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“We should be grateful to Schopenhauer for managing to express the truth about life so beautifully.” — Alain De Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy
The Essential Schopenhauer delivers the first comprehensive English anthology of the seminal philosopher’s writings, edited by Wolfgang Schirmacher, president of the International Schopenhauer Association.
This indispensable collection affords readers a uniquely accessible gateway into the monolithic thinker’s prodigious body of work. Just as the Harper Perennial Basic Writings series renders the work of Heidegger and Nietzsche accessible for English readers, The Essential Schopenhauer gives us unprecedented access to the complex ideas of this profound and influential thinker.
What is the meaning of life? How should I live? Is there any purpose to the universe? Generations have turned to the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer because he tackled the big issues. His influence has extended not only to later philosophers—Nietzsche foremost among them—but across the most brilliant novelists, musicians, and artists of all disciplines. Schopenhauer believed that the world was a cold, absurd place. and that it was only by the force of an individual’s Will that any meaning could be created. He also believed that the universe itself had a Will—a spiritual force many have likened to “The Way,” spoken of by Taoists.
This new anthology contains key selections from The World as Will and Representation as well as other writings. “Schopenhauer’s philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life’s meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts. . . . Schopenhauer’s influence has been strong among literary figures, which include poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists and historians such as Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Joseph Conrad, André Gide, Thomas Hardy, Stephane Mallarmé, Thomas Mann, Guy de Maupassant, Robert Musil, Edgar Allan Poe, Marcel Proust, Italo Svevo, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev,W. B. Yeats, and Emile Zola.”—from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
