This volume of translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will and Representation. In On the Fourfold Root he takes the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing is without a reason why it is, and shows how it covers different forms of explanation or ground that previous philosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wrote as his doctoral dissertation, as an essential preliminary to The World as Will. On Will in Nature examines contemporary scientific findings in search of corroboration of his thesis that processes in nature are all a species of striving towards ends; and On Vision and Colours defends an anti-Newtonian account of colour perception influenced by Goethe's famous colour theory. This is the first English edition to provide extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of these works.
This volume of translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will and Representation. In On the Fourfold Root he takes the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing is without a reason why it is, and shows how it covers different forms of explanation or ground that previous philosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wrote as his doctoral dissertation, as an essential preliminary to The World as Will. On Will in Nature examines contemporary scientific findings in search of corroboration of his thesis that processes in nature are all a species of striving towards ends; and On Vision and Colours defends an anti-Newtonian account of colour perception influenced by Goethe's famous colour theory. This is the first English edition to provide extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of these works.
Über den Autor
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher whose work made him one of the most influential and uncompromising thinkers of the nineteenth century. Born in 1788, he is best known for The World as Will and Representation, in which he argued that the underlying reality of existence is blind, striving will rather than rational order. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Schopenhauer as among the first nineteenth-century philosophers to contend that the universe is not rational at its core, a view that set him sharply apart from much of German idealism.Schopenhauer's philosophy combined metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, psychology, and a severe analysis of human desire. His thought drew on Kant, Plato, and Indian philosophy, yet its tone and conclusions were unmistakably his own: sceptical, lucid, pessimistic, and often brutally direct. He believed that suffering was inseparable from the structure of willing life, and that wisdom required discipline, detachment, compassion, and a clear-eyed understanding of human weakness.Though Schopenhauer's reputation grew slowly during his lifetime, his influence later reached deeply into literature, psychology, music, existential thought, pessimism, and modern philosophy. Writers and thinkers drawn to his work have valued not only his metaphysical system but also his penetrating style, his aphoristic force, and his refusal to flatter human vanity. Counsels and Maxims shows Schopenhauer in one of his most readable forms: not constructing a vast philosophical architecture, but applying his hard intelligence to the practical conduct of life.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
General editor's preface; Editorial notes and references; Introduction; Notes on text and translation; Chronology; Bibliography; Part I. On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason: 1. Introduction; 2. Survey of what is most important in previous teachings about the principle of sufficient reason; 3. Inadequacy of previous accounts and sketch of a new one; 4. On the first class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing in it; 5. On the second class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing in it; 6. On the third class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing in it; 7. On the fourth class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing in it; 8. General remarks and results; Variants in different editions; Collation of the two editions; Part II. On Vision and Colours: 9. On vision; 10. On colours; Variants in different editions; Part III. On Will in Nature: 11. Introduction; 12. Physiology and pathology; 13. Comparative anatomy; 14. Plant physiology; 15. Physical astronomy; 16. Linguistics; 17. Animal magnetism and magic; 18. Sinology; Reference to ethics; Conclusion; Variants in different editions; Glossary of names; Index.
