the 19th century, people became convinced that the progress of science and technology in itself does not lead to the realization of the age-old ideas of mankind. People have ceased to see in the world historical process the manifestation and implementation of a higher mind.

According to Schopenhauer, the very basis of being is unreasonable, irrational. There is no order or pattern in the structure of the world. Existence is unreasonable because it is meaningless, disharmonious, absurd. The basis of the universe is not the mind, but the world will, elemental, unrestricted, not determined by anything. By will, Schopenhauer understands an endless striving, a “life impulse” (A. Bergson). Will is the inner essence of the world. There is an insatiable desire in this world, a dark dull impulse and nothing more. Will, i.e. wants, desires, and motives for inducing a person to act determine the direction and nature of the implementation of the action, and its result. Thus, voluntarism is the basic and universal principle of Schopenhauer's entire philosophy. Schopenhauer's ethics are pessimistic. Suffering is inevitable. The ethical principle should be suffering, the transition to complete asceticism.

F. Nietzsche (1844-1900) - German philosopher and philologist, a bright preacher of individualism, voluntarism and irrationalism. Following Schopenhauer, he believed that the basis of the world is will, impulse, “the will to power,” the will to expand one’s self, to expansion. Nietzsche transferred Charles Darwin's ideas about the struggle for the existence of animals to the life of human society. Nietzsche's central concept is the idea of life. He is the founder of the philosophy of life. The new, perfect person is characterized by strength, health, creative power and joy. “God is dead”, i.e. The West has abandoned the previous system of values based on Christianity. But this means that life has become devalued, life has turned into evil, suffering. The cultural and moral ideal of a perfect person should be a “superman”, superior to Homo Sapiens. Nietzsche writes about a new morality, about man and superman in his work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”

Topic 10. Russian philosophy XIX - early. XX centuries

Plan

Specifics of Russian philosophy
Philosophy of the Slavophiles
Russian religious philosophy

1.Philosophical thought in Russia was formed under the influence of the achievements of world philosophy. But it was largely formed under the influence of socio-cultural processes taking place in Rus', i.e. pagan culture, Christianization, the works of Metropolitan Hilarion, who raised the question of the place of the Russian people in world history, literary monuments “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, “The Tale of Bygone Years”, processes of political unification, the formation of the Russian nation, the introduction of Rus' to world culture through Byzantium and etc. All this determined the originality of Russian philosophical culture. The true philosophical creativity of Russian scientists and thinkers begins in the mid-18th century (M.V. Lomonosov, A.N. Radishchev). but philosophy flourished in the 19th century - early 20th century. (P.Ya. Chaadaev, A.S. Khomyakov, V.S. Solovyov). Russian philosophy contains a high moral truth: any social project cannot be implemented if it is designed to involve coercion and violence against the individual. Russian thought and spirituality opposed Western European, i.e. bourgeois, rational with its pragmatism and rationality. According to Russian philosophers, one-sided rationalism led to a crisis in Western philosophy, a betrayal of the humanistic spirit of philosophy. V. Soloviev believed that integral knowledge is necessary, i.e. synthesis of science, philosophy and religion. Only all-encompassing, cosmic Love can give such integrity to consciousness. The meaning of Love is to be the antipode of selfishness, calculation and profit. Russian philosophy thereby tried to connect reason with moral consciousness. Another feature is the inextricable connection with real life. She was deeply concerned about solving problems for society.

2. The philosophical search for Russian philosophical thought took place in an atmosphere of confrontation between two tendencies. The first trend was represented by the Slavophiles, who focused on the originality of Russian thought and hence the unique originality of Russian spiritual life. Representatives of the second tendency (Westerners) sought to integrate Russia into the development of European culture and believed that it should learn from the West and go through the same historical path. The philosophical teachings of the Slavophiles (A.S. Khomyakov, Yu.F. Samardin) were based on the idea of the messianic role of the Russian people, of their religious and cultural identity and even exclusivity. The initial thesis of their teaching is the affirmation of the decisive role of Orthodoxy for the development of the entire world civilization. According to A.S. Khomyakov, it was Orthodoxy that formed the original Russian principles, the “Russian spirit,” which created the Russian land with its vast expanses.

2.Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer

Orthodoxy is a religion of freedom, it turns to the inner world of a person, requires him to consciously choose between good and evil. Associated with this important principle is the concept of “conciliarity,” which means “unity in plurality.” It reveals not only the external, visible connection of people, but also the constant possibility of such a connection on the basis of spiritual community (in the church, in the family, in society, in relations between states, etc. It is a consequence of the interaction of the free human principle (“free will”) man") and the divine principle ("grace"). Orthodoxy gave birth to a unique social organization - the rural community, the communal structure of Russian life, which developed such moral traits as the willingness to stand up for common interests, honesty, patriotism, etc. Thus, Russia , relying on conciliarity, Orthodoxy and community in its own special way, which should lead it to world domination.The philosophy of the Slavophiles had a significant influence on Russian religious philosophy.

3. V.S. Solovyov (1853-1900) was the first in Russia to create his own philosophical system. According to his teaching, the ultimate highest unity of existence is God (“all is one in God”). It is God who personifies the positive unity of existence. All the diversity of existence is held together by divine unity. Existence contains goodness as a manifestation of will, truth as a manifestation of reason, and beauty as a manifestation of feeling. The Absolute realizes goodness through truth and beauty. These three principles - goodness, truth and beauty constitute a unity that presupposes love - a force that undermines the roots of selfishness. In epistemological terms, unity is realized through the concept of integral knowledge, which represents an inextricable relationship between scientific, philosophical and religious knowledge. So Solovyov tries to combine philosophical and theological thought, rational and irrational types of philosophizing, Western and Eastern cultural traditions. He sought to put reason at the service of faith, to enable religion to rely on a rational principle.

According to Solovyov, humanity is a mediator between God and nature. Man is called upon to spiritualize nature. Hence the goal of world history is the unity of God and the extra-divine world, led by humanity. The moral meaning of the individual as a link between the Divine and natural worlds is realized in the act of love for another person, for nature, for God. In society, the idea of unity is revealed as a divine-human union, as a universal church. It will unite all peoples, remove social contradictions and contribute to the establishment of the “kingdom of God” on earth. At the end of his life, Soloviev, having lost faith in the possibility of realizing his ideas, came to the idea of a catastrophic end of history, to eschatology.

In the first decades of the 20th century, religious philosophy in Russia was developed by N.A. Berdyaev, N.O. Lossky, S.L. Frank and others. The main thing in the work of N. Berdyaev was moral quest. In his opinion, man is initially divine and has the image of God within himself. This is what makes him human. But man also contains within himself an animal image, distorted and terrible. Personality is developed through a long process, choice, repression of what is not my “I” in me. This is accomplished through acts of freedom and choice. The soul is a creative process, activity. The question of creativity is central to Berdyaev’s anthropology. There are differences between a creative person and an ordinary person who does not fulfill his purpose. Creativity is “transcending”, going beyond oneself, it is the secret of life, the creation of the new and unprecedented.

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Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

"CHELYABINSK STATE INSTITUTE OF CULTURE"

INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE STUDY

Department of Directing Theatrical Performances and Celebrations

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in the discipline "Philosophy"

"Western non-classical philosophy of the 19th - 20th centuries."

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Student of group 204 RTPP

Bessoltsev Alexander Olegovich

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Checked:

Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor

Marina Petrovna

1. Introduction

2. Irrational foundations of human existence: philosophy of life

3. Philosophy of life A. Schopenhauer

4. Basic ideas of the philosophy of pragmatism by C. Pierce and W. James.

6. Bibliography.

Introduction

The founder of this movement is Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788-1860).Theoretical sources of Schopenhauer's ideas are the philosophy of Plato, the transcendental philosophy of Kant and the ancient Indian treatise of the Upanishads. This is one of the first attempts to merge Western and Eastern cultures. The difficulty of this synthesis is that the Western style of thinking is rational, and the Eastern one is irrational. The irrational style of thinking has a pronounced mystical character, that is, it is based on the belief in the existence of forces that govern life that are not subject to the unprepared mind. These theories are united by the idea present in ancient mythology that the world in which we live is not the only reality, that there is another reality that is not comprehended by reason and science, but without taking into account the influence that our own life becomes contradictory with. His philosophy is inherently unique, since only he dared to give a completely different assessment of the understanding of being than other Western philosophers. Some directions of his philosophy will be outlined in this work

Irrational foundations of human existence:

Philosophy of life

A. Schopenhauer

In the first half of the 19th century, two main currents of philosophical thought emerged: the philosophy of science, the second current - irrationalism

First, let's figure out what rationalism and irrationalism are.

Rationalism -(from Latin ratio - reason) - a method according to which the basis of human knowledge and action is reason. Since the intellectual criterion of truth has been accepted by many thinkers, rationalism is not a characteristic feature of any particular philosophy; in addition, there are differences in views on the place of reason in knowledge from moderate, when the intellect is recognized as the main means of comprehending the truth along with others, to radical, if rationality is considered the only essential criterion. In modern philosophy, the ideas of rationalism are developed, for example, by Leo Strauss, who proposes to use the rational method of thinking not by itself, but through maieutics. Other representatives of philosophical rationalism include Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Rene Descartes, Georg Hegel, and others. Rationalism usually acts as the opposite of both irrationalism and sensationalism.

Irrationalism- (unreasonable, unconscious), designation of trends in philosophy that, in contrast to rationalism, limit or deny the possibilities of reason in the process of cognition and make something irrational the basis for understanding the world, highlighting will (voluntarism), direct contemplation, feeling, intuition (intuitionism) ), mystical “insight”, imagination, instinct, “unconscious”, etc. presupposes recognition of the leading role of instinct, intuition, blind faith, which play a decisive role in knowledge, in the worldview, as opposed to reason and reason. This is a worldview based on the absolutization of the role of irrational, unconscious motives in human activity. Irrationalism is not a single and independent philosophical movement. It is rather a characteristic and element of various philosophical systems and schools. More or less obvious elements of irrationalism are characteristic of all those philosophies that declare certain spheres of reality (God, immortality, religious problems, etc.) inaccessible to scientific knowledge (reason, logic, reason). On the one hand, reason realizes and poses similar questions, but, on the other hand, scientific criteria are not applicable to these areas.

Sometimes (mostly unconsciously) rationalists postulate extremely irrational concepts in their philosophical reflections on history and society.

In Schopenhauer's philosophy, the leading basis of life is no longer reason, but will. Will is understood as a universal cosmic phenomenon, and every force in nature is understood as will. All corporeality is “objectivity of the will.” Man is a manifestation of the will, his nature and therefore is not rational, but irrational. Reason is secondary to will. The world is will, and the will fights with itself. Thus, absolute rationalism was replaced by extreme voluntarism for Schopenhauer.

Voluntarism is a direction of philosophical thought that exaggerates the importance of volitional principles in people’s activities, suggesting the ability to build and rebuild social processes in accordance with the most attractive projects, models, and ideologies.

Schopenhauer cultivates the “will to live”, i.e. a blind, aimless attraction to life. His follower Nietzsche cultivates the “will to power”, which permeates everything: the universe, nature, society, man, life itself. It is embedded in being itself, but it is not one, but multiple (since there are many fighting “centers” of forces). Will controls the world. Nietzsche created the prototype of a liberated person - a superman with a hypertrophied will to power - a “blond beast” - continued development "philosophy of life".

Philosophy of life by A. Schopenhauer

Philosophy of life refers to those philosophical movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, in which some philosophers expressed their protest against the dominance of epistemological and methodological problems in the philosophy of modern times, primarily in German classical philosophy. Representatives of the philosophy of life were against focusing on problems of knowledge, logic, and methodology. They believed that detailed philosophy is divorced from real problems, gets entangled in its own ideal constructions, becomes too abstract, that is, divorced from life. Philosophy must explore life.

From the point of view of most representatives of the philosophy of life, life is understood as a special integral reality, not reducible to either spirit or matter.

The first representative of the philosophy of life was the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

The whole world, from his point of view, represents the will to live. The will to live is inherent in all living beings, including man, whose will to live is most significant, because man is endowed with reason and knowledge. Each individual person has his own will to live - not the same for all people. All other people exist in his view as dependent on the boundless egoism of man, as phenomena that are significant only from the point of view of his will to live, his interests. The human community is thus represented as the totality of the wills of individuals. A special organization - the state - somehow balances the manifestations of these wills so that people do not destroy each other. Overcoming egoistic impulses is carried out, according to Schopenhauer, in the sphere of art and morality.

It would be more accurate to say that Schopenhauer simply explained the basics of human behavior better, but not in the most flattering way for people.

The second component of the world is will, a kind of irrational force. Will is the impulse to life. Schopenhauer distinguishes the stages of activation of the will.

Volitional principles:

1. attraction,

2. magnetism

3. chemistry (inorganic).

4. at the living level, the highest stage is

5. motivated will (in humans).

Motives may come into conflict.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

For Schopenhauer, on the contrary, music is closer to the manifestation of the forces of nature. Words become foggy. The dynamics of the human will, crystallized in music, reflect the dynamics of culture. Music is a mediator between the world of will and the world of representation. Representation is the starting point of the division into object and subject. The representation is taken in its developed form. The development of forms of representation occurs at the level of living nature. The idea arises in response to the movement of organisms in search of food. Schopenhauer, proceeds from the idea that idealism and materialism are illegitimate, vulnerable, erroneous, since the world is explained on the basis of other things

Conclusion

Until the mid-19th century, all philosophical movements argued that humanity should and does have its own goal. This goal could be God or the development of nature, it could be a goal that has not yet been discovered, the goal could be the internal peace of the individual. And only in Schopenhauer does a new philosophical motive appear, that life has no goal at all, that it is a soulless movement, devoid of purpose. Will is a blind impulse; since this impulse acts without a goal, it is impossible to find any peace. This leads to the fact that a person is constantly tormented by a feeling of dissatisfaction. Therefore, life is a sum of small worries, and human happiness itself is unattainable. A person bends under the weight of life's needs, he constantly lives under the threat of death and fears it. Philosophy and religion, according to Schopenhauer, create the illusion of a life goal. Bringing temporary relief to people who believed in these mirages. A follower of Kant, Will in Schopenhauer’s philosophy is a “thing in itself,” representation is the world of individual things. Representation is the starting point of the division into object and subject. The representation is taken in its developed form. The development of forms of representation occurs at the level of living nature.

1. PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF A. SCHOPENHAUER

2.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)
German philosopher. One of the most
famous thinkers
irrationalism.

Can not understand anything?

I gravitated towards German
romanticism, was fond of mysticism.
Theoretical sources of ideas,
philosophy of Plato, Kant and
Upanishads. Called existing
world, - “the worst possible
worlds", for which he received the nickname
"philosopher of pessimism."

3.

WORKS:
“On the fourfold root of the law of sufficient
foundations" (1813), "On vision and colors" (1816),
“The World as Will and Representation” (1819), “On Will
in nature" (1826), "On free will" (1839), "On
basis of morality" (1840), "Two main
problems of ethics" (1841).

4.

Irrational thinking style - bright
expressed mystical character is based on
belief in the existence of those who disobey
to the untrained mind of the forces governing
life. based on the idea that the world in which we
live is not the only reality that
there is another reality that is not
comprehended by reason and science, but without taking into account the influence
which our
own life.

5. Schopenhauer's philosophy

Schopenhauer's philosophy is pessimistic
those. instilling despondency, hopelessness, disbelief in
your strength, to progress, to a better future "World
unreasonable and senseless, he is controlled by
blind evil will. We owe our lives to her
and therefore with their suffering.”

6.

Schopenhauer in his central
work “The World as Will and Representation”
deduces the logical law of sufficient
grounds.
True
philosophy
must
proceed
only
only
from
a representation that is a fact
consciousness
And
which
shares
on
representations of the subject and representations
object.

7.

The universal principle of Schopenhauer's philosophy
is VOLUNTARISM. The main driving force
What determines everything in the world around us is WILL.
WILL is the absolute beginning, the root of all things,
capable of determining and influencing all things. There is a will
of the universe. Will underlies consciousness and is
the universal essence of people.
For Schopenhauer, will is a “thing in itself.” Only will
capable of determining and influencing everything that exists. Will is
the highest cosmic principle that underlies
of the universe. Will – the will to live, the desire.

8.

Based on Kant's theory: the world around us is only
the world of ideas in the human mind. Essence
the world, its things, phenomena - WILL.
Will is inherent not only in living organisms, but also
inanimate nature in the form of “unconscious, dormant”
will. And accordingly, the whole world around us in its own way
essence is the realization of Will.

9.

Man is a creature that owes its appearance to will
to life. Each person has his own will to live - it is the main thing
in his consciousness, the source of his boundless egoism.
A person always and in everything serves not himself, not his own
interests, but will. The will forces him to live, no matter how
His existence was not meaningless and pitiful.
All life is pure disappointment and suffering. Human
under the influence of the will he always wants something, but everything
the fact is that desires are never satisfied, and if
and are satisfied, they bring with them indifference and
disappointment. “LIFE IS SOMETHING THAT IS NECESSARY
SUFFER.” And yet the main thing in life is
compassion…

10.

There is only one kind of people who have stopped
to be slaves of the will, to conquer desires and aspirations,
became weak-willed subjects - these are geniuses in art, and
saints in earthly life. When a person, lifted by the power of spirit,
ceases to view the world as a representation connected
laws of causality, in space and time.
“Genius is complete objectivity.”
But the ordinary person is completely incapable of
any lengthy contemplation. To him
remains satisfied or unsatisfied
desires, or if they are satisfied by boredom. "It's true
Every person has three blessings of life - health,
youth, freedom. While we have them, we are not aware of them
and we are not imbued with their value, but realize only then
when we lose, because they are only negative quantities.”

11.

The Art of Happiness in Schopenhauer's Ethics “...I affirm
that everything that determines the difference in the fate of people
can be reduced to three main categories:
1)
What is a person: - that is, his personality in the broadest
sense of the word. This should include health, strength,
beauty, temperament, morality, intelligence and its degree
development.
2)
What a person has: - i.e., the property located in his
property or possession.
3)
What is a person like? with these words
refers to what a person is like
representation of others: how they imagine it; -in a word, this is the opinion of others about him, opinion,
expressed outwardly in his honor, position and
glory...."

12.

Famous saying:
"When people come into close contact
communication with each other, then their
behavior resembles porcupines,
trying to stay warm in the cold
winter night. They are cold, they
pressed against each other, but what
the more they do it, the more it hurts
they stab each other with theirs
long needles. Forced due to
the pain of the injections will disperse, they will return
get closer because of the cold, and so - that's it
all night long."

Philosophical views of A. Schopenhauer

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Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer

One of the most striking figures of irrationalism (from the Latin irrationalis - unreasonable, unconscious; a movement in philosophy that opposes rationalism and limits or denies the capabilities of reason in the knowledge of reality, affirming the irrational, illogical nature of existence) is Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), who was dissatisfied with the optimistic rationalism and dialectics of Hegel (first of all, his panlogism: “everything that is real is reasonable, everything that is reasonable is real). Schopenhauer gravitated towards German romanticism, was fond of mysticism. He considered himself a follower of the philosophy of I. Kant and was fond of the philosophical ideas of the East (especially Buddhism).

Schopenhauer not only reduced the role of reason at the expense of emotions and, most importantly, the will understood in an absolute way, he challenged the very concept of reason as an area of conscious activity of human consciousness, introducing unconsciously irrational aspects into it. In his main work, “The World as Will and Representation” (1819), the unconscious will appears as a universal irrational element, not subject to any rational methods of research. The intellect, according to Schopenhauer, without realizing it, functions not according to its rational plan, but according to the instructions of the world will, which is recognized as the single energetic basis of all personal wills and the objective world itself: intelligence is only an instrument of the will to live in man (like claws and the teeth of the beast). The intellect becomes tired, but the will is tireless. Only one cosmically enormous will is real, which manifests itself in the entire course of events in the Universe: the world is only a mirror of this will, acting as a representation.

If the idea of a rational cause of the world was natural for European consciousness, then the idea of a volitional primary impulse, not subject to any rational, ethical and even aesthetic restrictions, was a foreign phenomenon for Europe. It is no coincidence that Schopenhauer himself admitted that among the sources that stimulated his thought, one of the first places was occupied by Buddhist ideas about maya (illusion) and nirvana (the extinction of life, salvation). His will, as the root cause of the world, is “an insatiable blind desire, a dark, dull impulse.” The world, according to Schopenhauer, is absurd, and the entire history of the world is the history of meaningless disturbances of willful sparks, when the will is forced to absorb itself, since there is nothing besides it, and it is also hungry and cruel, constantly weaving a web of suffering. Hence pain, fear and suffering. In the same way, Buddhism proclaims earthly existence in the psychophysical shell of the human personality as ineradicable suffering.

Defending the primacy of the will in relation to the mind, the philosopher expressed many subtle and original ideas regarding the characteristics of the volitional and emotional components of the human spiritual world and their vital significance. He criticized the erroneous position of supporters of extreme rationalism, according to which the will is a simple appendage of reason or is simply identified with it. According to Schopenhauer, will, i.e. wants, desires, motives for inducing a person to action, and the very processes of its implementation are specific: they largely determine the direction and nature of the implementation of the action and its result. However, Schopenhauer turned will into completely free will, i.e. he absolutized the will, turning it from a component of the spirit into a self-sufficient principle.

Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer

Moreover, Schopenhauer considered will as something akin to the “mysterious forces” of the universe, believing that “volitional impulses” are characteristic of everything that exists. The will for Schopenhauer is the absolute beginning, the root of everything that exists. He thought of the world as will and idea. Thus, voluntarism is the basic and universal principle of the thinker’s entire philosophy.

In contrast to Kant, Schopenhauer asserted the knowability of the “thing in itself” (revealed nature). He saw the first fact of consciousness in representation. Cognition is carried out either as intuitive, or as abstract, or reflective. Intuition is the first and most important type of knowledge. The entire world of consciousness ultimately rests on intuition. According to Schopenhauer, truly perfect knowledge can only be contemplation, free from any relation to practice and to the interests of the will; scientific thinking is always conscious. It is aware of its principles and actions, but the artist’s activity, on the contrary, is unconscious, irrational: it is not able to understand its own essence.

Schopenhauer's ethics are pessimistic (from the Latin pessimus - the worst). Suffering, according to Schopenhauer, is inevitable in life. What is called happiness is always negative, not positive, and comes down only to liberation from suffering, which must be followed by new suffering or tedious boredom. This world is nothing more than an arena of tortured and frightened creatures who live only because one creature exterminates another, and self-preservation is a chain of painful deaths. From the recognition of the dominant role of suffering follows compassion as Schopenhauer's most important ethical principle. The opposing state of mind that prevents suffering is the state of complete absence of desire. A symptom of this is a transition to complete asceticism. Schopenhauer saw the resolution of the tragedy of human life in the mortification of the flesh and in the extinction of man's rational quest. Moreover, Schopenhauer's pessimistic voluntarism assumed an apology for suicide as an outcome.

In conclusion, it should be said that Schopenhauer was a first-class writer and a brilliant stylist. Not a single author of philosophical literature, according to V. Windelbandt, was able to formulate philosophical thought with such clarity, with such concrete beauty as Schopenhauer. He had the gift of presenting many philosophical ideas in truly brilliant and transparent presentation.

Schopenhauer's views had a great influence not only on individual major thinkers and writers (Nietzsche, L. Tolstoy), but also on a number of areas of philosophical thought. It is worth noting that the aesthetic views of the composer R. Wagner were largely formed under the influence of Schopenhauer.

Photographer Andrea Effulge

The collision of mystical intuition of knowledge and the classical theory of knowledge. Schopenhauer argued that only art, where the creator is deprived of will, is capable of being a real mirror that truly reflects reality, that is, wisdom is not a product of some kind of education obtained by abstract study and thinking, but the achievement of concrete thinking;
Refutation of theories of progress and statements that the world is rationally and harmoniously designed, and its movement in every sense is the embodiment of this intelligent design. The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, from a truly misanthropic point of view, criticized the rationality of the structure of the world, and even more so the special and initially free place allocated to man in this world. The thinker believed that human existence is primarily torture;
Based on the previous two postulates, it seems logical for Schopenhauer’s irrationalist philosophy to consider existence as a criterion and methodology in understanding the world.

Biography of Schopenhauer - briefly – famous German philosopher (1788–1860). In his youth, he and his parents traveled through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and England (1803–1805). Returning from the trip, Schopenhauer, at the request of his father, entered (1805) an apprenticeship with a large businessman, but when his father soon died, he decided to devote himself to the scientific field. In 1809 he entered the faculty of medicine at the University of Göttingen, then studied philosophy in Berlin and Jena. After completing his main work, The World as Will and Representation (published in Leipzig, 1819), Schopenhauer went to Spain. Upon returning from there, he unsuccessfully sought a chair at the University of Berlin, and in 1831 he left for Frankfurt am Main, which he considered the healthiest city in Germany and devoted himself exclusively to philosophical studies. In 1895, a monument was erected to him in Frankfurt.

Schopenhauer's philosophy is adjacent to Kant's criticism of reason and, above all, like Fichte's philosophy, to its idealistic side. Schopenhauer, like Kant, declares the things given to us in space and time to be simple phenomena, and space and time themselves to be subjective, a priori forms of consciousness. The essence of objective things remains unknown to our intellect, because the world, contemplated through subjective forms of perception (time and space), cannot be identified with the real. The world given to us in rational consciousness is only “the world as an idea”, a fiction of the intellect or (in the words of Schopenhauer himself) an empty “brain ghost”. (For more information about this, see the articles Schopenhauer and Kant, Schopenhauer on the metaphysical need of man)

But all this concerns only activities reason . In assessing it, Schopenhauer (like Fichte) goes much further than Kant in idealistic subjectivism. However, behind another mental function - by will – he, on the contrary, categorically recognizes complete objectivity and reliability. For Kant, the only organ of knowledge is the intellect. Schopenhauer emphasizes the huge role in the perceptions given to us also of the human will, which, in his opinion, comprehends the data his experience not only clearly, but also “directly”. “Will” forms our main and true spiritual essence. The fact that Kant paid almost no attention to this most important aspect of our personality in his philosophy is a major mistake. With the word “will,” Schopenhauer’s philosophy denotes not only conscious desire, but also unconscious instinct and the force operating in the inorganic world. The real “world as will” differs from the imaginary “world as representation.” If “the world as an idea” as a “brain phenomenon” exists only in the intellect, “consciousness”, then “the world as will” acts without intellect and consciousness - as a “senseless”, “blind”, tireless “will to live” .

Pessimism and irrationalism of Schopenhauer

According to Schopenhauer's philosophy, this will is meaningless. Therefore, our world is not “the best of possible worlds” (as Leibniz’s theodicy proclaims), but “the worst of possible worlds.” Human life has no value: the sum of the suffering it causes is much greater than the pleasure it provides. Schopenhauer contrasts optimism with the most decisive pessimism - and this was fully consistent with his personal mental make-up. The will is irrational, blind and instinctive, for during the development of organic forms, the light of thought lights up for the first time only at the highest and final stage of development of the will - in the human brain, the bearer of consciousness. But with the awakening of consciousness, a means appears to “overcome the meaninglessness” of the will. Having come to the pessimistic conclusion that the continuous, irrational will to live causes an intolerable state of prevailing suffering, the intellect is at the same time convinced that deliverance from it can be achieved (according to the Buddhist model) by escaping from life, denying the will to live. However, Schopenhauer emphasizes that this denial, the “quietism of the will,” comparable to the transition to Buddhist nirvana, into the silence of non-existence free from suffering, should in no way be identified with suicide (which the philosopher who influenced him later began to call for Eduard Hartman).

Between the will and individual things, according to Schopenhauer, there are also ideas - stages of objectification of the will, which are reflected not in time and space, but in countless individual things. We can rise to the knowledge of these ideas when we cease to consider individual things in time, space and causality, and comprehend them not by abstraction, but by contemplation. In the moments when we do this, we are freed from the torment of life and become subjects of knowledge for which there is no longer either time or suffering. Ideas constitute the content of art, which is addressed to entities that remain unchanged in the eternal change of phenomena.

The significance of Schopenhauer in the history of philosophy

Schopenhauer owed his success (albeit late) both to the originality and courage of his system, and to a number of other qualities: his eloquent defense of the pessimistic worldview, his ardent hatred of “school philosophy,” his gift of presentation, free (especially in small works) from any artificiality. Thanks to this, he (like the popular English and French thinkers he highly valued) became primarily a philosopher of “secular people.” He had many adherents of low rank, but very few capable continuers of his system. The “Schopenhauer School” did not emerge, but he still greatly influenced a number of original thinkers who developed their own theories. Of the philosophers who relied on Schopenhauer, Hartmann and the early Nietzsche are especially famous. These also include most of the representatives of the later “ philosophy of life", whose true founder Schopenhauer has every right to be considered.