If you’re liking having Schopenhauer-related audio to listen to so you needn’t actually read him, here’s a clip with some introduction or other to the World as Will and Representation, which describes his place in the history of philosophy and states some high level points about his philosophy, and quite a bit more about his biography. It’s nothing you couldn’t Continue Reading …
Schopenhauer’s Pessimism Read Aloud
There are a number of read-aloud Schopenhauer selections on the web that you should be aware of, which cover very directly the pessimism he is most famous for but which we didn’t cover in the episode. For instance: Listen on youtube (There’s nothing really to watch). Read the text. This is over half an hour of simply the text, read Continue Reading …
Schopenhauer on Euclid’s Geometry
One point on our Schopenhauer episode that we didn’t take much time to get into was his attitude towards geometric demonstration, which was of course the model for all philosophy for thinkers like Descartes. Here’s a short selection from section 39 of the Fourfold Root, which illustrates his idea that our knowledge of geometry is founded on our intuition of Continue Reading …
Schopenhauer’s Mom
Apparently Johanna Schopenhauer, Arthur’s mom, was an author, “the first German woman writer to publish books without making use of a pseudonym,” and “the most famous author in Germany” for a while in the 1820s. She wrote fiction, travelogues, and biography, and Arthur considered her work juvenile, and told her so. Her wikipedia page gives the story of her bad Continue Reading …
Frederick Copleston and Bryan Magee on Schopenhauer
Here Bryan Magee gives some background on Schopie, which leads into an interview with philosophical historian (and Jesuit priest, known for debating Bertrand Russell on the radio re. the existence of God) Frederick Copleston: Watch on youtube. At the end of this first clip, Copleston points out that Kant thought of things in themselves as plural: there’s the table as Continue Reading …
Episode 30: Schopenhauer on Explanations and Knowledge (Citizens Only)
Discussing Arthur Schopenhauer’s On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, published in 1847 (as an expansion of his doctoral thesis from 1813). What kinds of explanations are legitimate? S. thought that causal and logical explanations are often confused, resulting in philosophical errors. In laying out the four types of explanation — the four versions of the principle of sufficient reason — he clearly elaborates his modernized Kantian epistemology.
End song: “The Answer,” by New People from Impossible Things (2011)
PREVIEW-Episode 30: Schopenhauer on Explanations and Knowledge
Discussing Arthur Schopenhauer’s On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, published in 1847 (as an expansion of his doctoral thesis from 1813). What kinds of explanations are legitimate? S. thought that causal and logical explanations are often confused, resulting in philosophical errors. In laying out the four types of explanation — the four versions of the principle of sufficient reason — he clearly elaborates his modernized Kantian epistemology.
Topic for #30: Schopenhauer’s Twist on Kant’s Epistemology
Schopenhauer is widely known for being influenced by Buddhism’s claim that life is suffering and for in turn influencing Nietzsche, but his major influence is Kant. On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, was originally written (in 1813) as S’s dissertation but was later expanded and clarified for proper publication (in 1847). He considered this his core Continue Reading …