Freud and the "Schopenhauer's School"

• Grant number: 11/16710-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2012
• End date: March 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Oswaldo Giacoia Junior
• Grantee: Guilherme Marconi Germer
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project proposes to analyze and interpret the influence, concordance and continuity of thought between A. Schopenhauer and S. Freud. Its starting point are the following four convergences between the two doctrines: (i) Freud's defense of the supremacy of the unconscious over the conscious and Schopenhauer's thesis of the primacy of the will over the intellect, (ii) their findings of the primary character of the sexual impulse, (iii) their pessimisms (based on the conceptions of "the goal of all life is death", the positivity of pain and negativity of pleasure, the "war of all against all", etc.) and (iv) their diagnostics and critics of religion. According to S. Gardner, this comparative study is "important on its own account", but it also renders two important consequences: on "Freud's side", it helps us to see what makes some conceptions specifically psychoanalytic, and on "Schopenhauer's side", it offers a "further reason for regarding Schopenhauer's philosophy as having a special importance for our self-understanding". Although much had already been written on the subject, this literature is far from has exhausted its richness. On the contrary, it has very often reduced Freud to an "applied Schopenhauer", Schopenhauer to a completely overcame "pre-science", or has presented no synthesis and just pointed out the obvious: Freud is Freud, Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer. The originality of this approach may be in its concentration on the "uniqueness" of the relationship of these two irreducible singularities, which is certainly distinct from their relationships with other thinkers. This more "objective" historiographical method is inspired by the recent "systematic and scientific definition" of the "Schopenhauer's school", by D. Fazio, L. Lütkehaus and M. Kossler. Ultimately, this project aims to contribute to this new interpretation by investigating whether these theoretical concordances legitimize the inclusion of Freud in this "school of Schopenhauer". If so, the psychoanalytic originality can found a special branch in it: the "scientists' one", who, along with a second, the "artists'", would extend this concept beyond the strict definition of German philosopher.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

GERMER, Guilherme Marconi. The critique of religion as inflection point: Freud's proximity to Schopenhauer's school. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.