Pierre Hadot e la biografia spirituale di Plotino

This contribution aims to propose a reflection based on a reading of §31 of The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer, in which he reinterprets the Kantian distinction between thing-in-itself and phenomenon in light of his own interpretation of the metaphor of the cave presented in Book IV of Plato’s Republic. He offers a convergent exposition of the two philosophies in light of the single insight underlying them, namely the intrinsic inconsistency of the phenomenal world. From this follows the drive to overcome the phenomenal objectifications of the will toward a no-longer subjective knowledge of the thing-in-itself, a drive motivated by a metaphysical need that Schopenhauer criticizes as lacking in Kant, while finding it precisely in Plato.