ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. Schopenhauer's philosophy is deeply pessimistic with respect to even the best of the natural abilities of any being, especially the human being. One more look at Schopenhauer's sense of atheism can be edifying before formally concluding this manuscript. Theism and optimism are not logically correlated terms; similarly, atheism and pessimism do not logically point to one another. Kant's strategy in dealing with religion was to call it 'clothing' for the otherwise 'naked message of rational religion. While Kant and Schopenhauer do seem to have employed respective hermeneutical strategies that put religion on a philosophical path towards secularization. From a Kantian point of view, this leads to a situation that is dire, but not disastrous, namely, that as long as reason is able to postulate the necessary elements to architectonically close the moral system.
