Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A readable German philosophy that's worth reading!!!, November 30, 1998
Schopenhauer proves that a German philosopher does not have to be nearly unintelligible to appear profound. Unlike Hegel and Heidegger, Schopenhauer does not hide behind ambiguous words or phrases. To the reader, Schopenhauer's views are as profound as they are clear. Starting where Kant left off, he gives new meaning to the word will; he makes will the thing in itself. Both volumes are essential reading. The first offers his entire system. From epistemology to metaphysics, to a great essay on where his philosophy differs from Kant's, the first volume is the foundation for the second. The second volume is classic Schopenhauer; this is the acid-tongued curmudgeon most people think of when they bother to think of him at all. The sections on death and the metaphysics of sexual love are mind-blowing. As it is expressed in his masterpiece, The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer's genius and originality of thinking tower over the views of most thinkers being pushed in universities today.
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107 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The vision of a giant mind., August 1, 2000
Although the scientific premises of his philosophy are now considered outdated, Arthur Schopenhauer's contribution to modern philosophy continues to be an enduring and endearing one. Despite the fact that he wrote in the framework of Kantian idealism -- (with its dual-world metaphysics of "phenomenon" and "thing-in-itself") -- his thought has branched out into several directions, proving to be influential on some of the literary and philosophical luminaries of the nineetenth as well as the twentieth centuries. In his metaphysics, he was a voluntarist, propounding the nonrational, universal will as the ultimate reality (the "thing-in-itself") and the driving force behind all the manifestations of organic life as well as inorganic nature. The voluntarist doctrine of the will to power of Nietzsche was evolved from Schopenhauer, as well as the metaphysical vitalism of Bergson and, most patently, Freud's theory of the unconscious. In his epistemology, he was a phenomenologist and idealist, following the footsteps of Berkeley and the critical idealist Kant. In his aesthetics, he was a Platonist, holding the ontologically originary Form, or what he terms the "Platonic Idea" to be anterior to the aesthetic representation. In his ethics, he argued that to live means to desire and desire entails nothing but suffering. His reasoning was that desire induces suffering when it is frustrated from acquiring its object; upon overcoming its hindrances and realising its object, desire results in boredom since it has a new object in view and the cycle continues indefinitely. As such, desire leads inevitably to suffering. Schopenhauer's answer is asceticism ("the denial of the will-to-live"). The wise man does not commit suicide, but abstains from this life of useless striving and hopes for an annihilating death. In the meantime, he will look with compassion and pity upon his suffering fellow creatures. This element of Schopenhauer's philosophy reflects his unremittingly melancholy and pessimistic temperament, culminating, according to his biographer, in intense paranoia and the habit of sleeping at night with a loaded pistol tucked under his pillow. His ascetic morality is unique in modern Western philosophy. Being an atheist, Schopenhauer was arguably the first philosopher to effect a thorough break with the Judaeo-Christian tradition and to introduce strong elements of Eastern religion in his thought. (His voluntarism and asceticism have Hinduist and Jain Buddhist roots in the doctrine of reincarnation "metempsychosis" and the application of austerities upon oneself to liberate the soul from the karmic matter which magnetises it and causes it to be painfully reborn into the world of pain.) In terms of his style, he was an undisputed master of German prose style, writing in a lucid, witty and jargon-free Romantic "essay-style". He has exerted an influence on a number of key modern literary figures, such as Mann, Conrad and Hardy. His stress on style anticipates contemporary philosophising and its emphasis on literary form, as can be seen in the works of figures such as Derrida, Baudrillard, Heidegger, Deleuze et al. In addition, the unaffected purity of his philosophy is an indication of the great extent to which it approximates his own difficult and powerful personality. Only someone like Schopenhauer, whose character combined such a vehemence of desire along with such a brooding sensitivity to suffering, could have produced such a philosophy which argues for the most extreme restraining of desire. Altogether, "The World as Will and Idea" is a fascinating encounter with one of the most impressive thinkers of all time. Imagine it as an intellectual dialogue, an after-dinner debate in which you are challenged and entertained with the insights of a truly giant mind. Even if one does not share his assumptions, or agree with his conclusions, he still provokes those who read him with admiration and respect for his insight and genius.
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72 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Life-Changing Book, January 2, 2005
I have spent this past year becoming quite acquainted with Arthur Schopenhauer. I can say, without hyperbole, that it has been an experience unlike any other. Unlike Kant, Hegel, and Wittgenstein, Schopenhauer's prose is consistently beautiful, and his literary style is essential in conveying truths about the world and ourselves that can be quite unpalatable. Schopenhauer's view of the world is bleak, and I agree with his assessment. He speaks of the blind drives and cruelties that motivate our species, and indeed the world itself, years before Nietzsche; and unlike Nietzsche he certainly did not embrace that cruelty.
As a metaphysician, Schopenhauer reveals many insights and a few weaknesses. S. appropriated several facets of Kant's transcendental idealism, but whereas Kant believed that all things possessed the attribute of "things-in-themselves", S. asserts that all things are comprised in essence as "Will". It is essential to grasp that S. defines "Will" as blind desire, NOT as a conscious universal mind (i.e., God). Schopenhauer's philosophy is thoroughly atheistic, although many of his philosophical insights slot neatly with Buddhism and parts of Hinduism.
Personally, I feel that of all the philosophers of transcendental idealism that came after Kant, Schopenhauer's system of blind will as the noumenal thing-in-itself to be the only one that is remotely plausible.
Schopenhauer's metaphysical insights on the arts are a mixed bag, but still intriguing. As a music lover, Schopenhauer unsurprisingly rates music as the greatest art and the sole art form that completely circumvents the will. In other words, music appreciation is completely contemplative, and does not involve egoism. I would rate music as the greatest of the arts too, but music can easily involve egoism: sensual music can make me desire sex, harsh music can make me feel abrasive, etc. In my opinion, his ranking of the arts, as a part of his metaphysical system, easily collapses when viewed as literal fact, but as poetic metaphor it works quite well.
Schopenhauer's greatest flaws are in the areas of natural science. His views on the development of consciousness are brilliantly insightful and slot easily with Darwinian theory, but he falls far short in denying the existence of atoms and preferring Goethe's theory of color over Newton's.
On ethics, S. is consistently insightful, but few would find his ethical thought attractive. Schopenhauer's beautiful prose on the essential irrelevance of death (especially in Volume II) is some of the most sublime there is. I mostly concur with Schopenhauer's views on animals, although I disagree with his belief that there is occasional justification for the exploitation of animals for human survival. As a vegan, I find Descartes', Spinoza's, and Kant's views on animals to be repulsive, so Schopenhauer's views are definitely an advance. Schopenhauer's view on sex is of the St. Augustine school, and as such I find it to be the least attractive facet of his ethical thought. S. was quite right in stating that our existence is permeated by sexual desire, but I disagree in trying to eradicate something that is the essence of all of us. It's much better, in my opinion, to indulge those desires responsibly, than repress what will always be there anyway.
Schopenhauer's endorsement of compassion is a wonderful antidote to Kant's flawed view of ethics. Whereas Kant tried to shepherd theology through the ethical backdoor, Schopenhauer rightly tells us that compassion, not rationality, is the basis of morality. Incidentally, it is well worth searching out Schopenhauer's hard-to-find book, "The Basis of Morality", which is a masterpiece of ethical thought.
Finally, there are Schopenhauer's pessimistic conclusions about life itself. He argues that there is no God, no soul, and no hope of a hereafter. I most heartily concur with his conclusions, and his eloquent description of the suffering of the world is necessary reading for both the shallow humanist and the pompous religious fundamentalist. It may disturb us to realize that we are at the mercy of blind forces largely beyond our control, but that same realization can make us more humane to each other, and to other species. It was Arthur Schopenhauer who so eloquently described our predicament, and for that I'll always be grateful.
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