Author Description

Past Masters is a series of concise, lucid, and authoritative introductions to the thought of leading intellectual figures of the past whose ideas still influence the way we think today.Offering a succinct explanation of Schopenhauer's metaphysical system, this fascinating book concentrates on the original aspects of his thought which inspired many artists and thinkers such as Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. The most readable of German philosophers, Schopenhauer's central notion is that of the will--a blind, irrational force which he uses to interpret both the human mind and the whole of nature. Seeing human behavior as that of a natural organism governed by the will to live, he takes on an anti-dualist view of action, with radical insights concerning the unconscious and sexuality. Christopher Janaway confronts Schopenhauer's uncompromising, pessimistic view that for the human individual non-existence would be preferable, as well as his claim that only aesthetic experience and self-denial of the will can give life value.A small masterpiece of insight and concision, this volume offers an extremely readable introduction to one of Germany's most inspirational philosophers.