Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer (German: Arthur Schopenhauer, pronunciation: [ˈaʁtuːɐ̯ ˈʃoːpn̩haʊɐ]; February 22, 1788 - September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher and the founder of voluntarism. His ideas had a profound influence on modern academic and cultural circles. Unlike his contemporaries Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, Schopenhauer did not eliminate the thing-in-itself. He inherited Kant's distinction between the thing-in-itself and representation, believing that it can be known through intuition, and identifying it as will. Schopenhauer believed that will is independent of time and space. It also includes all reason and knowledge. We can only get rid of it through meditation. Schopenhauer linked his famous philosophy of pessimism to this doctrine, arguing that being dominated by the will ultimately only brings nothingness and suffering. His repressed, distorted understanding of the mind's surrender to organs, desires, and impulses inspired later psychoanalysis and psychology.