Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher who lived from 1788 to 1860 and whose work has had a profound influence on Western philosophy, literature, psychology and the arts. This collection of one hundred quotations draws from his most celebrated writings on the nature of will, suffering, art, ethics and the human condition. Schopenhauer is best known for his magnum opus The World as Will and Representation, in which he argued that the fundamental reality underlying all phenomena is an irrational, blind force he called the Will, and that human suffering arises from the endless striving of this force. His philosophy drew on both Western and Eastern traditions, incorporating ideas from Kant and Plato alongside concepts from Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Schopenhauer's pessimistic worldview was tempered by his belief that aesthetic experience, compassion and ascetic renunciation could provide temporary relief from suffering. His ideas influenced thinkers including Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein and Jung, as well as artists and writers from Wagner to Tolstoy to Borges. This audiobook makes his essential philosophical insights accessible to listeners interested in philosophy and the enduring questions of human existence.