The theory of perception is one of the weakest aspects in the philosophy developed by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). It consolidates in one point all errors in Schopenhauer’s ideas. It’s so poorly reasoned that it may prevent us from appreciating the good parts of Schopenhauer’s philosophy.
What is wrong with Schopenhauer’s theory of perception? I raise as main criticism its total disconnection from reality. To the discharge of Schopenhauer, I must point out that he started at a very low point, namely, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
When Schopenhauer was a university student, he enrolled in lessons by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), but never took those seriously. Fichte’s orations about the metaphysical ego of the German people left Schopenhauer unimpressed. He viewed them as pure inventions, not as philosophy.
Origins of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of perception
Unfortunately, Schopenhauer took Kant seriously, forgetting that Fichte had attended Kant’s lectures and expressed a total devotion to Kant’s ideas.
In his book “Theory of Science” (1785), Fichte claimed to have rendered Kant more scientific, by placing the ego as basic reality (consciousness) and the non-ego (external world) as the field for human action.
Schopenhauer rejected Fichte’s theory and returned to pure Kantian terminology. He reused the Kantian concept “things in themselves” with the same meaning. He also used the Kantian concepts “phenomenon” and “noumenon,” but with a different meaning.
Kant had theorized that knowledge is shaped by the mind’s inherent capabilities or categories (such as cause and effect). A categories list compiled by Kant is quite short. He decided to overlook the fact that people are inventing new things all the time without being bothered by their limited categories.
As a result of his categories, Kant distinguished between the phenomena (perception) and noumena (things in themselves). He crowned his theory by asserting that human knowledge is limited only to phenomena.
Schopenhauer’s philosophy of perception compared to Kant’s
Kant further theorized that representation is the picture of the world our mind creates by using the categories (concepts such as substance and quantity) to integrate our perceptions. If the categories are further applies, then concepts are created.
It is unfortunate that Schopenhauer took Kant’s “Critique of pure reason” (1781) as starting point for his perception theory. As a result, he reproduced Kant’s fundamental error of splitting human perception from reality.
Kant had bizarrely called reality “things in themselves” or “noumenon,” and Schopenhauer reproduced this esoteric terms although with some variations.
Instead of taking over Kant’s list of inherent categories, he put forward the theory of the will and argued that perception is inevitably polluted by the blind, irrational will. He regarded all perceptions and representations of the world as as distorted by the will.
Problems with Schopenhauer’s philosophy of perception
Both Kant and Schopenhauer are overlooking obvious facts in their perception theories. For example, if human beings are intelligent, why is their reasoning ability limited to a short list of categories? Does it not make more sense to say that the use of intelligence can create as many categories as needed?
While Kant and Schopenhauer distinguish between percepts and noumena (things in themselves), daily experience gives no grounds for this distinction. Sane humans perceive facts in the precise, exact manner.
Their level of perception is hundred-per-cent accurate, even when we refer to hundreds of people working together. If you want to build large buildings (such as Gothic cathedrals), ships (such as transoceanic vessels), or a functioning postal service, you don’t need to worry about people’s mixing perceptions and things in themselves because the latter is just nonsense.
Schopenhauer failed to contest Kantian ideas at their point of maximum vulnerability. Unfortunately, the desire to obtain a quick audience for his theory of the will pushed Schopenhauer back to Kantian idealism.
Impact of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of perception
After publishing “The world as will and representation” in 1818, Schopenhauer spent the rest of life arguing that he was a follower of Kant. He repeated it at every opportunity, just as Fichte had done.
Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) expanded the worse delusions from Fichte, and went to exert a dire influence. Schopenhauer knew better than that. He deeply disliked Hegel and viewed his idealistic philosophy as nonsense, but had underrated the effort needed to effect cultural change.
In this respect, Schopenhauer was rather naïve. He did some promotion of his books by mailing free copies to universities and public libraries in German-speaking areas, but it proved a drop in the ocean.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was the only intellectual of importance that showed a strong influence of Schopenhauer. It may have to do with the fact that Nietzsche used to spend lots of time in libraries.
Unfortunately, Nietzsche took the worse of Schopenhauer’s ideas, magnified the errors and made people forget about some sensible, practical advice by Schopenhauer in other areas.
If you are interested in applying rational philosophical ideas to your own life, I recommend you my book “Undisrupted: How highly effective people deal with disruptions.”
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