Schopenhauer Metaphysical Foundation Of Ethics

Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher of the 19th century, inherited Kant's epistemology which based on epistemic subject,and endue Kant's things-in-itself a new concept:the will, a kind of blind impulse and endless pursuit. Schopenhauer's metaphysics establish the principle position of will in the world, and thus set out a distinction between the world as will and as representation,which is objectify.He's intuition epistemology based on voluntarism is a echo and supplement of traditional rationalism epistemology.After establishing the metaphysics of will ontology,Schopenhauer set up his ethnics.He believes that ethics is the problem of life, it's not a subsidiary part of the philosophy, but should be the center of philosophical argument. His pioneering work is to combine the philosophy and ethics,the significance is to establish a new cogitation reference system,to make philosophy into an important means of proof of life.In the construction of the will metaphysics as the basis for ethics, Schopenhauer adopts a experience method rather than a transcendent method,attempts to find the ethical significance of human behaviour by studying behavior of individual begins and to behavior, Schopenhauer's criticism of the traditional rational basis of ethics and research of people's behaviour from the actual self-motives,enrich the diversity,pluralism and specificity of individual,caused the rethink of West ethics.The text is divided into three greatest parts.The first chapter introduces the theory premise of Schopenhauer's ethics:Will ontology and Intuitive epistemology.The noumenon of the world is will,the representation world's existence depend on cognition subject,who can find the will by intuition in himself,therefore, both as a direct object and as a the cognition subject,"my body" is very important.Only through "my body" starting,the intuition object,not sheer self-being will or motley representation,can the consciousness reach the unitary and invariability will behind the phenomena, the noumenon of world.The second chapter discusses Schopenhauer's criticism of Kant's ethics.He denys the foundational position of reason in the ethics, discuss the relativity and source of the concept of good and evil.He denys the freedom of individua will.Behavior is physical activity,is the phenomenoned activities of will, they are bound to causality as the basis。Therefore,,human behaviour has a inevitable basis:law of causality,it's the result of a certain reason.Individual will is not free.Then Schopenhauer analyzed the two reasons of.The one is motivation,a external reason.Motivation is a stimulus to will, which lets will emerge activity require.Another reason is from interior,that is, the will entering into individual. in other words,Schopenhauer take in realization character from Kant, which is the unchangeable precondition of one person's activity.The third chapter mainly discusses Schopenhauer's study about human behaviour motivations.He summarise the motivations against morality in egoism,the morality is in sympathy,and he explore the metaphysics foundation respectively.Because theSeparation of subject and object is the prim epistemological type,so it lead to that the world is a"nonego"in the cognition object's visual field. The will reveals to be idea in its stepwise objectified process,and people,as the clearest idea,possess the most complete unique characteristic and exclusiveness.At the same time,the essence of will is endless desires,affirm ego and negate others.These result in the people's egoism nature.But the will in the phenomenon world is unitary,sympathy,as the other behaviour motivation,lead a people abandon the individualization principle, find the identical essence in other people and himself and actualize moral.