Better Consciousness: Schopenhauers Philosophy of Value

Arthur Schopenhauer made original and profound contributions to aesthetics and ethics that were widely influential in the late nineteenth century, most notably on Nietzsche, but whose importance has since been underestimated.

Better Consciousness: Schopenhauer s Philosophy of Value features a collection of original essays that reassesses Schopenhauer s aesthetics and ethics and their contemporary relevance.  Contributed by leading scholars, the essays explore Schopenhauer s theories of value from a variety of philosophical approaches each governed by the question of whether they stand up to scrutiny and deserve prominence today.  Thought–provoking and informed by the latest philosophical scholarship, Better Consciousness offers a new perspective on a great thinker who crystallized the pessimism of the nineteenth century and has many points of contact with twenty–first century thought.

Preface. 1. Schopenhauer′s Philosophy of Value ( Christopher Janaway, University of Southampton, UK and Alex Neill, University of Southampton, UK ). 2. Back to Truth: Knowledge and Pleasure in the Aesthetics of Schopenhauer ( Paul Guyer, University of Pennsylvania, USA ). 3. Aesthetic Experience in Schopenhauer s Metaphysics of Will ( Alex Neill, University of Southampton, UK ). 4. Schopenhauer on Aesthetic Understanding and the Values of Art ( Bart Vandenabeele, Universiteit Gent, Belgium ). 5. Poetic Intuition and the Bounds of Sense: Metaphor and Metonymy in Schopenhauer s Philosophy ( Sandra Shapshay, Indiana University Bloomington, USA ). 6. Life is but a mirror: On the connection between ethics, metaphysics and character in Schopenhauer ( Matthias Koßler, Johannes–Gutenberg Universität, Germany ). 7. Knowledge and Selflessness: Schopenhauer and the Paradox of Reflection ( Bernard Reginster, Brown University, USA ). 8. Natural Beauty and Optimism in Schopenhauer s Aesthetics ( Robert Wicks, University of Auckland, New Zealand ). 9. Compassion and Solidarity with Sufferers: The Metaphysics of Mitleid ( David E. Cartwright, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater , USA ). 10. Schopenhauer s Politics: Ethics, Jurisprudence and The State ( Julian Young, University of Auckland, New Zealand ). 11. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Death and Salvation ( Neil Jordan, Godalming, UK ). Index.

Alex Neill is a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Southampton. His current focus is on the history of 18 th– and 19 th–century philosophical aesthetics. He is co–editor (with Aaron Ridley) of The Philosophy of Art: Readings Ancient and Modern (1995) and Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates, 3e (2007).

Christopher Janaway is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton. His research interests fall chiefly in the areas of 19th–century German philosophy and aesthetics.  His recent books include Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction (2002), Reading Aesthetics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (Blackwell, 2005), and Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche′s Genealogy (2007).