Representing Arthur Schopenhauer

source: Philosophical Overdose    2016年11月25日
Grant Bartley from Philosophy Now discusses the ideas of the 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer with Christopher Janaway of the University of Southampton and Daniel Came of St Hugh’s College, Oxford on Philosophy Now Radio Podcast https://philosophynow.org

Arthur Schopenhauer is perhaps most famous for his extreme pessimism. Seeing the world as something horrific and bleak, following in part from our drives/desires, he urged that we turn against such. As a follower of Immanuel Kant, he took space, time, and causality to be, not things-in-themselves, but categories of the mind through which we interpret and make sense of things. However, in contrast to Kant, Schopenhauer argued that reality must ultimately be one, which is essentially "Will". There are several remarkable things about him, including the fact that he was the only major Western philosopher to draw serious and interesting parallels between Western and Eastern thought, as well as being the first major philosopher to openly identify as an atheist. He had a significant influence on many great thinkers and artists, including Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein, and Wagner. The arts were particularly important for Schopenhauer not only because he thought they give us a glimpse into the underlying reality, but because they help us to escape our individuality and thus the inherent suffering and meaningless absurdity of existence.