Hmm, no wonder he never married…

“Woman is by nature meant only to obey”

“Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies”

and my personal favourite:

“Only a male intellect clouded by the sexual drive could call the stunted, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped and short-legged sex the fair sex”

He did feel that women were “of more sober judgement” than men, but also characterised them as being overly sympathetic and weak.

Not a big hitter for the Women’s-Lib movement, really.

I think not knowing what one wants may affect men to a similar degree, perhaps we have the illusion of knowing what we want!

(Language in Schopenhauer’s time was probably always gender-skewed – “man”, “he”).

Christianity’s posture, I think, is whether God allows us to do as we please, a much narrower viewpoint than yours, which does without the idea of God.

If you ask me, the right answer usually is a combination of all the conversations on the topic. But, in my opinion, free will is seriously limited by our values, our upbringing, our worldview, our morals, and what not.

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By the way, I like what that guy you quoted said, “A man can surely do what he wants to do. But he cannot determine what he wants.”

But I think he was talking about WOMEN. Have you ever met one that knew what she wanted? I must confess that I don’t know what I want.