Overview
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher of pessimism whose The World as Will and Representation fused Kantian phenomena with a blind metaphysical will. Largely ignored while Hegel dominated Berlin, he later won fame influencing artists and psychologists. He drew on Platonic Ideas and—among the first Europeans so deeply—Indian thought. Handbook dates: 1788–1860. Aphorisms on life’s suffering made him a literary philosopher.
Main ideas
The world is representation structured by space, time, and causality; underlying it is will—endless striving without final satisfaction. Aesthetic contemplation briefly quiets will, especially in music. Compassion is the basis of ethics; egoism expresses will’s conflict. Ascetic denial of the will-to-live is salvation’s path. Character is innate; motivation can be explained but not casually remade. Eastern renunciation motifs corroborate his pessimism.
Major works
- The World as Will and Representation
- On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- Parerga and Paralipomena
- On the Basis of Morality
Legacy
Schopenhauer shaped Wagner, Nietzsche’s early thought, Freud’s climate, and modernist literature. Pessimism and aesthetics curricula still assign him. He opened European philosophy toward Buddhism and the Upanishads.
Themes in this archive
Knowledge (1) · Love (1) · Happiness (1) · Character (1)