What is it about?
Schopenhauer claimed that his philosophy inherited from Kant's philosophy but also improved it. In this paper, I discuss a claim that, Schopenhauer thinks, is an improvement: that, through bodily feeling, one can know one's real, ultimate being (as a thing in itself, in Kant's technical terms). It seems that Kant would not think that this is an improvement: why think that feeling connects us to ultimate reality? I argue, however, that Schopenhauer in fact reinterprets a claim Kant makes: that we are aware of the "degree of reality" of things within experience.
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Why is it important?
The paper promotes understanding of Schopenhauer's and Kant's philosophies, and of how they are connected within the German philosophical tradition, as well as the challenges we face in understanding and interpreting our experiences of reality.
Perspectives
Schopenhauer's claim that through feeling one's own body, one is in touch with ultimate reality, the metaphysical truth of being, has always seemed a bit shocking to me -- how could bodily feeling carry that significance? On the other hand, it is also commonsensical that we confront reality in a way that we cannot avoid and rethink and question when we confront it through and in our bodies. This paper allowed me to explore the meaning and justifiability of that claim, in light of its background in Kant's philosophy.
Rachel Zuckert
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This page is a summary of: Kant and Schopenhauer at an Impasse: Sensible Intensity and Indeterminate Reality, April 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004737204-007.
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