Essays of Schopenhauer

About the book

This selection places Schopenhauer's reflections on authorship, style, noise, education, and independent thinking beside essays concerned with religion, love, death, and the emptiness of existence. The movement between everyday annoyance and philosophical generalization is central to its character. A complaint about distraction or secondhand learning becomes an argument about the conditions under which a person can think for themselves. Elsewhere, apparently personal motives are interpreted through the larger pressures of life and desire. The collection also includes sweeping prejudices, notably in its essay on women, which require readers to distinguish incisive observation from unsupported generalization. Its appeal lies in a forceful and highly individual critical voice, offering accessible points of entry into Schopenhauer's concerns without presenting the systematic architecture of his major philosophical work.

• Independent thought
• Desire and suffering
• Literary judgment

Why read it

For a varied encounter with Schopenhauer's critical voice, from the craft of writing to the assumptions behind everyday desire.

Essay selection · translated by Sara Hay Goddard Dircks, credited as Mrs. Rudolf Dircks