Arthur Schopenhauer remains somewhat notorious for his fervent pessimism concerning human existence. Not only does he claim that the universe and our embedded lives contain no purpose or special status, he also argues that determinism and unavoidable suffering inherently imbue our lives. Beneath this lies 'the will,' a kind of force or compulsion that drives us onwards towards life (not living, but life). This 'will to life' provides the foundation for our motivations, desires, and passions. It has no meaning or purpose apart from 'life.' Thus many cherished human institutions, including love, crumble into mere manifestations of this mysterious striving. Love becomes natures' way to get us to reproduce, not to passionately embody another person's being. It should come as no surprise that Schopenhauer remained unmarried throughout his long privileged, but seemingly bitter, life. Regardless, his work, written througout the nineteenth century but often sounding extremely modern, has influenced other well-known thinkers, artists and movements including Nietzsche, Wagner, Wittgenstein, and psychoanalysis. Some threads of our modern ethos seem to trace back to his brooding texts.



Given that the basis for much of Schopenhauer's thought rests on the rather unintuitive Kantian notion of appearances vs. things in themselves, those unacquainted with such turgid concepts should not delve will-nilly into his magnum opus "The World As Will and Representation" without a life vest. This little book will provide the uninitiated with such security. Written in clear and readable prose, concepts such as "things in themselves" and "Platonic Ideas" become almost instantly accessible. An entire chapter is devoted to the infamous "things in themselves" as well as a survey of Schopenhauer's dissertation (inhale) "On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason" (exhale). The latter elucidates four ways that effects get predicated with causes. On knowledge, Schopenhauer straddles the Idealists and the empiricists. He says, like an Idealist, that reality comes from the mind (the mind-dependent and categorized appearances), but likewise says that all knowledge of this reality comes from the senses, like an empiricist. Ultimate reality, or reality as it "really is" remains mostly inaccessible to us, apart from aesthetic experiences, particularly via music (a later chapter covers his intriguing but somewhat bizarre aesthetic thoughts; 19th century artists ate it up). Thus, all we experience are representations. And our actions largely derive from the will. This book excuses this metaphysical doctrine as "obviously flawed" (as have others), but concedes that this rubbery foundation nonetheless provided the structure for the aspects of Schopenhauer's thought that still influence us today. He also had iconoclastic views on ethics and reason. Reason doesn't make a person ethical, he claims, but it can make an evil person more efficiently evil. Ultimately, reason represents a means, not an end. Ethical theories cannot produce "good people" any more than aesthetic theories can produce staggeringly beautiful eye candy. He also held surprisingly modern views towards animals and homosexuality (which he considered 'natural') given his time, but held the 19th century line on the inferiority of women. Two final chapters focus on suffering, death, denial of the will, pessimism, and Schopenhauer's influence. Much of this sounds very Eastern, particularly Vedantic or Buddhist, but the book merely grazes the surface of Schopenhauer's Eastern influences.



Given Schopenhauer's contributions to our conceptions of existence, it's surprising the existentialists didn't appropriate him as fervently as they did Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. The author points out that the early 20th century was really "Schopenhauer's Time" given the pessimism and angst that followed the First World War. Many of his ideas continue to ring true in an increasingly pessimistic world. And it remains here, not in metaphysics, that Schopenhauer continues to resonate. This little book provides the perfect introduction or thumbnail sketch of the thought of the 19th century man who systematized pessimism.