Schopenhauer imagined a dialogue between matter, which represents the viewpoint of materialism, and the subject of cognition, representing the viewpoint of idealism, to show that these views are not contradicting each other but are complementary parts of the whole of reality. This dialogue can be found in Schopenhauer’s handwritten legacy, volume 3, Adversaria no. 263.

What follows is my translation from the original German text.

Microcosm and Macrocosm:

a dialogue between matter and the subject of cognition.

The confl...

This metaphysical question is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy. It points to the ultimate reality or source that produces the plurality of physical and mental phenomena. The word 'existence' is applied to any singular entity that subsists in the time-space continuum of the universe. Existence is basically presence, being present to our experience, which furthermore means being an object of our mind, of our thinking. Things do not exist independently of our mind, but that does not mean that they are only objects or ideas of our mind. However, they become existent things (existants) for us through ...