Arthur Schopenhauer

One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on religion, ethics, politics, women, suicide, books and many other themes is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipomena, which he published in 1851. These pieces depict humanity as locked in a struggle beyond good and evil, and each individual absolutely free within a Godless world, in which art, morality and self-awareness are our only salvation. This innovative - and pessimistic - view has proved powerfully influential upon philosophy and art, directly affecting the work of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Wagner among others.

Essays and Aphorisms

had such great fun exploring his thoughts.

Kira L

Sameer Vasta

If you are having a bad day, here’s a tip: stay away from Arthur Schopenhauer and anything he has written. To say that his work is a downer is putting it lightly: to read Schopenhauer is morbidly depressing and gloomy, and requires many hours of post-reading uplift in the form of stupid comedy or time spent with cooing children in order to recuperate.

The reason for his doom is clear once you understand his philosophy: according to Schopenhauer, all human action is futile and pointless, and thus our existence is to not find peace or enlightenment, but instead to overcome frustration pain. This is immediately obvious in the title of the first essay in his collection of Essays and Aphorisms, originally published as Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851. That title, quite fittingly, is “On the Suffering of the World,” and perhaps aptly, he follows that one with “On the Vanity of Existence.”

If you make it that far into Essays and Aphorisms without needing to take a break from all the gloom, I applaud you. After those first two essays, I took a long, nightmare-plagued nap from which I awoke feeling distraught and purposeless. It took me another six seatings to finally make it through the entire collection, and while I was emotionally drained by the end of it, the entire exercise was worth it.

Reading Essays and Aphorisms was worth it mostly because, between all the articulation of suffering and pain, Schopenhauer has some cogent ideas on the how to break ourselves from the self-delusion that we are all inherently happy and that there is something wrong with us when we are not. Allowing ourselves to feel pain and to understand that it is part of our existence is important because it gives us a self-awareness that helps us understand ourselves and the world around us a bit better.

There are some laughable parts of the collection—his essay “On Women” is a piece of misogyny that is worth skipping—and the book features a lot more pessimism than is perhaps healthy, but there are some enlightening moments when he discusses our relationship with time, morality, animals, and even self-criticism. Essays and Aphorisms is worth visiting if only to see how it influenced later thought and art, or even just as a reminder that we all have our own demons, no matter how candy-coated we like to pretend life to be.

(Full review on I Tell Stories.)

Essays and Aphorisms

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