Bridge Of The Transition From Rational To Irrational

Modern rationalistic trend in the West developed from the Renaissance, through the Enlightenment and German classical philosophy, to Hegel who reached its summit. The absolute and mystification of rationalism would certainly result in rebellion against reason. The rebellion was raised by Schopenhauer, whose masterpiece "The World as Will and Idea" greatly lashed Hegel's myth of rationalism with strong unreasonable flavor and whose idea became a great wave which start the trend of irrationalism in modern West. Schopenhauer's philosophical thinking mainly lies in ontology of life and will, epistemology of intuition, and pessimistic outlook on life, in which "intuition higher than the rational" is the marrow of his theory. His aesthetic thinking is the important part of his philosophical system and its key proposition is the theory of perceptual intuition and taste. There are three characteristics of aesthetic intuition and taste - sur-utility, irrationalness and unity of subject and object. Schopenhauer's irrationalistic philosophy and aesthetic thinking have great influence on later generations. In the West many schools of humanistic philosophy and aesthetic thought were affected by him directly or indirectly in the 20th century. Besides, Schopenhauer has also profoundly influenced modern aesthetic thought in China. Wang Guowei, the founder of modern Chinese aesthetics, formed his aesthetic system just under the influence of Schopenhauer and began his literary criticism. Many other modern Chinese aestheticians were also influenced by him early or late in varying degrees. This paper aims at illustrating Schopenhauer's role of bridge in transition from Western rationalistic trend to irrationaliatic trend with comment on his thought of philosophy and aesthetics, and proves his unique position in history of Western philosophy and aesthetics in China as well as in the West. This work has never been done systematically before.