Redenção e ascetismo no Mito Cristão segundo Arthur Schopenhauer,

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the reasons why Schopenhauer, an atheist philosopher, uses Christian examples in his work. As we can see in Book IV of The World, from the moment the philosopher begins to deal with the negation of the Will, we can see that he frequently cites Christian saints to exemplify the individual who has reached the suppression of all will; Biblical examples are also used by the author in the Supplements and in passages from Parerga and Paralipomena. Given this, our central question focuses on understanding why Schopenhauer emphasizes these examples from Christian myth, so that they become essential in explaining how to arrive at the negation of the will. In his main work, The World as Will and Representation, the Will, as a thing in itself, carries a blind and insatiable character, seeking the reproduction of itself, bringing suffering to the world since, like its mirror, the world follows an eternal struggle of insatiable desires. To put an end to this endless suffering, the philosopher takes a "first step" by showing possibilities in which the individual can reach the negation of the Will through Aesthetics and the Ethics of Compassion. However, these paths make possible only a momentary detachment from the essence of the world. Since these two paths are only capable of giving the individual a momentary relief, Schopenhauer finds a third path capable of suppressing our essence and ceasing all suffering: the complete forgetfulness of the body through asceticism. At this point we find the central problem of our research, because when explaining the concept of asceticism, we see in several biblical passages the demonstration of examples of Christian saints with a regulated life, denying the desires of the body and moving away from selfishness, thus achieving the tranquility provided by the suppression of the essence of the world. In this way, we intend to understand the role of the Christian Myth and examples for the whole of Schopenhauer's metaphysics..