Arthur Schopenhauer was a German, born in 1788 in Danzig, now known as Gdansk, in Poland. He had a pessimistic view of society. For example, he believed:
- Human will is irrational.
- Human will has no goal and no object.
- There is no meaning or purpose in the world.
- The world is, in any case, an illusion.
- Human beings are slaves to their desires, and are driven onwards by the will.
- Suffering is a part of life and is increased by knowledge.
Unsurprisingly, with all this internal angst to contend with, Schoepenhauer was a depressed and disappointed man despite being born into a wealthy family and with no need to work. It was this lack of demand on his time that enabled him to indulge in private philosophical study.
Schopenhauer: Futile Purposes of the Evil Will
Bertrand Russell develops Schopenhauer's philosophical theory. "Will has no fixed end, which if achieved would bring contentment. Athough death must conquer in the end, we pursue our futile purposes ...'as we blow out a soap-bubble as long and as large as possible, although we know perfectly well that it will burst."
Further, Schopenhauer said there is no happiness. Unfulfilled wishes cause pain. Men feel the urge to procreate, thus setting up more potential for suffering and death. This, he said, is why we feel shame about the sexual act.
Schopenhauer disliked Christianity, and so he turned to Indian religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, which offered him some form of escape. He regarded Nirvana as extinction, contrary as it was to Christian doctrine. "The cause of suffering is intensity of will; the less we exercise will, the less we shall suffer." His main work was The World as Will and Idea which was published in 1818 and he persuaded his publisher to bring out a second edition in 1844. He claimed that some of the paragraphs had been "dictated by the Holy Ghost."
Schopenhauer's Success after Publication of The World as Will and Idea
It was several years later that Schopenhauer finally received the approbation he deserved for his years of effort. At the time, he was sixty-three.
Bertrand Russell, in History of Western Philosophy says: "He began the emphasis on Will, which is characteristic of much nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophy, but for him Will, though metaphysically fundamental, is ethically evil, - an opposition only possible for a pessimist." To summarise, Schoepenhauer was important for two things.
- His pessimism, says Bertrand Russell, made it possible for men to study philosophy knowing that evil couldn't necessarily be explained away.
- His doctrine that will is superior to knowledge influenced later philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper.
Contradictions Between Schopenhauer's Philosophy and Character
One small conceit in which Schopenhauer indulged might give an indication of his character. In 1819, he began to lecture in Berlin and timed his lectures to the same hour as those of Hegel. He was unable to acquire Hegel's listeners, so he ceased to lecture.
He was certainly not always completely sincere, as he dined out frequently in good restaurants, womanised, and was greedy and quarrelsome. It's claimed he threw a seamstress downstairs, injuring her, just because he was annoyed that she was chatting with a friend outside his door. He had to pay her a regular sum of money for the remainder of her life, and when she died, he wrote in his account-book: "The old woman dies, the burden departs." (Obit annus, abit onus.)
However, despite his lifetime of disappointment, there were a few positive aspects to his thinking:
- Compassion is the basis of ethics and of love.
- The arts provide welcome release from the "torture of human existence."
Schopenhauer is said to have loved animals and to have opposed vivisection, says Russell, "...but in all other respects he was completely selfish." The philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, in Culture and Value says: "Schopenhauer is, one might say, quite a crude mind... One can say of Schopenhauer: he never searches his conscience, he never looks into himself, into his soul."
Arthur Schopenhauer died in 1850.
Sources:
- Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge Classics, 2004. First published by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. London, 1946.
- Harwood, Jeremy, Philosophy, 100 Great Thinkers, Quercus, 2010.
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Culture and Value, ed. G.H. von Wright, 1980.
Janet Cameron - MA. Cert.Ed. is a retired university lecturer and author of twelve books, women's short fiction and a magazine column.
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