The most extensive English-language study of Schopenhauer's metaphysics of the will yet published, this book represents a major contribution to Schopenhauer scholarship. Here, John E. Atwell critically but sympathetically examines the philosopher's main work, The World as Will and Representation, demonstrating that the philosophical system it puts forth does constitute a consistent whole. The author holds that this system is centered on a single thought, "The world is self-knowledge of the will." He then traces this unifying concept through the four books of The World as Will and Representation, and, in the process, dissolves the work's alleged inconsistencies.

This volume is a unique collection of philosophical essays on various aspects of Schopenhauer's understanding of the nature and character of the world through the classical philosophies of the Vedanta and Buddhism and classical and modern thinkers like Bhartṛhari, Tagore, and Wittgenstein. It includes reflective insights about Schopenhauer and the metaphysics of the world, the self, and morality from scholars who have pioneered the philosophical study of the relation between Schopenhauer and Indian schools of thoughts and intellectual history. This insightful volume is a good academic resource for further research in comparative philosophy of Schopenhauer and the Indian tradition.

Volume 1 of the definitive English translation of one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century, the basic statement in one important stream of post-Kantian thought.

The work " The Suffering of the World" comprises a selection of Arthur Schopenhauer's later writings. These texts, produced in the last decades of Schopenhauer's long life, reveal a unique type of philosophy expressed in a singular style. Avoiding the dry, all-encompassing academic philosophy tradition predominant at the time, Schopenhauer's texts mark a shift towards a philosophy of aphorisms, fragments, anecdotes, and observations, written in a literary style that is at once antagonistic, resigned, confessional, and filled with fragile contours of intellectual memoirs. Here, Schopenhauer allows himself to pose challenging questions about the fate of humankind, the role of suffering in the world, and the gap between the self and the world that increasingly defines human existence to this day. More than ever, everyday discussions revolve around the influence of passions (or the unconscious, in contemporary language) in our lives: what is the root of depression, suicide, and panic disorder? Why do these issues appear more than ever nowadays? In other words, today it is acknowledged that there are non-rational instances that greatly influence our lives, and that somehow, we need to deal with them. Thus, Schopenhauer's view of a being not strictly rational seems more relevant than ever. Schopenhauer consistently surprises the unsuspecting reader positively. He is a p hilosopher who undoubtedly deserves to be read.

Volume 2 of the definitive English translation of one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century, the basic statement in one important stream of post-Kantian thought.

"The World as Will and Idea" is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Taking the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant as his starting point, Schopenhauer argues that the world we experience around us – the world of objects in space and time and related in causal ways – exists solely as "representation" dependent on a cognizing subject, not as a world that can be considered to exist in itself. Our knowledge of objects is thus knowledge of mere phenomena rather than things-in-themselves. Schopenhauer identifies the thing-in-itself – the inner essence of everything – as will: a blind, unconscious, aimless striving devoid of knowledge, outside of space and time, and free of all multiplicity. The world as representation is, therefore, the "objectification" of the will. "The World as Will and Idea" marked the pinnacle of Schopenhauer's philosophical thought; he spent the rest of his life refining, clarifying, and deepening the ideas presented in this work without any fundamental changes.

Schopenhauer is one of the few philosophers who can be generally understood without a commentary. All his theories claim to be drawn direct from the facts, to be suggested by observation, and to interpret the world as it is; and whatever view he takes, he is constant in his appeal to the experience of common life. This characteristic endows his style with a freshness and vigor which would be difficult to match in the philosophical writing of any country, and impossible in that of Germany. If it were asked whether there were any circumstances apart from heredity, to which he owed his mental habit, the answer might be found in the abnormal character of his early education, his acquaintance with the world rather than with books, the extensive travels of his boyhood, his ardent pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and without regard to the emoluments and endowments of learning. He was trained in realities even more than in ideas; and hence he is original, forcible, clear, an enemy of all philosophic indefiniteness and obscurity; so that it may well be said of him, in the words of a writer in the Revue Contemporaine, ce n'est pas un philosophe comme les autres, c'est un philosophe qui a vu le monde. It is not my purpose, nor would it be possible within the limits of a prefatory note, to attempt an account of Schopenhauer's philosophy, to indicate its sources, or to suggest or rebut the objections which may be taken to it. M. Ribot, in his excellent little book, [Footnote: La Philosophie de Schopenhauer, par Th. Ribot.] has done all that is necessary in this direction. But the essays here presented need a word of explanation. It should be observed, and Schopenhauer himself is at pains to point out, that his system is like a citadel with a hundred gates: at whatever point you take it up, wherever you make your entrance, you are on the road to the center. In this respect his writings resemble a series of essays composed in support of a single thesis; a circumstance which led him to insist, more emphatically even than most philosophers, that for a proper understanding of his system it was necessary to read every line he had written. Perhaps it would be more correct to describe Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellungas his main thesis, and his other treatises as merely corollary to it. The essays in this volume form part of the corollary; they are taken from a collection published towards the close of Schopenhauer's life, and by him entitled Parerga und Paralipomena, as being in the nature of surplusage and illustrative of his main position. They are by far the most popular of his works, and since their first publication in 1851, they have done much to build up his fame. Written so as to be intelligible enough in themselves, the tendency of many of them is towards the fundamental idea on which his system is based. It may therefore be convenient to summarize that idea in a couple of sentences; more especially as Schopenhauer sometimes writes as if his advice had been followed and his readers were acquainted with the whole of his work.