Arthur Schopenhauer

From Philosopedia

Schopenhauer, Arthur (22 February 1788 - 21 September 1860)

Schopenhauer, a German who was the “philosopher of pessimism,” was among the first of avowed atheists.

Theism is incompatible with the responsibility of a “moral being,” he wrote, “because in theism responsibility always falls back on the Creator of that being. . . . If our will is free it is also original being, and vice versa.”

Touted as the pre-eminent pessimist, he believed that the prime mover of human life is “the will to live,” but it also is the basic cause of human suffering. When he became infected with syphilis, Schopenhauer feared he would lose what he valued most: his mind.

One of views, on tetragamy rather than monogamy, was that two men should share a woman as a wife until she was past childbearing age and then should marry a second young woman, continuing to care for the first. His Parerga and Paralipomena (1851) highlighted his deep hatred of woman, which was related to his philosophic pessimism.

Schopenhauer’s significance lies in his original conception of reality and in his compellingly argued and terrifying bleak and pessimistic vision of human existence as a meaningless, unceasing, and futile struggle, full of torment and suffering, in a hostile and godless universe. This vision still stands as a disturbing and powerful challenge to anyone of a more optimistic persuasion. In a chapter of Parerga, “Religion, A Dialogue,” he wrote,

• Faith and knowledge are related as the two scales of a balance; when the one goes up, the other goes down. . . . The power of religious dogma, when inculcated early, is such as to stifle conscience, compassion, and finally every feeling of humanity. . . . For, as you know, religions are like glow worms; they shine only when it’s dark. A certain amount of ignorance is the condition of all religions, the element in which alone they can exist. . . . To free a man from error is to give, not take away.

As pointed out by Gaskin and others, Schopenhauer thought religion is superfluous to the enforcement of morality, that “it is not true in any but a ‘flowery or allegorical’ sense. But religion is “needed” by ordinary people to give direction and form to their lives. The philosophical person may transcend religion, but he or she should not expect others to do so.”

“The fruits of Christianity,” Schopenhauer declared, “were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives in America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place.”

Corliss Lamont, observing that although Schopenhauer may have been an atheist,

• In his own way, Schopenhauer was as anthropomorphic as anyone else. For he ascribed to the cosmos the human attributes of mind, will, and evil. Instead of postulating a good Mind or an all-inclusive God at the very heart of things, he postulated an evil Will, in essence an all-inclusive Devil. The excellent lesson that Schopenhauer’s pan-Satanism teaches is that if we indulge in the pathetic fallacy of imputing to the universe qualities that emerge only in living forms, there is at least as much of a case for imputing the bad qualities as the good.

In Frankfort am Main, the Schopenhauer Society founded in 1911 continues to meet and study his views.

(See the article by Patrick Gardiner on Schopenhauer in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 7. Also see the entry for George Klein and for Gay Philosophers.)

{BDF; CE; CL; ER; EU, Rudolf Suckerstatter; PA; RAT: TYD}