Lesson · 4 min Stretch
Quieting the Will
In one line Schopenhauer found brief relief from striving in art, especially music, and a basis for ethics in compassion.
If will drives endless striving, is there any relief? Schopenhauer found one in art. When we lose ourselves in a painting or a landscape, we stop wanting for a while and simply see. Music, he thought, is the highest art, because it expresses the will itself directly, not through images of things.
His ethics rests on compassion. In another person’s suffering we can recognize the same will that strives in us. Moral action, for him, begins when the line between me and you thins, and another’s pain moves us as our own.
The deepest way out, he held, is to deny the will altogether, as saints and ascetics do. Few readers follow him that far, but his account of art and compassion has lasted.
Go deeper
Schopenhauer’s view that music speaks the will directly, without words or images, was taken seriously by composers and writers; Richard Wagner read him avidly. In his essay On the Basis of Morality, from 1840, he argued that compassion, not duty, is the true root of moral action, against the Kantian ethics of his day.
The delayed train
On a crowded train, Omar is irritated by delays and lists the things he still needs to do.
He puts on a favorite piece of music and closes his eyes. For four minutes the list loosens its grip. When it ends the train is still late, but the wanting has been quiet for a while, and he steps off calmer.
Try this today Listen to one piece of music with full attention and nothing else to do, and notice what happens to your wants.
Cite or share this lesson
A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “Quieting the Will.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/lesson/quieting-the-will. Accessed 13 November 2026.
Sources
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Arthur Schopenhauer” — Covers his aesthetics, the place of music, compassion and the denial of the will.
- Wikipedia, “On the Basis of Morality” — Summarizes his 1840 essay arguing that compassion is the root of moral action.