Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays, Volume II by Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne ISBN: 0-19-924221-6 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Schopenhauer's Claim to Fame
Comment: Actually, Parerga was not the book which S. considered to be his masterpiece; The World as Will and Representation was. But it made him famous, especially in England. It's striking too how weak human nature is, even in the case of a man considered to be both a genius and wise. Already rich by inheritance, both supremely intelligent and extremely clever, highly educated, and ultra-cynical about people, the temperamental philosopher craved FAME all his life. (He got it, just before he died.)
Not everything S. writes about in this book (or for that matter any of his other books) is relevant or interesting or correct - you may want to skip his physical theory of colors, for example. But the reader does get a sense of the range and brilliance of his multilingual mind. Many of his thoughts are timeless and true everywhere in the world.
S. caught my attention not because I'm interested in philosophy generally - I most certainly am not - but rather because he was one of Einstein's heroes, and Einstein is one of mine. Einstein loved to quote him, and apparently had his picture hanging in his office.
Interestingly, Hitler also counted S. as his hero. The only book he took to the front as a soldier in the First World War was Schopenhauer's masterpiece, and later as Fuehrer he quoted S. in long, rambling paragraphs in his own table talk. One wouldn't normally expect much in common between the greatest mind who ever lived and this anti-intellectual warmonger. Hitler was an antisemite, so perhaps that's one reason why he was attracted to S. But S. was most liberal and generous in his misanthropic hatreds - one doesn't find him discriminate for or against any particular group. Perhaps Hitler didn't know about the far more damning things S. had to say about Germans?
S. influenced many philosophers, such as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein, but I'm not familiar enough with philosophy to elaborate on this point. He also inspired many other creative minds who were not actually philosophers: Richard Wagner (a fanatical devotee to S. and to whom Hitler was also a fanatical devotee), Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Sir Winston Churchill (mentioned S. in his autobiography My Early Life), and the quantum physicist Erwin Schroedinger, among numerous others. (Notice that the last three were Nobel prizewinners?) Even the sharp-tongued and critical Wolfgang Pauli (another Nobel physicist) took him seriously. If you want to know why S. was so influential, then this is a good place to start. Parerga is easier to read than his other books, with the exception of his two essays on morality. Try to get Vol. I as well, but if you must choose, get Vol. II - it's longer and has a good index, and a good index is always useful in any book.
Start with Parerga; then after you're familiar with his philosophy, move on to his main work. But don't forget his Essay on the Freedom on the Will - which stands alone as a real masterpiece in all philosophy, even more outstanding than his other works.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Most Accessible Book Of Philosophy Ever Written
Comment: Anyone who is interested in philosophy either as a way of life, a hobby, or for its historical development cannot pass up these two volumes of essays on diverse topics written by the great German philosopher, mostly in the period 1835-1859.
Originally published in 1851, these essays created an explosion of interest in Schopenhauer when they were reviewed in England the following year, so Schopenhauer, who died at the age of 72 in 1860 enjoyed the pleasure of recognition in his old age.
Aside from his historical importance (which takes many, many forms) Schopenhauer in these essays is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand philosophy because:
He provides brief and generally accepted analyses of western philosophy from Plato to his own time,
He integrates Eastern philosophy into his own system, and into his analysis (the first major philosopher to do so),
He cross references all of his ideas to a vast corpus of literature (which in this version are all cross referenced and translated),
He is, practically alone among the great philosophers, a GREAT WRITER, by which I mean that he is simple, direct, and writes with sometimes great poetic imagery and also savage irony and wit (Hegel and his followers, people who abuse animals, feminists, or those who abuse the Judaeo-Christian tradition for hypocritical purposes get very rough treatment from Schopenhauer.)
He offers -- in his essays on writing and style -- a veritable manual of how to write well which frankly anyone who writes should consult. He also punctures with brutal humor the journalists and philosophers who destroyed the German language
for pecuniary purposes: all these comments can be carried over whole to the PC and "post-modernist" wars of our own time.
He is practically encyclopedic: virtually every intellectual current of the first half of the 19th Century is discussed in detail, from spiritualism to slavery (Schopenhauer wasn't sure of the first, but was strongly opposed to the second.)
He offers an actual study on how to live a better life, in the "Wisdom of Life" (Aphorismen zum Lebensweisheit), which is a better guide to living well than any other such guide that have been churned out regularly for the past several decades.
Criticism: Yes, Schopenhauer also puts down women, also occasionally non-whites and Jews. Then again, he is most savage with Anglican parsons and people in general, so accusations of racism, etc. simply don't add up to much. He was a misanthrope: no doubt. And he had a terrifically amusing way of expressing it.
A further plus: These Eric Payne translations were originally published in 1974 by Oxford in hardback, with some remainders given a boring cyan colored soft cover in the late '70's. The paper used then was very heavy, and stiffened and browned in a big hurry. This has been reprinted on lighter paper, acid free, and is a much more pleasing set. Volume 2 is the only one available right now, Volume 1 should be out by Christmas: get them while you can!
Rating: 5
Summary: schopenhauer, pessimist good and undefeated
Comment: Schopenhauer is still worth the read, maybe even more today in the persistence of the me generation and the collapse of any serious interest in metaphysical speculation. In turn crafty, sentimental, realistic, and realistically bitter, he never fails to stimulate. Even a case for his subtextual optimism might be interesting.
 |
Title: The World As Will and Representation (Volume 1) by Arthur Schopenhauer ISBN: 0486217612 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1966 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Schopenhauer: Prize Essay on the Freedom of the Will by Schopenhauer, Günter Zöller, Eric F. J. Payne, Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke ISBN: 0521577667 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 22 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason by Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne ISBN: 0875482015 Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: Essays and Aphorisms (The Penguin Classics) by Arthur Schopenhauer, R. J. Hollingdale ISBN: 0140442278 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: May, 1973 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Schopenhauer by Patrick Gardiner ISBN: 1855065258 Publisher: Saint Augustine's Pr Pub. Date: December, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
