The world as truth and illusion: metaphysics and physics in Schopenhauer´s philosophy

• Grant number: 12/03748-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Maria Lucia Mello e Oliveira Cacciola
• Grantee: Ana Carolina Soliva Soria
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer shows the illusory character of the phenomenal world, a mere representation of the subject submitted to the forms of understanding. The knowledge of the phenomenon cannot transpose this quality that is inherent; only will can give objectivity to the world and give it fundamentals. Fundamental which is not out of the world itself, but it is immanent. Having this in mind, we will seek to investigate the relationship between what may exist outside the knowledge referred to individualized (and that is metaphysical, namely the will with the thing itself) and which is subject to the principles of determination of the phenomenon (which is in turn, physical). The contact point and unity between the will and representation is the body (Leib), key to solving the riddle of the world. In other words, we intend to study in Schopenhauer´s philosophy the measure in which the own body can be understood as the contact point between the physical and metaphysical world, which is: between the fields which a recalled by the philosopher as the representation and the will. (AU)