Tag Archives | Arthur SCHOPENHAUER

SELECTIONS from PARERGA AND PARALIPOMENA VOLUME 2

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
15 hours 58 minutes

Volume 2 of Parerga and Paralipomena has a very different character from Volume 1. There are, in total, 31 Essays, 24 of which are presented here. The range of topics is very varied, opening with On Philosophy and Its Method and including On Pantheism, On Ethics, On Jurisprudence, On Men of Learning, On Thinking for Oneself, On Religion and The Vanity of Existence. Continue Reading →

SELECTIONS from PARERGA AND PARALIPOMENA VOLUME 1

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh and David Rintoul
15 hours 58 minutes

The two sizeable volumes of Parerga and Paralipomena hold a special place in the output of Arthur Schopenhauer. Parerga means ‘supplementary to a main work, and Paralipomena suggests a further supplement but these two books were anything BUT a casual addition to his major opus, The World as Will and Idea. For a start, it was the publication of Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851 which brought Schopenhauer to the attention of the general public, decades after The World as Will and Idea first appeared. Continue Reading →

TWO FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF ETHICS ESSAY ON THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL / THE BASIS OF MORALITY

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
20 hours 38 minutes

The essays in ‘The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics’ have a rather special place in Schopenhauer’s work, both being written as entries to Scandinavian philosophy competitions, one in Norway and the other in Sweden. ‘Essay on the Freedom of the Will’ was Schopenhauer’s response to the question posed by the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences in 1839: ‘Is it possible to demonstrate human free will from self-consciousness’. Continue Reading →

ON THE FOURFOLD ROOT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
6 hours 45 minutes

There is a cause, or a reason, behind everything that happens. This is the fundamental view behind the classical proposition, ’The Principle of Sufficient Reason’, which, in 1813, Schopenhauer chose as his subject for further examination in his doctoral dissertation On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Continue Reading →

THE WORLD AS WILL AND IDEA Volume 1

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
20 hours 31 minutes

Schopenhauer was just 30 when his magnum opus, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, a work of considerable learning and innovation of thought, first appeared in 1818. Much to his chagrin and puzzlement, (so convinced was he of its merits) it didn’t have an immediate effect on European philosophy, views and culture. Continue Reading →

THE WORLD AS WILL AND IDEA VOLUME 2

THE WORLD AS WILL AND IDEA Volume 2

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
17 hours 51 minutes

The original edition of The World as Will and Idea appeared in 1818 but in 1844 Schopenhauer published an expanded version. It contained the Criticism of the Kantian Philosophy, a lengthy document; and Supplements to the First Book (The Doctrine of the Idea of Perception) and the Second Book (The Doctrine of Perception or Knowledge Of The Understanding). Continue Reading →

THE WORLD AS WILL AND IDEA Volume 3

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by Leighton Pugh
17 hours 22 minutes

In this final part to Schopenhauer’s momentous and hugely influential work, his original and wide-ranging observations are as lively as ever. Though cast as a ‘pessimist’ by history, he is anything but that to read – and listen to. Here are the last supplementary comments his original work (published 1818), the fruit of decades of further reflection. Continue Reading →

THE WISDOM OF LIFE, COUNSELS AND MAXIMS

By Arthur Schopenhauer
Read by David Rintoul
9 hours 22 minutes

‘The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.’

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century because his humanistic, atheistic if pessimistic views chimed with a new secularism that was emerging from a Western society dominated by religion. Despite his rather forbidding image, (and a few outdated views) he is one of the most approachable of German philosophers and this is certainly evident in these two key works, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims. Continue Reading →