The Wisdom Of Life And Other Essays

1932. One of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century, Schopenhauer seems to have had more impact on literature and on people in general than on academic philosophy. His system of philosophy was based on that of Kant's. Schopenhauer did not believe that people had individual wills but were rather simply part of a vast and single will that pervades the universe and that the feeling of separateness that each of has is but an illusion. This sounds much like the Spinozistic view or the Naturalistic School of philosophy. The difference with Schopenhauer is that, in his view, the cosmic will is wicked...and the source of all endless suffering. His masterpiece of philosophical writing is The World as Will and Idea. From the Preface: In these pages I shall speak of The Wisdom of Life in the common meaning of the term, as the art, namely, of ordering our lives so as to obtain the greatest possible amount of pleasure and success; an art the theory of which may be called eudoemonology, for it teaches us how to lead a happy existence. The Contents are divided into the following sections: The Wisdom of Life; The Art of Literature; and Studies in Pessimism. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.