96 Moral Philosophy: Ideas of Good and Evil, Right and Wrongwhich exists within every living thing. The Will exists in man,
in animals, in plants, in every living being. All other attributes
are at the command of the Will. Men think that the intellect
guides the Will. Not so, says Schopenhauer. The Will commands
the intellect. The Will decides; the intellect rationalizes the
desire into some logical explanation.
Abstract concepts are formed by reason, not in order to
understand the real nature of things—reason is incompetent to
do that—but rather to facilitate the Will to Live. Abstract
concepts are necessary for communication and to pass on infor
mation. They are instruments for satisfying the needs of an
organism more highly developed and complicated than an ani
mal. In animals, mere instinct is sufficient to satisfy the needs of
the Will. In man both instinct and reason are necessary.
Let us for a moment try to understand this concept of the Will.
In plants we see seeds take hold in the cracks in sidewalks, in
animals we see birds build nests for the unborn, ants work
tirelessly, and insects lay their eggs where the larvae will find
food. None of these observable phenomena is the product of
reason, but rather the product of the Will to Live, manifested in
the instinct of every living thing. This Will is an endless striving,
a blind urge which knows no cessation, and it can never find
satisfaction. Knowing it is a world force is important, but
knowing its implications for man is more important, because it
explains the essence of man.
What then are the implications for man also subject to this
primeval force? First, every living thing has the urge, the
powerful urge, to reproduce. The Will to Live finds its most
observable proof in this urge to reproduce. In the animal world
it is a stark world of simple life, reproduction, death. Man
follows the same pattern, but creates concepts to explain the
instinct reasonably. Love, for example, is just another word for
sexual attraction; sexual attraction is nature’s way of perpetuat
ing the species. The notions of love, marriage, romance, com
panionship, and living happily ever after, are merely by-prod
ucts of the urge to reproduce.
In addition to sex, the Will is insatiable in all other things. The
Will can never be satisfied; therefore life is a constant state of
wanting. Life is pain, because life is desire, and desire cannot be
satisfied. Even the attainment of greatly desired ends simply