Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788-1860), German philosopher, who is known for his philosophy of pessimism.

Born in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), February 22, 1788, Schopenhauer was educated at the universities of Göttingen, Berlin, and Jena. He then settled in Frankfurt am Main, where he led a solitary life and became deeply involved in the study of Buddhist and Hindu philosophies and mysticism. He was also influenced by the ideas of the German Dominican theologian, mystic, and eclectic philosopher Meister Eckhart, the German theosophist and mystic Jakob Böhme, and the scholars of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. In his principal work, The World as Will and Idea (1819; trans. 1883), he proposed the dominant ethical and metaphysical elements of his atheistic and pessimistic philosophy.

Schopenhauer disagreed with the school of idealism and was strongly opposed to the ideas of the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who believed in the spiritual nature of all reality. Instead, Schopenhauer accepted, with some qualification in details, the view of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant that phenomena exist only insofar as the mind perceives them, as ideas. He did not, however, agree with Kant that the "thing-in-itself" (Ding an sich), or the ultimate reality, lies hopelessly beyond experience. He identified it with experienced will instead. According to Schopenhauer, however, will is not limited to voluntary action with foresight; all the experienced activity of the self is will, including unconscious physiological functionings. This will is the inner nature of each experiencing being and assumes in time and space the appearance of the body, which is an idea. Starting from the principle that the will is the inner nature of his own body as an appearance in time and space, Schopenhauer concluded that the inner reality of all material appearances is will; the ultimate reality is one universal will.

For Schopenhauer the tragedy of life arises from the nature of the will, which constantly urges the individual toward the satisfaction of successive goals, none of which can provide permanent satisfaction for the infinite activity of the life force, or will. Thus, the will inevitably leads a person to pain, suffering, and death and into an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, and the activity of the will can only be brought to an end through an attitude of resignation, in which the reason governs the will to the extent that striving ceases.

This conception of the source of life in will came to Schopenhauer through insights into the nature of consciousness as essentially impulsive. He revealed a strong Buddhist influence in his metaphysics and a successful confluence of Buddhist and Christian ideas in his ethical doctrines. From the epistemological point of view, Schopenhauer's ideas belonged to the school of phenomenology.

Renowned for his hostile attitude toward women, Schopenhauer subsequently applied his insights to a consideration of the principles underlying human sexual activity, arguing that individuals are driven together not by feelings of sentimental love but by the irrational impulses of the will. The influence of Schopenhauer's philosophy may be seen in the early works of the German philosopher and poet Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, in the music dramas of the German composer Richard Wagner, and in much of the philosophical and artistic work of the 20th century. Schopenhauer died September 21, 1860.