A Companion to Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer is often considered an outsider among philosophers, and yet his philosophy deeply influenced key thinkers and writers, including Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Proust, and remains a significant source of inspiration in philosophical research. A Companion to Schopenhauer offers the first comprehensive guide to the philosopher, covering all the major aspects of his work. It showcases contemporary scholarship on Schopenhauer and allows readers to engage in debates concerning Schopenhauer′s ideas on a wide range of topics.

The reference contains 25 newly commissioned chapters by prominent Schopenhauer scholars working in the field today. These cover Schopenhauer′s life and thought, and the crucial areas of his work, including: nature, knowledge and perception; world, will and life; art, beauty and the sublime; compassion, resignation and sainthood; and in–depth discussion of the context and legacy of Schopenhauer′s thought. Contributors also provide fresh treatments of his theory of the Platonic Ideas, his philosophy of resignation, his views on love and sexuality, his color theory, his relationship to Indian philosophy and to Freudian psychoanalysis, and his often neglected ideas on perception, mathematics, scientific knowledge and the will in nature.

Notes on Contributors x

Acknowledgments xiv

A Note on Cross–References xv

List of Abbreviations xvi

Introduction: Arthur Schopenhauer: The Man and His Work 1
Bart Vandenabeele

Part I Nature, Knowledge and Perception 9

1 Schopenhauer on Scientific Knowledge 11
Vojislav Bozickovic

2 Perception and Understanding: Schopenhauer, Reid and Kant 25
Paul Guyer

3 Schopenhauer s Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics 43
Dale Jacquette

4 Schopenhauer s Color Theory 60
Paul F.H. Lauxtermann

5 Schopenhauer and Transcendental Idealism 70
Douglas McDermid

Part II World, Will and Life 87

6 Schopenhauer s Philosophy of the Dark Origin 89
William Desmond

7 The Consistency of Schopenhauer s Metaphysics 105
G. Steven Neeley

8 Schopenhauer on Sex, Love and Emotions 120
Gudrun von Tevenar

9 Schopenhauer and Platonic Ideas 133
Frank C. White

10 Schopenhauer s On the Will in Nature: The Reciprocal Containment of Idealism and Realism 147
Robert Wicks

Part III Art, Beauty and the Sublime 163

11 Schopenhauer s Philosophy of Music 165
Robert W. Hall

12 Schopenhauer s Theory of Architecture 178
W. Julian Korab–Karpowicz

13 The Artist as Subject of Pure Cognition 193
Matthias Kossler

14 Schopenhauer on Tragedy and the Sublime 206
Alex Neill

15 Schopenhauer and the Objectivity of Art 219
Bart Vandenabeele

Part IV Compassion, Resignation and Sainthood 235

16 Schopenhauer on the Metaphysics of Art and Morality 237
Daniel Came

17 Schopenhauer on the Value of Compassion 249
David E. Cartwright

18 Schopenhauer and Indian Philosophy 266
David E. Cooper

19 Life–Denial versus Life–Affi rmation: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Pessimism and Asceticism 280
Ken Gemes and Christopher Janaway

20 Schopenhauer on the Inevitability of Unhappiness 300
Ivan Soll

Part V Schopenhauer s Context and Legacy 315

21 Schopenhauer and Freud 317
Stephan Atzert

22 Schopenhauer s Impact on European Literature 333
Paul Bishop

23 Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wagner 349
Bernard Reginster

24 Schopenhauer s Infl uence on Wittgenstein 367
Severin Schroeder

25 Schopenhauer s Fairy Tale about Fichte: The Origin of The World as Will and Representation in German Idealism 385
Günter Zöller

Index 403

Bart Vandenabeele is Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at Ghent University, Belgium. He has written extensively on 18th– and 19th–century philosophy, the history of aesthetics, the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of language and communication. Vandenabeele is associate editor of Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication and a member of the international advisory board of the Schopenhauer–Gesellschaft.