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Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
Collected here are Fourty-two short essays, previously published as seven separate books, Councils and Maxims, On Human Nature, On Religion, Studies in Pessimism, The Art of Controversy, The Art of Literature and, The Wisdom of Life. This is the most complete collection available from the world renowned philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
464 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2009
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About the author
Arthur Schopenhauer
2,033 books5,992 followersArthur 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.
He was the son of author Johanna Schopenhauer and the older brother of Adele Schopenhauer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 7, 2023
Шопенхауер е бил най-вероятно аутист и безспорен мизантроп, поради което прозренията му за обществото са ценни и на места поразяващо точни, без следа от политическа коректност дори за времето си (а днес някои от тях биха звучали на голяма част от публиката направо сквернословни).
Шопенхауер има склонността да използва доста тежък и тромав език - може би такъв е бил стилът на говорене на немски през ония години, като в тоя случай преводът на английски просто е смотан.
Друга склонност на автора е да пише нещата далеч по-дълги, отколкото е нужно, като след основната си идея, която описва добре в началото на всяко есе, добавя безбройни свързвани с нея мисли, които явно са му дошли в последствие и които, честно казано, рядко имах нервите да чета.
Прозренията му за жените биха накарали съвременните феминистки да пищят в праведен гняв и със запенена уста. Ама от друга страна те толкова много неща ги карат да правят така... ;)
Шопенхауер има склонността да използва доста тежък и тромав език - може би такъв е бил стилът на говорене на немски през ония години, като в тоя случай преводът на английски просто е смотан.
Друга склонност на автора е да пише нещата далеч по-дълги, отколкото е нужно, като след основната си идея, която описва добре в началото на всяко есе, добавя безбройни свързвани с нея мисли, които явно са му дошли в последствие и които, честно казано, рядко имах нервите да чета.
Прозренията му за жените биха накарали съвременните феминистки да пищят в праведен гняв и със запенена уста. Ама от друга страна те толкова много неща ги карат да правят така... ;)
January 30, 2016
With these essays being my first glimpse into the mind of Arthur Schopenhauer, it's hard to imagine that I could have kept reading on if somehow I'd read his essay on women as an introduction. Schopenhauer's thoughts on women are naturally hard to digest, but his insights "on the emptiness of existence" and in the other preceding essays in this collection made it ever so difficult to dismiss him as a crazy and out-of-touch bigot. I just couldn't do it. I had to try to understand why is it that what I quickly realized was one of the greatest minds I'd ever come across was so quick to transgress against one of the modern era's main ideas when it comes to refinement: equality.
Besides my allergies to bigotry, Schopenhauer's arguments on women mostly won out each time I had to consider the facts as they are and not as they should be. Admittedly, there is nothing anyone can say about all women. It's impossible to speak of women or any other group of people universally, because there are always exceptions that exist. But if the fairness of any universal statement is judged on the ratio between the number of times the assertion holds and the number of times it fails, then more often than not, I found that Schopenhauer seemed to make a lot of valid points in his observations on the character of most women, as opposed to observations on the character of some or all women.
His "dialogue on religion" was for me another one of the highlights of this collection. It reads like an unbiased game of chess that he plays against himself, but where both sides have the full measure of his very significant mental powers.
To keep this review from dragging on, I'm going to stop right here. All in all this was a great introduction to Schopenhauer.
Besides my allergies to bigotry, Schopenhauer's arguments on women mostly won out each time I had to consider the facts as they are and not as they should be. Admittedly, there is nothing anyone can say about all women. It's impossible to speak of women or any other group of people universally, because there are always exceptions that exist. But if the fairness of any universal statement is judged on the ratio between the number of times the assertion holds and the number of times it fails, then more often than not, I found that Schopenhauer seemed to make a lot of valid points in his observations on the character of most women, as opposed to observations on the character of some or all women.
His "dialogue on religion" was for me another one of the highlights of this collection. It reads like an unbiased game of chess that he plays against himself, but where both sides have the full measure of his very significant mental powers.
To keep this review from dragging on, I'm going to stop right here. All in all this was a great introduction to Schopenhauer.
July 31, 2022
I read Councils and Maxims and Religion. His overall themes of living a 'good' fulfilling life well outlined (How to bypass the underlying pessimism of life of anxiety). Religion - He makes his strong case against organized Religions and it abuses. He however shows partiality to the Hindu and Buddhist traditions
June 18, 2013
Not actually a masterpiece as I expected!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews