2

Schopenhauer: Will, Representation, and the Partial

Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy forms the conceptual spine of Partial Objects. In The World as Will and Representation(Schopenhauer, 1969), he differentiates between the world as representation, the world as it appears to us through perception and thought, and the world as Will, a blind, ceaseless striving that underlies all phenomena. Representation orders, explains, and limits. Will moves without reason, indifferent to coherence, morality, or human expectation.

“The world is my representation” (Schopenhauer, 1969, p. 43).
History belongs to representation. It records names, dates, and events, yet it cannot access the fundamental essence beneath appearances. As Schopenhauer observes:

“History relates only what is particular, not what is universal” (Schopenhauer, 1969, p. 45).
Partial Objects exists precisely in the space Schopenhauer identifies between Will and Representation. They are not explanations or narratives but crystallizations of Will — forms in which desire, suffering, joy, or resistance momentarily take shape. Their incompleteness is essential, for it is in their fragmentary nature that they gesture toward the universal essence of existence. The archive becomes a place where fragments, not systems, preserve the intensity of being.

Art as Suspension of the Will

Schopenhauer elevates art as a rare means of transcending the ceaseless striving of the Will. In aesthetic contemplation, the subject temporarily suspends desire, becoming a “pure, will-less, painless, timeless subject of knowledge” (Schopenhauer, 1969, p. 156). Music, in particular, is unique because it expresses the Will directly, unmediated by the forms of the phenomenal world. Unlike painting or literature, which present representations, music resonates with the essence itself, offering immediate insight into the structure and movement of Will.

“Music is the melody of the world’s inner life, the direct expression of the will itself” (Schopenhauer, 1969, p. 181).

Partial Objects take up this philosophy: they do not reproduce reality or events, nor do they offer definitive interpretation. They register moments where Will manifests — traces of desire, forms of resistance, or bursts of creativity — as objects or fragments. The incompleteness of these objects mirrors the incompleteness of our understanding of Will, yet their significance is undeniable.

←2