On Human Nature

arthur schopenhauer thomas bailey saunders

Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher, best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation (expanded in 1844) wherein he characterizes the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will. Proceeding from the transcendental idealism of Kant, Schopenhauer developed an atheistic metaphysical and ethical system that has been described as an exemplary manifestation of philosophical pessimism, rejecting the contemporaneous post-Kantian philosophies of German idealism. He was among the first thinkers in Western philosophy to share and affirm significant tenets of Eastern philosophy (eg, asceticism), having initially arrived at similar conclusions as a result of his own philosophical work. Though his work failed to garner substantial attention in his lifetime, he has had a posthumous impact across various disciplines, including philosophy, literature, and science. His writing on aesthetics, morality, and psychology has influenced thinkers and artists up to the present day. The essays contained in On Human Nature were originally included in Parerga and Paralipomena (Greek for 'Appendices' and 'Omissions' respectively) published in 1851, a collection of philosophical reflections compiled as augmentary readings for those who had already embraced Schopenhauer's philosophy. Reprinted from the English translation by Thomas Bailey Saunders (1860-1928) in his The Essays of Schopenhauer series (1889-96), widely acknowledged as the best English translations of Schopenhauer's works.

Genres philosophynonfictionpsychologyessaysclassicspolitics

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1851

This edition

Format: 64 pages, Paperback
Published: June 12, 2006 by Echo Library
ISBN: 9781406800449
ASIN: 1406800449
Language: English

About the author

arthur schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was born in the city of Danzig (then part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; present day Gdańsk, Poland) and was a German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer attempted to make his career as an academic by correcting and expanding Immanuel Kant's philosophy concerning the way in which we experience the world.

He was the son of author Johanna Schopenhauer and the older brother of Adele Schopenhauer.