Arthur Schopenhauer

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Dans la Métaphysique de l'amour, Schopenhauer se livre par ailleurs, à une véritable " psychologie des désirs » ; en essayant de montrer dans quelle mesure "les choix" (d'ordre indissociablement physique et psychique) qui nous poussent vers tel être et pas tel autre témoignent de ce vouloir-vivre qui cherche dans autrui, non pas "le meilleur amant", mais "le meilleur reproducteur", Schopenhauer tend à nous révéler que ce qui parle en nous dans pareil cas, ce n'est pas tant "l'esprit" mais "l'instinct". Le Vouloir, comprenons-le bien, ne cherche pas à se re-produire purement et simplement, mais il tend, au fil des générations, à le faire avec "la meilleure constitution possible", bien que cette "meilleure constitution" il n'en ait pas la moindre "représentation". Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) est un philosophe allemand, il se réfère à Platon, se place en unique héritier légitime de Kant, et se démarque surtout ouvertement des post-kantiens de son époque; en effet, dès que l'occasion se présente, il critique férocement non seulement les personnalités - de façon souvent " comique » par l'outrance de ses imprécations et de ses " insultes » - mais aussi et surtout les idées de Fichte, Hegel et Schelling, philosophes qu'il exclut non seulement de la filiation de la philosophie kantienne en arguant de leur incompréhension de celle-ci mais aussi, parfois, purement et simplement, de la philosophie.

A collection of the later writings of Arthur Schopenhauer whose “reputation as the bard of pessimism makes him the perfect philosopher for the Covid era” (New York Times). Schopenhauer’s writings tap into the anxieties of our modern, uncertain world—from climate change and mental health crises to the threat of mass extinction. Produced during the last decades of Schopenhauer’s long life, these texts reveal a unique kind of philosophy. Eschewing the tradition of the dry, totalizing philosophy prevalent during his time, Schopenhauer’s later writings mark a shift towards a philosophy of aphorisms, fragments, anecdotes, and observations—written in a literary style that is antagonistic, resigned, confessional, and filled with the fragile contours of an intellectual memoir. Here, Schopenhauer allows himself to pose challenging questions regarding the fate of the human species, the role of suffering, and the rift between self and world that has come to define human existence. It is these writings that later generations of artists, poets, musicians, and philosophers would identify as exemplifying the pessimism of their era, and perhaps of our own as well. On the Suffering of the World is presented with an introduction that places Schopenhauer’s thought in its intellectual context, while also connecting it to contemporary concerns over climate change, the anthropocene, and the specter of human extinction. Also featuring an overview Schopenhauer’s work and life, this collection is a fascinating look inside the mind of a unique thinker.

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This volume of translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will and Representation. In On the Fourfold Root he takes the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing is without a reason why it is, and shows how it covers different forms of explanation or ground that previous philosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wrote as his doctoral dissertation, as an essential preliminary to The World as Will. On Will in Nature examines contemporary scientific findings in search of corroboration of his thesis that processes in nature are all a species of striving towards ends; and On Vision and Colours defends an anti-Newtonian account of colour perception influenced by Goethe's famous colour theory. This is the first English edition to provide extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of these works.

With the publication of the Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851, there finally came some measure of the fame that Schopenhauer thought was his due. Described by Schopenhauer himself as 'incomparably more popular than everything up till now', the Parerga is a miscellany of essays addressing themes that complement his work The World as Will and Representation, along with more divergent, speculative pieces. It includes his 'Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life', reflections on fate and clairvoyance, trenchant views on the philosophers and universities of his day, and an enlightening survey of the history of philosophy. The present volume offers a new translation, a substantial introduction explaining the context of the essays, and extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of the work. This readable and scholarly edition will be an essential reference for those studying Schopenhauer, the history of philosophy, and nineteenth-century German philosophy.

A leading German metaphysician of the 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) exerted an influence far beyond the hermetic world of philosophy, with adherents ranging from Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche to Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Mann. Among Schopenhauer's chief contributions to the field of philosophy are his rejection of the idealism of his contemporaries and his embrace of a practical variety of materialism. He jettisons the traditional philosophic jargon for a brisk, compelling style that employs direct terms to express the metaphysics of the will. In The Wisdom of Life, an essay from Schopenhauer's final work, Parerga und Paralipomena (1851), the philosopher favors individual strength of will and independent, reasoned deliberation over the tendency to act on irrational impulses. He examines the ways in which life can be arranged to derive the highest degree of pleasure and success, presents guidelines to achieving this full and rich manner of living, and advises that even a life well lived must always aspire to grander heights. Abounding in subjects of enduring relevance, Schopenhauer's highly readable work appears here in an excellent translation.

Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung is one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century, the basic statement of one important stream of post-Kantian thought. It is without question Schopenhauer's greatest work, and, conceived and published before the philosopher was 30 and expanded 25 years later, it is the summation of a lifetime of thought. For 70 years, the only unabridged English translation of this work was the Haldane-Kemp collaboration. In 1958, a new translation by E. F. J. Payne appeared which decisively supplanted the older one. Payne's translation is superior because it corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in the Haldane-Kemp translation, and it is based on the definitive 1937 German edition of Schopenhauer's work prepared by Dr. Arthur Hübscher. Payne's edition is the first to translate into English the text's many quotatioins in half a dozen languages, and Mr. Payne has provided a comprehensive index of 2,500 items. It is thus the most useful edition for the student or teacher.

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