The key to the world: corporality and autognosis in Arthur Schopenhauer

In this article we offer some hermeneutic reflections on Schopenhauer's epistemology of corporality. Backtracking classic rationalist postures, in which somatic dimension did not provide any certainty to our knowledge, according to Schopenhauer body constitutes the suitable scenario for the great metaphysical revelation: body is the key to the world. To this identity between physicality and will, we add some metaphysical considerations on finite and contingent character of the body, in addition to its capacity, thanks to sex organs, to generate new individuals, thereby reinforcing its status as key to the world.