An Introductory Analysis About the Conception of Death in Schopenhauer

Abstract

This article aims to explain, in a propaedeutic way, the fundamentals about the conception of death in Schopenhauer. Thus, it is dedicated to the book The World as Will and Representation (1966), precisely in these manuscripts: The World as Will, First Aspect: The Objectification of the Will and On Death and Its Relation to the Indestructibility of Our Inner Nature. Hence, this research adopts the following methodological plan: initially it exposes the concept of will and representation regarding the phenomenon of death which throughout philosophical tradition proves to be one of the earliest man’s metaphysical anguishes. Subsequently it displays the author’s philosophical argumentation in relation to the phenomenon of death that is relevant for understanding all Schopenhauerian philosophy. Schopenhauer (1966) demonstrates this fact, in the discourse about death, as something inherent to man’s phenomenal existence that is a manifestation of the will to live.