Schopenhauer
Modern philosophyA central figure of German pessimism and Romanticism, Arthur Schopenhauer is best known for his major work, The World as Will and Representation.
The notion of will — or the will-to-live — occupies a fundamental place in his thought: it is the core of being and the substance of everything, an idea that would exert a profound influence on Nietzsche.
Aesthetic contemplation takes on an entirely new meaning in the light of this conception.
Anecdotes
Why did the meeting between Goethe and Schopenhauer end up turning sour? A look back at one of philosophy's most famous falling-outs... Read more
Bibliography
Here are the essential books if you wish to better understand this author's thinking:
Magee, Bryan, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, Oxford University Press (1997)
Janaway, Christopher, 2002. Schopenhauer: A Very Short introduction. Oxford University Press
Cartwright, David E. (2010). Schopenhauer: A Biography. Cambridge University Press
Safranski, Rüdiger (1990) Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy. Harvard University Press,
Hannan, Barbara, The Riddle of the World: A Reconsideration of Schopenhauer's Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009
Recommended Videos
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Biography: Life of Schopenhauer
Youth
Arthur Schopenhauer was born in 1788 in Danzig, Prussia, into a merchant family. His father intended him to follow the same profession, which required travel and the study of languages.
Although Schopenhauer already felt drawn to literary studies, he acquiesced and embarked on his commercial education. This took him to France, London, Savoy, Switzerland, Austria...
He went on to work as a commercial clerk, but never took to it. Everything was called into question when his father died, having fallen — or thrown himself — into a canal.
Arthur's mother shared her son's passion for literature. She sold her late husband's business and opened a literary salon in Weimar, which soon attracted a distinguished regular: Goethe.
Arthur was at last free to pursue his literary studies, first at grammar schools in Gotha and Weimar, then at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin. There he attended lectures by Fichte, which left him disappointed. A great admirer of Kant, he could not forgive those who had betrayed the master's legacy by pushing transcendental idealism towards absolute idealism: Fichte, Schelling and Hegel.
The Philosopher
At twenty-five, he completed his studies and began his doctoral thesis: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason.
He discovered Hindu philosophy through his reading of the Upanishads — a collection of sacred texts that form its theoretical foundation — and it would exert a profound influence on his thought.
In 1814, he moved to Dresden, where he spent four years writing his great work, The World as Will and Representation.
A series of setbacks plunged him into depression. His work was published to near-universal indifference, to his deep disappointment. He ran into financial difficulties when the bank in which he had invested his inheritance went bankrupt. And his lectures at the University of Berlin drew no students — they flocked instead to his great rival Hegel, whom he despised. Schopenhauer was left to face empty lecture halls, and eventually gave up his post.
He moved frequently, from Berlin to Frankfurt by way of Mannheim. In 1839, his work at last attracted notice: his dissertation On the Freedom of the Will was awarded a prize by the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences.
Later Life
More than a decade later, in 1851, he published his other major work: Parerga and Paralipomena. Schopenhauer enjoyed belated success in the final years of his life — a development about which he was not slow to express bitter irony. He had long been convinced, in any case, that his work would only be recognised by posterity.
He became a towering figure of nineteenth-century German philosophy, respected and celebrated as such, exerting a profound influence on thinkers including Nietzsche, Freud and Bergson.
He died of a heart attack in 1860 in Frankfurt am Main, a confirmed bachelor, bequeathing all his possessions to his most faithful companion — his dog, Atma.
Main Works
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
The World as Will and Representation
The Art of Being Right
The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics
Parerga and Paralipomena