Schopenhauer, Arthur

(1788–1860)

   Philosopher.

   Schopenhauer was born in Danzig, Germany, and he was educated at Göttingen and Berlin, where he was a student of fichte and schleiermacher. He is mainly remembered for his Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, in which he argued that striving was the ultimate reality. Overcoming striving through the control of the passions was the only remedy of life’s evils. His teaching was thus influenced by Buddhism but he himself claimed that it was no different from that of the great Christian mystics. nietzsche, in his early years, was much attracted to this world view.

   F. Copleston, Arthur Schopenhauer: Philosopher of Pessimism (1946);

   R.A. Gonzales, An Approach to the Sacred in the Thought of Schopenhauer (1992);

   C. Janaway, Schopenhauer (1994);

   B. Magee, Misunderstanding Schopenhauer (1989).