This series shows no signs of slowing down. Several volumes have been reviewed in these columns, most recently a large volume on Hegel (Houlgate and Baur, 2011) (RR 2012/154). The format will now be familiar: a collection of essays by separate academic authors covering a variety of topics related to the philosopher or philosophical field in question. The publishers claim that this is “the first comprehensive guide to the philosopher, covering all the major aspects of his work”. This is perhaps overstating the case since there is a volume on Schopenhauer in the Cambridge Companions series (Janaway, 1999) (RR 2000/224) and he has also been the subject of a number of volumes by single authors in recent years who have covered the range of his thought. But as a collection by several hands, this is a more substantial work than the one published by Cambridge, having 25 chapters to the latter's 14.
In the book's Introduction, the editor acknowledges that Schopenhauer has been comparatively neglected by modern philosophers, but goes on to say claim that “engaging with Schopenhauer's philosophy is a tremendously rewarding experience”. His name is generally linked with pessimism, but reading Schopenhauer is, in fact, a challenging and bracing experience. One reason is that he is such a vivid writer, crisp in phrasing, and rich in metaphors. Another reason is the range of his interests, particularly in the arts. Bertrand Russell commented that he has always appealed to “artistic and literary people”. On p. 333 of this volume there is a list of the writers he has influenced; Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Zola, Proust, Hardy, Conrad, Beckett are just a few of these names.
This survey of Schopenhauer's thought has five parts, in each of which there are five chapters. It begins with the more technical aspects of his ideas in Part One: Nature, Knowledge and Perception, including chapters on scientific knowledge, perception and understanding (by the eminent Kant scholar, Paul Guyer), philosophy of logic and mathematics, and the relation to Kant. Part Two: World, Will and Life, engages closely with Schopenhauer's metaphysics and his central notion of the Will. Schopenhauer's Philosophy of the Dark Origin by William Desmond, is especially effective, while Gudrun von Tevenar brings out well how he was one of the first to deal philosophically with sex and love. The chapters of Part Three, Art, Beauty and the Sublime, show the range of his aesthetic interests, with discussions of his views on music, architecture and tragedy. These interests of Schopenhauer's have been part of the attraction he has exercised over other writers, and Part Five, Schopenhauer's Context and Legacy, goes into this in detail, including chapters on his influence on Freud, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. But perhaps the most attractive part of Schopenhauer's philosophy, and one to be set against his pessimism, is his compassion, or what the editor calls his “deeply human concern with the sufferings, pleasures and values of human (and animal) existence”. It is in Part Four, Compassion, Resignation and Sainthood, that these topics are covered in detail, with a chapter on compassion itself, one on his relation to Indian philosophy (for Schopenhauer was the first western philosopher to take an interest in Eastern thought), and one which is a robust and effective challenge to Schopenhauer's pessimism.
In general this volume is one that is both sympathetic to Schopenhauer and critical. As implied earlier, Schopenhauer is a philosopher who is easy to read, but the difficulties, the ambiguities and inconsistencies, lie below the surface. This volume as a whole does a fine job in discussing these. And, unlike the volume on Hegel, this one can be used by students and readers new to Schopenhauer; this will be a good companion.
