Essays

These essays come from Parerga and Paralipomena, the collection of shorter writings that finally made Schopenhauer famous in 1851, after decades of neglect. Written for general readers, they deal with everyday subjects such as reading and books, thinking for oneself, style, noise and the conduct of life, with sharp wit and the pessimism for which he is known.

Schopenhauer was one of the best prose writers among philosophers, and these essays are the easiest way into his thought. Some of his opinions, especially about women, are prejudiced even for his own century. His influence on Nietzsche, Tolstoy and Freud was enormous; see The Birth of Tragedy.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was the son of a wealthy Danzig merchant and a successful novelist. His great work, The World as Will and Representation, appeared in 1818 and was almost entirely ignored; when he taught in Berlin, he scheduled his lectures at the same hour as Hegel's, and almost no students came.

He spent the rest of his life in Frankfurt with a succession of poodles, convinced of his own genius, until his collection of essays, Parerga and Paralipomena, finally brought him fame in 1851; a selection is in the library as Essays. He was the first major Western philosopher to draw seriously on Indian thought, calling the Upanishads the consolation of his life.