The Proximity of Genius and Madness: A Study of Schopenhauer's Aesthetics

Abstract

Schopenhauer's treatment of aesthetics forms one of the central aspects of his wider philosophical world-view. Although the treatment is both insightful and sensitive, the analysis of the creative genius connects it to the more peripheral examination of madness in a way that threatens to undermine Schopenhauer's conception of the self. Madness is characterised by discontinuity of an individual's self, inviting a comparison with the transition into pure subjectivity from everyday empirical subjectivity during aesthetic contemplation. A comparison to madness is even more relevant to the genius, whose exposure to the sublime elements of nature parallels the madman's exposure to the horrific. By comparing the principle of madness with that of the aesthetic state, that which preserves our identity throughout our change in subjectivity can be brought into question. As Schopenhauer argues our knowledge of the Will is insufficient, an appeal to this as the source of continuity is unsatisfactory.

Keywords

• Estética
• Loucura
• Gênio artístico