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.