Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer's reputation as a cynic and a misanthrope often obscures the complexity and humanity of his philosophy. In this innovative volume, Robert Wicks breaks away from the accepted oversimplification of Schopenhauer as an incurable pessimist, to present an insightful portrait of his life and work.Beginning with a look at his early life and the people and circumstances that shaped his thinking, the book situates Schopenhauer's philosophical work within the context of these formative years. It examines Schopenhauer's aesthetic and moral theories, his affinity toward Asian mysticism and Christianity, as well as his ideas about the sublime, consciousness, empathy, humanity, and "Will". The volume focuses on the composition and structure of Schopenhauer's philosophy and explores his intellectual links to Hegel, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein.An essential resource for students and scholars of aesthetics and nineteenth-century philosophy, this is an important introduction to a unique and influential thinker.

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Robert Wicks is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Modern French Philosophy: From Existentialism to Postmodernism (2003), Nietzsche (2002), and Hegel's Theory of Aesthetic Judgment (1994). He is also the author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Schopenhauer.

Inhaltsangabe

- Preface
- Introduction

Chapter One: The Philosophy of a Nonconformist (1788-1860)
I. The Unsettled Years: 1788-1831
II. The Stable Years: 1833-1860

Part I: Schopenhauer's Theoretical Philosophy

Chapter Two: Historical Background
I. Mind-Dependent Qualities vs. Mind-Independent Qualities
II. Space and Time

Chapter Three: The Principle of Sufficient Reason
I. The Root of All Explanation
II The Four Basic Forms of Explanation

Chapter Four: Schopenhauer's Idealism and his Criticism of Kant
I. The Rejection of a Mind-Independent Reality
II. Kant's Theory of Perception
III. Kant's Use of the Term "Object"
IV. The Logic of Manifestation

Chapter Five: The World in Itself as a Meaningless and Almighty Will
I. Universal Subjectivity
II. The World as Will
III. The Two-Tiered Objectification of the Will: Platonic Ideas and Spatio-Temporal Individuals

Chapter Six: Critical Interpretations of the World as Will
I. Scientific Knowledge, Philosophical Knowledge and Mystical Knowledge
II. Regular Time Versus the Eternal Present

Part II: Schopenhauer's Practical Philosophy

Chapter Seven: Endless Suffering in the Daily World
I. A Universal Will Without Purpose
II. The Purposelessness of Schopenhauer's Thing-in-Itself
III. Life as Embittering: Schopenhauer and Buddhism

Chapter Eight: Tranquillity I: Sublimity, Genius and Aesthetic Experience
I. Platonic Ideas and Aesthetic Experience
II. Artistic Genius and the Communication Theory of Art
III. The Hierarchy of the Visual and Verbal Arts
IV. Tragedy and Sublimity
V. Music and Metaphysical Experience

Chapter Nine: Tranquillity II: Christlike Virtue and Moral Awareness
I. Empathy as the Foundation of Moral Awareness
II. Intelligible, Empirical and Acquired Character
III. Humanity's Sublime Anguish

Chapter Ten: Tranquillity III: Asceticism, Mysticism and Buddhism
I. The Possibility of the Denial-of-the-Will
II. Christian Quietism, Yogic Ecstasy, and Buddhist Enlightenment
III. Asceticism and Spiritual Purification

Part III: Schopenhauer in Perspective

Chapter Eleven: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Eternal Life
I. The Question of Life's Value
II. Funereal Imagery and Nietzsche's Theory of Tragedy
III. Schopenhauer's Moral Awareness and Eternal Recurrence
IV. The Eternalistic Illusion of Supreme Health
V. Nietzsche's Madness and Eternalistic Consciousness

Chapter Twelve: Schopenhauer, Hegel and Alienated Labor
I. The World's Essence: Rational or Irrational?
II. Labor, Imprisonment and Christianity
III. The World as Will and Representation and "Self-Consciousness" in Hegel's Phenomenology

Part IV: Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein and the Unspeakable
I. The Quest for Absolute Value
II. What the Philosophical Investigations Cannot Say

Conclusion: Idealism and the Will to Peace
I. The Plausibility of Schopenhauer's Idealism
II. The Explanatory Weakness of a Blind and Senseless Will
III. The Prospect of Peace

Bibliography