Philosophy Book
Chapter Twenty Four: Arthur Schopenhauer
Brief Biography of Arthur Schopenhauer: Summary of Ideas, Portrait & Quotes
This webpage contains a brief overview of the recently published
book 'Philosophical Sketches'. Below you will find a short Chapter summary
on Arthur Schopenhauer, the book cover and back page text, links to other book chapters,
and introduction. You can buy this book online at our Cafepress Philosophy
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Chapter
Twenty Four: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher. He is most famous
for his work The World as Will and Representation. He is
commonly known for having espoused a sort of philosophical pessimism that saw
life as being essentially
evil and futile, but rather, upon closer inspection, influenced by Eastern
thought, he saw hope in aesthetics, sympathy for others and ascetic living.
His ideas profoundly influenced the fields of philosophy, psychology, and literature.
Schopenhauer's starting point was Kant's division of the universe into phenomenon
and noumenon, claiming that the noumenon was Will and the most important since
it is the inner content and the driving force of the world. (The noumenon was
what Kant called the Ding an Sich, the "Thing in Itself", the reality
that exists outside of, and the foundation of, our sensory and mental representations
of an external world.) For Schopenhauer, human will had ontological primacy
over the intellect; in other words, desire is understood to be prior to thought,
and, in a parallel sense, "will" is said to be prior to "being".
... In The World as Will and Idea, Schopenhauer posited that humans living
in the realm of objects
are living in the realm of desire, and thus are eternally tormented by that
desire (his idea of the role of desire in life is similar to that of Vedanta-Hinduism
and Buddhism, Schopenhauer draws attention to these similarities himself).
... (see book for more)
The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but
to think what no body yet has thought about that which everyone sees. … But
life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
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.
My guiding star in all seriousness has been truth. Following
it, I could first aspire only to my own approval, entirely averted from an
age
that has sunk
low as regards all higher intellectual efforts, and from a national literature
demoralised but for the exceptions, a literature in which the art of combining
lofty words with low sentiments has reached its zenith.
All truth passes through
three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third,
it is accepted as being self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer)
A lively and concise journey through the central
ideas of thirty famous philosophers. From ancient Indian, Greek and Chinese
Philosophy to modern Western Philosophy, this book explores the changing foundations
of human knowledge and their effect on how we think and live.
Includes full page portraits, brief biographies and selected quotes from some
of the greatest minds of human history on the universal subjects of Truth,
Reality, Nature, Cosmos, Wisdom, Morality, Mind, Education, Politics, Art,
Religion & God.
Written for the lay person, while remaining true to the original ideas, this
is an engaging account of the Metaphysical foundations of Philosophy that is
both illuminating and thought provoking. (Cover Photograph: Plato & Aristotle
- The School of Athens by Raphael)
Philosophy Book
Philosophical Sketches: Chapter Headings & Content Summary
Publisher / Online Bookstore Details
Space
and Motion Publications
Online print on demand publishers of books on;
Philosophy, Physics, Metaphysics, Truth, Reality, Evolution, Ecology, Nature,
Education, Politics, Fine Art, Erotic Art, Nature, Cosmos, Wisdom, Morality,
Mind, Religion & God.
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/books/online-book-publishing.htm
Related Pages: Arthur Schopenhauer
We also have a nice philosophy web page on Arthur Schopenhauer;
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Arthur-Schopenhauer-Philosopher.htm
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"When
forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time
and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter. ... Physical
objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended.
In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning. ... The particle
can only appear as a limited region in space in which the field strength or
the energy density are particularly high. ...
