# Schopenhauer, And Art As Temporal Gnosis

Schopenhauer was the first philosopher whom I wholeheartedly studied.
I enjoyed Plato before, but not as much as Schopenhauer. Though
there are many things I can't agree with. If you have read only
Nietzsche, read Schopenhauer. Nietzsche is cool. But Schopenhauer
is great.

There are many good things from him. Like the synthesis of Plato,
Kant, and Hinduism & Buddhism. Or seperating the conscious world
(Representation) and the unconscious world (Will) far before Freud.
The latter came from Kant, but I mean in the sense of Freud & Jung.

However, I think the best of him is his aesthetics. Also, personally
the reason I occasionally go back to Schopenhauer is almost always
because of it.

Compared to "aesthetic judgement" and "disinterested pleasure" of
Kant, or "sensuous expression of free spirit's self-understanding"
of Hegel, his aesthetics is far more noble and soulful. And he
elevated the status of artists from artisans to priests.



To talk about his aesthetics, we have to talk about his "Representation
vs Will" first. I will explain it only briefly. If you are interested,
just read his book "The World as Will and Representation".

The world as Representation is the conscious. Maya. The phenomenal
world in Kantian philosophy. It is what we see.

The world as Will is the unconscious. The thing-in-itself in Kantian
philosophy. It corresponds to Atman in Hinduism, or Emptiness in
Buddhism. The actual underlying reality of the world.

So the world itself has its conscious part (Representation) and
unconscious part (Will).


And those are almost the same with the conscious mind and the
unconscious mind in Freud & Jung. So you should have the image of
Superego vs Id.

An important thing is that, Will is an evil while it is the actual
reality of the world. The Will is will-to-live. It is the blind
irrational impluse which heavily influences the conscious. The
animalistic instinct. Hence it is the cause of sufferings in the
world. It randomly swings and make you suffer.

> Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain
> and boredom.
>
> Arthur Schopenhauer

Note that this is quite similar to Gnosticism although it is inverted.
The actual reality causes sufferings, instead of the material world.



So how can we be saved from it? There are two options.

1. Asceticism
2. Art

Since sufferings come from Will, a salvation should dismiss and
remove Will. Suicide is not an option since there is reincarnation.

Strict asceticism is the long term and final solution. But it cannot
save you NOW.

And there is another solution, art.


Since Representation is in fact "objectified Will", there are
degrees of objectification. The most direct and raw form of Will
in the world of Representation is Platonic form. Since it is
independent from spacetime and cause-and-effects. Yes, here is
where Kant meets Plato.

And since Platonic forms are the most direct, those are on the
boundary between Will and Representation. Hence those mediate
between Will and Representation.

Art is converting (objectifying) Will into Platonic forms. By doing
that, you can be temporarily a Will-less spectator of "the world
as Representation" who is free from sufferings caused by Will.

And art gives you fundamental knowledge of the world. Since Will
is the actual reality and art shows you its direct manifestations.
It is eternal. "Subjective and irrational" Will became "objective
and rational" Representation. Though your salvation is temporal.

Note that this meets "indifferent pleasure" of Kantian aesthetics.
This also meets "making unconscious conscious" of Jungian psychology.

And you might remember that Jung wrote about alchemy being an
exemplar of it. It is "applying Fire to Mercury". Thus alchemy is
the royal art.


So in other words, art is temporal Gnosis. The purpose of art is
to achieve temporal Nirvana. Artists are in fact Priests.



Here is the end of this post. In fact, I want to write much more.
Mostly about applications of this aesthetics. But I don't want to
increase the length of this post. I might write those in the future.