Arthur_Schopenhauer

{{Infobox_Philosopher |


region = Western Philosophy |
era = [[19th century philosophy]] |
color = #B0C4DE |


image_name = Schopenhauer.jpg |
image_caption = Arthur Schopenhauer |
signature = Schopenhauer sig.png |


name = Arthur Schopenhauer |
birth = [[February 22]] [[1788]] ([[Danzig]])|
death = {{Death date and age|1860|9|21|1788|2|22}} ([[Frankfurt-am-Main]]) |
school_tradition = [[Kantianism]], [[idealism]] |
main_interests = [[Metaphysics]], [[aesthetics]], [[phenomenology]], [[morality]], [[psychology]] |
notable_ideas = [[Will (philosophy)|Will]], [[Fourfold root of the sufficient principle of reason|Fourfold root of reason]], [[pessimism]] |
notable_ideas = [[Will (philosophy)|Will]], [[Fourfold root of the sufficient principle of reason|Fourfold root of reason]], [[pessimism]] |
influences = [[Plato]], [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], [[Upanishad]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] |
influenced = [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Henri Bergson]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Mihai Eminescu]], [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], [[Eduard von Hartmann]], [[Hermann Hesse|Hesse]], [[Max Horkheimer|Horkheimer]], [[Carl Jung|Jung]], [[Suzanne Langer]], [[Thomas Mann|Mann]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], [[Karl Popper| Popper]], [[Gilbert Ryle]], [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]], [[Hans Vaihinger]], [[Swami Vivekananda|Vivekananda]], [[Guy de Maupassant|Maupassant]], [[Marcel Proust|Proust]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]], [[Michel Houellebecq|Houellebecq]], [[Erwin Schrödinger|Schrödinger]], [[George Santayana]]
}}
{{introrewrite|date=December 2007}}
'''Arthur Schopenhauer''' ([[February 22]], [[1788]] – [[September 21]], [[1860]])
was a [[Germany|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. Kant thought that what we experience, and thus what we can know, is limited to the phenomenal aspect of the world (i.e., what we can sense) in contrast to the noumena (i.e., the way things really are or the things in themselves). Kant thought that to understand the phenomenal world was to understand the concepts we use to order our experiences. Although we can never know things in themselves, we can develop a complete understanding of phenomena. Schopenhauer disagreed with Kant. Rather than developing an understanding of the concepts we use to understand phenomena, we need to understand the way we experience the world. Conceptual analysis is beneficial, but to really understand our situation in the world, we need to understand how it is that we can experience the world at all. His critique of Kant, considerably creative solutions to the problem of human experience, and his explication of the limits of human knowledge are among the greatest of philosophical accomplishments. This metaphysical concept is a foundation for his influential writings on psychology, aesthetics, ethics, and politics which influenced [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Wagner]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], [[Karl Popper]], [[Bryan Magee]], and many other philosophers and artists to pursue philosophy as a solution to Kant's questions and human experience.

== Life ==
Arthur Schopenhauer was born in 1788 in the city of Danzig ([[Gdańsk]]) as the son of Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer and [[Johanna Schopenhauer]],[http://books.google.com/books?id=fW5Dl-tUS_oC&pg=PR30&dq=Schopenhauer+%2222+February%22&ei=BbktR__4BZuI7ALM7fHcCQ&sig=kTTS7L7lZs0LE3XGhTY7-cwnBf4] who were both descendants of wealthy [[Germany|German]] middle class mercantile families in the city located on the [[Baltic Sea]]. In 1793, when Danzig was annexed by Prussia, Schopenhauer's family moved to another mercantile harbour city, [[Hamburg]], where in 1805, Schopenhauer's father died. (Some speculate he committed [[suicide]].<ref>Safranski (1990) page 12. "There was in the father's life some dark and vague source of fear which later made him hurl himself to his death from the attic of his house in Hamburg."</ref>) Johanna, who was an author, moved to [[Weimar]], then the centre of German literature, with [[Goethe]] and others. Because of a promise to pursue a business career, Schopenhauer remained in Hamburg. His disgust with this career, however, drove him away to join his mother in Weimar after only a year. He never got along with his mother; when the writer [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe|Goethe]], who was a friend of Johanna Schopenhauer, told her that he thought her son was destined for great things, Johanna objected: she had never heard there could be ''two'' geniuses in a single family.

[[Image:ArthurSchopenhauer.jpg|thumb|left|Schopenhauer as a youth]]
Schopenhauer became a student at the [[Georg August University of Göttingen|University of Göttingen]] in [[1809]]. There he studied [[metaphysics]] and [[psychology]] under [[Gottlob Ernst Schulze]], who advised him to concentrate on [[Plato]] and [[Kant]]. In Berlin, from [[1811]] to [[1812]], he had attended lectures by the prominent post-Kantian philosopher [[J. G. Fichte]] and the theologian [[Schleiermacher]]. Schopenhauer objected to Schleiermacher's assertion that the purpose of philosophy is to gain knowledge of God<ref>Arthur Schopenhauer, ''Manuscript Remains'', Volume II, p. 241</ref>. He also reacted against Fichte's extreme idealism. Fichte claimed that the observing subject or Ego causes observed objects, whereas Schopenhauer contended that subject and object always exist together in a necessary correlation<ref>''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Volume I, § 7</ref>. After submitting as his doctoral dissertation ''[[On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason]]'', he was awarded a [[PhD]] from the [[University of Jena]] in absentia.

In 1814 Schopenhauer began his seminal work ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'' (''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung''.) He would finish it in 1818 with publication in the following year of 1819 (in [[Dresden]] his illegitimate child was born and died the same year [http://www.geocities.com/c_ansata/timeline.html][http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/arthursc.htm].) In 1820, Schopenhauer became a lecturer at the [[University of Berlin]]; it was there that his opposition to [[G. W. F. Hegel]] began. Schopenhauer scheduled his own lectures to coincide with Hegel's, in an attempt to demolish student support of Hegel's philosophy. However, only five students turned up to Schopenhauer's lectures, and he dropped out of academia. He never taught at a university again. A late essay ''On University Philosophy'' expressed his resentment towards university philosophy.

In 1831, a [[cholera]] epidemic broke out in Berlin and both Hegel and Schopenhauer fled; but Hegel returned prematurely, caught the infection, and died a few days later. Schopenhauer moved south, and settled permanently in [[Frankfurt]] in 1833. There he remained for the next twenty-seven years, living alone except for a succession of pet poodles named Atma and Butz.
[[Image:Grabstein Schopenhauer.JPG|thumb|right|Schopenhauer's gravestone]]
While in Berlin, Schopenhauer was named as a defendant in an action at law initiated by a woman named Caroline Marquet.<ref name=SchopBR> Addressed in: Russell, Bertrand (1945).</ref>
She asked for damages, alleging that Schopenhauer had pushed her. Knowing that he was a man of some means and that he disliked noise, she deliberately annoyed him by raising her voice while standing right outside his door. Marquet alleged that the philosopher had assaulted and battered her after she refused to leave his doorway. Her companion testified that she saw Marquet prostrate outside of his apartment. Because Marquet won the lawsuit, he made payments to her for the next twenty years.<ref>Safranski (1990), Chapter 19 </ref> When she died, he wrote on a copy of her death certificate, "Obit anus, abit onus" (The old woman dies, the burden is lifted).

Schopenhauer had a robust constitution, but in 1860 his health began to deteriorate. He died, sitting in his armchair, of [[heart failure]] on [[September 21]] of that year at the age of 72.

== Thought ==
{{Synthesis|date=October 2007}}
{{Refimprovesect|date=October 2007}}
=== Philosophy ===
Schopenhauer called himself a [[Immanuel Kant|Kantian]], but hurled invective at several other contemporary German philosophers who had been influenced by Kant. These included [[Georg Hegel|Hegel]], [[Fichte]], and [[Schelling]]. He formulated a [[Pessimism|pessimistic]] [[philosophy]] that gained importance and support after the failure of the German and Austrian [[revolutions of 1848]].

Schopenhauer's starting point was [[Immanuel Kant|Kant's]] division of the universe into the [[phenomenal]] and the [[noumenon|noumenal]]. Schopenhauer extended Kant's ideas to, in his opinion, gain greater understanding of the noumenal. For instance, he suggested that noumenal reality was singular because multiplicity was part of phenomenal experience. Some commentators suggest that Schopenhauer claimed that the noumenon was the same as that in us which we call [[will (philosophy)|Will]]. Other commentators, like [[Bryan Magee]], suggest that he considered will to be the most immediate manifestation of the noumenon that we can experience.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}

====Will and desire====
A key aspect of Schopenhauer's thought is the investigation of what makes man less than reasonable. This force he calls "''Wille zum Leben''" or Will (lit. ''will-to-life''), by which he means the forces driving man, to remain alive and to reproduce, a drive intertwined with desire. This Will is the inner content and the driving force of the world. For Schopenhauer, Will had [[ontology|ontological]] primacy over the [[intellect]]; in other words, desire is understood to be prior to thought, and, in a parallel sense, Will is said to be prior to being. Schopenhauer felt this was similar to notions of [[purushartha]] or goals of life in [[Vedanta]] [[Hinduism]].

In attempting to solve or alleviate the fundamental problems of life, Schopenhauer was a rare philosopher who considered [[philosophy]] and [[logic]] less important (or less effective) than [[art]], certain charitable practices ("loving kindness", in his terms), and certain forms of religious discipline. Schopenhauer concluded that discursive thought (such as philosophy and logic) could neither touch nor transcend the nature of desire — i.e., Will. In ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Schopenhauer proposed that humans living in the [[realm of objects]] are living in the [[realm of desire]], and thus are eternally tormented by that desire. The role of desire in Schopenhauer is similar to the role of [[Kāma]], sensual gratification, which is treated as one of the goals of life relating to the second stage of life in the [[Hindu]] tradition.

====Metaphysics====
For Schopenhauer, the [[aesthetic]] viewpoint is more [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objective]] than the [[scientific]] viewpoint precisely because it separates the [[intellect]] from the [[will]] in the form of art. The ability to view [[nature]] aesthetically is a telltale sign of a [[genius]]. An important metaphysical distinction that Schopenhauer makes involves the notion of the will versus art. In a sense, Schopenhauer claimed that the [[body]] is an extension of the will, while art is a spontaneous act which cannot be linked to either the body or the intellect. The intellect allows man to suffer because it brings the [[suffering|suffering or pain]] of the world into a more vivid consciousness. Logically speaking then, the more intellectually-inclined person suffers most.

Aesthetic contemplation for Schopenhauer translates into an immediate objectification of the will. He employs a [[Platonic]] [[allegory]] to demonstrate that all existence is ultimately [[futile]] since it can be fundamentally characterized by a want of satisfaction that can never be attained. This want is otherwise known as [[happiness]]. Schopenhauer's [[metaphysics]] is said by many to be essentially marked by an all-encompassing [[pessimism]]. This pessimism serves as a stark contrast to Schopenhauer's [[Romanticism|Romantic]] contemporaries in 19th century [[Germany]]. His contemporaries, who include [[Georg Hegel|Hegel]] and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]], tended to employ a wide-ranging [[optimism]] concerning the seemingly [[Progress (philosophy)|progressive]] [[history]] of [[mankind]].

Other notable ideas pertaining to Schopenhauer's metaphysics entail the notion of how art is conceived. Schopenhauer argued that art was a spontaneous, pre-determined [[idea]] which the [[artist]] has in mind before even attempting to create. Art, therefore, placed man above science and ultimately nature since it effectively goes beyond the realm of sufficient [[reason]]. Science, for Schopenhauer, shall be relegated to the boundaries of reason and, thus, the genius is precluded from entering its territory. Moreover, philosophy is not necessarily a pursuit of wisdom but, rather, it can be viewed as a means for interpreting the [[personal experience]]s of one's own life. Schopenhauer maintained that desire produces suffering and, thus, one ought to be wary of the torturous effects of [[hedonism]].

==== Aesthetics ====
{{main|Schopenhauer's aesthetics}}

This wild and powerful drive to reproduce, however, caused [[suffering|suffering or pain]] in the world. For Schopenhauer, one way to escape the suffering inherent in a world of Will was through [[art]].

Through art, Schopenhauer thought, the thinking subject could be jarred out of their limited, individual [[Perspective (cognitive)|perspective]] to feel a sense of the [[universal (metaphysics)|universal]] directly—the "universal" in question, of course, was the will. The contest of personal desire with a world that was, by nature, inimical to its satisfaction is inevitably tragical; therefore, the highest place in art was given to [[tragedy]]. [[Music]] was also given a special status in [[Schopenhauer's aesthetics]] as it did not rely upon the medium of representation to communicate a sense of the universal.

Schopenhauer believed the function of art to be a [[meditation]] on the unity of [[human nature]], and an attempt to either demonstrate or directly communicate to the [[audience]] a certain [[existential]] [[angst]] for which most forms of entertainment—including bad art—only provided a distraction. A wide range of authors (from [[Thomas Hardy]] to [[Woody Allen]]) and artists have been influenced by this system of [[aesthetics]], and in the 20th century this area of Schopenhauer's work garnered more attention and praise than any other.

According to Daniel Albright (2004: p39, n34), "Schopenhauer thought that [[music]] was the only art that did not merely copy ideas, but actually embodied the will itself."

====Ethics====
Schopenhauer's moral theory proposed that of three primary moral incentives, compassion (''Mitleid'') was the genuine motivator to moral expression. He ruled the other two, malice and egoism, corrupt as moral incentives. The identification of compassion as the true moral incentive was a central aspect of Schopenhauer's mission, and associated his thoughts firmly with eastern thought.

=== Psychology ===
Schopenhauer was perhaps even more influential in his treatment of man's [[psychology]] than he was in the realm of [[philosophy]].

Philosophers have not traditionally been impressed by the tribulations of [[love]], but Schopenhauer addressed it and related concepts forthrightly:

:"We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life of man [love] has hitherto been almost entirely disregarded by philosophers, and lies before us as raw and untreated material."

He gave a name to a [[force]] within man which he felt had invariably precedence over reason: the [[Will to Live]] ([[Will]]e zum Leben), defined as an inherent [[drive]] within human beings, and indeed all creatures, to stay alive and to [[reproduce]].

Schopenhauer refused to conceive of love as either trifling or accidental, but rather understood it to be an immensely powerful force lying unseen within man's [[Psyche (psychology)|psyche]] and dramatically shaping the [[world]]:

:"''The ultimate aim of all love affairs ... is more important than all other aims in man's life; and therefore it is quite worthy of the profound seriousness with which everyone pursues it.''"
:"''What is decided by it is nothing less than the composition of the next generation ...''"

These ideas foreshadowed and laid the groundwork for [[Charles Darwin|Darwin's]] [[theory of evolution]] and [[Sigmund Freud|Freud's]] concepts of the [[libido]] and the [[unconscious mind]].<ref>"Nearly a century before Freud... in Schopenhauer there is, for the first time, an explicit philosophy of the unconscious and of the body. Safranski pg. 345.</ref>

===Political and social thought===
==== Politics ====
Schopenhauer's [[politics]] were, for the most part, a much diminished echo of his system of ethics (the latter being expressed in ''[[Die beiden Grundprobleme der Ethik]]'', available in English as two separate books, ''[[On the Basis of Morality]]'' and ''[[On the Freedom of the Will]]''; ethics also occupies about one quarter of his central work, ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]''). In occasional political comments in his ''[[Parerga and Paralipomena]]'' and ''[[Manuscript Remains]]'', Schopenhauer described himself as a proponent of limited government. What was essential, he thought, was that the state should "leave each man free to work out his own salvation", and so long as government was thus limited, he would "prefer to be ruled by a lion than one of [his] fellow rats" — i.e., a [[monarch]]. Schopenhauer did, however, share the view of [[Thomas Hobbes]] on the necessity of the state, and of state violence, to check the destructive tendencies innate to our species. Schopenhauer, by his own admission, did not give much thought to politics, and several times he writes prideful boasts of how little attention he had paid "to political affairs of [his] day". In a life that spanned several revolutions in French and German government, and a few continent-shaking wars, he did indeed maintain his aloof position of "minding not the times but the eternities". He wrote many disparaging remarks about Germany and the Germans. A typical example is "For a German it is even good to have somewhat lengthy words in his mouth, for he thinks slowly, and they give him time to reflect." (''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Vol. 2, Ch. 12)

Schopenhauer possessed a distinctly hierarchical conception of the human races, attributing civilizational primacy to the northern "white races" due to their sensitivity and creativity:

: "The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmans, the Incas, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands. All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers and invent and perfect all the arts in their struggle with need, want and misery, which in their many forms were brought about by the climate. This they had to do in order to make up for the parsimony of nature and out of it all came their high civilization." (''Parerga and Paralipomena'', Volume II, Section 92)

Schopenhauer additionally maintained a marked metaphysical and political [[anti-Judaism]]. Schopenhauer argued that Christianity constituted a revolt against the materialistic basis of Judaism, exhibiting an Indian-influenced ethics reflecting the [[Aryan]]-[[Vedas|Vedic]] theme of spiritual "self-conquest" as opposed to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism of the superficially this-worldly Jewish spirit:

: "While all other religions endeavor to explain to the people by symbols the metaphysical significance of life, the religion of the Jews is entirely immanent and furnishes nothing but a mere war-cry in the struggle with other nations" ("Fragments for the history of philosophy," ''Parerga and Paralipomena'', Volume I).

==== Views on women ====
In Schopenhauer's essay "On Women" (''Über die Weiber''), he expressed his opposition to what he called "Teutonico-Christian stupidity" on female affairs. He claimed that "woman is by nature meant to obey", and opposed [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller's]] poem in honor of women, ''Würde der Frauen''. The essay does give two compliments however: that "women are decidedly more sober in their judgment than [men] are" and are more sympathetic to the suffering of others. However, the latter was discounted as weakness rather than humanitarian virtue.

In 1821 he fell in love with 19-year old opera singer Caroline Richter, called Medon, and had a relationship with her for several years. He discarded marriage plans, however, writing, "Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties", and "Marrying means, to grasp blindfold into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes." At the age of 43 in 1831, he again took interest in a younger woman, the 17-year old Flora Weiss, who rejected him. [http://www.hiw.kuleuven.be/eng/alumni/newslet11.pdf (ref: ''The Leuven Philosophy Newsletter'' pgs. 42-43)]

Schopenhauer had generally liberal views on other social issues: he was strongly against [[taboo]]s on issues like [[suicide]] and [[homosexuality]], and condemned the treatment of African [[slavery|slaves]]. Schopenhauer held a high opinion of one woman, [[Madame de Guyon]], whose writings and biography he recommended.

Schopenhauer's controversial writing has influenced many, from [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]] to 19th century [[feminism|feminists]]. While Schopenhauer's hostility to women may tell us more about his [[biography]] than about philosophy, his [[biology|biological]] analysis of the difference between the sexes, and their separate roles in the struggle for survival and reproduction, anticipates some of the claims that were later ventured by [[sociobiology|sociobiologists]] and [[evolutionary psychology|evolutionary psychologists]] in the twentieth century.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}

Schopenhauer told Richard Wagner's friend [[Malwida von Meysenbug]], "I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man."<ref>Safranski (1990), Chapter 24. Page 348.</ref>

====Heredity and eugenics====
{{Original research|section|date=October 2007}}
Schopenhauer believed that a person inherited level of intellect through one's mother and personal character through one's father. Schopenhauer quotes Horace's saying, "From the brave and good are the brave descended" (''Odes'', iv, 4, 29) and Shakespeare's line from ''Cymbeline'', "Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base" (IV, 2) to reinforce his hereditarian argument (Payne, ''The World as Will and Representation'', Vol. II, p. 519). On the question of eugenics, Schopenhauer wrote:

{{bquote|With our knowledge of the complete unalterability both of character and of mental faculties, we are led to the view that a real and thorough improvement of the human race might be reached not so much from outside as from within, not so much by theory and instruction as rather by the path of generation. Plato had something of the kind in mind when, in the fifth book of his ''Republic'', he explained his plan for increasing and improving his warrior caste. If we could [[castrate]] all [[criminals|scoundrels]] and stick all stupid geese in a convent, and give men of noble character a whole [[harem]], and procure men, and indeed thorough men, for all girls of intellect and understanding, then a generation would soon arise which would produce a better age than that of Pericles"|x|x|Schopenhauer|ibid., p. 527}}

In another context, Schopenhauer reiterated his antidemocratic-eugenic thesis: "If you want Utopian plans, I would say: the only solution to the problem is the [[despotism]] of the wise and noble members of a genuine aristocracy, a genuine nobility, achieved by [[mating]] the most magnanimous men with the cleverest and most gifted women. This proposal constitutes my Utopia and my Platonic Republic" (''Essays and Aphorisms'', trans. R.J. Hollingdale, Middlesex: London, 1970, p. 154). Analysts (e.g., Keith Ansell-Pearson) have suggested that Schopenhauer's advocacy of anti-egalitarianism and eugenics influenced the neo-aristocratic philosophy of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], who initially considered Schopenhauer his mentor.

====Views on homosexuality====
Schopenhauer was also one of the first philosophers since the days of [[Greek philosophy]] to address the subject of male [[homosexuality]]. In the third, expanded edition of ''The World as Will and Representation'' (1856), Schopenhauer added an appendix to his chapter on the "Metaphysics of Sexual Love". He wrote that only those who were too old or too young to reproduce strong, healthy children would resort to [[pederasty]] (Schopenhauer considered pederasty to be in itself a [[vice]]). He also wrote that homosexuality did have the benefit of preventing ill-begotten children. Concerning this he stated "...the vice we are considering appears to work directly against the aims and ends of nature, and that in a matter that is all important and of the greatest concern to her, it must in fact serve these very aims, although only indirectly, as a means for preventing greater evils." <ref> On page 566 of Schopenhauer, Arthur. "The World as Will and Representation: Volume Two". Dover</ref> Shrewdly anticipating the interpretive distortion on the part of the popular mind of his attempted scientific ''explanation'' of pederasty as a personal ''advocacy'' of a phenomenon Schopenhauer otherwise describes, in terms of spiritual ethics, as an "objectionable aberration", Schopenhauer sarcastically concludes the appendix with the statement that "by expounding these paradoxical ideas, I wanted to grant to the professors of philosophy a small favour, for they are very disconcerted by the ever-increasing publicization of my philosophy which they so carefully concealed. I have done so by giving them the opportunity of slandering me by saying that I defend and commend pederasty" (ibid., p. 567).

==Influences==
Schopenhauer said he was influenced by the [[Upanishads]], [[Immanuel Kant]], and [[Plato]]. References to [[Eastern philosophy|Eastern philosophy and religion]] appear frequently in Schopenhauer's writing. As noted above, he appreciated the teachings of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] and even called himself a ''Buddhaist''<ref>Abelsen, Peter (1993). [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96540080 "Schopenhauer and Buddhism."] ''Philosophy East & West,'' 44:2 p. 255. Retrieved on: [[August 18]], [[2007]].</ref> He said that his philosophy could not have been conceived before these teachings were available.

Concerning the Upanishads and [[Vedas]], he writes in ''The World as Will and Representation'':
{{Quotation|If the reader has also received the benefit of the Vedas, the access to which by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege which this still young century (1818) may claim before all previous centuries, if then the reader, I say, has received his initiation in primeval Indian wisdom, and received it with an open heart, he will be prepared in the very best way for hearing what I have to tell him. It will not sound to him strange, as to many others, much less disagreeable; for I might, if it did not sound conceited, contend that every one of the detached statements which constitute the Upanishads, may be deduced as a necessary result from the fundamental thoughts which I have to enunciate, though those deductions themselves are by no means to be found there.<ref>''The World as Will and Representation'' Preface to the first edition, p. xiii)</ref>}}

He summarised the influence of the Upanishads thusly: 'It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death!

Other influences were: [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]], [[John Locke]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], [[Matthias Claudius]], [[George Berkeley]], [[David Hume]], [[René Descartes]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

===Kant===
{{main|Criticism of the Kantian Philosophy (Schopenhauer)}}
Schopenhauer's identification of the Kantian ''noumenon'' (i.e., the actually existing entity) with what he termed Will deserves some explanation. The noumenon was what Kant called the ''Ding an Sich'', the "Thing in Itself", the reality that is the foundation of our [[sense|sensory]] and [[mind|mental]] representations of an external world. In Kantian terms, those sensory and mental representations are mere phenomena. Schopenhauer departed from Kant in his description of the relationship between the phenomenon and the noumenon. According to Kant, things-in-themselves ground the phenomenal representations in our minds. Schopenhauer, on the other hand, believed phenomena and noumena to be two different sides of the same coin. Noumena do not ''cause'' phenomena, but rather phenomena are simply the way by which our minds perceive the noumena, according to the [[Principle of Sufficient Reason]]. This is explained more fully in Schopenhauer's doctoral thesis, ''[[On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason]]''.

Schopenhauer's second major departure from Kant's epistemology concerns the body. Kant's philosophy was formulated as a response to the radical [[philosophical skepticism]] of [[David Hume]], who claimed that causality could not be observed empirically. Schopenhauer begins by arguing that Kant's demarcation between external objects, knowable only as phenomena, and the Thing in Itself of noumenon, contains a significant omission. There is, in fact, one physical object we know more intimately than we know any object of sense perception. It is our own body.

We know our [[human anatomy|human bodies]] have boundaries and occupy space, the same way other objects known only through our named senses do. Though we seldom think of our bodies as physical objects, we know even before reflection that it shares some of their properties. We understand that a watermelon cannot successfully occupy the same space as an oncoming truck. We know that if we tried to repeat the experiment with our own bodies, we would obtain similar results. We know this even if we do not understand the [[physics]] involved.

We know that our consciousness inhabits a physical body, similar to other physical objects only known as phenomena. Yet our consciousness is not commensurate with our body. Most of us possess the power of voluntary motion. We usually are not aware of the breathing of our [[lung]]s or the beating of our [[heart]]s unless somehow our attention is called to them. Our ability to control either is limited. Our [[kidney]]s command our attention on their schedule rather than one we choose. Few of us have any idea what our [[liver]]s are doing right now, though this organ is as needful as lungs, heart, or kidneys. The conscious mind is the servant, not the master, of these and other organs. These organs have an agenda which the conscious mind did not choose, and over which it has limited power.

When Schopenhauer identifies the ''noumenon'' with the desires, needs, and impulses in us that we name "Will," what he is saying is that we participate in the reality of an otherwise unachievable world outside the mind through will. We cannot ''prove'' that our mental picture of an outside world corresponds with a reality by reasoning. Through will, we know—without thinking—that the world can stimulate us. We suffer fear, or desire. These states arise involuntarily. They arise prior to reflection. They arise even when the conscious mind would prefer to hold them at bay. The rational mind is for Schopenhauer a leaf borne along in a stream of pre-reflective and largely unconscious emotion. That stream is will, and through will, if not through logic, we can participate in the underlying reality that lies beyond mere phenomena. It is for this reason that Schopenhauer identifies the ''noumenon'' with what we call our will.

'''See also:'''
*[[Schopenhauer's criticism of Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals]]
*[[Schopenhauer's criticism of Kant's schemata]]

== Influence ==
Schopenhauer is thought to have influenced the following intellectual figures and schools of thought: [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Richard Wagner]], [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Charles Darwin]], [[Theodule Ribot]], [[Ferdinand Tönnies]], [[Eugene O'Neill]], [[Max Horkheimer]], [[C. G. Jung]], [[Sigmund Freud]], [[George Gissing]], [[John N. Gray]]<ref>In the book ''Straw Dogs'', John Gray upheld Schopenhauer as one of the few philosophers who has dedicated himself to studying Eastern philosophy as well as Western philosophy. The book argues against free will, and states that humans have much more in common with animals than is commonly admitted in the West. Schopenhauer is praised for his attitude towards animals, and for having addressed the brutality of much of human life.</ref>, [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Karl Popper]], [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Wilhelm Busch]], [[Dylan Thomas]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Emil Cioran]], [[Thomas Mann]], [[Italo Svevo]], [[Joseph Campbell]], [[Eduard von Hartmann]], [[Phenomenalism]], and [[Recursionism]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

==Schopenhauer vs. Hegel==
Schopenhauer expressed his dislike for the philosophy of his contemporary [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] many times in his published works. The following quotation is typical:

{{Quotation|If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]] is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a [[pseudophilosophy|pseudo-philosophy]] paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right.

Further, if I were to say that this summus philosophus [...] scribbled nonsense quite unlike any mortal before him, so that whoever could read his most eulogized work, the so-called ''[[The Phenomenology of Spirit|Phenomenology of the Mind]]'', without feeling as if he were in a madhouse, would qualify as an inmate for [[Bethlem Royal Hospital|Bedlam]], I should be no less right.|Arthur Schopenhauer|[[On the Basis of Morality]]|pp 15-16}}

In his "Foreword to the first edition" of his work ''[[Die beiden Grundprobleme der Ethik]]'', Schopenhauer suggested that he had shown Hegel to have fallen prey to the ''[[Post hoc ergo propter hoc]]'' fallacy.

Schopenhauer thought that Hegel used deliberately impressive but ultimately vacuous verbiage. He suggested his works were filled with "castles of abstraction"{{Fact|date=July 2007}} that sounded impressive but ultimately contained no content. He also thought that his glorification of church and state were designed for personal advantage and had little to do with the search for philosophical truth.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} For instance, the [[Right Hegelians]] interpreted Hegel as viewing the Prussian state of his day as perfect and the goal of all history up until then.<ref>"...the Hegelians who, in complete unsmiling seriousness, were airing the question of what the further content of world history could possibly be, now that in the Helgelian philosophy the world spirit had reached the goal, the knowledge of itself." Safranski, pg. 256</ref> So, although Schopenhauer may have appeared vain and overly vociferous in his constant attacks on [[Hegel]], they were not necessarily devoid of merit.

==Schopenhauer and Buddhism==
{{Original research|date=September 2007}}
Schopenhauer's philosophy is similar to Buddhism in many ways. Buddhism teaches what it calls the [[Four Noble Truths]]:
# There is [[suffering]] or [[dukkha]];
# Suffering results from desire;
# Desires can be totally eliminated (the eventual state of [[Nirvana]])<ref>"There is a remarkable correspondence, at least in broad terms, between some of the central Schopenhauerian doctrines and Buddhism: notably in the views that empirical existence is suffering, that suffering originates in desires, and that salvation can be attained by the extinction of desires. These three 'truths of the Buddha' are mirrored closely in the essential structure of the doctrine of the will."[[Christopher Janaway|Janaway]], Christopher, ''Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy'', p. 28 f.</ref>
# Following the Eightfold Path leads to Nirvana.
Schopenhauer's philosophy seems similar to the first two of Buddhism's four truths in that it associates will with desire, appetite, and craving. However, instead of the fourth truth, Schopenhauer describes a twofold path. Denial of the will is attained by either:
# Personal experience of an extremely great suffering that leads to loss of the will to live; or
# Knowledge of the essential nature of life in the world through observation of the suffering of other people.
However, Buddhist Nirvana is not equivalent to the condition that Schopenhauer described as denial of the will. Occult historian{{Fact|date=February 2007}} [[Joscelyn Godwin]] stated, "It was Buddhism that inspired the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, and, through him, attracted [[Richard Wagner]]. This [[Orientalism]] reflected the struggle of the German Romantics, in the words of [[Leon Poliakov]], to free themselves from [[Judeo-Christian]] fetters" (''Arktos'', p. 38). In opposition to Joscelyn Godwin's claim that Buddhism inspired Schopenhauer, the philosopher himself made the following statement in his discussion of religions<ref>{{Quotation|Schopenhauer is often said to be the first, or indeed the only, modern Western philosopher of any note to attempt any integration of his work with Eastern ways of thinking. That he was the first is surely true, but the claim that he was ''influenced'' by Indian thought needs some qualification. There is a remarkable correspondence, at least in broad terms, between some of the central Schopenhauerian doctrines and Buddhism: notably in the views that empirical existence is suffering, that suffering originates in desires, and that salvation can be attained by the extinction of desires. These three 'truths of the Buddha' are mirrored closely in the essential structure of the doctrine of the will (On this, see Dorothea W. Dauer, ''Schopenhauer as Transmitter of Buddhist Ideas''. Note also the discussion by Bryan Magee, ''The Philosophy of Schopenhauer'', pp. 14-15, 316-21).|[[Christopher Janaway|Janaway]], Christopher, ''Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy'', p. 28 f.}}</ref>:
{{Quotation|If I wished to take the results of my philosophy as the standard of truth, I should have to concede to Buddhism pre-eminence over the others. In any case, it must be a pleasure to me to see my doctrine in such close agreement with a religion that the majority of men on earth hold as their own, for this numbers far more followers than any other. And this agreement must be yet the more pleasing to me, inasmuch as ''in my philosophizing I have certainly not been under its influence'' (emphasis added). For up till 1818, when my work appeared, there was to be found in Europe only a very few accounts of Buddhism, - . |’’[[The World as Will and Representation]]’’, Vol. 2, Ch. 17}} Buddhist philosopher [[Nishitani Keiji]] however sought to distance Buddhism from Schopenhauer.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}
While Schopenhauer's philosophy may sound rather mystical in such a summary, his [[methodology]] was resolutely [[empirical]], rather than speculative or transcendental:

{{Quotation|Philosophy... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions. |''Parerga & Paralipomena'', vol. i, pg. 106., trans. E.F.J. Payne}}

Also note:

{{Quotation|This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.|''World as Will and Representation'', vol. i, pg. 273, trans. E.F.J. Payne}}

== Selected bibliography ==
*''[[On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason]](Über die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde''), 1813
*''On Vision and Colours'' (''Über das Sehn und die Farben''), 1816 ISBN 0-85496-988-8
*''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', (sometimes also known in English as ''The World as Will and Idea'' and in German ''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung''), 1818/1819, vol 2 1844
**Vol. 1 Dover edition 1966, ISBN 0-486-21761-2
**Vol. 2 Dover edition 1966, ISBN 0-486-21762-0
**Peter Smith Publisher hardcover set 1969, ISBN 0-8446-2885-9
**Everyman Paperback combined abridged edition (290 p.) ISBN 0-460-87505-1
*''On the Will in Nature (Über den Willen in der Natur)'', 1836 ISBN 0-85496-999-3
*''[[On the Freedom of the Will]] (Über die Freiheit des menschlichen Willens''), 1839 ISBN 0-631-14552-4
*''On the Basis of Morality (Über die Grundlage der Moral)'', 1840
*''Parerga und Paralipomena'', 1851 ISBN 0-19-924221-6
* Arthur Schopenhauer, ''Manuscript Remains'', Volume II, Berg Publishers Ltd., ISBN 0-85496-539-4

Online:
*[http://www.geocities.com/c_ansata/Women.html ''Of Women'' (Über die Weiber.)]
*''[http://coolhaus.de/art-of-controversy/ The Art Of Controversy (Die Kunst, Recht zu behalten)]''. (bilingual)
* {{gutenberg author| id=Arthur+Schopenhauer | name=Arthur Schopenhauer}}
*''[http://librivox.org/studies-in-pessimism-by-arthur-schopenhauer/ Studies in Pessimism]'' - audiobook from [[LibriVox]]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/theworldaswillan01schouoft The World as Will and Idea Volume I] - at [[Internet Archive]]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/theworldaswill02schouoft The World as Will and Idea Volume II] - at [[Internet Archive]]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/theworldaswillan03schouoft The World as Will and Idea Volume III] - at [[Internet Archive]]
*[http://www.archive.org/details/onthefourfoldroo00schouoft On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason, and On the will in nature; two essays. Translated by Mme. Karl Hillebrand (1903)] - at [[Internet Archive]]

==See also==
*[[Antinatalism]], a position advocated by Schopenhauer that one would be better off not having been born
*[[Schopenhauer's criticism of the proofs of the Parallel Postulate]]
*[[Wooden iron]]
*''[[The Art of Being Right]]''

==Notes==
{{refs}}

== References ==
* Albright, Daniel (2004) ''Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources''. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
* Russell, Bertrand (1945) ''A History of Western Philosophy and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day''. [[Simon and Schuster]].
* Safranski, Rüdiger (1990) ''Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy''. Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-79275-0

==Secondary literature==
Books:
* Atwell, John. ''Schopenhauer on the Character of the World, The Metaphysics of Will''.
*--------, ''Schopenhauer, The Human Character''.
*[[Christopher Janaway]], 2003. ''Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-825003-7
* Hamlyn, D. W., ''Schopenhauer'', London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980
*--------, ''Schopenhauer: A Very Short introduction''.
* [[Bryan Magee|Magee, Bryan]], ''The Philosophy of Schopenhauer'', Oxford University Press, 1997 (reprint), ISBN 0-19-823722-7
*[[Gerard Mannion]], "Schopenhauer, Religion and Morality - The Humble Path to Ethics", Ashgate Press, New Critical Thinking in Philosophy Series, 2003, 314pp

Articles:
*Abelsen, Peter, 1993, "[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96540080 Schopenhauer and Buddhism,]" ''Philosophy East & West 43'' (April 1993).
*Jiménez, Camilo, 2006, "[http://www.avinus-magazin.eu/html/jimenez_-_der_junge_schopenhau.html Tagebuch eines Ehrgeizigen: Arthur Schopenhauers Studienjahre in Berlin,]" ''Avinus Magazin'' (in German).
*Mazard, Eisel, 2005, "[http://www.pratyeka.org/schopenhauer/ Schopenhauer and the Empirical Critique of Idealism in the History of Ideas.]" An essay on Schopenhauer's (debated) place in the history of European philosophy, detailing his relationship to earlier sources.
*Moges, Awet, 2006, "[http://www.galilean-library.org/schopenhauer.html Schopenhauer's Philosophy.]" Galileian Library.
*[[Sangharakshita]], 2004, "[http://www.centrebouddhisteparis.org/En_Anglais/Sangharakshita_en_anglais/Aesthetic_appreciation/aesthetic_appreciation.html Schopenhauer and aesthetic appreciation.]"
*Young, Christopher, and Brook, Andrew, 1994, "[http://www.carleton.ca/~abrook/SCHOPENY.htm Schopenhauer and Freud,]" ''International Journal of Psychoanalysis 75'':101-18.

== External links ==
{{commons|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
{{Wikisourcelang|de|Arthur Schopenhauer|Arthur Schopenhauer}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*{{sep entry|schopenhauer}} by Robert Wicks.
*[http://www.friesian.com/arthur.htm Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).] Short essay by Kelley L. Ross on Schopenhauer's life & work, and his dim view of academia.
* [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/peter2.htm Schopenhauer and Buddhism], Peter Abelson, ''Philosophy East and West'', Volume 43, Number 2, April 1993, p.255-278
*[http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cdl;idno=cdl322 On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason and on the will in nature] Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection. {Reprinted by} [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1429739630/?tag=corneunivelib-20 Cornell University Library Digital Collections]

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{{Persondata
|NAME=Schopenhauer, Arthur
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=German philosopher
|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1788|2|22|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Stutthof]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1860|9|21|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Frankfurt-am-Main]], [[Germany]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schopenhauer, Arthur}}
[[Category:Arthur Schopenhauer|*]]
[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:People from Gdańsk]]
[[Category:1860 deaths]]
[[Category:19th century German philosophers]]
[[Category:Georg-August University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin faculty]]
[[Category:Kantian philosophers]]
[[Category:German-language philosophers]]
[[Category:Continental philosophers]]
[[Category:Idealists]]