Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #513705 in Books
• Published on: 1991-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 404 pages

Synopsis
This biography of Arthur Schopenhauer, a key figure in 19th-century philosophy pays equal attention to his life and work. Safranski places him in the context of his philosophical predecessors and contemporaries - Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel - and explores the sources of his alienation from their "secularized religion of reason". In doing so, he also provides an account of German literary and intellectual life of the 19th century. In addition, Safranski provides a narrative of Schopenhauer's personal and family life.

Customer Reviews

A lively biography of a forgotten philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer was an important, if now largely forgotten, philosopher of the 19th century. Counted among his disciples are such thinkers as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, as well as Sigmund Freud, who takes a large part of his psychological theory from the writings of Schopenhauer. Safranski has written an interesting and readable volume on the man and his times. Schopenhauer's life was truly one for the books and Safranski captures the flavor, as well as the thought, of Arthur Schopenhauer. Safranski is a journalist, not an academic, which accounts for the lively style of the book and the enthusiasm for its subject. The best introduction I've seen to the man and his thought.

Accessing the mystery: a lively way into Schopenhauer
German metaphysics is not the most accessible of subjects, and the theories of Arthur Schopenhauer are usually shelved in favour of Kant and Hegel. The author, used to lighter fair, strikes an illuminated and lively tempo that clearly adds something of Schopenhauer-the-man within the context of his theoretical development. Whilst retaining this lightness throughout, Safranski writes with a depth hovering just below the surface. He locates Schopenhauer fairly accurately amidst his predecessors and descendents, providing a solid account of the German scene. Quietly evident throughout is an understanding of romantics in German literature, set culturally adrift from the rationalist project in its most Prussian and protestant form: Kantian ethics, Hegelian Idealism, etc. Anyone desiring to understand the legacy of psychology is advised to read this book, and students of Nietzsche would be performing an injustice to themselves: the motives of Schopenhauer are an essential aspect of Nietzschean thought – even if this is only as radical reaction. The relationship is akin to Hegel and Marx. A good overall book, which does suffer from some shallowness, but recommended for those new to the subject.

If you liked this why not try: “The World as Will and Representation” – Schopenhauer.
“Untimely Meditations” [Schopenhauer as educator]– Nietzsche.