With the publication of the Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851, there finally came some measure of the fame that Schopenhauer thought was his due. Described by Schopenhauer himself as 'incomparably more popular than everything up till now', the Parerga is a miscellany of essays addressing themes that complement his work The World as Will and Representation, along with more divergent, speculative pieces. It includes his 'Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life', reflections on fate and clairvoyance, trenchant views on the philosophers and universities of his day, and an enlightening survey of the history of philosophy. The present volume offers a new translation, a substantial introduction explaining the context of the essays, and extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of the work. This readable and scholarly edition will be an essential reference for those studying Schopenhauer, the history of philosophy, and nineteenth-century German philosophy.
With the publication of the Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851, there finally came some measure of the fame that Schopenhauer thought was his due. Described by Schopenhauer himself as 'incomparably more popular than everything up till now', the Parerga is a miscellany of essays addressing themes that complement his work The World as Will and Representation, along with more divergent, speculative pieces. It includes his 'Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life', reflections on fate and clairvoyance, trenchant views on the philosophers and universities of his day, and an enlightening survey of the history of philosophy. The present volume offers a new translation, a substantial introduction explaining the context of the essays, and extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of the work. This readable and scholarly edition will be an essential reference for those studying Schopenhauer, the history of philosophy, and nineteenth-century German philosophy.
Über den Autor
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher whose work made him one of the most influential and uncompromising thinkers of the nineteenth century. Born in 1788, he is best known for The World as Will and Representation, in which he argued that the underlying reality of existence is blind, striving will rather than rational order. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Schopenhauer as among the first nineteenth-century philosophers to contend that the universe is not rational at its core, a view that set him sharply apart from much of German idealism.Schopenhauer's philosophy combined metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, psychology, and a severe analysis of human desire. His thought drew on Kant, Plato, and Indian philosophy, yet its tone and conclusions were unmistakably his own: sceptical, lucid, pessimistic, and often brutally direct. He believed that suffering was inseparable from the structure of willing life, and that wisdom required discipline, detachment, compassion, and a clear-eyed understanding of human weakness.Though Schopenhauer's reputation grew slowly during his lifetime, his influence later reached deeply into literature, psychology, music, existential thought, pessimism, and modern philosophy. Writers and thinkers drawn to his work have valued not only his metaphysical system but also his penetrating style, his aphoristic force, and his refusal to flatter human vanity. Counsels and Maxims shows Schopenhauer in one of his most readable forms: not constructing a vast philosophical architecture, but applying his hard intelligence to the practical conduct of life.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
General editor's preface; Editorial notes and references; Introduction; Notes on text and translation; Chronology; Bibliography; Parerga and Paralipomena: Volume 1; Preface; Sketch of a history of the doctrine of the Ideal and the Real; Fragments for the history of philosophy; On university philosophy; Transcendent speculation on the apparent deliberateness in the fate of the individual; Essay on spirit-seeing and related issues; Aphorisms on the wisdom of life; Versions of Schopenhauer's text; Glossary of names.
