Arthur Schopenhauer: Philosopher of Pessimism

Frederick Copleston and Bryan Magee discuss the work of the 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer is perhaps most famous for his extreme pessimism. Seeing the world as something horrific and bleak, he urged that we turn against it. As a follower of Immanuel Kant, he took space, time, and causality to be, not things-in-themselves, but categories of the mind through which we interpret and make sense of things. However, in contrast to Kant, Schopenhauer argued that reality must ultimately be one, a single unified whole which essentially involves "Will". There are several remarkable things about him, including the fact that he was the only major Western philosopher to draw serious and interesting parallels between Western and Eastern thought, as well as being the first major philosopher to openly identify as an atheist. He had a significant influence on many great thinkers and artists, including Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein, and Wagner. The arts were particularly important for Schopenhauer not only because he thought they give us a glimpse into the underlying reality, but because they help us to escape our individuality and thus the inherent suffering and meaningless absurdity of existence. (My Summary)

This interview is from a 1987 BBC program. Transcript/subtitles have been added.

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