| It is not typical to discuss Schopenhauer as a thinker who is engaged with or deeply influenced by the philosophy of Spinoza. In this dissertation, I argue for a reading of Schopenhauer that understands him to be Spinoza's philosophical descendent. In particular, I present Schopenhauer as a figure who self-consciously follows, in his own way, a distinctively Spinozist project of formulating a philosophy of immanence. Associated with modern philosophy's radical enlightenment, this type of philosophy, as it appears in Spinoza, represents a controversial attempt to conceive all being and all values within a single, this-worldly, or natural, horizon. I show how Spinoza's ingenious attempt to resolve an apparent dichotomy of being, which I call, with Schopenhauer, the problem of the ideal and real, resurfaces as critically reinterpreted in Schopenhauer's thought. My argument will deepen readers' understanding of and correct some misconceptions concerning Schopenhauer's dual-aspect monism, by showing how his own view emerges from out of that of Spinoza's naturalism. I also give support to the claim that he really did see Spinoza's immanent philosophy as a rival to his own. This, as I show, is especially true in the domain of ethics, given that both philosophers look to nature alone as a source of moral significance and offer a path of emancipation from the struggles and sufferings of life. Also, by understanding how Schopenhauer exists alongside a number of other thinkers in a Spinozist tradition, I add to a particular conceptual history, one which shows an array of thus far imperfect possibilities inherent within the attempt to devise a world conception which understands conscious thought, the physical structure of the cosmos, and the most deeply held moral and spiritual values as nothing more than attributes or manifestations of single ground, a ground that is one and all. |
