ANDRÉ MÁRIO GONÇALVES OLIVEIRA

This research proposal primarily focuses on the analysis of metaphysics and ethics in Schopenhauer's thought. I propose an examination of his main works, aiming to understand what can be conceptualized as amoral behavior, that is, actions devoid of the attribution of being good or bad, and how the different strands of Schopenhauerian pessimism relate to this perspective. The central objective is to assess whether the implications of Schopenhauer's system—metaphysical, empirical, or acquired—allow for the construction of an antinatalist ethical framework. Bahnsen's critique of his master facilitated the conception of his own system and, unlike Schopenhauer, left no room for the exercise of moral action. This critique serves as the backdrop I intend to follow in order to achieve the objectives of delineating the nature of acquired character, establishing a boundary between morality and amorality—especially in the context of antinatalism—identifying the points in Bahnsen's Real Dialectics that diverge from Schopenhauer's Ethics of Compassion, and investigating what makes Bahnsen's ethics antinatalist but not morally antinatalist.