Historical Dictionary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788‐1860) is popularly known today for his pessimism, his advocacy of unselfish compassion, and his disagreeable personality. His work and ideas were largely neglected in his own time. It was not until the later years of the nineteenth century, with scholars like Hartmann and Deussen, Burckhardt and Asher, and then in the twentieth century with Eric Payne's translations of Schopenhauer's work from German into English, and probably above all Wittgenstein's close knowledge of his work (revealed in Wittgenstein's Tractatus of 1922), that Schopenhauer's true range and influence were recognized.

Critical and bibliographical scholarship in this field is active,...