V. Freedom and Will: The Will as thing-in-itself is free. The person is a phenomenon of the will and therefore is subject to deterministic necessity through the principle of sufficient reason. Schopenhauer proposes, “For every individual action follows with strict necessity from the effect of the motive upon the character. The a priori sense of being free and the a posteriori sense of being determined are both accurate. We just have to separate the will from what is a phenomenon of the will. We know ourselves as a consequence of the expression of the will; we do not choose or will on the basis of our knowledge. External influences such as knowledge, instruction, and awareness of motives can alter the direction of the will’s efforts, but not the will itself. External influences ma show that the wile red “in the means it employed.” “Elective decisions” which many associate with free will are really just the resultant of a battle among motives where the strongest determines the will by necessity.
Regarding “repentance”, Schopenhauer writes, “I can never repent of what I have willed, though I can repent of what I have done when, guided by false concepts, I did something different from what was in accordance with my will. Pangs of conscience are different from repentance and they are the pain we experience in recognizing our own unchanging, inner nature, that is, our will.
