Arthur Schopenhauer
A brilliant, misanthropic thinker who saw a blind, striving will at the core of all existence, profoundly influencing artists and psychologists.
1788–1860 (age 72)·German philosopher·Birthday: February 22
Biography
Arthur Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation' argued that reality is a blind, suffering drive he called the Will. The son of a wealthy merchant, he inherited a fortune that freed him from academic dependence, a world he largely scorned. His philosophy synthesized Kantian idealism with Eastern concepts like Buddhism, proposing that the visible world is merely a mental representation. Beneath that surface, he claimed, churns a universal, aimless Will—a ceaseless force fueling all life. This bleak system, written with sharp literary clarity, met with initial silence. He spent his later years in Frankfurt, a solitary figure walking daily with a poodle, refining his attacks on Hegel and the era's sunny optimism. His influence grew only after his death, drawing thinkers like Nietzsche, Freud, Tolstoy, and Wagner, who found in his work a rigorous explanation for human struggle.
#1 When Arthur Was Born
The biggest hits of 1788
Arthur's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1788Born
1793Started school
1801Became a teenager
1804Could drive
1806Could vote
1809Turned 21
1818Turned 30
1828Turned 40
1838Turned 50
1848Turned 60
1858Turned 70
1860Died at 72
Key Achievements
- Authored his central philosophical work, 'The World as Will and Representation,' published in 1818 and expanded in 1844.
- Developed a metaphysical system that presented the world as the manifestation of a blind, irrational, and striving 'Will.'
- His philosophy of art and aesthetics, particularly regarding music as a direct expression of the Will, deeply influenced Richard Wagner.
- Won a prize from the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences in 1839 for his essay 'On the Freedom of the Will.'
Did You Know?
He kept a bust of Kant and a bronze statue of Buddha in his study.
Schopenhauer was fluent in Latin, Greek, French, English, and Italian.
He famously had a falling out with his mother, the novelist Johanna Schopenhauer, and they never reconciled.
He believed his poodles were incarnations of the same essential spirit, naming them all 'Atma,' a Sanskrit word for the universal self.
““Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.””
