Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Thought

Schopenhauer's Philosophy is explicitly a variation on Kant's system. It interprets the 'thing-in-itself' as Will, and appearances, including the Self, as epiphenomena, and, hence, as irreal. But it can also be understood in terms of its divergence from Spinoza's system. Schopenhauer's Will is Spinoza's God, qua naturing nature, but without the attribute of Thought. That Will lacks Thought has two important consequences. First, since the existence of individual bodies is proven, for Spinoza, by their ideas being in the Thought of God, they are merely natured nature in the absence of that attribute. Second, Rationality has no adequacy, and is only a localized process, even in its Practical manifestation, if Will does not Think. Thus, the irreality, for Schopenhauer, of Individuality, is, from the perspective of Spinozism, primarily a function of the Thoughtlessness of Will, with respect to which the ontological status of Modes as epiphenomena is derivative.