Schopenhauer’s Ethics: A Metaphysics in Action

Disputations whether Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) assent to a certain normative system of Ethics in his philosophy has been an interminable topic. Despite his dispiriting claim that philosophy can never ‘guide conduct’ as well as the determinability of character raises the question of how there exists a moral dimension in his works. Indeed, he states explicitly that his views on morality are entirely in the spirit of Christianity, as well as being consistent with the doctrines and ethical precepts of the sacred books of India (The World as Will and Representation, Section 68). Through this, by way of synoptic assessment, many works on Schopenhauer focused on compassion as the basis of his ethics. This paper will then seek to underscore a different vantage point on the grounding of his ethics, i.e., one which is emerging from metaphysics and achieves its embodiment in action. Hence, the principal intent of this paper is to ascertain a possible normative exposition of Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy. This entails an elucidation on whether there is a framework of Ethics embedded in his metaphysics and a critical analysis on the plausibility of this moral philosophy. References Atwell, J. Schopenhauer: The Human Character, Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1990. __________. Schopenhauer on the Character of the World, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Cartwright, David. “Scheler’s Criticisms of Schopenhauer’s Theory of Mitleid,” in Schopenhauer–Jahrbuch, (62), 1981. Cartwright, David E. Schopenhauer: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Copleston, Frederick. Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher of Pessimism. London: Barnes and Noble, 1975. Hamlyn, D.W. Schopenhauer. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. Hübscher, Arthur, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer in Its Intellectual Context: Thinker Against the Tide. Translated by Joachim T. Baer and David E. Cartwright. Lewiston, N.Y : Edwin Mellon Press, 1989. Jacquette, Dale, ed. Schopenhauer, Philosophy, and the Arts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Janaway, Christopher, ed. Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator. Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1998. Jonas, Hans. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Norman Kemp Smith. London: Macmillan, 1929. _______________. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. H. J. Paton. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964. Madigan, Timothy J. Nietzsche & Schopenhauer On Compassion. Retrieved from https://philosophynow.org/issues/29/Nietzsche_and_Schopenhauer_On_Compassion, 2000. Magee, Bryan. The Philosophy of Schopenhauer. Oxford: Carendon Press, 1983. Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Idea, 3 Vols., translated by R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1883. _______________. The World as Will and Representation, Vols. I and II, translated by E. F. J. Payne, New York: Dover Publications, 1969. _______________. The World as Will and Presentation, Vol. I, translated by Richard Aquila in collaboration with David Carus, New York: Longman, 2007. _______________. The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, translated by Judith Norman, Alistair Welchman, and Christopher Janaway, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. _______________. On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Translated by E.F.J. Payne. LaSalle: Open Court Press, 1997. ___________. On the Basis of Morality. Translated by E.F.J. Payne. Indianapolis: The Bobbs Merrill Company, 1965. ___________. On the Will in Nature. Translated by E.F.J. Payne. New York: Berg Publishers, 1992.___________. The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims. Translated by T. Bailey Saunders. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1995. Taylor, Richard. “Schopenhauer”. Journal of Philosophy 61 (9),pp.288-289: 1964. Troxell, Mary. Arthur Schopenhauer. Retrieved on February 11, 2017 from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://www.iep.utm.edu/schopenh/#SSH2bii 2011 Young, Julian, Willing and Unwilling: A Study in the Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987.