About
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher, a leading figure of philosophical pessimism. Born in Danzig, he developed a system based on the distinction between the world as representation and the world as will. His philosophy, influenced by Plato, Kant, and the Upanishads, asserts that ultimate reality is a blind and insatiable will, the source of suffering. His ethics rests on compassion, arising from the recognition of the fundamental unity of all beings. Long unrecognized, he gained late fame in the 1850s and profoundly influenced Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, and Wittgenstein.
* 1788-02-22 — † 1860-09-21
Major works
- The World as Will and Representation (1818)philosophical treatise
- On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (1813)dissertation
- On Vision and Colors (1816)treatise
- On the Will in Nature (1836)treatise
- Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)collection of essays
Key milestones
- 1818Publication of his magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation.
- 1820Attempted academic career at the University of Berlin, without success.
- 1851Publication of Parerga and Paralipomena, which brought him late recognition.
Themes
pessimismwillrepresentationcompassionsuffering
Sources: plato.stanford.edu · iep.utm.edu