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Essays and Aphorisms

by Arthur Schopenhauer, R.J. Hollingdale (Translator, Introduction)

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 · rating details · 1,763 ratings · 60 reviews

One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on religion, ethics, politics, women and many other themes is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipomena, which he published...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published May 30th 1973 by Penguin Classics (first published 1851)

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Dec 13, 2010 Jason Carlin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm sorry I didn't read this two years ago, when I thought pessimism was something reserved for those exiled from the general population's way of thinking. Considering it was written in the mid 19th century, everything in this book is highly accessible, written fairly simply, with only a few technicalities in between.
And if it's the pessimism you want, then the opening essays are what you're after. They're drenched in reasons why we as a species are an error in creation, too highly adapted to...more I'm sorry I didn't read this two years ago, when I thought pessimism was something reserved for those exiled from the general population's way of thinking. Considering it was written in the mid 19th century, everything in this book is highly accessible, written fairly simply, with only a few technicalities in between.
And if it's the pessimism you want, then the opening essays are what you're after. They're drenched in reasons why we as a species are an error in creation, too highly adapted to deal with the demands we place on ourselves, and so are destined for dissatisfaction. He's not without his failings - his view of women is not just absurd, it's just plain wrong. Having said that, the man deserves extreme respect for believing totally in what he says. Everything is drilled so forcefully that you can hardly do anything but nod agreement at times, regardless of whether the truth is a melancholy one. And it's not just that his tone is convincing - he actually has plenty to say on plenty of topics. The sections on ethics, philosophy and the intellect, and on thinking for yourself are fairly impressive. He places before you feelings most would probably never pay much attention to - that we fail to notice our good health but reversely are frustrated by the smallest of pains in a toe or finger, which all highlights that we're doomed for discontent because we fail to acknowledge our benefits, and so will keep striving for more and more, ultimately unhappy.
This book isn't for those that are happy enough to drift through a delusional life of optimism - something I don't think is such a bad thing, even from a pessimist's point of view. If someone is fortunate enough to not be struck by the truths of this book, then I would say leave them be. However, once gained, they're almost impossible to shrug off. You see this fact most evident in those people who suffer chronic depression and who are forever bleak, even if they themselves aren't completely aware of it. But if you're helplessly susceptible to insight and clever thinking, then you can hardly ignore reading this book. It's seminal. (less)

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Nov 04, 2012 Dan Varley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nietzsche is a ray of f'n sunshine compared to Schopenhauer. Check it: "If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering than our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world" --- holy shit!) but S. lays down some good nuggets on the denial of the will/desire that dovetails nicely with some Eastern philosophies.

Some nice views on aesthetics (they give us a respite from the endless loop of desire->satisfaction -> desire, since when we see something beautifu...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Chris Byron rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is a bad book. A really bad book. Hell, it’s even a dangerous book. Anyone that takes Schoperhanuer seriously, is going to expect a rotten world, prolong a rotten world, and thus fortify the self fulfilling prophecy that nothing good has happened, will happen, and can happen. Fortunately this entire foundation is grounded on extremely shoddy philosophy.

Schopenhauer was known in Germany as that guy who lectured in an empty room, while Hegel filled the auditorium. This isn’t surprising, Hegel...more This is a bad book. A really bad book. Hell, it’s even a dangerous book. Anyone that takes Schoperhanuer seriously, is going to expect a rotten world, prolong a rotten world, and thus fortify the self fulfilling prophecy that nothing good has happened, will happen, and can happen. Fortunately this entire foundation is grounded on extremely shoddy philosophy.

Schopenhauer was known in Germany as that guy who lectured in an empty room, while Hegel filled the auditorium. This isn’t surprising, Hegel was conducting Philosophy, and Schopenhauer was conducting shrill whining before a live audience of one. If you’re going to pay a college to teach you philosophy, listening to the equivalent of a comedian without jokes, isn’t a frugal investment.

Gramsci had a famous saying: Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Schopenhauer would twist this into, a pessimistic will, guarantees a pessimistic intellect. For Schopenhauer this is an ontological truth of the world, literally, there is one grand will, that exist independently of the phenomenal world, and it expresses itself in living beings, as a voracious Hobbesian creature that riddles us with torment, misery, and pain. Kant’s things in themselves are really this one thing, the will, in itself, and through us (and animals). How does Schopenhauer know this? How has he taken Kant’s masterpiece and transcended the phenomenal world, into the essence of the noumenon? Simple: sparse, intuition. It’s rather ironic than that when Schopenhauer goes on to explain what the world would look like without human subjects, he maintains all the properties of mind: space, time, causal relations, in existence. Clearly he didn’t understand Kant very well. One cannot explain the world without subjects, or at the very least, that description shouldn’t literally mirror our phenomenal depiction of it.

What’s even more asinine is how petulant and hostile he was to Hegelian philosophy, when his own philosophy merely replaced Hegel’s Absolute, or Geist, with a Will. Whereas Hegel was a genius, with extreme philosophical cunning, able to piece together the necessary conclusions of his ontological foundation, and at least project some form of progress upon mankind, Schopenhauer leaves us with unconnected bits and pieces. There is no progress. There is no history. There is only misery from time immemorial.

From these ridiculous ontological certainties, Schopenhauer moves on to explain to us that women are trifling, idiotic, subspecies. The businessman is the most authentic human being. The majority of the population requires religion because they’re essentially a brain stem, without frontal lobes, and Monarchies are the NATURAL EXPRESSION of human beings (I guess he never read a history book nor inquired into an anthropological text). Freedom of the press is dangerous, and authoritative ruling is universal and ubiquitous, thus necessary, and never eradicable. Any attempts at ethical behavior is really futile, all we can do is stare at each other in recognition of our own self-torment. Every once and a while a genius may arise amongst us, but overall 99% of us most be certain that we’ll never achieve anything except the occasional brief mitigation of pure despair.

What’s really so ironic about this ontological certainty, with its barbarous conclusions, is that Schopenhauer only writes in Aphorisms and brief points. This is the guy who claims to have found the essence to all of reality, and unlike Hegel, he can’t properly systemize anything. All of his essays, on any subject, are helter skelter, scattered, internally contradictory, and fail to paint a systematic picture beyond: life sucks, then you die, ass hole.

Now I can understand why Schopenhauer held such pessimism, and he’s brave enough to point out that the world is filled with suffering, depravity, torment, and pain. The Romantic Movement was being squashed by the material and social reality of an ever growing industrializing, capitalistic, heartless, mode of production. Atomizations of the people, and fractioning of the state, were necessary results. Alienation was subsequent. The bourgeois revolutions were replacing the tyranny of 1, by the tyranny of the 1%. Fortunately Marxism, and other socialist thinkers offered the necessary optimism to Schopenhauer’s defeatist pessimism. And thus Schopenhauer sat in the dustbin of history for some time. Now with the failure of Capitalism to be surmounted, and any chance at a proper romanticism – that incorporates a diverse and flourishing natural environment – is leading Philosophers, and many readers, back to Schopenhauer. (He alleviates the readers initial guilt as being a full blown hedonist, I suspect…)This is why the man is dangerous, instead of a revival of optimism, and a good Marxist vaccination against a static view of miserable history, we get poor philosophy, terrible ontology, an incoherent ethic, and certainty in failure.
(less)

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Jun 19, 2009 Tyler rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: General Philosophy Fans

Recommended to Tyler by: I. Kant

Shelves: philosophy

Schopenhauer's salad bowl of short essays and sayings held out the prospect of an in-depth look at his philosophy of pessimism, which I was most keen to find out about. But this collection, while it contains observations that might be construed as pessimistic, doesn't advance pessimism as a carefully laid out philosophical standpoint. I was a little disappointed.

Most of what he says is a letdown. Either his remarks are a bit pedestrian or they're wildly mistaken. He advances a notion that women...more

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Oct 19, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a superb way to acquaint yourself with the basics of Schopenhauer's philosophy. The one problem is that Schopenhauer's philosophy is a system, and to read fragments of it is not going to give you a comprehensive picture of his system. For Schopenhauer, everything in the world falls smoothly into place in the grooves of his total worldview; to take little bits of his philosophy and quote them out of context is what Bryan Magee referred to once as "intellectually disastrous." Neverthe...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Harley rated it 5 of 5 stars

This Penguin edition is a smart and concise introduction to Schopenhauer's thought, collecting essays from his earlier Parerga und Paralipomena. Schopenhauer's pessimism has long seen its flurry of vilification and dispute, in due to the ineluctable contempt shown toward women in an appreciable portion of his writings. That his thoughts were marred by these fanatical prejudices proves unfortunately a relative discrepancy in his philosophical handle, which, notwithstanding the isolate shallowness...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Greg Linster rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book full of essays and aphorisms (as the title alludes to). I agreed with a lot of Schopenhauer's philosophical points, dark and unpleasant as some of them may be. Schopenhauer wrote with a unique brand of pessimism, but much of what he wrote is astonishingly clear compared to other German philosophers. It's interesting to note that Schopenhauer believed reading history of any kind was unnecessary.

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Sep 20, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

I checked out Arthur Schopenhauer’s Essays and Aphorisms, because I am a fan of aphorisms, which are like compact little essays. I am guessing that Schopenhauer’s disciple Nietzsche acquired this habit from his master. Schopenhauer’s pessimistic view of humanity seemed to sit well with me, for some reason, as I was reading it a few weeks back. There’s an excellent introduction by R.J. Hollingdale that gives insight into the life of Schopenhauer and how his character and personality affected his...more

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Jun 25, 2007 Stuart Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: judgemental types

"if you really want to know how you feel about someone, see what impression you get when an unexpected letter from them ends up on your doormat." that was one of the first difficult things i ever understood and i remember understanding it the last month of high school waiting for everyone to get out of gym (which id have to take in summer school) so we could go get high.

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Apr 17, 2010 Dia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Schopenhauer is above all a wit, secondly a seeker, thirdly a dilettante, and least of all (but still) a misanthrope. He's like what would happen if Oscar Wilde were straight (perhaps closeted), jealous, and had read Kant. Just when you think Schopenhauer has forsaken anyone who is not he or his few idols, he arrives with a paragraph in passionate defense of animals, or a diatribe against slavery that betrays his deep identification with those who have been most crushed and ground into the earth...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Ruhat alp rated it 3 of 5 stars

Almanların filozof küçük Emrah'ı: Schopenhaur.entel acıların çocuğu.Düşünceleriyle nietzsche garibini de etkilemiş ve onun hayattan soğumasına neden olmuş filozof.Bence Schopenhaur'in pesimist,karamsar felsefesi derinlikten yoksun ama Nietzsche'de bu derinlik var.
Aşağıdaki sözleri çok iddialı:
"Şu dünyayı Tanrı yarattıysa, onun yerinde olmak istemem doğrusu. Çünkü, dünyanın sefaleti yüreğimi parçalar.Yaratıcı bir ruh düşünülürse, yarattığı şeyi göstererek ona şöyle bağırmak hakkımızdır: "bunca mu...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Andreea Obreja rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: german-literature, non-fiction, read-in-romanian

"Schopenhauer este filosoful pesimismului.", spune Titu Maiorescu (cel care a tradus in romana), deci nu va asteptati sa gasiti secretul fericirii. Sau poate doar putin. Daca vei deveni omul pe care il descrie el drept cel mai fericit si crezand ca asa vei fi fericit => vei fi fericit. Simple as that :). Pe mine m-a linistit foarte mult sa-l citesc. Nu e totuol ingrozitor de pesimist, se vede ca avea zile bune si rele.
Nu spun ca sunt de acord cu tot ce am citat aici, doar ca vreau sa-mi amint...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy

Schopenhauer is the precursor to the existential philosophers, and his influence can be read in Kierkegaard and especially Nietzsche. His work is bold and even arrogant. His thoughts on women are at once embarrassingly backward (even for his time) and surprisingly progressive (especially his ideas about prostitution). But it is for his originality, his synthesis of Kant and Buddhism, his incisive observations, and his masterly style (which comes through well in this translation) that he is recog...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Kyle York rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't agree with most of Schopenhauer's metaphysics, but it doesn't mean I didn't find it to be both interesting and artistically sublime. This book, however, while spending a little time on Schopenhauer 's metaphysical beliefs, covers a whole span of his opinions on topics from politics and religion to aesthetics and suicide.

Schopenhauer is not only an original thinker, but a vivid and powerful writer. He has a gift for imagery and metaphor, as well as for using ordinary language to explain...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Aghyan Alzuabi rated it 5 of 5 stars

An Excellent introduction into Schopenhauer's philosophy and style of writing.

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Aug 01, 2012 Roy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps to some dismay, it is truly amazing how much my views are in line with Schopenhauer. I am also struck by the clarity of his writings despite the fact that he wrote over a 150 years ago. The essays that have left strong impressions in my mind are:

"On the Sufferings of the World"
"On the Vanity of Existence"
"Psychological Observations"
"Of Women"
"A Few Parables"

There are many jewels in these essays that I'm sure will enlighten today's contemplating souls. Because of these essays, I intend...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Yasiru rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy-and-psychology

It was a satisfying point of curiosity to discover recently that Samuel Beckett had found something in the works of Voltaire and Schopenhauer as I felt I did when first I came to read them. Maybe this is why Beckett's work affects me the way it does, fitting into a larger, allusive scheme of thought- one where an honest confrontation of man's condition precedes the supposition of solutions, much less their pursuit.

Perhaps for this very reason, pretentious Hegelians and discomfited Marxists are e...more It was a satisfying point of curiosity to discover recently that Samuel Beckett had found something in the works of Voltaire and Schopenhauer as I felt I did when first I came to read them. Maybe this is why Beckett's work affects me the way it does, fitting into a larger, allusive scheme of thought- one where an honest confrontation of man's condition precedes the supposition of solutions, much less their pursuit.

Perhaps for this very reason, pretentious Hegelians and discomfited Marxists are ever vigilant in their attempts to deride and suppress the likes of Arthur Schopenhauer (of course, in this preoccupation of theirs, the most significant threat to their elaborate handwaving-based political philosophical models came from an entirely unforeseen direction- in the writings of Karl Popper whose central contributions were to the philosophy of science; and of course, these battles are, at least at first, far removed from the pragmatic, money-making endeavour that is politics, and their victors are assimilated by the mechanism rather than given a chance at replacing it). The trouble with reactionary philosophies like these is that they tend to suffer an inferiority complex where their proponents favour any means, including obscurantism and jargon-peddling, to make the best possible case for themselves. Doing so naturally taxes them to the point where they fall back and withdraw deeper into their resentment and drift into irrelevance, albeit with vehement denials, like a failed numerical iteration (an odd metaphor you might think, but an unwittingly-diverging Newton-Raphson process is a natural enough image, try as I might to avoid this different kind of jargon).

While Schopenhauer is not widely read today (aside from his aphorisms), it occurred to me how central a figure he is in the history of philosophy in terms of influence as I attempted elsewhere to identify the most preeminent foundation stones of our culture. Schopenhauer's is an extremely distilled and far-reaching form of idealism, giving primacy to his conception of the 'will' as the Kantian 'thing-in-itself' and exploring the futile consequences of this will upon the world. His pessimism is likely the best known thing about him, but most treatments do not give this aspect of his thought the care it deserves and makes it seem at once overbearing and not as insidious as the man conceived it. It's best then to read Schopenhauer's own words, especially since his clarity of expression and powers of wit make this venture as enjoyable as it is instructive. In particular his critiques of Kant and (far less favourably) Hegel (an interesting meditation is on what separates Hobbes and Hegel, whose motivations might be said to have been much alike), are some of the most thoughtful and consequential responses to their philosophies even when Schopenhauer is being acerbic and bordering on arrogance.

Certainly, Schopenhauer has been read by many in the past whose deft mental hands have worked to mould and shape society and human thought- from Nietzsche and through him carrying on in subtle currents to Heidegger and others (phenomenologists and existentialists), to Wagner with his seminal achievements in opera, to the Modernists (including their benefactors such as Baudelaire and Yeats) and perhaps most significantly of all, to the psychologists. In this last case, not only do Schopenhauer's thoughts transmit and resonate through Freud and his contemporaries and successors, they also anticipate in methodology the analyses of evolutionary psychology and biology-informed thinking (see The Selfish Gene for instance) today gaining ground and are often robust, modern and empirical to an impressive degree.

A point of personal interest to me as a Buddhist, is that whatever the extent of his influence from the teaching (or lack thereof), the parallels (as well as the fine points of departure) between the philosophy of will espoused by Schopenhauer (including the attendant ethics, admirable in its foresighted compassion, and even the psychological bent of his work) and Buddhism is also striking. That this comparison is natural presents Schopenhauer as a significant, liberating cog in the history of Western philosophy much like Socrates and Kant, helping to open up its prospects beyond the monolithic shadow cast by Abrahamic religion as it breathes down the neck of thought and venture.

Finally, it seems almost every reviewer here has felt the need to fidget and distance themselves in the clearest terms from Schopenhauer's views on women, but here again, the man's own words are more nuanced than hearsay of impressions suggest. He is an observer here as steadily as he is elsewhere (but perhaps this becomes a limitation in this essay, considering the doubts he was apt to place on rational hegemonies), and his essay's blunt declarations and oddly timed concessions are one or the other obscured when coming to it with some stern ideological inclination. Read as a rebuttal of (the then-) modern man's romantic 'granting' of certain rights and freedoms to his complementary sex without working to also change societal expectations from the genders, and the imbalances this precipitates, Schopenhauer sounds almost as feminist as Simone de Beauvoire does with her notion of a female needing to 'become a woman' rather than taking the fact, the way modern feminists often and easily do, as is.

The World as Will and Representation, though necessarily heavier, is a definite read if you enjoyed this and are interested in learning more in a less disconnected fashion, built from the ground up. Schopenhauer's witty style ought to help cope.

Here is the entry for Schopenhauer at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sch...(less)

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Jun 18, 2011 Anthony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books, books-i-own, philosophy

Arthur Schopenhauer's "Essays and Aphorisms" are excerpts taken from his second book "Parerga and Paralipomena." Schopenhauer writes in a clear, concise, and surprisingly very easy to read (especially as compared to his contemporaries such as the convoluted and complex Hegel) prose which was an obvious influence on latter German philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche. In "Essays and Aphorisms" Schopenhauer expostulates on a variety of different subjects ranging from his controversial viewpoint...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Schopenhauer more than I expected. For the eccentric Arthur things in life were generally fairly dour and tough with occasional light interludes. His misogyny was of its time, but his pessimistic outlook was a pioneering response to the prevailing view of optimism and improvement that came to dominate the 19th century. The anti-vivisection and animal rights passages were also way ahead of their time; some of his views on science, however, now look a bit odd.

He wrote extremely well and...more

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Feb 17, 2008 matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: wisdom-philosophical-investigatons, existentialism

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Some deep thoughts, maaaan....

"Our existence has no foundation on which to rest except the transient present. Thus its form is essentially unceacing motion, without any possibility of that repose which we continually strive after. It resembles the course of a man running down a mountain who would fall over if he tried to stop and can stay on his feet only by running on; or a pole balanced on the tip of the finger; or a planet which would fall into its sun if it ever ceased tp lunge irresistably...more
Some deep thoughts, maaaan....

"Our existence has no foundation on which to rest except the transient present. Thus its form is essentially unceacing motion, without any possibility of that repose which we continually strive after. It resembles the course of a man running down a mountain who would fall over if he tried to stop and can stay on his feet only by running on; or a pole balanced on the tip of the finger; or a planet which would fall into its sun if it ever ceased tp lunge irresistably forward. Thus existence is typified by unrest."

"The more clearly you become conscious of the frailty, vanity and dream-like quality of all things, the more clearly will you also become conscious of the eternity of your own inner being; because it is only in contrast to this that the aforesaid quality of things becomes evident, just as you percieve the speed at which a swhip is going only when looking at the motionless shore, not when looking at the ship itself."

"Music is the true universal language which is understood everywhere, so that it is ceaselessly spoken in all countries and throughout all the centuries with great zeal and earnestness, and a significant melody which says a great deal soon makes its way round the entire earth, while one poor in meaning which says nothing straightaway fades and dies; which proves that the content of a melody is very well understandable. Yet music speaks not of things but of pure weal and woe, which are the only realities for the will: that is why it speaks so much to the heart, while it has nothing to say directly to the head and it is a misuse of it to demand that it should do so, as happens in all pictorial music, which is consequently once and for all objectionable.....for expression of the passions is one thing, depiction of things another."

"Instead of trying to show that the works of nature and of the art-impulse demonstrate the wisdom of God...one should learn from them that everything which comes about through the medium of the idea, that is to say of the intellect, even though this intellect is mere bungling compared with what proceeds directly from the will as a thing in itself and is not communicated through an idea, of which the works of nature are an instance."(less)

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Mar 10, 2010 Matthew W rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Essays and Aphorisms" is my introduction to Schopenhauer, an introduction that has led me to decide that I will have to read all of the Dutch-German philosopher's works. Schopenhauer was a major influence on Nietzsche, but I am now wondering if in this case the teacher was more brilliant and important than the student....

Of course, Schopenhauer also influenced the likes of Jung, Wittgenstein, Wagner, and Weininger, among others...Enuff said..

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Mar 05, 2010 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book. For the quality of his writing alone, Schopenhauer is worth reading. He is quite possibly the most pessimistic human being to ever live, and he outlines his philosophy in concise, witty prose.

His philosophy itself is worth considering, but it seems to have been torn apart and brought to completion by Nietzsche.

Highly recommended.

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Jan 08, 2012 David S. T. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, philosophy, read-in-2011

The two people I found most interesting in Durant's Story of Philosophy were Schopenhauer and Spinoza. Reading Spinoza kind of scares me so I decided to read Schopenhauer first. I don't really know very much about philosophy and don't know the correct way to approach these texts. For the most part I don't see the world the same way as him, he's far too negative, but I do find his writing interesting. He's also extremely sexist or perhaps just plain anti female, I'd sometimes show his anti women...more

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Mar 31, 2013 S.J. Pettersson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: worn-spines

Schopenhauer was a fascinating man. On one hand he advocated the futility of life, and on the other hand he refused to live in an apartment higher than the ground floor out of a morbid fear of dying in a fire. Schrödinger had a cat and Schopenhauer a poodle. Unfortunately we don't know the breed of Pavlov's dog.

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Jun 10, 2012 Daniel Dunn rated it 5 of 5 stars

19th century western philosophy is usually sad and quirky. Schopenhauer is no exception. This collection of short essays and aphorisms is nothing short of clever. Schopenhauer's wit sometimes makes you forget just how dreadful he's made the world out to be.

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Oct 07, 2009 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: haveread

I read this book because one of my 8th-grade math students was from Russia and she was fascinated with this author. So I read the book so that I could understand her a bit better. Way too deep for me, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying a new genre.

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Jul 22, 2010 Daniel Toker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy

Loved his metaphysics and epistemology, and especially enjoyed his writing style, but I disliked just about everything else (including the man himself).

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Jul 04, 2011 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

I named our cat after the man. The famous pessimist didn't do any wrong in our cat who lived a great many years.

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Jan 19, 2009 James Beezhold added it

While I don't agree with his views on women on the whole I found his methods of argumentation very helpful.

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Jan 15, 2013 Alexandra Kollaros rated it 5 of 5 stars

Keeps you enthusiastically saying "YES, YES" every couple of pages, if you are this kind of person.

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About Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer 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.

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“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if hes does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” — 284 people liked it

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” — 80 people liked it

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