Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Arthur Schopenhauer developed a fascinating version of dual-aspect monism, according to which from outside, the world appears as representation, but from inside, it appears as will: ontological monism and epistemological dualism. To Schopenhauer, desire-driven will is what we are from inside, and he goes on to argue that we should think of the underlying reality of all appearance in the same way. You represent my will as a body, but there’s an underlying reality to your representation that’s experiential in character. Schopenhauer thinks the basis of this dual-aspect character of reality pervades the natural world, organic and inorganic. Why? Because this is our only form of insight into—or acquaintance with—anything as a thing in itself.
We also discuss the connection between Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, whether Schopenhauer is an idealist or a panpsychist, and explore a couple arguments for panpsychism.
“[O]n the path of objective knowledge, thus starting from the representation, we shall never get beyond the representation...We shall therefore remain at the outside of things; we shall never be able to penetrate into their inner nature, and investigate what they are in themselves…So far, I agree with Kant. But … we ourselves are the thing-in-itself. Consequently, a way from within stands open to us to that real inner nature of things to which we cannot penetrate from without. It is, so to speak, a subterranean passage, a secret alliance, which, as if by treachery, places us all at once in the fortress that could not be taken by attack from without.”
SHOWNOTES, LINKS, & REFERENCES: audioboom.com/posts/7758773-33-schopenhauer-on-mind-matter
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/schopenhauer-on-mind-matter
Follow on Twitter @waldenpod and @OnPanpsychism
Listen to Counter Apologetics here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417?mt=2
Listen to Walden Pod here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
/ timestamps /
00:00 Schopenhauer's personality
02:23 Will and Representation
10:15 Panpsychism and the key to movement
16:46 A subterranean passage
20:27 Different sides of the same mountain
Arthur Schopenhauer developed a fascinating version of dual-aspect monism, according to which from outside, the world appears as representation, but from inside, it appears as will: ontological monism and epistemological dualism. To Schopenhauer, desire-driven will is what we are from inside, and he goes on to argue that we should think of the underlying reality of all appearance in the same way. You represent my will as a body, but there’s an underlying reality to your representation that’s experiential in character. Schopenhauer thinks the basis of this dual-aspect character of reality pervades the natural world, organic and inorganic. Why? Because this is our only form of insight into—or acquaintance with—anything as a thing in itself.
We also discuss the connection between Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, whether Schopenhauer is an idealist or a panpsychist, and explore a couple arguments for panpsychism.
“[O]n the path of objective knowledge, thus starting from the representation, we shall never get beyond the representation...We shall therefore remain at the outside of things; we shall never be able to penetrate into their inner nature, and investigate what they are in themselves…So far, I agree with Kant. But … we ourselves are the thing-in-itself. Consequently, a way from within stands open to us to that real inner nature of things to which we cannot penetrate from without. It is, so to speak, a subterranean passage, a secret alliance, which, as if by treachery, places us all at once in the fortress that could not be taken by attack from without.”
SHOWNOTES, LINKS, & REFERENCES: audioboom.com/posts/7758773-33-schopenhauer-on-mind-matter
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/schopenhauer-on-mind-matter
Follow on Twitter @waldenpod and @OnPanpsychism
Listen to Counter Apologetics here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417?mt=2
Listen to Walden Pod here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
/ timestamps /
00:00 Schopenhauer's personality
02:23 Will and Representation
10:15 Panpsychism and the key to movement
16:46 A subterranean passage
20:27 Different sides of the same mountain
