The World as Will

Abstract

In the previous chapter we saw it argued that in one’s own case, at least, forces, those which manifest themselves in one’s voluntary behaviour, are to be identified with will. And in the chapter before that we saw that whatever can be discovered about forces is to be accounted a discovery about the metaphysical reality underlying the world-representation constructed by commonsense and natural science between them. So we initiated, in the last chapter, the process of bringing to light the metaphysical character of nature. In this chapter I shall be concerned with Schopenhauer’s completion of the process; with his claim that in its “inner”, metaphysical being, the character of every natural phenomenon is “homogeneous” (WR I p.105) with one’s own, so that it is not just one’s own metaphysical nature, but the metaphysical nature of everything else too, that is will.