The Essential Schopenhauer: Key Selections from The World As Will and Representation and Other Writings (Harper Perennial Modern Thought)

An excellent collection of well-selected selections, giving you likely all you’ll ever need to appreciate Schopenhauer’s general philosophy and particular insights.

Good book

This book contains selections from several of Schopenhauer's main works. As a result, there is a certain awkward choppiness, especially when he references some other part of the original work that is no longer there to be referred to. I do not recommend this book for people who are new to Schopenhauer, because I think it skews to his more provocative aspects, like his discussion of women, and does not do him the credit he deserves for his long, involved and equally interesting arguments. I would recommend reading The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1, and The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics, both of which are given piecemeal in this book.

Excellent selection.

Excellent

After studying philosophy for over 35 years, I've come to the conclusion that Arthur Schopenhauer is the greatest philosopher that has ever lived. He doesn't sugar coat anything. Sure, his philosophy is hard to swallow in our present age of liberal ignorance... or should I say decadence! He calls a spade, a spade; most people can't handle the truth. But facts are facts. And no, PJ, he wasn't a sexist pig; he was just stating facts. But being a woman, you let your emotions take control of you and spouted off with a bad review. By doing so you proved him correct in his observation concerning women. You can't kill Schopenhauer with one bad review; it was ignorant to even try. He is immortal and his books and philosophy will last forever; yet the question is thus: Will mankind be intelligent enough to embrace such a philosophy and actually put it into practice? I doubt it. The World As Will And Re-presentation is the greatest single gift that anyone has offered to our species. But like most gifts, it has gone unappreciated. Such is the nature of our ignorant species. Nonetheless, Schopenhauer wasn't wrong about anything; so if anyone out there is interested in acquiring a life-changing philosophy, ditch the fluffy self-help section of your local bookstore or library and buy THIS book! Then read ALL of his books! And lastly, put what you have read into practice. This is a life-changing philosophy, but be warned... it's not for the faint of heart.

Some of the smarter people that reviewed this collection commented on the selection, editing and so forth, and were not too happy. I can’t tell you if this book is a good collection of Schopenhauer’s work or not, I will leave that to the eggheads. What I can say to you is that the essays contained in this book changed my life. Lots of seemingly bad news in this book; “life is suffering” etc., but I found myself feeling relieved rather than depressed. These essays were uplifting, despite the apparent bad news. Why was I relieved and uplifted? Buy the book and found out! Maybe some Schopenhauer scholars will find flaws in it, but if you are a layperson you might love it!

A very good selection, and I especially loved the chapters on mystics and on mortality. These were so inspiring, it makes one question the label of "pessimism." To make the book even better, an introductory overview of Schopenhauer's philosophy and key ideas, as well as chapter introductions and commentary, would make the book perfect. However, for the source material, I give it 4 stars.

Essence of his magnum opus

This is heavy stuff, for a pea brain such as I. Each time I pick it up, and have to re read a page ten times, and then I am confused.But I think I get the gist. "Life is S*** and then you die"Job done.

This is an excellent book but if you are the first time reader of Schopenhauer then prefer Essays and Aphorisms. This is not an easy read.

Crazy cat....interesting read

As expected.