Sierra Cox #11 first installment Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19^th century western philosopher who was born in Gdansk, Poland on a chilly day in February 1788. Arthur was born into a Dutch ancestry family and was expected to take over his wealthy family business of international business trade, but his heart lead him in a completely different direction. Spending his childhood and teenage years traveling through Europe aloud Arthur to become multilingual and opened up a multitude of learning opportunities. Even though Schopenhauer was sufficiently more educated than most young men his age he followed his deceased father’s wishes and worked for the family apprenticeship, however after two years of this laboring he decided to leave and pursue further education and make his own life path. While studying at the University of Gottingen Arthur was introduced to the philosophical works of Immanuel Kant and Plato, and from that moment on he was inspired and ready to philosophize on his own. After writing and developing ideas of his own he was able to create books and wanted to begin teaching however his lectures did not go as well as he originally planned, but he succeeded in being the first to declare that the universe is not a logical place. Arthur described his interpretation of the world as a “WILL” in his PhD dissertation, The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and stated that this was a directionless force. Arthur spent a great deal of time observing and questioning this principal of sufficient reasoning and concluded that it seemed to be the difference of what is real and what is rational. The center place to him was not a God or rational power, but art and music. To him art was real (WILL) and made situations in life more bearable. Where most would fall to their knees and pray, Arthur found music to be more of the problem solver, thus begin the large impact in the lives of music composers and occasionally novelist. Arthur Schopenhauer inspired many and viewed life highly which is why I believe he is a great philosopher.

SOURCES:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/

Warburton, Nigel. A Little History of Philosophy.

New Haven and London, 2011. Print