Schopenhauer and the Big Germans

[E.A Rumfield]

Where to start with Schopenhauer? Is he still relevant today? And other German philosophers of equal importance? Also I want to read a novel by Knut Hamsun next, what is his most relevant work?

[Desolation]

For Knut, go with his first novel, Hunger. It's his best by a pretty large margin.

I think Schopenhauer is still relevant. He's not at Nietzsche or Marx status, but he's still a pretty big figure. Imminently quotable. The collection Essays and Aphorisms is now, I think, seen as his best even though it wasn't put together by the man himself, or have the coherence of something like The World as Will and Idea.

[cafolini]

Schoppenhauer had to close shop because only Einstein as the retarded man he was played the violin to his.

[E.A Rumfield]

Schoppenhauer had to close shop because only Einstein as the retarded man he was played the violin to his.

Are you messing with me?

[mal4mac]

I think Schopenhauer is still relevant. He's not at Nietzsche or Marx status...


According to who? For me, he's of higher status than Nietzsche or Marx, second only to Kant.

A good place to start is Bryan Magee "The Philosophy of Schopenhauer".

The collection Essays & Aphorisms is a selection of his work, and might be a place to start, but it's worth reading the complete collection, collected in two volumes entitled, Parerga and Paralipomena (nice Oxford UP version...). The World as Will and Representation, also in two volumes, is also worth reading (note Representation is an alternative translation to Idea that is adopted in the most respected translation - available cheaply in Dover publications.) Magee steered me happily around the questions of What to Read? How to read? Why to read? What influence has he had? Is Schopenhauer the tops?... etc...

Schopenhauer is a bit wordy and repetitive, and his Metaphysics of the Will is a bit batty, so start with Magee, he'll help get you over those hurdles, and others.

[mal4mac]

Schoppenhauer had to close shop because only Einstein as the retarded man he was played the violin to his.

Schopenhauer played the flute. Einstein did steal from his shop - for instance, mass energy equivalence...

[Cleft]

Frege is certainly more important and so does Hegal.

[Des Essientes]

Schopenhauer's philosophy, that posits an obnoxious striving will behind all nature, was the inspiration for all the major Germanic philosophies that came after him. Nietzsche, Marx and Freud are all indebted to Schopenhauer's launching the Age of Suspicion in philosophy and Schopenhauer's prose is more elegant than any of their's. If you are going to study him then by all means start with the first volume of The World as Will and Representation and then go on to the second volume. Those tomes are a wealth of information and style unparalleled in the history of philosophy. You will not be disappointed. You will be amazed by the clarity of the man's mind. Idealism has never had a better proponent than Arthur.