Blind Will: Schelling, Schopenhauer, and the Problem of Evil

This dissertation examines the affinities and differences between Arthur Schopenhauer’s system and F. W. J. Schelling’s work from the period 1809-1821. Both philosophers argue for some conception of “blind will,” or striving devoid of rationality, as metaphysically foundational and as accounting for life’s pervasive and constitutive suffering. I begin by showing the roots of this idea in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, and I conclude by arguing that Schopenhauer and Schelling offer competing accounts of the nature of liberation from this will. While Schopenhauerian liberation entails disengagement from the world, Schellingian liberation is possible only through active engagement with the world in a spirit of love.