Arthur Schopenhauer

Born: 1788 | Died: 1860

Philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer was born in Danzig in northeastern Germany (now Gdansk, Poland). His father was a successful businessman and his mother a writer. When Danzig was annexed by Poland, five year old Schopenhauer and his family moved to Hamburg in search for better conditions for his father’s business.

Schopenhauer traveled throughout Europe with his family and studied at Goettingen, Jena and Berlin. His father died in 1805 from an apparent suicide and the relationship with his mother became increasingly difficult because of opposing mentalities and views on lifestyle. Schopenhauer disapproved of his mother’s aspirations to the free and congenial culture of writers and nonconformists.

Schopenhauer’s philosophy in the US and around the world is frequently called the philosophy of pessimism. However, Thomas Mann referred to his “pessimist humanity,” and today some would merely call him a realist. One of the central themes in Schopenhauer’s work is the function of will, and he argues that the nature of the world is will, as presented in his most famous book “The World as Will and Idea,” which greatly influenced composer Richard Wagner and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

A cholera epidemic in 1831 forced Schopenhauer to flee Berlin. He moved to Frankfurt where he remained for the rest of his life. Schopenhauer died in 1860.

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