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Schopenhauer, the Will—with Eileen Murphy
October 19, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
As psychologist of the Will, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is the father of all modern psychology. As a teenager Jung was attracted to the philosophy of Schopenhauer for his being “the first to speak about the suffering and evil in the world.” Jung says, “Here was a philosopher who had the courage to see the fundamental flaw that underlay the sorrowful course of human history. Schopenhauer’s somber picture of the world had my undivided approval.” One can see the influence of Schopenhauer’s thought on Freud’s notion of the Id, and on others including Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, Kafka… so many. Jung himself acclaimed Schopenhauer as the first Western philosopher to “discover” the unconscious as the ultimate principle of being and the hidden source of all human motivation—the Will to Live and to reproduce. The intellect, sex organs, emotions are blind servants of the Will. Tonight, I will outline his thinking and leave time to discuss the consequences of his thought for all of us.