Even though I may not agree with many of his claims, I think that Arthur Schopenhauer was a good writer. He was one of the first Western philosophers to have access to translations of Vedic and Buddhist texts, and it is clear that he was profoundly influenced by them. The synthesis of Western and Eastern thought found in Schopenhauer, together with his poetic soul reaching out for enlightenment in aesthetics and the fine arts makes him one of the most enjoyable writers I have ever read.
Schopenhauer’s metaphysics is based on descriptions of the will and representation, distinctions between subject and object, and the body as an immediate object of the will.
| “Every dogmatic transcendental philosophy is an attempt to construe the thing in itself according to laws of appearance, which is like trying to make two absolute dissimilar bodies cover one another, an attempt which always fails because however you may turn them this or that corner always portrudes.
source: On the Antithesis of Thing in Itself and Appearance. A. Schopenhauer |
I’ll end this post with a quote from On Philosophy and the Intellect:
| “It is quite natural that we should adopt a defensive and negative attitude towards every new opinion concernings something on which we have already an opinion of our own. For it forces its way as an enemy into the previously closed system of our own convictions, shatters the calm of mind we have attained through this sytem, demands renewed efforts of us and declares our former efforts to have been in vain. A truth which retrieves us from error is consequently to be compared with a physic, as much for its bitter and repellent taste as for the fact that it takes effect not at the moment it is imbibed but only some time afterwards.
Thus, if we see the individual obstinately clinging to his errors, with the mass of men it is even worse: once they have acquired an opinion, experience and instruction can labour for centuries against it and labour in vain. So that there exists certain universally popular and firmly accredited errors which countless numbers contentedly repeat every day: I have started a list of them which others might like to continue. 1. Suicide is a cowardly act. Most of these are repeated parrot fashion without much thought being given to them and merely because when people first heard them said they found them very wise-sounding. Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extension: which is why in this respect one man can confidently take on ten thousand and a thousand fools do not make one wise man. source: On Philosophy and the Intellect A. Schopenhauer |
[Edited from Photomedia Forum post by T.Neugebauer from Feb 2, 2006]