Customer Reviews

Schopenhauer in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes)

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Once again, Paul Strathern has produced a succinct, entertaining, highly readable overview of a philosophical figure. The "in 90 Minutes" will not tell you everything you need to know about an individual, but you will pick up a great introduction. I have read about ten of the books in the series, and I enjoyed them all. Some of Strathern's conclusions strike me as logically suspect, but an intelligent reader will not rely solely on his opinions anyway. "Schopenhauer in 90 Minutes" will give you a sense of who the man was, what he thought, and how he fits into the overall scope of Western philosophy. Reading the book is the equivalent of attending a great lecture: it offers some information, throws out some ideas for consideration, and leaves you thinking after you have stumbled out of class into the blare of yellow sun.

A breezy read, definitely. And if you're new to this philosopher, not a bad place to start. Although there are a couple of errors (Wagner didn't read S until years after the Dresden uprising; Wagner & Nietzsche were converted to S via The World as Will and Representation, not his popular essays), and some questionable judgments (Parerga & Paralipomena isn't a philosophical curio at all), Schopenhauer In 90 Minutes is a great place to get the big picture.

The author is obviously sympathetic to Schopenhauer's brilliant insights (his metaphysical placement of the Will, as well as his system of aesthetics), and rightly critical of Schopenhauer's failings (the overbaked misogyny and occasional callousness). Still, as a previous reviewer remarked, calling Schopenhauer a "nasty piece of work" would be a definite overstatement. He was merely a very brilliant, solitary man who, through neglect and loneliness, inevitably went the way of the misanthrope.

I started reading this book with skepticism. I mean, how could anyone condense the core of Schopenhauers's life's work into a 90 minute (75 actually) read? I mean the _World as Will and Representation_ alone is a mammoth four volumes. And yet Strathern did it.... I don't know if he succeeded with the other volumes of this series, but by god, he did it with Schopenhauer- and managed to throw in all sorts of interesting, insightful tid-bits of his personal life (as well as placing it in the overall context of western philosophy.)

For those unfamiliar with Schopenhauer's core ideas they are just this: will is the cause of all things in the universe. Will is the thing-in-itself. There is blind will in "inanimate" matter and intelligent will in Man. In fact, in man is the will supreme. All nature is an expression of will- and man is a pattern of the universe, greatly reduced. Yet, will to be, will to create, is the cause of all evil and suffering and is therefore to be denied, if not extinguished. In this way, Schopenhauer always reminded me of a "cold-enlightened" Buddhist of the Theravadan school. However, Schopenhauer did hold that we would be reabsorbed into the great universal will at death- stripped of lesser animal consciousness.

By the way, it should be noted that this is all very different from Nietzsche's Will to Power- Nietzsche essentially turned Schopenhauer's idea of will on its head- and then went insane.

Oh, by the way, I do not agree with the author that Schopenhauer was a nasty piece of work. He was simply, totally, an original- this creates friction. He was also a completely confident authority that trusted his own intellect and intuition at all times- instead of diluting his ideas will appeals to authority and footnotes. He was also correct that Hegel was a fraud- and that Kant was pure genius.

I speak here not to the quality of this individual book, but the Strathern's "In 90 Minutes" series on intellectuals from history.

My Credentials:

Mixed. I'm not a college professor, but I use the Strathern series to accompany my reading of Copleston's nine-volume History of Philosophy, so I have a general grounding in the figures covered before I approach Strathern. I have read about twenty of his works.

Review:

To put it affectionately, Strathern is soaked in personality. His writing is definitely his own, and has a universal flavor that carries from his writings on Plato to Derrida. The man is witty and sarcastic, and always, always, always psychoanalyzes his subjects. This often leads to him to conclude more than is necessary or possible from the lives of famous philosophers.

Strathern shows a definite bias against metaphysics. His writings on the Scholastics and German Idealists are almost painfully unfair.

The set up of each work is simple: open with a biography of the philosopher's early life (usually creating a psychological theme to carry one throughout the book) and then continue writing until the time when the philosopher begins pubilcation. Here, Strathern interludes to descripe the philosopher's basic theories. The biography then continues until death, and is followed with a collection of quotes.



I would not recommend Strathern as an introduction, but as a tolerable and accessible aside. His biographies are extensive and insightful, and much of his series can be found at your (or at least my) local library.

The thinker, Schopenhauer has a series of complex writings
which underlie academic discussion around the time of Goethe.
Schopenhauer felt that the universe would be blind without
purpose or the concept of being. The concept of a free will
brings with it misery and suffering as practical consequences.
Hope tends to be free of the egoistic side of man. Goethe
debated frequently with Schopenhauer. The fact that all colors
are an amalgum of light and dark lay at the foundation of
Goethe's discussions. Schopenhauer believed that the will
permeated everything. In fact, when the will replaces knowledge-
the result is obstinacy and ignorance. As an illustration,
the author showed that a true impression of someone could be
gleaned in letter-writing. This work is good, if you are a
student of Schopenhauer ; and, you find the need to integrate
his works into a unified whole for interpretive purposes.