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Art, Buddhism and Schopenhauer – Philosophy Tube

Philosophy Tube | March 29, 2026



What is the purpose of art, and what does Buddhism have to do with it? Let’s dive into Schopenhauer and find out!
Aesthetics Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvoAL-KSZ32d-ywRVwELJOl61bKwjzw6h

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Suggested Reading:
The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy entry on Schopenhauer’s Aesthetics http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer-aesthetics/#AesExp
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation

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Music: ‘Show your Moves’ and ‘Pamgea’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ by Richard Strauss

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Written by Philosophy Tube

Comments

This post currently has 41 comments.

  1. @kuk_forgoraren69

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    tiny little baby girl!! this video is almost 10 years old but abbi if you ever read this comment i just want you to know that this helped me tremendously in my final assignment on schopenhauer. an overworked, swedish uni student who's happily suffering through philosophical aesthetics salutes you.

  2. @bassem500

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Schopenhauer's Will concept reminds me of Object-oriented Programming, where you have a template of an object from which all "living" instances are instantiated. Hmm, maybe whoever" invented" OOP read Schopenhauer. 😀

  3. @olbluelips

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Woww… I don't know if I can get behind Schopenhauer's idea of art, but it certainly is a "tasty" idea.

    The idea that an aesthetic experience is a merging into the noumenal world caused by "The Ideas"… it's far-fetched but legitimately gives me pleasure to entertain!

  4. @faierieknotting

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Hi ! My Youtube Channel is : Macrame Beauty At Strings ! The "Beauty" Is precisely the "Transcendence" ! That mystery that is achieved in, and it is really achieved in working Macrame … but it also does not endure much ! Still it can ease the degusts of life for some time !

  5. @OmarDelawar

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    What Schopenhauer called "the Will" is what we today would call "the ego" aka "the conscious mind" aka "that part of your brain that is programmed for self-preservation and reproduction" aka "all of the hormones, neurotransmitters, brain structures etc that allow for a 'will to live'".

    What Schopenhauer referred to as the "noumenal world" or "ideas" is what we today call "the subconscious mind" aka "our emotional center" aka "where we experience spirituality or transcendence"
    Hope that clears some things up.

  6. @musicstewart9744

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    On one program the point was made to insert the word "Energy" when the word "Will" is used. His ideas on aesthetics are spot on and why I have season tickets to The Philadelphia Orchestra. Likewise, why I miss them so much during coronavirus time.

  7. @lynnmeschelle

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    a… how is this inspired from Buddhism? The suffering Buddha spoke of was not a metaphysical construct it was simply an acknowledgement that we often suffer because we expect the world or desire the world to be a certain way. It's an attempt to live with the world and nature as it is and have a stoic indifference to items of desire.

  8. @dichotomae

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    some pretty easy stuff with what is fate? some pretty easy stuff? some pretty easy stuff? Easy???? I've been having an existential crisis over that for the past two years

  9. @BeastMasterNeil

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Ownership is fictional. That is to say, being "owned" is not actually a property of any object. This is evident because when an object becomes "owned" it does not change in any way that can possibly be discovered by examining the object itself. What changes is a relationship to it; a relationship entirely defined by the prevailing legal (or moral) system. No one and no thing inherently owns nature or any part of it, but some entities believe they have, or are agreed to have, an artificial legal or social (moral) relationship to parts of nature which we call "ownership". Who owns nature? Ask a lawyer.

  10. @Elagabalus711

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Schopenhauer's ontology is based upon a problem he saw in Kant. Kant assumed that individual objects exist as individuated in the Numinal world, in away that is reflective of the way we distinguish between them in the Phenomenal world, though obviously as Numinal they are more 'pure' (insert comment on Kant's horrible racism), free from the influence of our sense. Schopenhauer asked why we would assume that the distinction between individuals in the Phenomenal world would be reflective of the Numinal, as every aspect of our reality is affected by our senses. Thus the concept of individuality might not apply there, in which case everything in the Numinal might actually be a single, all encompassing entity, the Will.

  11. @hectoralvarez5785

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    Lmao you have no understanding of schopenhauer. So why try to bash him. Will = the reason you look foward to the future. The idea = that reason whether it be a hobby, a career, or another individual. Releasing yourself basically means to live the moment beside the water fall of time. Like zen to be in the now in unison with nature.

  12. @HSFlex_lu

    March 29, 2026 at 10:31 am

    In our lessons we were told the will is manifested through pain and suffering. Our existence is dominated by the suffering by us avoiding it or inflicting it to others. Art is not created by this will, so it frees us from it momentarly, then by merely existing and surviving we are suffering again. To become really free, one needs to leave the will behind

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