That this view implies a teleology Schopenhauer expressly recognises.
Indeed he is a very decided teleologist on lines of his own, and, in
physiology, takes sides strongly with 'vitalism' as against pure
mechanicism. True, the Will is 'endless' blind striving, and is
essentially divided against itself. Everywhere in nature there is
strife, and this takes the most horrible forms. Yet somehow there is in
each individual manifestation of will a principle by which first the
organism with its vital processes, and then the portion of it called the
brain, in which is represented the intellect with its _a priori_ forms,
are evolved as aids in the strife. And, adapting all the manifestations
to one another, there is a teleology of the universe. The whole world,
with all its phenomena, is the objectivity of the one and indivisible
Will; the Idea which is related to all other Ideas as the harmony to the
single voices. The unity of the Will shows itself in the unison of all
its phenomena as related to one another. Man, its clearest and
completest objectivation, is the summit of a pyramid, and could not
exist without this. Inorganic and organic nature, then, were adapted to
the future appearance of man, as man is adapted to the development that
preceded him. But in thinking the reality, time is to be abstracted
from. The earlier, we are obliged to say, is fitted to the later, as the
later is fitted to the earlier; but the relation of means to end, under
which we cannot help figuring the adaptation, is only appearance for our
manner of knowledge. And the harmony described does not get rid of the
conflict inherent in all will.
In this account of Schopenhauer's metaphysical doctrine, I have tried to
make the exposition as smooth as possible; but at two points the
discontinuity can scarcely be concealed. First, the relation of the
universal Will to the individual will is not made clear; and, secondly,
the emergence of the world of presentation, with the knowledge in which
it culminates, is left unintelligible because the will is conceived as
mere blind striving without an aim. As regards the first point,
disciples and expositors have been able to show that, by means of
distinctions in his later writings, apparent contradictions are to some
extent cleared away; and, moreover, that he came to recognise more
reality in the individual will. On the second point, I think it will be
necessary to admit that his system as such breaks down. But both points
must be considered in their connection.