Can Sıkıntısı ve Acı Arasında Yaşam: Seneca ve Arthur Schopenhauer’da İstenç ve Mutsuzluk Problemi

Abstract

As a concept with a long history in the history of philosophy, “the will” has a great importance in determining life because the concept of the will also includes willing to continue life. Although the will is the same as wanting life, human beings continue to experience pain in life. Therefore, this thesis takes into account the problem of the relationship between willingness and unhappiness. This study fundamentally aims to deal with the relationship between the will and unhappiness and to compare Seneca’s and Schopenhauer’s philosophy in this context. In the first part of this study, Seneca’s view of the concept of the will and the expression of unhappiness in life with pain will be explored. According to Seneca, it is inevitable for a person who does not know his own self to be unhappy. For Seneca, who says that the world is his home, happy life is everywhere. In this context, in the first part of the thesis, we will deal with the relationship between knowledge and happiness and take the life of the wise person as a subject of research. Freedom of the person is roughly free from feelings and passions in Stoic philosophy. The virtue of the wise man is that he can be free from this situation (apathaia). Being overly emotional, being passionate, being affected by a situation in one’s life too much are all things that the wise man should stay away from. In Seneca’s view, the wise person is free to the extent that he is free from feelings and passions, so absolute freedom is to despise the body. Strength and beauty of the body are not sources of happiness. man resists the disasters in life with a strength and welcomes happiness due to the mind. In this sense, the highest happiness is nothing but the peace of body and soul. The second part of our study is devoted to researching the world, which is designed as an appearance of the will, as Schopenhauer understands it. Considering that the concepts are the property of human alone, the world that is said to have been designed by the subject is essentially a will according to Schopenhauer. In order to reveal willingness as a concept and its relation with the world, it is crucial to first look at the knowledge of the world. Therefore, in the second part of the study, the knowledge of the world as design will be searched and it will be revealed that the basis of represantation is the will. Thus, in this section, the concepts of “freedom” and “willing” will be clarified and the relationship between these two concepts will be analyzed. The connection of freedom, which emerges as an illusion, with life appears as an issue. Within the framework of this issue, it can be said that human beings wants and continues his / her life in order to survive, but freedom in this life is only an illusion. In the conclusion part, the views of these two philosophers’ concepts of freedom, happiness and the will will be examined on the basis of knowledge, and the problem between the last two concepts will be clarified.