Schopenhauer

I have a shelf of Schopenhauer's work gleaned in various second-hand bookshops – he was a great aphorist and one classic remark was if only when one bought a book one could buy the time to read it in. He would have been overwhelmed by the modern production of books. This very short introduction brings him to life as a combative person and explains the main themes of his work – appearance and representation, the importance of will, his ethics and his pessimism. There is also an assessment of his considerable influence on subsequent thinkers including Wagner, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. He was also one of the first major thinkers to be influenced by Indian ideas.