The genuine philosophical way of viewing the world is precisely that which does not examine the questions of whence, whither, and why, but rather always and everywhere only that concerning what is the essence of the world, that is, those which have as their object its always identical substance, the ideas. From this knowledge, philosophy begins, which leads to true holiness and liberation from the world.

In his main work, The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer presents his philosophy in a comprehensive and systematic manner. In the last two of the four books of the work, included in the second volume of the Greek edition, he discusses:

• art and its object, the eternal ideas (book III),
• ethics as well as the liberation from the world (book IV).

Art, insofar as it directly knows the ideas, constitutes a higher form of knowledge and at the same time represents the first stage of liberation from the illusion of phenomena. Ethics, with compassion as its central element, and the total renunciation of the will to live represent the second and third stages of liberation from the world, respectively.

The World as Will and Representation is ranked among the great classical works of European philosophy. Its metaphysical interpretation of art and the pessimistic view of the world and life had a profound impact, especially during the last decades of the 19th century and the early 20th, not only on philosophy but also on the arts and the broader intellectual climate of the time.