Schopenhauer on Character, Cognition, and Moral Responsibility

Abstract

My dissertation addresses some of the central features of Arthur Schopenhauer’s theory ofaction. It does so through three papers that deal in Schopenhauer’s conceptions of moral character, cognition, and moral responsibility. The first paper identifies a puzzle that emerges in Schopenhauer’s discussion of the structure of moral character and its relation to actions. The second paper clarifies several underexplored features of Schopenhauer’s Primacy Doctrine, theory of cognition, and conception of rational deliberation. This paper presents a novel reading of Schopenhauer’s theory of action as involving a feedback loop of motivation. The third paper contextualizes Schopenhauer’s theory of moral responsibility as a significant departure from the Modern European philosophical tradition, shows that Schopenhauer developed an early conception of cognitive bias, and argues that Schopenhauer’s account of moral responsibility implies that agents are morally responsible for their cognitions and biases which reflect their unique, individual character.