Produced by Albert Laszlo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) PHILOSOPHIES ANCIENT AND MODERN SCHOPENHAUER NOTE As a consequence of the success of the series of _Religions Ancient and Modern_, Messrs. CONSTABLE have decided to issue a set of similar primers, with brief introductions, lists of dates, and selected authorities, presenting to the wider public the salient features of the _Philosophies_ of Greece and Rome and of the Middle Ages, as well as of modern Europe. They will appear in the same handy Shilling volumes, with neat cloth bindings and paper envelopes, which have proved so attractive in the case of the _Religions_. The writing in each case will be confided to an eminent authority, and one who has already proved himself capable of scholarly yet popular exposition within a small compass. Among the first volumes to appear will be:-- =Early Greek Philosophy.= By A. W. BENN, author of _The Philosophy of Greece, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century_. =Stoicism.= By Professor ST. GEORGE STOCK, author of _Deductive Logic_, editor of the _Apology of Plato_, etc. =Plato.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR, St. Andrews University, author of _The Problem of Conduct_. =Scholasticism.= By Father RICKABY, S.J. =Hobbes.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR. =Locke.= By Professor ALEXANDER, of Owens College. =Comte and Mill.= By T. WHITTAKER, author of _The Neoplatonists, Apollonius of Tyana and other Essays_. =Herbert Spencer.= By W. H. HUDSON, author of _An Introduction to Spencer's Philosophy_. =Schopenhauer.= By T. WHITTAKER. =Berkeley.= By Professor CAMPBELL FRASER, D.C.L., LL.D. =Bergsen.= By Father TYRRELL. SCHOPENHAUER By THOMAS WHITTAKER AUTHOR OF 'COMTE AND MILL,' ETC. LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD 1909 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. LIFE AND WRITINGS, 1 II. THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE, 15 III. METAPHYSICS OF THE WILL, 29 IV. AESTHETICS, 49 V. ETHICS, 65 VI. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, 86 SELECTED WORKS, 93 SCHOPENHAUER CHAPTER I LIFE AND WRITINGS Arthur Schopenhauer may be distinctively described as the greatest philosophic writer of his century. So evident is this that he has sometimes been regarded as having more importance in literature than in philosophy; but this is an error. As a metaphysician he is second to no one since Kant. Others of his age have surpassed him in system and in comprehensiveness; but no one has had a firmer grasp of the essential and fundamental problems of philosophy. On the theory of knowledge, the nature of reality, and the meaning of the beautiful and the good, he has solutions to offer that are all results of a characteristic and original way of thinking.