A genealogy of the will : a comparison of the works of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche

A Genealogy of the 14i 11 : A Comparison of the ~lo rks of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche Author: Jane Elizabeth Edwards Thesis Director: Dr. Hugh West Degree: Master of Arts in History University of Richmond, 1986 This study investigates the development of the notion of man's will upon which Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche based their theories. Although this topic had been virtually neglected in the great intellectual debates of the first to the eighteenth centuries, by the nineteenth century the question of man 1 s vii 11--i ts origin, function, and va 1 ue--domi nated such philosophical discussions. An exploration of the differences in the perception and role of the will in the works of these three men is attempted, from Kant's redefinition of the nature of v1ill, to Schopcr1hauer1s redirection of its position in philosophical matters, to Nietzsche's radical reinterpretation of the entire problem. An examination of these profoundly different interpretations and implications reveals that Kant 1 s effort to emancipate the wi 11 from its causal connections to make room for moral responsibility \'Jas transformed by Nietzsche into an attempt to liberate mankind from his own moral and metaphysical misunder-