The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications

	Title: The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I Purchase Item Manufacturer: Dover Publications List Price: $17.95 Our Price: $9.99
Customer Reviews:
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications How is Hegel held over him?
I have read Schopenhauers works and would heartily agree with the other writers on its beauty, simplicity and philosophy. This author strikes me as a philosopher in the classic sense(a lover of wisdom). Ive read Hegel, Wittgenstien, Kant and attempted Heiddeger and none come close to Schoppenhauer's great work. Not to dismiss the others but their writing style is dodgy, unclear or badly translated. Its fairly clear that Schopenhauer is somewhat of an underdog in scholastic circles as most philosophy professors tend to stress Hegel over A.S. No writer in philosophy writes with as much wit and clarity, if you have read this far and this many reviews stop persecuting yourself and buy this book.
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications Towering work of genius from the philosopher of gloom
Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the most interesting great philosophers. A misogynist, misanthrope and great lover of music and art, he was kinder to his dogs than he was to people. Despite his oddities, Schopenhauer provides us with one of the most fascinating philosophical systems a great philosopher has ever produced. Perhaps one of the last philosophers who tried to produce a unified vision of the entire universe, Schopenhauer's universe is as depressing as it is majestic. Schopenhauer's vision is spelt out at great length in his great masterpiece, the World as Will and Idea. For Schopenhauer, the key to understanding reality is that everything is the product of a blind, unconditioned energy or force called Will. Deeply read in Eastern philosophy, especially Buddhism, Schopenhauer regards the universe as a dark place filled with evil and suffering, caused by the endless activity created in the world by the Will (which as the cause in itself is the One or Absolute as understood traditionally by philosophers East and West) which appears in the world of sense experience in infinitely diverse ways, yet in ways which are perpetually in conflict and war with each other. For Schopenhauer, this dark force shows itself no more truely in the biological and human worlds, in the terrible struggle for existence which relies on killing and destruction of other life along with rapine, greed and war essentially for one being to triumph over the other. Schopenhauer, writing about three decades before Darwin, remarkably anticipates some of the ideas of evolutionary theory and also the psychoanalytic theories of Freud, which sees concious human activity as being the result of deeper unconcious, instinctual drives, especially those of sex and survival. He also anticipates some aspects of physical science which see the universe as a whole being the product of chaotic energy and forces acting at the deepest levels of reality. Schopenhauer, despite being an idealist, marshals many powerful philosophical arguments as well as quotes from writers, poets, mystics, and also evidence gathered from science and even newspaper reports to support his worldview. He is deeply empirical and believes his idea explains not just philosophical issues but the very way the world is as it is found by scientists and naturalists. Indeed, his close attention to science makes Schopenhauer one of the most astute philosophers of the natural world, along with Aristotle and Descartes. Schopenhauer also deduces a system of ethics and salvation from his system. His ethics are essentially Buddhist; indeed, Schopenhauer argued that of all the world's religions, Buddhism is the best because it accords most closely to the truth (salvation comes through renouncing the world and through a selfless ethic of compassionate love for suffering) although he also greatly admires the Hindu sages who wrote the Upanishads, a work he quotes very frequently. He also admires Christian mystics, especially Eckhart and Boehme. Schopenhauer like Plato is a great writer as well as Philosopher. Unlike many German philosophers who wrote very obscurely, Schopenhauer believed strongly in expressing ideas clearly and very often he uses many rhetorical and literary tropes to create beautiful concrete illustrations of his philosophical ideas. This is especially so in his brilliant and witty essays, which earned him more fame than his true magnum opus ever did. He also viciously attacks Hegel and his school, feeling they have betrayed the legacy of Kant (of whom Schopenhauer claimed he was a true disciple) through obscure sophistry designed to reintroduce the metaphysical bugbears Kant had properly banished forever from Philosophy. For Schopenhauer, clarity was always central, unfortunately something many later German philosophers did not learn. Schopenhauer's work had a massive influence on many leading lights in European thought. People influenced by his ideas and who quoted him readily included Goethe, Joseph Conrad, Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, Schrodinger, Wittgenstein, Thomas Mann, and many others. Today he remains a fascinating philosopher to study and his relevance remains, particularly as his ideas seem to have anticipated some of the ideas of modern evolutionary biology and physical science, and also for his keen interest in Eastern philosophical and religious thought, which is starting to strongly impact the West today. He is certainly one of the greatest philosophers Germany ever produced after Kant.
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications More than a precursor to Nietzsche...
First, a word about the form of this two-volume work. Volume One contains the core of Schopenhauer's philosophy and is his one absolutely essential book. Volume Two, which is longer, consists of elaborations upon the themes of Volume One. So, if you're strapped for cash and desperately need to own some Schopenhauer, it's fine to buy only Volume One. You won't be missing anything essential. This book is one of the most provocative and readable works of 19th-century Western philosophy. Anyone who has waded through the soggy, muddy-bottomed marshes of Hegel's prose will be delighted by the clarity of Schopenhauer. While I remain unconvinced by his theory of all-pervading Will, seeing it as a way of sneaking transcendentalism back into a fortunately disenchanted world (Will seems at times too much like an omnipresent god for my tastes), I still highly recommend Schopenhauer. Even if you don't agree with him, arguing with him keeps you on your intellectual toes.
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications The Knight calmly facing Death and Devil!
Written when he was 30 Schopenhauer single-mindedly preserved the book and abstained form changing it in the subsequent decades and publications (however he wrote a supplemental volume II years later to expound on the main themes of the volume I). This English translation beautifully conveys the clarity, simplicity and magnificence of Schopenhauer's perfect German prose. As a person who reads philosophy for pleasure and insight, I must say I enjoyed it immensely and gained insight into fundamental questions of existence. Influenced by Eastern (Indian) philosophies, Schopenhauer courageously expounds his profoundly Pessimistic ideas without ever entering into dogmatism, characteristic of many philosophers, and "mystification" which he accused Hegel and other contemporary "Philosophy Professors". A familiarity with Kantian philosophy and Schopenhauer's other works (especially: On the Fourfold Root of Principle of Sufficient Reason" and "On the Will in Nature") is needed in order to clearly grasp the fundamental ideas of this book.
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications Philosophy for independent thinkers
Schopenhauer's magnum opus towers high above the silly word games of the analysts. This book is philosophy at its very best- a book that no educated person should miss for Schopenhauer wrote primarily for the layman. Like Nietzsche, he was highly skeptical of the "professionals" of his time. One thing that immediately strikes the reader is Schopenhauer's clear and crisp command of the written word unlike the severe case of abstractionitis that both Hegel and Heidegger seem to suffer from. The World as Will and Representation clothes Transcendental Idealism in a pessimistic dress and offers a glorious, bold and innovated view of Kant's critical philosophy. Its scope and breadth reaches the outer limitations of human understanding creating a new and beautiful, yet cold and austere, vision that will forever challenge, shake, and destroy most people's views of reality. This book along with Kant's Critique gives a possible answer to one of the most perplexing problems of human understanding: it challenges and attempts to disarm Hume's powerful attack against the perceived "illusion" of causality. Whether it succeeds or not is left to the reader to decide. Schopenhauer starts where Kant stops and he easily transcends him showing us how the world is a hostile place to live in and how reality is forever unknown to the knower. Few professional philosophers would probably agree with Schopenhauer. This in no way dimishes the value of his philosophy. It is amazing that today most people simply ignore Schopenhauer and take him as a minor figure in the Western tradition. Part of the reason for this is because of Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, who simply dismissed Schopenhauer and gave him a bad reputation in his popular book "History of Western Philosophy." (This book is heavily biased and is probably one of Russell's worst books causing more harm than good for people new to philosophy.) Russell basically rejected Schopenhauer's work on the premise of hypocrisy since Schopenhauer did not actually practice the philosophy that he preached; yet ironically enough, Russell, being a brilliant logician and no less than the father of modern analytic philosophy, succumbed to emotionalism via the tu quoque fallacy. (i.e. judging a claim as false based on the character of the person claiming it instead of its truth value) The best thing to do is to simply read the book yourself. Commentaries are helpful after one has understood the work, never before. It is highly recommended that one read Kant and then follow-up with Schopenhauer's book. (Though many have still profited skipping Kant altogether.) Very few things in life will probably be more important or rewarding than doing this.
The World As Will and Representation, In Two Volumes: Vol. I by Dover Publications Product Description
Volume 1 of the definitive English translation of one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century, the basic statement in one important stream of post-Kantian thought. Corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in the older Haldane-Kemp translation. For the first time, this edition translates and locates all quotes and provides full index.