Product Description

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34826 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Arthur Schopenhauer was born in Danzig in 1788. He went on to study medicine and science at Gottingen University and in 1810 began to study philosophy. In 1811 he transferred to Berlin to write his doctoral thesis, and began to write The World as Will and Idea, a complete exploration of his philosophy, which was finished in 1818. Although the book failed to sell, his belief in his own views sustained him through twenty-five years of frustrated desire for fame. In 1844 brought a much expanded edition of his book, which after his death became one of the most widely read of all philosophical works. His fame was established in 1851 with the publication of Parerga and Paralipomena. He died in 1860.

Customer Reviews

Philosophy speaking about life.
'If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.' So begins the first, and title essay, of this pocket sized sample of the work of the 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. This little book doesn't, however, just serve as a sublime introduction to the 'philosopher of pessimism', it also serves to demonstrate how philosophy can sometimes, after all, speak about life itself. For here, in 132 pages, are collected some of the most profound, if darkly pessimistic, observations on human existance ever written.

Schopenhauer has been all too often unfairly neglected by British Academic philosophy, something not mirrored on the continent, where as much space is devoted to him on the bookshelves as the likes of Nietzsche and Hegel. The structural foundations of his great philosophical system might have left many unconvinced, but there is no doubting that his attempts to combine the metaphysics of Plato and Kant, together with the wisdoms contained in hinduism and buddhism, produced something unique, terrifying and yet oddly consolling. Underlying Schopenhauer's synthesis of West and East, was his own vividly felt insight that human life and the world itself was inherently irrational and blind, a lived intuition that throughout this collection is captured in prose that is both beautifully clear and strikingly prophetic - he wrote decades before Darwin and Freud, yet both thinkers are remarkably presaged here...as well as the violence and destruction of the 20th century. His reputation as one of the greatest German philosophers may wax and wane on this side of the channel, but even in translation, nobody could possibly deny his standing as one of the greatest of German writers.

Schopenhauer's reputation as the philosopher of pessimism is also, it has to be said, richly deserved. Yet although the first 3 essays in the collection contain the greatest arguments ever constructed for the inherent pointlessness of existance, those that fill the remainder of the book strikingly remove the accusation of nihalism from the charge sheet. Renouncing the blind strivings of the will becomes an end in itself, something that gives meaning and purpose to the comedy that is an individual human life. The most influential and beautiful of Schopenhauer's writings are those on Art and this collection contains his essay outlining the role that it can play in releasing oneself from personal bondage to the will. Redemption is not to be found in suffering, but rather, redemption from suffering is to be found in art.