Arthur Schopenhauer

In The World as Will and Representation, first published in 1818, Schopenhauer argues that the deepest reality behind appearances is blind striving or will. Human desire is only one visible form of this broader metaphysical force.

Schopenhauer thinks desire keeps people trapped between suffering and boredom. Because the will never reaches lasting satisfaction, ordinary life is marked by frustration rather than stable happiness.

Nietzsche read Schopenhauer intensely as a young man and treated him as a major philosophical event. Later, Nietzsche rejected Schopenhauer's denial of the will, but the conflict shaped books such as The Birth of Tragedy.

Art gives temporary relief from the demands of the will by allowing disinterested contemplation. Schopenhauer gives music a special status because he thinks it expresses the will more directly than visual art or poetry.