Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Janaway, Christopher (Birkbeck College, University of London)

History of Western philosophy

Published on 21 February 2002 by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Very Short Introductions' series.

Paperback / softback | 160 pages, Halftones throughout
173 x 110 x 9 | 136g

Schopenhauer is the most readable of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinkers including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Schopenhauer's central notion is that of the will - a blind, irrational force that he uses to interpret both the human mind and the whole of nature. Seeing human behaviour as that of a natural organism governed by the will to life, Schopenhauer developed radical insights concerning the unconscious and sexuality which influenced both psychologists and philosophers.

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