Summary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy

[Schopenhauer] was also an atheist. He did not believe in a personal, omnipotent God. Instead, Schopenhauer believed that the essence of the universe is Being: a blind, irrational, unquenchable thirst to exist he called Wille zum Leben, and that everything we perceive is a representation of this Will to Live. Because we ourselves are products of Will, we spend most of our lives trapped in a cycle of striving and boredom. We're constantly willing ourselves to attain our goals, and when we d...