After reading over our most recent assignment, I’m not sure Schopenhauer is actually telling us how a human should live. I think he is explaining how most humans actually exist in this world. As he has repeated many times, “the will, whose objectification is human life like every phenomenon, is a striving without an aim or end” (321). Our will is a never ending cycle of pain, desire, pleasure, satisfaction, and misery until we finally no longer have the will for life (we die). Some pure knowing geniuses (saints) who are able to comprehend the absolute ideas are will-free; they have attained lasting and pure peace and tranquility. Sometimes, humans only temporarily become free of will; their will to live draws them back into the world of desires, joys, and sadness that are never fully satisfied. This is how I understand his philosophy. I’m not quite sure if I have interpreted this right.
As previously discussed, art is an image of the ideas replicated by the genius. Music, the higher art, directly moves the heart and soul of the person (the will). The art and music produced by geniuses transcend the will, making the person temporarily feel the pure peace and tranquility that only the geniuses that created these forms have. In our lifetime, we may not meet or know any geniuses or saints, and most of us will never live free of will; we can, through their music and art, temporarily reach the feelings of happiness, peace, and tranquility.
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