Solidarity From The Perspective Of Arthur SchopenhauerSolidarity From The Perspective Of Arthur Schopenhauer

Abstract

This paper aims to outline and problematize the concept of solidarity through the lens of Arthur Schopenhauer. To this end, we draw on the works of Vilmar Debona and Max Horkheimer. The objective is unfolded in three mains steps: (1) to describe fundamental aspects of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of will, which portrays the world as pain and suffering, and briefly sketch his triple characterology; (2) to analyze the mystery of compassion and his cardinal virtues: justice and charity; (3) to indicate and delimit what solidarity might represent within this philosophical framework — that is, “where” and “from what” it could be situated on the author’s philosophy, while also initially proposing a hypothetical differentiation between direct and indirect solidarity. Finally, we suggest that solidarity could function as an auxiliary device to the cardinal virtues, making its household on the so-called little ethics and contributing, through the artifices of reason, to mitigating the harms caused by social suffering.