Philosophy › The 19th century › G. W. F. Hegel
Arthur Schopenhauer
1788–1860· Philosopher· Reality, mind & God
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
German pessimist who taught that the world is driven by a blind, endless striving he called will, and that life is suffering.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
The idea: behind everything we perceive lies will, a restless force showing up as hunger, sexual desire, even gravity. Because will never rests, life swings between pain and boredom. He adapted Kant's split between appearances and things in themselves, and found confirmation in the Upanishads and Buddhism. Relief comes through art, above all music, compassion, and ascetic self-denial. His masterwork: The World as Will and Representation (1818). Main objection: if the thing in itself is unknowable, how can he know it is will?
Why it matters
The first major Western philosopher to engage Indian thought, he shaped Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, Freud's idea of unconscious drives, and the young Wittgenstein.
Legacy and sources
His books and manuscripts survive; he was ignored for decades until his essay collection Parerga and Paralipomena (1851) made him famous in his sixties.
Still debated
Whether his pessimism is an argument or a temperament, and how close his will is to Buddhist craving (tanha, 'thirst'), are still discussed.
Connections (4)
▸The Upanishads deeply influenced Arthur SchopenhauerWell documented
The connection
The Upanishads teach that the individual self (atman) is one with ultimate reality (brahman), and that the world of separate things is maya, illusion. Schopenhauer read this as confirming his view that individuality is mere appearance of one underlying will, and that 'tat tvam asi,' 'that art thou,' grounds compassion.
When and how
Weimar, 1813–14: the orientalist Friedrich Majer introduced him to the Oupnek'hat, a Latin translation (1801–02) of a Persian version of fifty Upanishads.
How we know
His preface to The World as Will and Representation (1818) names the Upanishads alongside Plato and Kant; in 1851 he called them 'the consolation of my life.'
Debates and open questions
Whether they shaped his system or confirmed ideas he already held; he read them through a double translation, and his blind will differs from blissful brahman.
▸G. W. F. Hegel was scorned by Arthur SchopenhauerWell documented
The connection
Schopenhauer thought Hegel betrayed Kant: reality was not reason unfolding through progress but blind, purposeless will. In 1820 he scheduled his Berlin lectures at the same hour as Hegel's; only a handful of students came, and he soon quit teaching. He spent decades calling Hegel a 'charlatan.'
When and how
University of Berlin, summer 1820; his attacks continued in prefaces and essays through the 1840s and 1850s.
How we know
University lecture catalogs record the clash; his published insults, in the 1840s ethics essays and Parerga (1851), are on the record.
Debates and open questions
How much the feud was envy, since Hegel dominated while Schopenhauer was ignored, and whether he ever seriously engaged Hegel's arguments.
▸Arthur Schopenhauer inspired Friedrich NietzscheWell documented
The connection
Nietzsche, 21, found The World as Will and Representation in a Leipzig secondhand bookshop and was converted. His first book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), builds on Schopenhauer's will and his view of music. Later he reversed the verdict: instead of denying the will, affirm life, suffering included.
When and how
Leipzig, autumn 1865; his essay 'Schopenhauer as Educator' followed in 1874, and the break showed in Human, All Too Human (1878).
How we know
Nietzsche's own account of the bookshop discovery in autobiographical notes of 1867–68, and his essay 'Schopenhauer as Educator.'
Debates and open questions
How far the 'will to power' reworks Schopenhauer's will, and whether Nietzsche escaped his pessimism or simply inverted it.
▸Arthur Schopenhauer found parallels in Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold PathWell documented
The connection
Schopenhauer held that the world is driven by a blind, endless 'will', so desire never stops and life is mostly suffering, eased only by quieting the will. Reading about Buddhism, he saw his conclusions mirrored in the first two Noble Truths and ranked it above other religions.
When and how
Germany, from the 1810s; he published The World as Will and Representation in 1818 and kept a gilded Buddha statue in his Frankfurt study.
How we know
His own words: in the 1844 second volume he concedes Buddhism 'pre-eminence' if his philosophy is the standard of truth; his library shows wide reading on it.
Debates and open questions
His core views formed before he knew much Buddhism, and he arguably misread nirvana as near-nothingness; parallel or influence is debated.