HISTORY AS AN ABSURDIST COMEDY

the foundations of anti-historicism in Arthur Schopenhauerv

Abstract

The possibility of admitting a historical determination of human acts that develops in the course of history, exposing a natural purpose of human evolution, is the main issue addressed in this text. In contrast to the historicist thinking of the time and driven by the optimistic German idealism of his time (Kant and Hegel), Arthur Schopenhauer's (1788-1860) theses in two volumes of The world as will and representation (1819/1859) are explained here. Such works, as well as some critics, were considered from an analytical reading perspective in order to objectively understand the concepts discussed in them. According to Schopenhauer, history is nothing more than a possibility of self-awareness for humanity and is not capable of revealing the self of the world or modifying its main attribute, human morality. This text therefore intends to expose anti-historicism based on the four foundations inherent to his philosophical organism that are present in the basic structure of his masterpiece, which are: the theory of knowledge, ontology, aesthetics and ethics. Thus, despite the fact that history has its value, it is not capable of finding a common thread that leads it to the asserted progress of humanity. The only possible attitude towards the events of universal history is resignation to the absurd and the complete lack of meaning in life. In it, only an absurdist comedy is staged.