In his magnum-opus, Die Welt all Wille und Vorstellung [The World as Will and Idea/Representation, 1818] Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) dedicates a whole book to art and aesthetics in its many forms, especially that of music. With the notable exception of Nietzsche his discourse hasn’t found as fertile ground amongst other philosophers. However, unsurprisingly perhaps, his writing continues to both influence artists and to help them with both an understanding of themselves, and also their artistic production. From Marcel Proust to Samuel Beckett, Delacroix to Wagner, among many others, all artists in their own right who have have extended their indebtedness to the writings of Schopenhauer. But what can be said today in the anthropocene? What of the artist working in the 21st century? In this essay I will argue that the ideas put forward by Schopenhauer are not only still applicable to many aspects of our increasingly technological and connected world, but also an essential survival tool in this burgeoning age of abundance, endless sensation questing, and the hegemonic and open display of personal satisfaction.
Schopenhauer’s system aims to be all-enveloping so first we should talk briefly about the metaphysical aspects of that system. Following the twofold manner of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Schopenhauer advances the notion that the object can only be known by attributes exposed by the subject, yet with one important divergence. While Kant argued that we engage with the objects of the world only in our perception of them (the phenomenal world), and never with the actual things that create that perception (the noumenal world). Schopenhauer takes a step further, simplifying this into his Satz vom Grund [principle of sufficient reason] stating that the world is idea [Vorstellung], that the world is only representation of the subject. “All that in any way belongs or can belong to the world is inevitably thus conditioned through the subject, and exists only for the subject. The world is idea.”
Also central to Schopenhauer’s thinking is what he calls “the Will”, or, Der Wille zum Leben [the will to live]. Schopenhauer’s Will as described is a blind drive that is always seeking satisfaction but never reaching it, and in so doing creates ever new needs and wants, ad infinitum. For Schopenhauer, the Will is what keeps us alive but also causes us dissatisfaction with life itself. “Behind need and want is to be found at once boredom, which attacks even the more intelligent animals. This is a consequence of the fact that life has no genuine intrinsic worth, but is kept in motion merely by want and illusion.”. His deeply consoling yet darkly introspective assertions have roots in Eastern thinking. Schopenhauer was the first serious Western thinker to become interested in Buddhism and his work might even be read as a Western response to the pessimism of Eastern philosophy.
For Schopenhauer there were two exit strategies to this pitiful condition. The first were monks and sages, who enabled themselves through practice to rise above, overcome desire, and to experience the noumenal world directly. The second path to this transcendental state was through art. According to Schopenhauer, Art was able to express the perfect embodiment of the Will, and through experiencing art we are able to, for a brief moment, become the noumenal. In fact it was in this aesthetic moment that Schopenhauer suggested that you cease to exist. Of course cessation of existence as a positive thing is difficult to understand in the context of Western thinking, therefore, “you stop seeing yourself as separate from the Universe.” is perhaps a better way of interpreting this and is coincidentally better aligned with the Buddhist source.
Translation of a text, especially a philosophical text, is fraught with peril. In addition to this there is multiple cultural translations that also need to take place and while these Eastern influences seem to prove as no small stumbling blocks for many critics, there are certain problems that arise elsewhere that cannot be explained away as such oversights. Although Schopenhauer insists art has the capability to reveal sublime insights that would otherwise remain out of reach, a solid weld between this optimism and his general anti-rationalism is problematic. Contradictory also is at the exact moment of these aesthetic experiences. As described by Schopenhauer it is less an engagement with the world but a withdrawal from it. Yet Eastern philosophy may again hold the answers. Meditation is considered a simultaneous awareness and withdrawal, and Nirvana itself is often described as a state of in between, a balance between opposing things, yet one of perfect equilibrium and peace.
Schopenhauer asserts that the aesthetic experience holds the key to seeing through the everyday, beyond the phenomenal, and revealing the very nature of being. “If, raised by the power of the mind, a man relinquishes the common way of looking at things… if he thus ceases to consider the where, the when, the why, and the whither of things, and looks simply and solely at the what if further, he does not allow abstract thought, the concepts of the reason, to take possession of his consciousness, but, instead of all this, gives the whole power of his mind to perception, sinks himself entirely in this, and lets his whole consciousness be filled with the quiet contemplation of the natural object actually present, whether a landscape, a tree, a mountain, a building, or whatever it may be… if thus the object has to such an extent passed out of relation to the will, then that which is so known is no longer the immediate objectivity of the will at this grade; and therefor in such perception the individual has lost himself; but he is pure, will-less, painless, timeless subject of knowledge”
Are these ideas still relevant in our technological age? Science has long since laid claim to the understanding of our world, so we shall call upon science first. Science has also advanced us to a point where our understanding of the reality is bookended with a radioactive picture from the edge of the visible universe, on one end, and the high energy colliding of particles and the very fabric of space and time at the other. There is no denying that these are incredible leaps of intellect and engineering. Yet all of these things are still grounded in their observations. According to Schopenhauer they would still be very much part of the phenomenal world, and worse, further aggravation of the Will. Yet for the same reasons perhaps, it is exceedingly difficult for us to describe our aesthetic experiences. Those that can have these experiences with art would describe them just as profoundly meaningful, yet would be scarcely able to explain that meaning. Science works with concepts and so it can never reach the noumenal. But again, while the artist can, “[Art] plucks the object of its contemplation out of the stream of the world’s course”, the artist would again be unable to explain how they were able to do so. Even a detailed list of the exact steps taken would be of no use to us towards this ends. Another view of the same problem, that conveniently combines both art and science, it is interesting to consider that even if we could issue a set of such instructions to 3D print unlimited identical copies of any and all of the artworks of the masters, none would ever be able to contribute as much value to humanity as the original.
Even art in it’s role as the ultimate commodity, and art objects have inarguably become the most expensive objects in the world, we find no reprieve: “Ignorance is degrading only when it is found in company with riches. Want and penury restrain the poor man; his employment takes the place of knowledge and occupies his thoughts: while rich men who are ignorant live for their pleasure only, and resemble a beast; as may be seen daily.”. As if spoken into existence by Schopenhauer himself, suddenly we are surrounded by it and this is perhaps key in understanding our current plight.
Many of the desires previously dreamed up by the Will have now been irreversibly slaked. A farm manned by a handful of people can produce food for thousands. Automated lines of machines press out yet more machines to enable faster travel, communication, or further fabrication. Submarine cables have been girdled round about the earth a thousand times over. And most astonishingly of all perhaps, all of these things are available to us at any moment, in the form of our smartphones. All of this activity has permanently extinguished desires that have apparently been holding us back for millennia yet more desires, just as Schopenhauer submits, immediately spring forward to fill their place. It is no longer enough to keep up with the Jones’ but we now apparently must aspire to be as wealthy as the Bill Gates or as famous as a Kardashian. We are chauffeured around in Ubers for mere dollars, yet we still manage to find desire for even more luxurious accoutrement.
Artworks and aesthetic experiences are now also available in equal abundance. Utter the name of any song ever written and Siri will play it for you. Any artwork and Google will deliver a scan of such high resolution it would make Courbet blush, right into your palm. And even the most private and personal communications have become steeply aestheticised. What is missing perhaps is not more art, or food, or sensation. But more Schopenhauer.
