Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- A note on texts and terminology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Schopenhauer's life and times
- 1 Schopenhauer's idealism
- 2 Empirical knowledge of the world as representation: from natural science to transcendental metaphysics
- 3 Willing and the world as Will
- 4 Suffering, salvation, death, and renunciation of the will to life
- 5 Art and aesthetics of the beautiful and sublime
- 6 Transcendental freedom of Will
- 7 Compassion as the philosophical foundation of morality
- 8 Schopenhauer's legacy in the philosophy of Nietzsche, Heidegger and the early Wittgenstein
- Notes
- Bibliography and recommended reading
- Index
8 - Schopenhauer's legacy in the philosophy of Nietzsche, Heidegger and the early Wittgenstein
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- A note on texts and terminology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Schopenhauer's life and times
- 1 Schopenhauer's idealism
- 2 Empirical knowledge of the world as representation: from natural science to transcendental metaphysics
- 3 Willing and the world as Will
- 4 Suffering, salvation, death, and renunciation of the will to life
- 5 Art and aesthetics of the beautiful and sublime
- 6 Transcendental freedom of Will
- 7 Compassion as the philosophical foundation of morality
- 8 Schopenhauer's legacy in the philosophy of Nietzsche, Heidegger and the early Wittgenstein
- Notes
- Bibliography and recommended reading
- Index
Summary
Not to my contemporaries or my compatriots, but to mankind I consign my now complete work, confident that it will not be without value to humanity, even if this value should be recognized only tardily, as is the inevitable fate of the good in whatever form … Accordingly, as the history of literature testifies throughout, everything of value needs a long time to gain authority …
(WWR 1: xviii)Years of neglect and posthumous triumph
To his dismay, Schopenhauer's philosophy was largely neglected during his lifetime. He did not obtain serious recognition for his ideas until relatively late in his career, and then only from a few enthusiastic but relatively uninfluential thinkers. His books were not well received and sold only a few copies, they were seldom and then almost always indifferently or unsympa-thetically reviewed, and they went out of print without his knowledge or permission. The scant recognition he finally began to receive toward the end of his life was not enough, and not timely enough, to satisfy him. Schopenhauer should have recognized in this situation precisely the kind of sufferings of will that his own metaphysics entailed, and it is conceivable that he may have appreciated the irony.
While Schopenhauer writes that he is not interested in popular acclaim, that he is in pursuit of truth rather than fame, the very opposite of the lionized heroes of philosophy in his day, Hegel, Fichte and Schelling, there is no doubt that he was disappointed by the lack of any meaningful recognition.
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- The Philosophy of Schopenhauer , pp. 234 - 264Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2005