Schopenhauer’s Theory of Agency in Light of His Account of the Affirmation and Negation of the Will

In this paper, I focus on Schopenhauer’s account of agency. I propose a distinction between a narrow and a broader account. According to the former, Schopenhauer emphasizes the extent to which our actions are fully determined by our cognition of motives and our character, leaving only a negative role for freedom. The broader account, on the other hand, reveals a very different picture of Schopenhauer’s account of agency, one that is characterized by his emphasis not only on a positive sense of freedom but also on action as an expression of existential cognition and insight.