(1788-1860) Wrote
The World as Will and Idea (or Representation). Voluntaristic idealism. Reality is a blind, irrational will, objectifying itself as man and the
phenomena of his world. This will is
Kant 's "thing-in-itself" but can be introspectively and intuitively known. In man, the will becomes self-conscious and presents to itself by construction a phenomenal world of ideas or representations. This world is ordered in terms of the principle of causality, which is necessary to the conception of
phenomena . Mind is a manifestation of will which is self-conscious and capable of understanding the forms of existence (i.e., the forms by which will objectifies itself).
Phenomena appear to be plural, but in reality manifests the one universal will.
Phenomena appear to be orderly and good, but in reality hide an irrational and evil will. The world as will representing itself to itself develops through several stages: 1. the ideas that limit objectification to particular things; and 2. a final objectification as human consciousness and its world of
phenomena as representations. Ordinary knowledge is the activity of the will. Knowledge of the ideas bypasses this activity and turns the will on itself and its ideas or limitations; hence knowledge of the ideas no longer further objectifies will. Art penetrates the representations to the ideas, thus revealing reality. Tragedy, e.g., reveals the blindness and necessity of will. Music is the most revealing and liberating art, for it reveals the will itself.