在德國乃至整個西方的哲學史上，沒有誰否認，叔本華都是一個劃時代的人物，即由他而始德國哲學走上了一條非理性主義的經驗主義道路，但是對於他怎樣而為一個經驗主義者，怎樣由超絕的形而上學轉向經驗的形而上學，卻少有人作出比較徹底的論證。鑒此，本文在對叔本華哲學的內在矛盾即他在「超 絕」與「經驗」之間的猶豫和搖擺的展示和分析中，著意彰顯了他潛在而強烈的經驗主義趨向。對他而言，與其說「意志」簡單地就是柏拉圖的「理念」，是康德的「自在之物」，即意志的「超越」或「超絕」，毋寧反過來說「理念」或「自在之物」是「意志」，是「生命意志」。正是通過以「意志」對康德「自在之物」的置換或充實，叔本華開闢了一個新的經驗主義方向。

Srthur Schopenhauer was an acknowledged epoch-making philosopher in German or even Occidental history of philosophy. It is Schopenhauer who set German philosophy off on the long journey towards irrational empiricism. However, an empiricist, and how he transformed himself from a believer of transcendent Schopenhauer's inner contradictions, namely the wavering between the “transcendent” and “experiential,” this essay is dedicated to show Schopenhauer's “will” is simply the Platonic Idea or the Kantian thing-in-itself should be the will, or furthermore, the will to life. By substituting or the concretizing the Kantian “thing-in-itself” with his own “will,” Schopenhauer reoriented Occidental philosophy into a new empiricism.