Title : Will-less Contemplation through Listening to Music – An Epistemic Process Analysis of Arthur Schopenhauer’s Concept of Music

Author(s) : Tan Weng Chiang David

Pages : 77-100

Abstract in English : The will has been Arthur Schopenhauer’s
concept for the true inner nature or the
thing-in-itself of the world. The will that is
within a person causes suffering to the
person. A person is driven by the will for
some kind of fulfillment and once he or she
attains that fulfillment, he or she very
quickly moves to a new desire, otherwise
boredom will set in. If the person fails to
attain the fulfillment, he or she will feel
dismay. Given this, a person’s inner will
does not allow him or her lasting
fulfillment and obtaining peace and
happiness. Another kind of will leading to
suffering within a person is caused by the
‘blind’ will. The will acts blindly within a
person, driving a person without any
reason or cause and the person has no
conscious control over these blind
strivings of the will. Schopenhauer
proposed that aesthetic contemplation of
artworks could provide relief from our will
leading to sufferings, though temporarily.
Music, however, is a kind of artwork that
Schopenhauer considers standing apart
from the other kinds of art works. Music
according to Schopenhauer is a direct
manifestation (Abbild) of the will. Music is
“…as immediate an objectification and
copy of the whole will…” However, in
accordance with Schopenhauer’s concept
of aesthetic contemplation, it seems that
Schopenhauer has fallen short of
explaining specifically on how
experiencing music as a direct
manifestation (Abbild) of the will provides
relief from the will driven suffering? In
other words, how a listener of music can
become “…will-less…” (Schopenhauer
1969:179) thereby gaining relief from the
will and suffering? This research paper
examines and analyzes Schopenhauer’s
concepts of aesthetic contemplation and
music for formulating how listening to
music can bring relief to the will driven
sufferings of a listener. The findings of this
research arrived at the formulation that
non-imitative music (i.e. music that does
not imitate the phenomenon): (1) Acts
directly on a listener’s inner willing and
the listener resonates with the music; (2)
Causes the listener to experience an
essence of emotions; and (3) As a result of
(1) and (2) the listener feels transcended
out of space and causality, is suspended
from will driven suffering and becomes a
will-less listener of music.