“In Leibniz’s sense, a ratio sufficiens, a sufficient reason, isn’t at all a ground capable of supporting a being so that it doesn’t straightaway fall into nothing. A sufficient reason is one that reaches and offers to beings that which puts them in the position of fulfilling their full essence, that is, perfectio. ” (Heidegger, The Principle of Reason, 71)

In Western Philosophy “Will” became an important issue following Kant. Kant noticed that out of Freedom the Will unconsciously self-legislates a rule according to which I am responsible for my actions, unlike animals and certain mentally disabled people who are not thought of as personally accountable like we are.

Later, Will became identified as the defining feature of beings in general with Schopenhauer and Nietzsche (along with eternal return)

As with all previous philosophers Schopenhauer wanted to know the Being question, what is the ultimate foundation of all things that beings “point” toward.  Nowadays many would say that is the principles of physics.  Nietzsche changed the question entirely and said the basis of all things is Eternal Return and Will to Power, and the highest form of Will to Power is creatively stamping Becoming with the character of Being.  And this is what we see in the history of philosophy with each thinker creatively erecting their system and planting it on a foundation of Being appropriate to that system.  And so, Gericke summarizes: “Included here are (very crudely summarized) Socrates (essence as common properties), Plato (essence as archetype), Aristotle (essence as genus), Porphyry (essence as species), Boethius (essence vs. existence), Avicenna (essence as quiddity/whatness), Abelard (essence as semantic feature), Scotus (essence as haecceity/thisness), Descartes (essence as principle attribute), Locke (essence as sortal), Leibniz (essence as sufficient reason), Kant (essence vs. appearances), Hegel (essence in/as appearances), Nietzsche (only (non) appearances), Wittgenstein (essence as grammar), Husserl (essence as given), Heidegger (essence as being), Sartre (existence before essence), Popper (essence as definitional fallacy), Quine (essence as accidents), Putnam (essence as stereotype), Kripke (essence as necessary properties), Derrida (“essence” vs. identity/difference), Deleuze (“essence” vs. difference/multiplicity) (see Gericke 2017).”  We see the same with Truth as Will to Power where Descartes adopted from Luther the definition of Truth as “certainty, free from doubt” because what had to be certain and free from doubt was the salvation of the soul. 

Since around Kant’s time “Will” and “Willing” meant acting according to concepts, and so if a child shows up to math class and listens attentively and does her work, she is “willing” a concept: a grade 4 education.  For Schopenhauer beings “strive” or are “one way directional” toward whatever is more foundational, which is how we normally understand them (e.g., we know the stream is not real, but is more fundamentally the hydrogen/oxygen molecules that the water really is).  In this way, we see “Will” as fundamental because to be a being means to point toward their foundation.  Schopenhauer thus says beings act according to the Concept or Principle of Sufficient Reason, which says to be a being means to point toward a “reason” or “ground” (same word in German “grunde”).  This was Schopenhauer’s context from the beginning of his thinking, and so his doctoral dissertation was called “The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason.”  As I noted above Nietzsche said the same thing but that the ground belonged to a system and varied depending on the creative willing of the thinker (e.g:, archetype in Plato; genus in Aristotle; etc): Will to (creative) Power. Nietzsche said: “The answer to the question ‘What is that?’ is a process of fixing a meaning from a different standpoint. The “essence”, the “essential factor”, is something which is seen as a whole only in perspective, and which presupposes a basis which is multifarious (Nietzsche 1968:556).“

FOR THE SHORT INDEX OF MY PHILOSOPHY POSTS, SEE:

The Joy of Philosophy (Postscript and Poetry)