In Search of Schopenhauer's Cat: Arthur Schopenhauer's Quantum-Mystical Theory of Justice

12. The Denial of the Will to Live

Chapter 12 The Denial of the Will to Live Because of the way in which it manifests itself in the world of appearances , that is, the world as represented to us through the structures of our perceiving mind (time, space, causality, plurality, etc.) the “will,” which at the human level Schopenhauer refers to as the “will to live,” is involved in a delusion. The “will” as thing-in-itself, is (as has been indicated) something like tendency or probability. There is no clear word for it because it is a transcendent concept. Schopenhauer calls it endless, aimless, limitless striving. In that sense, it is a tendency without an aim, other than that of eternal becoming or flux. The “will” as represented to the perceiving mind, however, is seen as a will to live. The perceiving mind cannot understand an aimless tendency, and so it separates will into two thoughts. In reality, the tendency is the existence. The perceiving mind, however , records it as a tendency to exist, hence, as a will-to-live.1 Despite the countless individuals who inhabit the world, the will to live 104 1. See WWR-1, 162–165, 275; and WWR-2, 349–60. is unindividuated and is present, whole and entire, in each individual . Moreover, it seeks to affirm itself in this delusional milieu, often at the expense of itself. The delusional milieu in which the will finds itself is not unknown in the cultural traditions that have developed over the years. Schopenhauer sees it in both Christianity and Hinduism. In Christianity , this delusion takes the form of the doctrine of original sin. Quoting the poet Calderon who wrote “.l.l. man’s greatest offence is that he has been born,” Schopenhauer concludes “[i]n that verse Calderon has merely expressed the Christian dogma of original sin.”2 In Hinduism, Schopenhauer found this delusional milieu in the doctrine of the veil of Maya: [T]he ancient wisdom of the Indians declares that “it is Mâyâ, the veil of deception, which covers the eyes of mortals, and causes them to see a world of which one cannot say either that it is or that it is not.l.l.l.” .l.l. [I]t is .l.l. individuation that keeps the will-to-live in error as to its own true nature; it is the Maya of Brahmanism.3 Both religious traditions, of course, provide a solution for the human being’s predicament, and both employ the same word when they discuss their solutions: salvation. But the word “salvation” on the lips of the average Christian means something quite different from what it means on the lips of a Brahman. Christian salvation traditionally accommodates and preserves the individuality of the saved person. Hindu salvation does not; in fact in Hindu philosophy (carried over into and developed more fully in Buddhism), existence itself is transcended in the state known as Nirvana (a word which is The Denial of the Will to Live 105 2. See WWR-1, 355. 3. WWR-1, 8; and WWR-2, 601. somewhat paradoxically but correctly translated both as “enlightenment ” and as “extinction”).4 In the final analysis, Schopenhauer’s “salvation” is much closer to the Hindu/Buddhist than to the traditional Christian understanding , although he couches it more often than not in Christian terminology . For example: “The doctrine of original sin (affirmation of the will) and of salvation (denial of the will) is really the great truth which constitutes the kernel of Christianity.l.l.l. Accordingly, we should interpret Jesus Christ always in the universal, as the symbol of personification of the denial of the will-to-live.l.l.l.”5 Salvation, for Schopenhauer, lies in the denial of the will to live, but this should not be understood superficially. Thinking simplistically , it would seem that the clearest and most direct route to salvation , in Schopenhauer’s mind, would be suicide. Suicide seems at first glance to involve a denial of the will to live. But Schopenhauer very clearly held to the contrary. Suicide, according to Schopenhauer , involves an affirmation and not a denial of the will-to-live: The suicide wills life, and is dissatisfied merely with the conditions on which it has come to him. Therefore, he gives up by no means the will-to-live, but merely life, since he destroys the individual phenomenon.l.l.l...