(Schopenhauer Part 2) "The Parting Glass" by Ed Sheeran

Schopenhauer talks about how we can only obtain so much knowledge from a work of art as our intellect allows. Not everyone can understand a work. Schopenhauer says, "accordingly, every work of art really endeavors to show us life and things as they are in reality; but these cannot be grasped directly by everyone through the mist of objective and subjective contingencies. Art takes away that mist" (98). If we do understand what the artist is trying to convey then we are lifting this mist and understanding the meaning that the artist has partially left open ended to interpretation.  This song, "The Parting Glass" by Ed Sheeran to me accurately portrays the idea that Schopenhauer is talking about. It is a beautifully complex song which I can listen to and feel the emotion that is emanating from his voice. Ed Sheeran transcends himself, as Schopenhauer says that artists do, to sing about something that penetrates the two worlds, "the world as will and the world as representation" (104). In the world of will, he is speaking about the pain that he has felt and the different experiences that have brought him to this point. In the world of representation, he is singing outside of himself. It sounds as if it is a hymnal that should be sung in church to a higher power. This is the "spectacle worth seeing, altogether significant and entertaining" that Schopenhauer talks about in representation (104). The representation of something beyond this world, possibly the Will that we have discussed in class.