Arthur Schopenhauer

Born: 1788

Died: 1860, at the cheerful age of 72

Country of origin: Germany (Actually Poland/Prussia/Germany)

• Areas of focus:       Irrationality, Pessimism, Aesthetics, Mysticism
  
  
• Some of Schopenhauer's influences:       Immanuel Kant, The Hindu Upanishads,
  
  
• Contemporary Philosophers:       Hegel, Johann Fichte,
  
  
• Major Books written by Schopenhauer:
  
  
  • "The World as Will and Idea" (1819)
    
  • "On the Will in Nature" (1836) (The preface is famous for its ridicule of Hegel)
    
  • "On Freedom of the Will" (1839)
    
  • "On the Basis of Morality" (1840)
    
  • "Ornaments and Omissions" (1851)
    
  • On Women
    
  
  
• Cocktail summary of Schopenhauer's main ideas:
  
  
  Schopenhauer was the grumpy old man of Philosophy, and probably one of the most scariest-looking. He is famous for hating Hegel's guts, for his grumpy, misogynistic views, and for his loudly anti-Rational arguments. But his ideas were also a significant forerunner of the later ideas of Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud, and modern "greed is good" theories of Economics.
  
  Schopenhauer argued against the prevailing Rationalism of his time, which was epitomised by Hegel and his famous arguments that pure ideas are the driving force behind all of history. Hegel's glorified Enlightenment ideals argued that the march of history is an interplay of opposing ideas, which eventually merge into a final synthesis of opposing forces. Schopenhaur argued that Hegel was nuts, and instead argued that all of life and all of history is guided not by Reason nor by pure Idea, but by a much more subliminal, instinctive drive he called "The Will".
  
  Existing as a subconscious force of survival and amoral, insatiable desire, The Will guides all human instincts and the flow of human history, not the abstract interplay of rational arguments. The Will - Desire - drives human decisions, not the rational mind. This brooding Will is amoral, not subject to Ethical arguments for or against its actions.
  
  Since Schopenhauer hated the very ground that Hegel walked on, he looked back to Immanuel Kant and began his arguments by referring to Kant's division of all experience into 2 distinct realms of knowledge: Phenomemon (physical sensations) and Noumenon (everything else, like Art, Religion, and Ethics). But Schopenhauer identified the Noumenon as The Will, and argued that this was primary over Phenomenon, and was the driving force of all human experience. The Will was stronger than the Intellect, with the Will steering the Intellect like a dog with a flea on its head: the flea has no more control over the dog than the Intellect has over The Will.
  
  The Grumpy One also considered Desire to be the primary mechanism of The Will, and all humans are enslaved to it. He therefore found solace in Eastern Mysticism, with its emphasis on escaping the cycle of Desire and Rebirth, which Schopenhauer saw as an echo of his ideas. His favorite source for Eastern thinking was in the Hindu collection of philosophical observations, the Upanishads.
  
  Schopenhauer considered Art as a more noble pursuit than Philosophy, since only Art is strong enough to distract humans from their torment by Desire. Philosophy actually draws attention to it. He argued that Tragedy was the most profound theme in all literature, since this reflected humanity's true conflict with The Will. Of all the Arts, Schopenhauer considered Music to be the most powerful, since it depends on no medium to represent its profound effects, communicating through pure sound. The purpose of Art, according to Mr. Happy, was to allow people to medidate on the Unity of all existence, another theme found in Eastern Mysticism.
  
  Darwin would later develop some of Schopenhauer ideas and apply them to his "Survival of the Fittest" theories. Nietzsche would echo this basic idea in his arguments that strong men in any society had the right to grab power and were immune from any moralizing, with religion serving as little more than a balm for the losers. And Freud eventually placed the source of the Will in the subconscious human mind and named it "The Id". Modern economic theories like "The Selfish Gene" idea have their roots in Schopenhauer's idea of The Will driving all of history, like a dark, brooding spirit from below.
  
  Schopenhauer was well-known for things he hated, like Hegel, and Jews, and women, writing long rants against all of them. He famously quarreled with his mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, who was a successful writer and a popular member of high-society, which her grumpy son disapproved of. Schopenhauer was not known for his charm. Not surprisingly, he never married, which made him even more grumpy. But, despite his perpetual scowl, his ideas took on a life of their own and became the seeds of the arguments used by modern political ideologues that self-interest is the primary motivating force of all organisms, biological, political, and economic, with little responsibilities to any Ethical guidelines.
  
  Schopenhauer was probably the first Western Philosopher to seriously make use of Eastern Mysticism, which was perhaps natural, given the fact that the reaction against Rationalism was strong in both Philosophy and the Romantic movement in the Arts at the time. He loved the Hindu Upanishads, with its descriptions of the underlying unity of all truths, unlike that bum Hegel who saw all oppositions as real in their antithesis, interplaying with each other to achieve some future unity, and not recognizing the unity which already exists.
  
  
• Schopenhauer praised & criticized:
  
  
  • Schopenhauer is an example of a historical figure with prophetic ideas, but someone with whom almost no one would want to be friends with. His ideas are often grudgingly accepted as insightful, inspiring many later thinkers who applied similar ideas in a wide range of disciplines. His use of Eastern Mysticism in Western Philosophy foreshadowed later Transcendental movements and Existentialist trends in the 20th century. He is usually criticized for his misogynistic and anti-Semitic views, and his verbal attacks on Hegel are humorous in their sarcasm, but these aspects of his personality are perhaps to be expected, given his dark and pessimistic outlook on life. Schopenhauer is to the foundation of modern Philosophy's anti-Rationalistic bias as Freud is to the darker aspects of modern Psychology and the Id.
  
  
• Notable Facts about Arthur Schopenhauer:
  
  
  • Religious affiliation:
    Schopenhauer was an Atheist, through and through. He considered religion, and Christianity in particular, to be a rash on the skin of history, and had almost nothing nice to say about it. God was the furthest thing from his interest, and he called the 12 Apostles the "12 Philistines from Jerusalem". His only real devotions in life were to the philosophical observations of Hinduism and, perhaps, Art. He supposedly read from the Upanishads every night before going to bed.
    
    
  • Schopenhauer was a bit paranoid, supposedly always sleeping with loaded guns under his pillow. Never trust a Philosopher...
    
    
  • Schopenhauer's mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, was a successful author and was a popular member of literary circles in Weimar. She was quite chummy with the German poet Goethe, with whom Arthur also struck up a friendship for a while (probably one of the very few friends he ever had). But Arthur disapproved of his mother's "frivolous" lifestyle and quarreled with her often.
    
    
  • Goethe saw potential in the boy and told his mother that her son had the potential for genius. But Johanna Schopenhauer believed that there was only room for one genius in any family, and she was already sitting in that chair. This didn't help warm the already dysfunctional mother-son relationship in the Schopenhauer household.
    
    
  • As an example of the loss of love between mother and son, Arthur's mother once wrote this in a letter to her son: "... you yourself have torn yourself away from me; your mistrust, your criticism of my life, of my choice of friends, your desultory behavior towards me, your contempt for my sex, your greed, your moods...". They would have been ideal guests on the Dr. Phil show.
    
    
  • His father committed suicide in 1805, when Arthur was 17, by jumping off the roof of the family business. This didn't help cheer up Arthur's already growing pessimism.
    
    
  • While a student at University in Berlin, Schopenhauer studied for a while under the German Philosopher Johann Fichte in 1811, but became disillusioned by his transcendental idealism and obscure observations. He much preferred Kant, and once said "There is no Kantian-Fichtean philosophy: there is Kantian philosophy and there is Fichtean humbug."
    
    
  • He had a poodle named Atma, which he named after the universal spirit described in Hinduism.
    
    
  • Arthur's interest in Eastern Mysticism stemmed more from his admiration for ascetic renunciation than from any search for spiritual enlightenment. Arthur had nothing but disdain for religion, but he thought that the life of the ascetic monk was a refuge from the ravagings of The Will.
    
    
  • For some reason, the copy of the Upanishads that Schopenhauer read was called the Oupnekhat.
    
    
  • Arthur wanted to get married throughout his life, but he never did. Perhaps his grouchy written diatribes against women had something to do with it...?
    
    
  • He did have a girlfriend for a while, a 19-year old actress named Caroline Medon. (He was 32). But he soon learned that she had other "admirers" whom she had no intention of letting go of. Arthur offered to pay her money to drop them all, but she turned him down. So they broke up, but he included her in his Last Will and Testament when he died.
    
    
  • Lord Byron even contributed to Arthur's bad luck with women. While on a trip to Venice, Arthur managed to find a woman who was interested in him, and he was actually intending on meeting Lord Byron who was living there at the time. But one day the dashing poet rode past him on a horse on the streets of Venice, causing Arthur's woman to swoon in ecstasy at the site of the dreamy poet, causing Arthur to seethe in grumpy jealousy, and swore off meeting the woman-stealing poet forever.
    
    
  • Schopenhauer taught Philosophy for a while in Berlin, and gave his lectures at the exact same time that Hegel gave his, to try and siphon students away from Hegel, but almost no one attended Arthur's lectures - so enraptured was the public by Hegel's celebrity. This only added to the loss of love between Arthur and Hegel.
    
    
  • When a cholera epidemic spread through Berlin in 1831 Schopenhauer fled, but it killed Hegel. This wasn't what Arthur had in mind when he wanted to destroy Hegel's ideas, but he didn't send Hegel's family a condolence-card.
    
    
  • Schopenhauer spent most of his life in distinct obscurity, with almost no one buying his books. He hardly ever got any respect, with one of his publishers even throwing all of his unsold books into a pulp-grinder to get some use out of their investment in his dust-collecting books. He spent most of his adult life reading, walking his poodle, and muttering to himself about the evil ways of the world. It wasn't until he was in his mid 60's that people began to take notice of his books, leading to a few short years of holding court amongst people who finally recognized his self-proclaimed genius.
    
    
  • Schopenhauer died of a "lung hemmorage" on Sept. 21, 1860. All of that hot air was probably too much for his lungs to support in the end.
    
    
• Quotes:
  
  
  • "The world is my idea".
    
    
  • "Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax".
    
    
  • "We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness."
    
    
  • "This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings."
    
    
  • "The less a man is forced to come into contact with others, the better off he is."
    
    
  • "There is in the world only the choice between loneliness and vulgarity."
    
    
  • "Many learned persons have read themselves stupid."
    
    
  • "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control".
    
    
  • "Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."
    
    
  • "With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy."
    
    
  • "Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in particular; it is an abstract satisfaction of all."
    
    
  • "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident".
    
    
  • "Theism is incompatible with the responsibility of a moral being because in Theism responsibility always falls back on the Creator of that being".
    
    
  • "The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity."
    
    
  • "For the incredibly great majority of men are by their nature absolutely incapable of any but material aims; they cannot even comprehend any others. Accordingly, the pursuit of truth alone is a pursuit far too lofty and eccentric for us to expect that all or many, or indeed even a mere few, will sincerely take part in it".
    
    
  • "It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are".
    
    
  • " We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people".
    
    
  • "Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favours".
    
    
  • "Ordinary people merely think how they shall spend their time; a man of talent tries to use it".
    
    
  • "The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself, the happier he will be... The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind."
    
    
  • "The work of genius may be music, philosophy, painting, or poetry; it is nothing for use or profit. To be useless and unprofitable is one of the characteristics of genius; it is their patent of nobility."
    
    
  • "In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. They are destined sooner or later to become the faith of the people."
    
    
  • "In India, our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought."
    
    
  • Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes".
    
    
  • Some of Schopenhauer's enlightened views on women:
    
    
    • "Woman is by nature meant to obey".
      
      
    • "Dissimulation (deception) is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever".
      
      
    • "The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men... and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious."
      
      
    • "To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties".
      
      
    • "Only a male intellect clouded by sexual desire could call this stunted, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged sex the fair sex". (And Arthur wondered why he got so few dates....)
      
      
  • Some of Schopenhauer's kind words about his best buddy, Hegel:
    
    
    • Hegel was "a flat-headed illiterate charlatan!"
      
      
    • Hegel displayed "the impudence of a scribbler of nonsense!"
      
      
    • "The height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had been only previously known in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most barefaced, general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, as a monument to German stupidity." (Ouch...)
      
      
    • "If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right." (In other words, Hegel sucks.)
      
      
• Other stuff going on during Schopenhauer's life:
  
  
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