Dear Schopenhauer: How can IS Artefacts Help Us Flourish? Wille, vorstellung, compassion, and beauty in Social Media

The Information Systems (IS) discipline is increasingly confronting the ‘dark sides’ of digitalisation, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of its effects on human flourishing. Traditional perspectives, grounded in Aristotle’s objectivist virtue ethics, often overlook the subjective side of human experience, shaped by individual desires and cultural contexts. This paper introduces Arthur Schopenhauer’s subjectivist philosophy to complement and enrich research on human flourishing and its enablement through IS artefacts. By applying Schopenhauer’s concepts of Wille, Vorstellung, compassion, and beauty, the paper reframes core IS concepts, including causality in sociotechnical systems, affordance actualisation, ethical IS design, governance, and use, and the role of aesthetics in IS artefacts. Using social media as a focal example, it demonstrates how Schopenhauer’s insights can guide the creation of IS artefacts that alleviate suffering and promote genuine human flourishing.