The doctrine of the genius by Arthur Schopenhauer

Abstract

The article for the first time provides an integral-analytical overview of Arthur Schopenhauer’s doctrine about genius, where the basic ideas are as follows. First, the genius is a quite exorbitant and real redundancy of intellect, which does not require for itself and its services the blind will, which rules the world. At the same time a man of genius grasps the general principles of being, becoming able to know essence of things, what is beyond the capacities of any ordinary or even talented people. Second, contemplative and therefore more objective and holistic knowledge of the world is the essence of genius, which allows him to see the worlds, inaccessible to perception and understanding of other people. Thirdly, the subject of genius’s knowledge are problems that reflect the “essence of things in general, only that, they have in common, the whole” and, on the contrary, all other people easily pass by those problems, which a genius just can’t miss. Fourth, people of genius, because of their ability to contemplative world cognition, which differs from the knowledge implemented in the form of concepts, which provide only vapid abstractions, are able to comprehend the reality of the “Platonic ideas.” Ingenious people least care about their own benefit, on the contrary, their efforts are focused not on personal gain, but on creation of universal human values, that ultimately form the spiritual culture of the humanity.
The article also discusses the Schopenhauer’s ideas of genius and madness and shows the illegitimacy of qualify Schopenhauer as a supporter of the psychopathological theory of genius. The study shows that Schopenhauer deduces the origins of genius from reflection about the man, not restricting the analysis of genius to substantive boundaries of psychology, and for the first time raises this problem at the level of philosophical-anthropological analysis and, thus, attaches to the problem of genius ontological, universal, and fundamental character.