Book Information

Schopenhauer

By: Robert Wicks (University of Auckland)

Series: Blackwell Great Minds

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Description

This innovative volume presents an insightful philosophical portrait of the life and work of Arthur Schopenhauer.

• Focuses on the concept of the sublime as it clarifies Schopenhauer's aesthetic theory, moral theory and asceticism
• Explores the substantial relationships between Schopenhauer's philosophy and Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity
• Defends Schopenhauer's position that absolute truth can be known and described as a blindly striving, all-permeating, universal "Will"
• Examines the influence of Asian philosophy on Schopenhauer
• Describes the relationships between Schopenhauer's thought and that of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein.

TopTable of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
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 versus 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: Tranquility 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: Tranquility 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: Tranquility 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
Chapter Thirteen: 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

TopAbout the Author

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.