According to Schopenhauer, when a science explains the world, it eventually reaches some force:
- physics - to the power of attraction and repulsion,
- chemistry - to the power of the reaction,
- biology - to the power of the urge to live.
Also in man, will is the basis of all actions, desires and even thoughts. We can not think of something without making any effort, that is, to manifest our will. Consequently, Schopenhauer concludes, the most fundamental basis of things is the Will. That is why we can say that "the world is will". This will is blind, unwise, without purpose, without direction, out of time and space. It is a gushing source of giant energy. This energy manifests itself in all things. It is manifested in the hardness of the rock, in the growth of plants, in the fields of birds, in the desires and thoughts of man.
The world as an idea
But only in man the blind will see. This view of the will, Schopenhauer, calls "an idea." Consequently, "the world is will and notion," as the title of his main book says. Man is a slave of will. His life is suffering. Whatever he desires, he desires it by will. When one satisfies one's desire, one does not reach the expected uncompromising happiness. On the contrary, there is a new desire in it, because life depends on the will, and it constantly fills it with new and new desires. That's why we do not know happiness. Only boredom and suicide remain. But boredom is also a desire, and suicide is a desire again - for a different life, but again for life, therefore we will again be subjected to the will. Even the desire for suicide is impossible without the will.
Existential point of view
The modern idea of the world differs from all these views. The world is neither the nature nor the creation of God, nor the manifestation of any metaphysical idea (Hegel). We view the world from the point of view of man as a unique human being. That is why we can call this concept "existential". When we see man as a project, as a trajectory on which he directs his original freedom, then we are talking about human existence. The existential conception of the world is based on freedom. Freedom is not just a lack of obstacles but a project. Existential man does not regard himself as an individual by a multitude (family circle, friends, acquaintances, people), but as a unique life perspective. Existence is a perspective in which my projects "attract" the objects. We can easily understand the difference between availability and ingenuity when the object breaks. Then his attitude disappears and there is only some availability ("substance"). If we squeeze the joy of its complex, it loses its horizon and its meaning. If we immerse the blackboard in the sea, it will cease to be a "black-writing-table-during-the-hour" and will become a neutral substance - a wet tree that will not refer to anything. The world is the horizon of all "clutter complexes". The world is not an object, it is not a substance, it is not an idea. The world is neither a physical nor a chemical, nor a cosmos, nor a universe. The world is the sense horizon within which nature and things, plants and animals, planets, and galaxies get meaningful to us. For, according to existentialism, man is neither a "public animal," nor a "wreath of nature" nor a "creature of God". Man is "being in the world".