Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788–1860)

Arthur Schopenhauer has been eclipsed in the history of philosophy by “the three evil geniuses of the nineteenth century,” as Albert Camus called G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Schopenhauer is rarely studied as an independent figure: The usual treatment is to consider him as an antipode to Hegel or as a precursor of Nietzsche, or as a Kantian (all three of which are partial truths). This oversight is far less common in Germany, where Schopenhauer is regarded not only as worthy of independent study but also as one of the nation's greatest philosophers; during the postwar period in Germany, he was widely held to be a greater thinker than Nietzsche.

Schopenhauer was born in Danzig on February 22, 1788, to Heinrich F. Schopenhauer, a wealthy merchant, and his wife Johanna, an exceptionally well-educated and renowned novelist. Schopenhauer studied medicine at the University of Göttingen, where he became acquainted with the writings of Plato and notably Kant, two authors who powerfully influenced his own ideas. Schopenhauer first became a philosopher in Göttingen, but in 1811 he left there for the University of Berlin, the newly founded hub of philosophy for the entire nation. He attended lectures by Johann Fichte and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Schopenhauer was impressed by neither, and the former became one of his most frequent objects of attack. In his eyes, Hegel was a “clumsy charlatan,” Fichte a “sophist” of “chicanery and nothing else … humbug”; they existed miserably among many unnamed “Hegelians and other ignoramuses.”

When Napoleon's troops shut down the University of Berlin in 1812, Schopenhauer withdrew to Rudolstadt (in Thiiringia) and independently wrote his thesis, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (published in 1813), which earned him a degree from the University of Jena. His idea of time may be found in its earliest formulation in his thesis. During this period, he also met Wolfgang von Goethe and conversed with that polymath concerning Goethe's recently published theory of color and vision. While in Weimar and its vicinity, he also met the Orientalist F. Mayer, who alerted him to the philosophy of ancient India. Schopenhauer found a Latin translation of the Upanishads soon afterward. Schopenhauer left the area around Weimar for Dresden, where he lived for 4 years. In Dresden he studied Indian philosophy and wrote the first version of his most famous work, The World as Will and Representation, which was published the next year. In this grand production, Schopenhauer's erudition encompassed Hinduism, Buddhism, the Roman and Greek classics, and much more, also reflecting a long-running interest in natural science.

When the cholera epidemic of 1831 swept through Berlin, killing Hegel among many others, Schopenhauer left for the university town of Frankfurtam Main, where he lived for 28 years (living 1 year, 1832–1833, in Mannheim) with his wife, Caroline Medon, the operatic singer, until his death.

While in Frankfurtam main, Schopenhauer published two books: On the Will in Nature (1835) and Essays and Aphorisms (1852). He also published two essays, one of which had won a prize from the scientific Society of Drontheim in Norway, as Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics (1841). But most importantly, he added 50 new chapters (Part II) to The World as Will and Representation, for a second edition, finishing that work as it is known today. His mature ideas on time may be [Page 1140]found in Volume I, Chapter 4 and Volume II, Chapter 4 of his magnum opus. By 1853 the fame of the philosopher was ensured, when an anonymous article on him, titled “Iconoclasm in German Philosophy,” appeared in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review. But he lived to enjoy it for only 7 more years, dying in 1860.

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