Schopenhauer is considered to be the most readable of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinkers including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Schopenhauer's central notion is that of the will--a blind, irrational force that he uses to interpret both the human mind and the whole of nature. Seeing human behavior as that of a natural organism governed by the will to life, Schopenhauer developed radical insights concerning the unconscious and sexuality which influenced both psychologists and philosophers

Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

Politics & Social Sciences

Janaway, Christopher

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

German Philosophers contains studies of four of the most important German theorists: Kant, arguably the most influential modern philosopher; Hegel, whose philosophy inspired a vision of a communist society that for more than one hundred years enlivened revolutionary movements around the world; Schopenhauer, renowned for his pessimistic view that for human individual non-existence would be preferable; and Nietzsche, who has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum of people. Written by leading scholars in the field, German Philosophers is the only work to bring together texts on the four philosophers who represent a central school of German philosophy. With a Foreword by Sir Keith Thomas and extensive notes for further reading, this handy volume serves as an easy-to-use introduction for the beginning philosophy student and a quick and comprehensive reference for scholars.

German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche

Singer, Peter

TANNER, MICHAEL

Scruton, Roger

This book offers a succinct introduction to Schopenhauer's metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of thought which inspired many artists and thinkers such as Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Christopher Janaway confronts Schopenhauer's uncompromising, pessimistic view that for the human individual non-existence would be preferable, and his claim that only aesthetic experience and saintly self-denial - escape from the will - can give life value.

Schopenhauer (Past Masters)

German Philosophers contains studies of four of the most important German theorists: Kant, arguably the most influential modern philosopher; Hegel, whose philosophy inspired a vision of a communist society that for more than one hundred years enlivened revolutionary movements around the world; Schopenhauer, renowned for his pessimistic view that for human individual non-existence would be preferable; and Nietzsche, who has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum of people. Written by leading scholars in the field, German Philosophers is the only work to bring together texts on the four philosophers who represent a central school of German philosophy. With a Foreword by Sir Keith Thomas and extensive notes for further reading, this handy volume serves as an easy-to-use introduction for the beginning philosophy student and a quick and comprehensive reference for scholars.

German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche (Past Masters)

Images of Excellence: Plato's Critique of the Arts

This original new book argues for a reassessment of Plato's challenge to the arts. Plato was the first great figure in Western philosophy to assess the value of the arts; he argued in the Republic that traditionally accepted forms of poetry, drama, and music are unsound. While this view has been widely rejected, Janaway argues that Plato's hostile case is a more coherent and profound challenge to the arts than has sometimes been supposed. Denying that Plato advocates "good art" in any modern sense, Janaway seeks both to understand Plato's critique in the context of his own philosophy and to locate him in today's philosophy of art, showing how issues in aesthetics arise from responses to his charges.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Clarendon Press

This original new book argues for a reassessment of Plato's challenge to the arts. Plato was the first great figure in Western philosophy to assess the value of the arts; he argued in the Republic that traditionally accepted forms of poetry, drama, and music are unsound. While this view has been widely rejected, Janaway argues that Plato's hostile case is a more coherent and profound challenge to the arts than has sometimes been supposed. Denying that Plato advocates "good art" in any modern sense, Janaway seeks both to understand Plato's critique in the context of his own philosophy and to locate him in today's philosophy of art, showing how issues in aesthetics arise from responses to his charges.

Janaway provides a detailed and critical account of Schopenhauer's central philosophical achievement: his account of the self and its relation to the world of objects. The author's approach to this theme is historical, yet is designed to show the philosophical interest of such an approach. He explores in unusual depth Schopenhauer's often ambivalent relation to Kant, and highlights the influence of Schopenhauer's view of self and world on Wittgenstein and Nietzsche, as well as tracing the many points of contact between Schopenhauer's thought and current philosophical debates about the self.

Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

About the Author\nChristopher Janaway, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southampton\nChristopher Janaway is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton, UK, and was previously Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. He is general editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer, and was principal investigator on the research project 'Nietzsche and Modern Moral Philosophy' funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. His publications include Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy, Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction, Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy , and the edited collections Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator, The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer, and Better Consciousness: Schopenhauer's Philosophy of Value.\nThis book brings together fourteen essays by Christopher Janaway on the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. They illuminate central philosophical issues in the work of these thinkers - the death of God, the meaning of existence, suffering, compassion, the will, Christian values, the affirmation or negation of life. Some of the essays concern Schopenhauer in his own right, focusing on his concept of will to life, an underlying drive which constitutes our inner essence, but which traps us in self-centred desire, a wrong identification of our true self with the human individual, an egoistic conception of the good, conflict with other beings, and an existence pervaded by suffering. Opposed to the will to life stands everything of real value: art, morality, and the kind of redemption from suffering recognized by mystics from several of the world's religions. Other essays discuss Nietzsche's critical responses to Schopenhauer, and his own challenging views on related topics. For 
Nietzsche, morality is a questionable phenomenon and egoism is wrongly maligned; suffering is an enhancement of life, and the attempt to eliminate it is impoverishing; art is full, not drained, of willing; the world religions and the whole idea of being saved from our life are symptoms of a malaise from which modern culture has somehow to recover. The book also features discussions of the reception of Schopenhauer by two contemporaries of Nietzsche, Richard Wagner and the analyst of pessimism, Olga Plümacher.

Essays on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche: Values and the Will of Life

Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy

Christopher Janaway presents a full commentary on Nietzsche's most studied work, On the Genealogy of Morality, and combines close reading of key passages with an overview of Nietzsche's wider aims. Arguing that Nietzsche's goal is to pursue psychological and historical truths concerning the origins of modern moral values, Beyond Selflessness differs from other books on Nietzsche in that it emphasizes the significance of his rhetorical methods as an instrument of persuasion. Nietzsche's outlook is broadly naturalist, but he is critical of typical scientific and philosophical methods for their advocacy of impersonality and suppression of the affects. In contrast to his opponents, Schopenhauer and Paul Rée, who both account for morality in terms of selflessness, Nietzsche believes that our allegiance to a post-Christian morality that centres around selflessness, compassion, guilt, and denial of the instincts is not primarily rational but affective: underlying feelings, often ambivalent and poorly grasped in conscious thought, explain our moral beliefs. The Genealogy is designed to detach the reader from his or her allegiance to morality and prepare for the possibility of new values. In addition to examining how Nietzsche's "perspectivism" holds that one can best understand a topic such as morality through allowing as many of one's feelings as possible to speak about it, Janaway shows that Nietzsche seeks to enable us to "feel differently": his provocation of the reader's affects helps us grasp the affective origins of our attitudes and prepare the way for healthier values such as the affirmation of life (as tested by the thought of eternal return) and the self-satisfaction to be attained by "giving style to one's character".

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Janaway, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Janaway, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Janaway, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche

Schopenhauer (Past Masters)

German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche (Past Masters)

Images of Excellence: Plato's Critique of the Arts

Images of Excellence: Plato's Critique of the Arts

Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy

Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy

Essays on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche: Values and the Will of Life

Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche's Genealogy