| Title | : | The Philosophy of Schopenhauer |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0198237227 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780198237228 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 480 |
| Publication | : | First published August 11, 1983 |
The Philosophy of Schopenhauer Reviews
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The author will quote Schopenhauer to the effect that life is vile and it would have been better to have never been born, but since we are already here suicide is not the only philosophical question that haunts us since he will argue our quest for insight is enough to keep us occupied until the inevitable return to our nothingness, and the author will show that Nietzsche will tweak that by putting a slightly more optimistic spin on it by saying our instinctual nature will allow for an ecstatic existence sense of being as we keep becoming and should behave as if we have an eternal recurrence.
Schopenhauer is well worth understanding. This book does that almost as well as Schopenhauer did, maybe even better since the writer puts the philosophy under consideration into the context of when Schopenhauer was writing and through the lens of 1980s including a presumption of the validity of Freudian psychoanalysis. I’ve read Volume I and II of ‘Will and Representation’, but it’s not really necessary to have read them in order to understand this book.
There’s a whole lot to recommend this book. I’ll just drop some hints. The author will show how an encyclopedia describing Buddhism would align closely with Schopenhauer’s philosophy; evo devo (evolutionary development) was probably originated by him; Schopenhauer understood Freud 80 years before Freud understood himself; Popper really liked Schopenhauer and that’s what led me to this book since I did not understand why as I was reading Popper’s ‘Open Society’ that Popper thought so (both are anti-nationalist and prefer the liberty of the individual over the collective); Schopenhauer uses the word ‘will’ but he really means force or energy and realizes that energy equals matter; existence is beyond the observable phenomena and includes an unobservable noumena; and most of all we can’t will our own will since ‘reason is a slave to passion’ (Hume, but, of course, he appears a lot in this book), and I had the misconception that Wittgenstein was more logical positivist than of the school of Schopenhauer; I was wrong, and now I understand Wittgenstein better than before having read this book. This book will put short shrift to anyone who thought as I did.
There’s really no reason not to add this book which is freely available at:
https://www.docdroid.net/ER9hZXg/comp... -
I own quite a few books on philosophy, but this is the one that completely blew my brain apart. Putting Schopenhauer's transcendental idealist philosophy into the context of the empiricism/idealism dichotomy, in particular relation to Kant, Bryan Magee takes you through the arguments in a far more lucid and engaging way than many of those other books dealing with the history of metaphysics.
Of course I was reading it because it's a brilliant insight into Schopenhauer's overall philosophy (his notion of the will to life, his aesthetics, his overall pessimism), but following and thinking about how we can perceive the world, is it ever knowable, and the ultimate mystery of the noumena world, really had me reeling from the seemingly obvious notion that we exist, things exist, and the crazy notion that anything exists to begin with.
This is a truly mind-bending book. -
The definitive book on Schopenhauer's philosophy not written by Schopenhauer.
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پیش از هر چیز باید بگم برایان مگی یکی از بزرگترین معلم‌های منه، کسیه که به کمکش قدم به قدم وارد دنیای فلسفه شدم و بیش از هر معلم فلسفه‌ی دیگری ازش یاد گرفتم و ای کاش، ای کاش همچین کتابی درباره‌ی تمام فیلسوف‌ها نوشته بود.
موقع خوندن تمام این ۶۰۰ صفحه احساس می‌کردم یه معلم مهربون با صبوری کنارم نشسته و سعی می‌کنه هر قدر که لازمه همه چیز رو برام توضیح بده تا خوب خوب متوجه بشم و خب مگه آدم دیگه چی می‌خواد؟
توی این کتاب، برایان مگی از زندگی شوپنهاور شروع می‌کنه، پیشینه‌ی فکری‌ش رو می‌گه، نکات مهمی که در فلسفه‌ی کانت مهمه بدونیم رو یادآور می‌شه چون شوپنهاور کار خودش رو اصلاح و تکمیل فلسفه‌ی کانت می‌دونه و لازمه آدم با کانت آشنا باشه تا بتونه شوپنهاور رو خوب درک کنه. چیزی که دست‌کم من خیلی کم توی اطرافیانم که «در باب حکمت زندگی» رو خوندن و مثل نقل و نبات ازش نقل‌قول می‌آرن یا به عنوان فیلسوف بدبینی و تاریکی از شوپنهاور یاد می‌کنن کمابیش نادیده‌ش گرفتن. بعد کلیات فلسفه‌ی شوپنهاور رو توضیح می‌ده، در نهایت صادقانه نقدهایی که به‌ش وارده رو بررسی می‌کنه و در بخش دوم تأثیر شوپنهاور روی فیلسوف‌های دیگه، موسیقیدان‌ها، هنرمندان و نویسنده‌ها رو بررسی می‌کنه.
دو تا سوءتفاهم عمده درباره‌ی شوپنهاور وجود داره، یکی این‌که ما می‌تونیم از ذات حقیقت یعنی همون ناپدیدار یا شیء فی نفسه (نومن) شناخت پیدا کنیم که خب این کاملاً غلطه چون شوپنهاور تأکید می‌کنه که ما هیچ راهی برای شناخت ناپدیدار نداریم و اصلاً شناخت فعلیه که در جهان پدیدارها ممکن می‌شه.
و دومی این‌که این اراده‌ای که شوپنهاور داره ازش حرف می‌زنه همون اراده‌ای که ما در خودمون درک می‌کنیم یعنی اراده‌ی معطوف به حیات یا قدرت. درحالی‌که شوپنهاور بارها تمایز این‌ها رو توضیح داده ولی خب انتخاب واژه‌ی «اراده» برای اشاره به امر ناپدیداری واحد باعث شده چنین سوءتفاهم‌هایی به‌وجود بیاد.
یکی از بزرگترین کمک‌هایی که شوپنهاور به جهان کرد به‌نظرم جایگاه والاییه که در بین هنرها به موسیقی داده و این‌که چطور روی یکی از بزرگترین موسیقیدان‌های جهان یعنی واگنر اثرگذاشته. برایان مگی یه فصل کامل و مفصل درباره‌ی تأثیر شوپنهاور روی اپراهای واگنر نوشته که خیلی به من کمک کرد.
برایان مگی توضیح می‌ده که چطوربدبینی شوپنهاور متناقضه با توجه به فلسفه‌ش چون مثلاً می‌گه موسیقی می‌تونه از ناپدیداری به ما خبر بده و موسیقی والاست و اینا، در عین حال معتقده ذات ناپدیداری شره، پس قاعدتاً باید موسیقی هم نمایانگر حقیقتی شرورانه باشه که خب متناقضه با ادعای خود شوپنهاور و ارادتی که به موسیقی داره. علاوه‌براین، بدبینی شوپنهاور با زندگی واقعی خودش هم ناسازگار بوده. -
This is an epic length exposition/meditation by a quiet admirer of Arthur "Sour Grapes" Schopenhauer, the 19th century German philosopher renowned for his unrelenting pessimism.
More accurately, however, this can be considered a treatise on what the author quite fairly dubs the Kantian-Schopenhauerian paradigm, and he therefore begins his book with a treatment of Kant's Copernican revolution in philosophy, only then proceeding to adumbrate Schopenhauer's extension and completion of this work.
Schopenhauer takes over from Kant his fundamental insight ; that the ultimate reality is divided into noumena and phenomena i.e. things-in-themselves and the appearances of things. Schopenhauer embarks from this to make his original contribution to philosophy, i.e. enunciation of the fundamental Will which drives all things, living and non-living, and which is directionless, blind and unconscious ; a will that is, thus, forever unknowable to us.
His characterization of this will as blind, unconscious, and as thus, evil is the springboard for his famous (notorious?) pessimism, and also highlights his affinity with Eastern thought ; an affinity which Schopenhauer himself admitted to. From this formulation, follows many intriguing insights of rapier-sharp brilliance into human psychology, many of them anticipating scientific formulations of the same some 2 centuries hence.
The author is, like I mentioned, an admirer (though not an uncritical one) of the philosopher ; his book is divided into 2 parts. The first part is rather straightforwardly concerned with the exposition of Schopenhauer's philosophy, beginning with a mandatory synopsis of the Kantian revolution in philosophy, and only then proceeding to Schopenhauer's extension and completion of the same. The author is undoubtedly very well-versed with his material, and his exposition is both lucid and insightful, especially when he counters many of the misunderstandings that have attached to Schopenhauer's name and philosophy.
The second part is more loosely organized and deals with Schopenahauer's impact on philosophers after him, as well as a wide variety of artists, intellectuals, and scientists. His relationship with Buddhism and modern analytic philosophy is also briefly touched upon. In my opinion, this section of the book could have been more severely edited.
In conclusion, I found this a pleasant and easy-going reminder of Schopenhauer's fundamental 'rightness' (as one of his admirers, the great Wittgenstein himself, claims) regarding the nature of the world, of the fundamental unsayability of ultimate reality, of artistic creation and genius, and of the nature of true moral feeling. -
My favourite philosopher. I found a very good discussion of him here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGwSe0...
Exploring the confines of the cage, and eschewing the easy comforts of religion, and being unswervingly honest wherever it may lead. Regarded as a pessimist but I think a realist. I think that his independent dovetailing with buddhism and hinduism and recent scientific discoveries show that he was at least on the right track in this metaphysical detective story that has no end. -
Lucid, erudite, immensely readable - what every secondary source on a thinker should be.
As for Schopenhauer himself, I should sit with my thoughts more, but I just have not really ever been able to fully buy into the phenomenon/noumenon distinction. But I also don't really have a convincing alternative. So, prima facie, I accept it... -
Goodreads is my digital public catalogue of books read and books to read with notes to self and others around the world with incoherent disregard to outwitting my way into winning Grand Prize of Thy Likes. In this bacchic orgy of invisible peoples, babeling senselessly of intellectual economics, esoteric folklore, archaic fairytales and Adult Coloring Books, there is a nebulous and naive uneasiness entwined unto dropping the apparent exterior world for the trusty written word (s); fall of man; fall of Lubrary(sic) Alexandrite; fall i.e. season; fall i.e. ashes; fall down i.e. up. You said the city was boring you and then when the naked albino was screaming about Willa Cather in Union Square you just kept on playing ping pong on your charlatan-phone 8. Then when the monk lit himself on fire at City Hall you just altered your profile picture to you wearing a monk's grabs along with two million other people. 'We R United W/ Munks (sic)' you said. And all the while you could have just turned off all of your electronics for the Sabbath and maranthon'd through Magee's Schopenhauer. Leonard Cohen has been dead for months. Yes, he has. No one's insulting you. We're just telling you that you're not going to see Leonard Cohen next time he's in New York because he's like dead. Just be purgatorial now and purgatorial later. That way you won't get slaughtered in the future. Expect the worst and you'll never be let down. I ran out of toilet paper but I can run to the Bodega in a minute. Then again some transvestites from Thailand left a bunch of secondhand Raymond Carver books out in the hall. It's a shame we don't have recordings of Schopenhauer playing the flute. Hegel was a repulsive and ignorant charlatan. Hegel was a clumsy and ignorant charlatan. I have no time for repulsive clumsy charlatans.
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If you think you don't like Schopenhauer, this book may change your mind.
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گزافه و حشو قبیح زیادی داشت اما بالاجبار خواندم و نکات جزئی خوبی هم راجع به زندگی شخصی شوپنهاور آموختم. اما در توضیح فلسفه‌اش، چیز تازه‌ای برای گفتن نداشت. همان منابعی که قبل از این ریت کردم همراه با چند مقاله از نیچه، کافی هستند.
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A very carefully researched book, which I read avidly and greatly enjoyed.
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Good book, exploring Schopenhauer's philosophy in its details.
Schopenhauer is indeed a very inspiring philosopher: being a strong influence in the lives of as diverse thinkers as Freud, Nietzsche, Darwin, Wittgenstein, Wagner, Burckhardt, Borges, Einstein and Schrödinger etc. He seems to have anticipated in outline quite a lot of the innovations in wide fields of human endeavour in the 20th century.
The book contains two parts- one detailing his philosophy, and another his influence. Also cleared up a fundamental misunderstanding which abounds in a lot of introductory books- that we have 'direct knowledge of the noumenal Will'. The section on Nietzsche does seem a bit limited and imprecise, but the author's enthusiasm in the section on Wagner shines through. Must read up a bit on Wagner. Also introduced me to Burckhardt.
A word for Bryan Magee and his interviews on the history of philosophy on the BBC- his interviews are a great launchpad for further research on a topic. Unfortunately the Schopenhauer interview is a bit chaotic due to Copleston's refusal to even discuss him seriously.
Schopenhauer managed to bring to culmination the developments of the Kantian revolution with similar insights from Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, and also anticipate key 20th century developments. His Latin and Greek learning also shines through. The first philosopher I had read (whose collection of essays in the Penguin edition I had adored), and after having read (some) Kant, I think I will probably move on to his serious work. -
Really good appreciation of Schopenhauer here. I really enjoyed learning about the key philosophical tents of Schopenhauer. He was a German philosopher who took the philosophy of Kant and brought it to a new level. I'm not sure I agree with his worldview, but it is certainly a gripping one. I want to think more about possible gaps and questions his system raises. This book is also very good at tracing the influences Schopenhauer had on artists like Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann.
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A beautiful book.
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شوپنهاور فیلسوف بزرگی است که به نظر من به غلط،به "فيلسوف بدبین" شهرت پیدا کرده است. بشخصه وصف "فيلسوف واقع بین" رو برای این متفکر بزرگ شایسته تر و مناسب تر می دونم.این کتاب که توسط یکی از بزرگترین متخصصین فلسفه ی شوپنهاور و بر اساس اثر سترگ وی _جهان چون اراده و تصور_نوشته شده، شرح بسیار دقیق، روان و کاربردی برای علاقه‌مندان غیر حرفه‌ای این فيلسوف به حساب آمده و مطالعه ی آن تاثیر بسزا و روشنگری در فهم و درک دستگاه فکری شوپنهاور دارد.
شرح کوتاه زندگینامه ی شوپنهاور به مثابه پیش زمینه کار او (به تعبیر نویسنده) و اشاره به تأثیراتی که فلسفه ی او بر متفکران بعدی و برخی نويسندگان بزرگ داشته و همچنین اشاره به ارتباط میان تفکر شوپنهاور و فلسفه ی شرق و به طور خاص آئین بودایی از نقاط قوت این کتاب و مکمل موضوع اصلی کتاب هستند.
مصاحبه ی مفصل و خواندنی برایان مگی در اثر دیگرش (فلاسفه بزرگ،آشنایی با فلسفه غرب) که در مورد شوپنهاور با فردریک کاپلستن(به عنوان یک مورخ برجسته ی فلسفه و صاحب اثری به نام:آرتور شوپنهاور، فيلسوف بدبینی) انجام شده و بخصوص تبیین کوتاهی که در مورد سو تعبیرهای ناشی از انتخاب لفظ "اراده" در اثر اصلی شوپنهاور ارایه شده، می تواند مکمل مطالعه ی کتاب حاضر باشد. -
El sufrimiento domina la existencia porque es lo más real y positivo, puesto que toda dicha y más aún la felicidad consisten sólo en el alejamiento o la supresión de algún dolor; por eso el carácter de aquellas es negativo, dado que únicamente aparecen una vez que se extingue el dolor, y ello sucede en contadas ocasiones. Esta es la razón de que dicha y felicidad sean estados ocasionales, casi ficticios.
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Does an excellent job at explaining Schopenhauer's philosophy, particularly with regards to its influence on Wittgenstein and in tracing the empiricist/rationalist tradition that converged on Kant, but desperately needs to be about 300 pages shorter. There's no retention of ideas between each chapter, making it feel less like a book than a compilation of articles.
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I wanted more detail than my survey of philosophy provided but less than I'd get from reading Schopenhauer himself, if that makes sense. So I got this book. I read closely only about 120 pages or so--roughly 6 chapters--and skimmed the rest. Magee is an able guide. Headed next to a few of Schopenhauer's essays.
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Fue otro de mis intentos por leer a filósofos de corte nihilista y similares, tales como Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Cioran o el mismo Savater.
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Wonderful introduction to sheer grandiosity of Schopenhauer's life, thought and influence. I recorded more thoughts on youtalky if you want to listen or get my copy of the book.
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This is a fantastic book for anyone looking for a great introduction into Schopenhauer's philosophical system. It also covers the thoughts from previous philosophers that influenced him like Kant and Hume, as well the ones that were influenced by him like Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. The book wasn't an easy read but Magee did an awesome job explaining a wide range of philosophical ideas throughout the ages. Though an obvious admirer of Schopenhauer he always remains critical to his shortcomings as well. I don't think there is a better introduction to Schopenhauer in the English language or possibly any language.
Schopenhauer's "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" is now on my reading list, as I am equipped with a much better understanding as to what is meant by Wille and Vorstellung. -
Plays the advocate a little too much, but still a very good presentation, including on Schopenhauer's influence on later thinkers and artists. For more on Schopenhauer's influence on Wagner, Magee's The Tristan Chord is also very good.
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I loved this book. Magee is such a great writer, and explains the views of Schopenhauer so well. I recommend it to anyone interested in knowing more about Schopenhauer's philosophy and the impact it has had.
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My version of this book has a poem at the end. Does anyone know who wrote this poem?
