2021-01-11
24 分钟Arthur Schopenhauer is best known for the deep pessimism of his book The World as Will and Representation. Here we focus on a slightly less pessimistic aspect of his philosophy: his views on compassion. Very unusually for an early nineteenth century thinker, he was influenced here by his reading of Indian philosophy. David Bather Woods is the interviewee. We are very grateful for sponsorship for this episode from St John's College.
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Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy influenced thinkers as important and varied as Nietzsche and Wittgenstein.
His most famous work is the rather pessimistic the world as will and representation.
But that's not where you'll find his main treatment of ethics.
That's a bit more uplifting and includes, as David Bever Wood explains, a discussion of compassion.
David Bather woods welcome to philosophy Bites.
Hi Nigel.
It's a pleasure to be here.
The topic we're going to focus on today is Arthur Schopenhauer and compassion.
Who was Arthur Schopenhauer?
Schopenhauer was a german philosopher born in 1788, he was an outsider figure in his time.
He held an academic post briefly, but mostly he lived a life of thinking about philosophy and writing in his own time.