An abyssal character - Schopenhauer's metaphysics of Will as characterology

Abstract

In this paper I investigate the notion of character in the work of Schopenhauer with the intention of indicating to what extent the idea of a characterology is a fundamental component of Schopenhauer's metaphysics. For that, I shall not dwell on receipt of Kantian and Schellingian notions of character, in the sphere of ethics and even in the notion of acquired character, but confine myself to an analysis of the concepts of intelligible character and empirical character specifically in the context of the first elaborations of the Metaphysics of Will - in the juveniles Manuscripts of the thinker (especially in the posthumous 1812-1814) -, and in the context in of the use of this dual conception of character in some passages from published works. At the end, I indicate what are the main materials content of the characterology and attentive to the fundamental distinctions between individual character and character of the species.

Keywords

• Metafísica
• Vontade
• Caracterologia