Arthur Schopenhauer was born in the city of Danzig (then part of the Polish鈥揕ithuanian Commonwealth; present day Gda艅sk, Poland) and was a German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer attempted to make his career as an academic by correcting and expanding Immanuel Kant's philosophy concerning the way in which we experience the world.
The Essential Schopenhauer: Essays & Selections from The World as Will & Representation, Arthur Schopenhauer
The Essential Schopenhauer, selected by Wolfgang Schirmacher, president of the International Schopenhauer Association, The Essential Schopenhauer is an invaluable and accessible introduction to Schopenhauer鈥檚 powerful body of work.
What is the meaning of life?
How should I live?
Is there any purpose to the universe?
Generations have turned to the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer for answers to such essential questions of existence.
His influence has extended not only to later philosophers Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein among them, but also to musicians, artists, and important novelists such as Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Proust.
No, that's not George Washington. It's Arthur Schopenhauer. And he wants to tell you a few things, like reason is a servant of your baser instincts; your individual existence means nothing because it merges into the existence of your species; your species doesn't mean much because it merges into life writ large and LIFE itself is only an expression of blind, groping WILL.
He also hates opera. I bet he'd even hate J.J. Who could hate J.J.?
When I started this book on Christmas Eve, it dawned on me that 2010 was a banner year in my deterioration: what hair remains on my head went grey, I mailed Christmas presents to the wrong address, when I watched the A Christmas Story marathon I wondered which members of the cast have died as opposed to merely , I let pass the opportunity to punch a childhood friend in the face I didn't much like as a child and like even less as an adult, my gangsta rap album didn't drop, I'm probably never going to be an astronaut, Pam Grier circa 1974 still hasn't called, my screenplay Robot Bigfoot was rejected by the SyFy Channel and, worst of all, I'm not very impressed by cleverness anymore; in particular, the abbreviated and lame cleverness of this review. So I'm going to end it here and move on to some .
I am pleased to tell you about the influence and contributions of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in psychology. Schopenhauer was one of the most influential philosophers of his time, and his writings have had a significant impact on philosophy, literature, and psychology.
Schopenhauer's theory centers on the idea that the world is uncertain, painful, and meaningless. He believes that the human experience is marked by suffering and that life is a constant struggle for the satisfaction of desires and the escape from pain. This idea is also known as the Will, which is a central concept in Schopenhauer's philosophy.
Schopenhauer's writing has had a great impact on modern psychology, especially positive psychology and existential psychology. His notion that life is painful and that happiness seems elusive has been central to understanding the psychology of human suffering.
In his best known work, The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer talks about how our perceptions and thoughts are influenced by the Will. He holds that all our actions are motivated by the Will, a subconscious driving force that propels us toward achieving our goals and escaping pain.
Modern psychology has used the concept of the Will in the understanding of human motivation. The self-regulation theory of motivation, for example, is based on the idea that individuals are motivated by the need to satisfy their wants and needs in order to achieve happiness. Existentialist psychology has also drawn on Schopenhauer's philosophy to explore the idea that people often search for meaning and purpose in life to find a way to deal with human suffering.
Schopenhauer also had a major influence on understanding the psychology of love and human interaction. He believed that love was one of the most important components of a person's life, but that the very nature of love was marked by pain and suffering.
Modern psychology has used Schopenhauer's theory in understanding human and sexual relationships. Existentialist psychology has used the notion of suffering in love and in human interaction to understand how people seek relationships and how these relationships can affect their sense of self-actualization and individuation. In addition, this theory has been the inspiration for studies on obsessive love, which have shown that pain is a very strong component in affective relationships, and that suffering often occurs due to obsession with another.
Another important contribution of Schopenhauer to psychology has been his analysis of consciousness and the subjective experience of reality. In his work, Schopenhauer talks about how our perceptions of the world are influenced by our emotions and desires, which means that many times our subjective experiences do not exactly match the reality of the external world.
Contemporary psychology has used this idea in understanding how individuals perceive and experience the world through their own subjective lens. Studies in cognitive and psychological processes have shown how people process and remember information according to their own emotions and previous experiences.
In conclusion, Arthur Schopenhauer's theory has had an important influence on modern psychology. His understanding of human nature, the Will, and human interaction have been foundational to modern understanding of human motivation, the psychology of suffering, and subjective consciousness. Schopenhauer has been a key figure in the development of positive psychology and existential psychology, and his writings and theories continue to have a significant impact on the understanding of modern psychology.
This book is an excellent way to get to know Schopenhauer. The material included provides the core ideas of his philosophy as well as a few essays that convey his cantankerous nature (his essay on noise, for e.g.) Schopenhauer is one of the most readable of philosophers and his ideas have the power to provoke and inspire.
I am not smart enough to be able to intelligently articulate anything in particular regarding this book. It started out strong and I resonated with the stuff regarding suffering and the will. But after a while it got more and more esoteric and dry and hard for me to follow. I zoned out a lot and found myself losing interest.
The same can be said for a lot of the philosophy texts I try to read. They tend to get bogged down in these convoluted linguistic games that, for me, end up obfuscating the content and intention through unnecessary verbosity. Rather than conveying the argument in an intelligible and concise way, which should enlighten the reader, I just end up more confused than before.
It could be that I'm just fuckin stupid and don't get it, but it still greatly affects my enjoyment and what I got out of it.
Damn. That was heavy.听If any philosophy is gonna听cripple your will and give you an existential crisis, it's this.
A fair amount of this went over my head and I definitely did not听understand all the nuances of Schopenhauer's arguments, but I think I understood the broad strokes. In brief, this is what I gleaned:
There is a singular, blind,听universal Will that听represents itself as the entire听multiplicity of objects, sentient and insentient. That includes everything in the entire cosmos that is,听has been, and will be.
Schopenhauer claims听that we听misidentify ourselves with a limited object rather than with the universal听Will which he regards as the underlying reality.
This underlying reality is in听itself changeless but its representations听are continually changing.
Because the Will does not recognise itself, it takes itself for the representation rather than 'the-thing-in-itself'. Therefore, the Will fears it will end,听hence the fear of death.
The Will can recognise itself and be at peace by seeing through the illusion of the principium individuation - the belief in being a separate entity.
The more the Will recognises itself, the more it treats its various forms as though it were itself. This is听because the Will听recognises that what it perceives as 'other' is actually itself, and so,听to do harm to the 'other' would be to do harm to itself.
I found this mind-blowing, exciting, and, believe it or not,听miserable.听
Rather than presenting Oneness in an optimitistic new-agey light, Schopenhauer presents it as unbelievably tragic. This is because Schopenhauer claims听that suffering exceeds happiness and it would be better to deny the Will to Life, ending the听suffering of life by discontinuing reproduction.听I don't agree, but Schopenhauer makes a pretty听convincing case.听
Although I did somehow enjoy this, I听would be remiss if I didn't mention the听chapter 'On Women'. The title itself was a huge red flag听and听I couldn't bring myself to read more than the first paragraph - it was misogynistic drivel and was completely out of line with his ethical theory. I don't think treating women as inferior to men is in line with drawing less distinction between yourself and others.
As a whole, I read this as Schopenhauer's attempt to present a听philosophy that is so pessimistic that it breaks the reader's illusion of an individual will, causing the reader to recognise their identity as the universal Will to Life, thereby collapsing the illusory听distinction between the perceiver and the perceived. I think this is an interesting tack as听a spiritual teaching听but also potentially problematic.
if you鈥檙e curious about this man, PLEASE give his essay 鈥淥n Women鈥� a skim (also look up what he looked like for context). genuinely an INSANE read and his original publishers urged him to not print it. founder of modern incel philosophy maybe? also loves mormons and wants polygamy, that essay was all over the place. he was clearly unsuccessful in the romance department which is where all this vitriol and belief that sexual repression = enlightenment comes from. if he was really about what he says he鈥檇 1) kill himself 2) at LEAST give up on romance instead of chasing ladies around.
Schopenhauer鈥檚 metaphysics is definitely interesting, but it鈥檚 hard to be that fascinated by something I entirely disagree with + I know he鈥檚 literally known for pessimism but he has such a nasty attitude and if his life was happier he wouldn鈥檛 have written any of this鈥� AND, ripped so much South East Asian theology/ philosophy but had to keep dissing the culture on the side? But also thinks they are the most enlightened鈥�?
Mainly enjoyed his takes on suffering, the myth of the individual as the source of evil, the enlightenment of our shared will as the source of compassion, the nature of justice, and the connection between Platonic Ideals and art appreciation.
鈥淔or to nothing does our existence bear so close a resemblance as to the consequence of a false step and guilty lust.鈥�
鈥淚n a word: a man does at all times only what he wills, and yet he does this necessarily. But this is due to the fact that he already is what he wills. For from that which he is, there follows of necessity everything that he, at any time, does.鈥�
鈥溾€hey must be the visible expression of these desires. Teeth, gullet, and intestinal canal are objectified hunger, the genitals are objectified sexual impulse; grasping hands and nimble feet correspond to the more indirect strivings of the will which they represent.鈥�
鈥淭hus the subject of willing is constantly lying on the revolving wheel of Ixion, is always drawing water in the sieve of the Danaids, and is the eternally thirsting Tantalus.鈥�
I have long wanted to read Schopenhauer and other than being familiar with his ideas in general this is my first real reading of his works. I was not dissapointed. Schopenhauer not only has a penetrating intellect he is also extremely honest. He was able to live on the money passed down from his father so he was beholden to no one academic or otherwise. This I believe enabled him to be much more honest than many philosophers who need to keep certain folks happy with what they say for their jobs sake or that of the publisher. If you want a very good overall introduction to Shopenhauer then this work is your ticket. His language is of course dated as well as many of his views, being shaded in views of late 18th and early 18th century Germany area; but I think that this also adds to the charm and honesty of his work.
I found this volume on Schopenhauer, one of the most important philosophers between Kant and Nietzche, to be remarkably accessible, even rewarding. Though a pessimist and nihilist, his thoughts on suffering and the vanity of life sound eerily similar to the Preacher in Ecclesiastes (I'm surprised he didn't make this connection) and give expression to humanity's brokenness in a Genesis 3, post-fall world. And his treatment of compassion is both insightful and challenging. His ideas, which are an interesting blend of Platonic, Kantian, Indian, and Christian thought: 1) raise the question of the problem of life; 2) posit aesthetic reflection (art) as a means of relief; 3) anticipate Nietzche's will-to-power and doctrine of eternal recurrence, among others. The intro is outstanding and the translation is imminently readable. This is my second stab at this series - Harperperennial (Modern Thought), and it was much easier than Heidigger's volume on technology.
Some of the essays are decidedly a slog but overall I quite enjoyed this anthology of philosophy鈥檚 pessimistic curmudgeon. A few of his ideas about gender are quite offensive but perhaps a part of his time (not an excuse, just an observation). His connection Eastern religion/philosophy with the Western Greco-Christian history was really elegant in many places. His essay on Mystics and Saints was quite touching to someone who works in a career of service and caring to others (I鈥檓 and ER and Family Medicine physician). His final essays on Death and Rebirth and Nothingness were tough but I think eventually that came together to give a real glimpse into the goal of Nirvana.