An exploration of the life, philosophy and influence of Schopenhauer. This lecture, the third in my series covering German thinkers, was presented by Wesley Cecil PhD at Peninsula College.
Пікірлер: 145
@pillmuncher674 жыл бұрын
Some fun Schopenhauer facts: After the woman died who he allegedly had thrown down the stairs, he wrote this little poem in Latin: "obit anus, abit onus" -- "The old lady died, the burden is gone". Note the wordplay with the Latin word for "old lady". He played the flute. He practiced every day. His favorite composers were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. He had a poodle named Atman. He owned a little gold-plated Buddha statue from Tibet. When his maid first saw it she laughed and said it looked like a tailor. Schopenhauer replied: "When have I ever blasphemed your god? So don't blaspheme mine." Through a common acquaintance the young Richard Wagner sent him the sheet music for one of his operas. Schopenhauer said "Tell your friend he should quit music, he's a much more talented writer." Schopenhauer lived very close to the Main river. One night, as he walked home across a bridge, he saw someone drowning below. Without hesitation he jumped into the river and saved a young man's life who had attempted suicide. For his whole life he kept in touch with this man, and never bragged about it. He had a child with a ballet dancer (AFAIR), but it died in infancy and the relationship ended soon. He wrote: "Was die Frauen betrifft, so war ich ihnen sehr gewogen, hätten sie mich nur haben wollen." -- "As far as the women are concerned, I was very affectionate towards them, if only they had wanted me." Also his sister Adele was an exceptionally gifted writer. She was very lonely and suffered, like her father and probably also her brother Arhtur, from a life-long depression. Her diaries are wonderfully sad. After Napoleon I. Bonaparte had conquered Danzig, Schopenhauer's father, a devout republican, moved to Hamburg. It is unclear to me if he ever applied for citizenship, but his son Arthur remained stateless all his life and was proud of it. He translated Baltasar Gracián's book The Art of Worldly Wisdom from Spanish into German (Baltasar Graciáns Handorakel Und Kunst Der Weltklugheit). While Goethe wrote his Farbenlehre Schopenhauer was his assistant. Years later, after he had written his own Farbenlehre, he was surprised to find that Goethe wasn't amused. He'd thought he was improving the work of Goethe, while Goethe thought, his book was already the definitive work on the subject. Turns out, both were scientifically wrong, but both their works inspired many artists. Leo Tolstoi was a fan. So were the young Friedrich Nietzsche and the young Ludwig Wittgenstein.
@JB-jr8zw4 жыл бұрын
Exceptional comment.
@lukaswolczyk32364 жыл бұрын
Atma not atman,means the soul of the universe in Sanskrit.
@Loenthall884 жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing these interesting it's an information on schopenhauer. It always sheds light on the person to know more about that individuals life.
@pillmuncher674 жыл бұрын
@@lukaswolczyk3236 You're correct. But Schopenhauer read the German translation of the Persian translation of the Upanishads and there it was called Atman, I believe.
@pillmuncher674 жыл бұрын
@@Sideroxylon In my youth, I was a Schopenhauer fan boy and read about everything I could get a hold of. The best biography IMO is "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy" by Rüdiger Safranksi. I read the German original, though, not because I'm pretentious, but because I'm German. :)
@TopekaStateHospital4 жыл бұрын
" The worst is yet to come " . - Arthur Schopenhauer.
@taketheredpill145210 ай бұрын
LOL
@Dave-zb1zv2 жыл бұрын
Schopenhauer was actually enlightened. He perceived the fact that the moment after experiencing something it has been stored in memory. After that, thinking-feeling- picturing in ones head, in other words all thinking is based in the past. The mind actually lives in the past. Everything is compared in every way to what it already has stored in memory. We are ctually continusously dwelling in the past and completely unaware of it for the most part.
@adaptercrash Жыл бұрын
Kant already did that
@seanericanderson36664 жыл бұрын
Dear Wes, you are a wonderful lecturer. Cheers from Ottawa.
@hunterdutkiewicz29934 жыл бұрын
Hey Wes! You are a fantastic lecturer! I've been listening to your lectures for a few years now, and I always find your humor, candor, storytelling, and information helpful and provoking. Keep it up man!
@MexTexican Жыл бұрын
I 🧡 Schopenhauer. Thank you for this and for everything dear Cecil.
@tristants92093 жыл бұрын
25:46 By the way Upanishads are not Buddhist texts. These are Vedic writings that belong to Hinduism.
@xstephanx944 жыл бұрын
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES DUDE!!! ITS THAT TIME OF THE MONTH!
@JB-jr8zw4 жыл бұрын
Period?
@Cope3932 жыл бұрын
@@JB-jr8zw no…those are exclamation points
@JB-jr8zw2 жыл бұрын
@@Cope393 wooshh
@Cope3932 жыл бұрын
@@JB-jr8zw sorry, had to 😜
@tigerlilysoma5882 жыл бұрын
It's the 1st of the month? So cash your checks and come on? With like some Lil' Jon mixed in? He says yeah and okay not yes though... Jus so you know. And Bone Thugs are pretty worn out. I also don't see wat their song has to do with Pessimism? Your weird dude
@firstal37992 жыл бұрын
This is one of your best videos. I really liked Schopenhauer.
@demoncard11804 жыл бұрын
"Marty! I went back in time and became a philosopher instead! Set the date on the car to 21/11/2019 and check Wes's KZfaq channel!"
@mykura20182 жыл бұрын
Great stuff about Schopenhauer This guy is very knowledgable = proffesional. Highly recomended.
@juanjolozadap49453 жыл бұрын
Awesome lecture! I haven't yet gotten to read a lot of philosopher's original works, but this kind of priming certainly helps me know if I want to get into it or not... Request: FREUD!
@yurihungrifreeprincesslati80254 жыл бұрын
I never knew I was searching for your lecture :)
@miguelrivera9878 Жыл бұрын
excellent lecture thanks for posting!
@JacquesduPlessis113 жыл бұрын
Not sure if you read thse comments @Wes Cecil, but I have really enjoyed your Germans series so far, and am excited to listen to your translation of Thus spake Zarathustra. Thanks for the wonderful content! As a small question - did you know your Germans' playlist contains only one video of the series? Just thought I would ask, as it might be an oversight. Thanks again for the wonderful content :)
@gaurav984504 Жыл бұрын
Jiddu Krishnamurti "The word is not the thing" == Schopenhauer "Will & Representation" - Whole of Kant & Schopenhauer is summed in one adage of Jiddu Krishnamurti's "The observer is the observed"
@Cantbuyathrill4 жыл бұрын
I love this talk! It's shopping hour for schopenhauer books.
@noahqyain7311 Жыл бұрын
What did you buy?
@josephbuccati23692 жыл бұрын
Wes, Thank you for this fantastic contribution to the philosophic community, for this video and for three dozen others! Your lectures have opened many a mind to the rich history of Western philosophy: the marvelous stories that fill its annals, its capacity to augment human consciousness, and its inestimable influence on contemporary life. I bid you good health, happiness, and fulfillment as you continue on in your own pedagogical journey; and hope you remain committed to this KZfaq channel for many years to come!
@vygotsky174 жыл бұрын
Great. Thanks for doing Schopenhauer. Have you any plans to do Lacan?
@lovemonster72834 жыл бұрын
To tell me to get back to the content itself instead of exhort myself to share your thoughts on HIS ART that he probably never agreed upon his last thought to the next coming if not he wouldn't have become a out of his mind, thinker but a serious, productive and useful member of his nation. Thank you for your advice the only produce that could be paid to never been given!
@user-vs6eb2zw2s4 жыл бұрын
Fantastic!
@Deelystaniel Жыл бұрын
Wonderful, thanks
@thebrocialist83004 жыл бұрын
Very insightful. Great oration as well.
@walterbishop36684 жыл бұрын
Finally!
@bourehimyoussef1114 жыл бұрын
Does the the representation part include the subconscious.
@bernardliu85262 жыл бұрын
How come the good professor totally ignored the nihilistic, pessimistic strand in Schopenhauer, for which he was most well-known ? In fact, he was dubbed ‘The Misanthropist of Frankfurt’. He opined, for instance, something like life is a business that will always lose money, and, for sure, will end in bankruptcy.
@followtheciaence2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
@axiomtv54814 жыл бұрын
Hey Mr. Cecil. I have finished my book, W.I.L.D., What Is Life Definitively -- which relies on Schopenhauer along with some other great philosophers. I would love for an awesome mind such as yourself to review it whenever possible. Merci beaucoup.
@juanjolozadap49453 жыл бұрын
Request: Emil Cioran
@AmonsRealm2 жыл бұрын
25:54 what is that Buddhist text the Apana sha?
@Pulzyfr2 жыл бұрын
Hindu text, actually The title is Upanishads and they are very much worth reading
@aurora36554 жыл бұрын
What do you recommend as reading?
@urbanberg80344 жыл бұрын
I would recommand the appendixes to the second edition of "The World as Will and Representation“ which are "On Death and Its Relation to the Indestructibility of Our Inner nature“ and mainly "On The Metaphysics of Sexual Love“
@vandercecil94493 жыл бұрын
Wheñ & why did the title change the word "idea" to "representation"?
@MegaAluchi2 жыл бұрын
I would have become Schopenhaur's and Nietzsche friend easily. I studied the later in Existensialism but not the former. I love bith and the make great sense to me.
@BlissfulMisanthrope3 жыл бұрын
Prof! Thank you so much
@adaptercrash Жыл бұрын
I love you man for defining reality towards the future as an action produced intuition instead of some isolated guy who just sits there. Not many peoples wanted to study kants transcdental doctrines. Your biology is all manic.
@Gabi-tw5es4 жыл бұрын
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not as useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over. -Schopenhauer It seems like your teacher didn't really understand Schopenhauer since he gave you his master work to read as an "introduction".
@shadowforger20353 жыл бұрын
How can you not despise das Man. He would love me. Ever see Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men? Same as Shopenhauer.
@strato51353 жыл бұрын
This channel is severely under-subscribed
@firstal37992 жыл бұрын
Many vydriscwerdcrdjen furniture thfn hputvibdvj on
@pianomanhere2 жыл бұрын
Frequently, at least a selective misanthropy is justifiable. Cure the world of its toxic positivity. Embrace Schopenhauer.
@zumzumman5135Ай бұрын
I do agree WAWR is a colossal work and takes some time to read but I disagree with labelling it incomprehensible. Quite the contrary, it’s about as clear as philosophy gets.
@tatianadekun90874 жыл бұрын
Finally!! OMG . Thanks! 😀 BTW he's from Danzig
@ka-bapraxis58874 жыл бұрын
If reading too much hinders a person's ability to think for themselves. What is the proper method to assimilate the information that is read with time to comprehend the read material?
@pillmuncher674 жыл бұрын
Just read exactly the right amount.
@walterbishop36684 жыл бұрын
Just don't swallow
@JB-jr8zw4 жыл бұрын
Make your own material once you feel you have read enough material.
@roygbiv1764 жыл бұрын
Read the right things but also give yourself some time alone to reflect on things, for instance go for walks.
@ka-bapraxis58874 жыл бұрын
@@roygbiv176 thank you for your insight
@Andrew_Cotton2 жыл бұрын
But Schopenhauer, although he has complete access to his own mind, as we do vis a vis our own, the mind- the whole psyche- remained unknown inscrutable and impenetrable to him, as it does for us all, due to the substratum of the unconscious mind. And that's the paradox of the psyche- its completely accessible to us yet remains elusive obscure and unknowable by us. It would take about another 50 years until Freud came on the scene who popularized the notion of the unconscious and shed light for the first time on whst lies beneath seemingly the innocuous surface appearance of things. Freud, Jung and Adler figured out quite revolutionarily that negative painful and alien emotions and experiences get sublimated and pushed down into the unconscious. But that energy has to go somewhere. It's transferred and redirected by the unconscious and released or discharged in dreams, conscious thought and behavior, slips of the tongue and parapraxis which are mistakes. Thus if im having a polite conversation with my associate Dr. Livingstone abd I refer to Dr. Freud as Dr. "Fraud", Freud would say that its not merely a mistake. There are no mistakes. What we call a mistake really evinces and is the manifestation of feelings of bitterness hostility and professional resentment towards him, and because those thoughts are unpleasant and represent something the ego rejects or fails to recognize about itself, I've sublimated the thoughts into my unconscious where they emerged later in the "mistake " I made.
@Dave-zb1zv2 жыл бұрын
Thinking is the response of memory. If you had no memory you could not think. You could not repeat a feeling. Nor the pictures in the head. The mind is conditioned to obey social pressure and political propoganda, The Norms keep society frozen in Time and at war within and without and between.
@IDraganM2 жыл бұрын
Did Chicago school or any other economists get actual Nobel prize or self awarded one? I assume you are aware of the difference...
@tommot77553 жыл бұрын
Wagner prroved Schopenhauer by creating music which drives our subconsciousness crazy. e.g. Tristan & Isolde
@aurora36554 жыл бұрын
I think a lot of ppl who come into contact with Buddha-dogma, do so because Buddhism is more akin to philosophy than religion. It's a philisophical practice that is practiced religiously. I think the same may have been true of the ancient Greek philosophers like Pythagorus, Socrates, Plato, etc. Personally, I wonder if there wasn't a European connection of some sort in relation to the Aryans who greatly influenced East Indian religious-philosophy. But I do think there was a huge influence of the Greeks on the East Indians, in terms of religious-philosophy. I think the East Indians assimilated a lot form the ancient Greeks, and perhaps the ancient Greeks were influenced by their ancient world, which may have some connection to the Aryans, or whomever influenced the Aryans? Idk. But, there are huge similarities between ancient East India and the Greeks.....On another level, I would say that the religious-philosophical ideas of both the ancient East Indians, and the ancient Greek philosophers, are still very relevant today as they we're 2000 or 3000 yrs ago; because we're still human. Perhaps because our world today still bear greater similarities, as opposed to differences, with the ancient world.
@Lakshyam94 жыл бұрын
There is a connection but Indian Vedanta and its concepts of 'consciousness' predated the Greeks.
@InTheRhettRow10 ай бұрын
3 year old comment, but the Greek, Indian, and Aryan all derive from the same Indo-European source. And the Axial Age was essentially a synchronised reformation of the individual human spirit/consciousness over the older Indo-European Paganism. Zoroastrianism was the first to do so, and exerted huge influence over the Greeks. Buddhism did essentially the same thing that Zoroastrianism did a century later in its quest to denounce the older Aryan/Vedic sacrificial cattle raiding culture.
@pinosantilli82974 жыл бұрын
We do NOT fully really have our bodies. We don't know everything that is going on in our bodies. Do we know when we have cancer? Not until we have symptoms of it. Our bodies are objects in the world like anything else. Yes we have a different kind of access to it than other objects but it is still an object in the world. How else can we learn about it and perform surgeries on it?
@roygbiv1764 жыл бұрын
Most of the body is the representation of subconscious or un-selfconscious mentation. Only certain parts of the neocortex relate to self-reflective awareness. This doesn't mean that the rest of the body, or that other people's bodies do not correspond to some first person inner life, merely that it is not directly connected to our self conscious faculties.
@07serda2 жыл бұрын
@5:40 unless you can find methods to go completely “out” of your mind and perhaps what you experience then is reality or at least one membrane closer to it? Like a baby inside and outside of the womb.
@a.n.c.australia2 жыл бұрын
You are using the idea of "semantic translation" right, right?? Go to your Google Translate Machine, which creates clusters of idioms using a notion of "being synonymous," then play with this wonderful tool, swapping between origin and source language :) Do this for arbitrarily many languages, or develop a more powerful procedure answering more powerful types of questions... The data structure in question is probably a high-dimensional graph, hypergraph. Or something like it. You will then be able to read in English, and avoid translating from... German :) For example, I like to play with the Google tool in question by repeatedly swapping between source and origin, until the concept itself stabilizes :) Of course I am not a book translator (but I am in fact a novelist, okay??) so I am not using this procedure in practice, yet I suspect a variation of this procedure will give you the... right translation :)
@a.n.c.australia2 жыл бұрын
Also, that will not save anyone years or decades of pondering on Schopenhauer, and many others. I think you know this :)
@a.n.c.australia2 жыл бұрын
Many people have not reached mysticism, okay?? That is perfectly fine. Religion in itself is not about "not believing in sex outside marriage." That is very far from being correct. Yet, personally I am well aware that if I am to live a perfect life I would in fact live by these precepts, and try to work as much as I can. Yet, I also like deviating from these precepts as much as it is possible ;) Who invented Twister?? :) The game of twister, you know. There's boys and girls playing it, and they do some stuff randomly and when they can't help it, they sort of fall, sometimes... I challenge anyone to tell me if this type of game is good. Is twister a good model for, all of us?? How are we to play Twister right? Are we making fundamental errors when playing Twister, such that some people get upset? Or is it in the nature of the World we live in that we all get upset a little bit, sometimes... Did Schopenhauer play Twister? Because you mention they did not like people :)
@a.n.c.australia2 жыл бұрын
What is of extreme importance right now, is that we stop ideological manipulation. And we say the truth about stuff. You know. About general stuff. In general people have the right to know about whom they are, ethnically, racially, nationally. There's no need to call NZ, Aotearoa, or anything like that (oops!!) yet we must speak truthfully on these things. Evil shall come back (you haven't clarified if you are a mystic) and maybe that's what Hegel's dialectic is about.
@a.n.c.australia2 жыл бұрын
And that's Foucault's "grid," too. Cover-up. Attempt to cover-up. Hide what happened. That sort of strategy cannot be fruitful. I am wondering deeply about how this stuff will be covered-up, or maybe if it will be covered up. In any case, that is the first step. Saying the truth as closer to... the truth.
@user-zq8vl8ix3p2 жыл бұрын
My my of of
@AudioPervert13 жыл бұрын
Not that all Germans are the same, and hardly 5% of them now have any clue about Arthur Schopenhauer.
@No_Avail Жыл бұрын
31:53-33:10 Faved. Don't care if the rest of the lecture contains extremely disagreeable stuff. Based prof is based.
@_the_Necromancer Жыл бұрын
algo
@Dave-zb1zv2 жыл бұрын
Human beings rational? No, Main human problem = thinking, feeling and imagining that I am [rational] oh yeah! To be rational means you are aware of your thought {processes} actually aware, having observed first hand, not theory or opinion. Not thinking I am when I don't really know.
@EarthAngel5044 жыл бұрын
when you speak the brutal honest truth about people, its a problem. when you really take an objective look at the world and people, even your own race, it's very easy to be accused of being a Hater.. even the Bible tells you, Ecclesiastes 1:18- For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.... this is the absolute truth. I'm pretty sure if someone was to ask me my brutal honest truth about the world,, people and even my own race, i would be called a hater, among other things. In fact, i have been. Most people hate the truth with utter contempt. and this guy Wes Cecil, he's a perfect example.. in his own words, he say. Why would you give us soo much to read about Schopenhauer, Instead of giving us 2 or 3 of his essays, about the bad things he say about people, particularly women, so we all can, in solidarity conclude he is a horrible person and a "Hater" of everyone.. roughly paraphrasing.. and this is from someone with a PhD.
@roygbiv1764 жыл бұрын
What on earth are you on about?
@kurts48674 жыл бұрын
Right...I think you're saying Schop.said "horrible" things ( subjective and opinion ) but was he WRONG?? ....
@EarthAngel5044 жыл бұрын
@@kurts4867 what are you talking about?? I never said Schnopenhauer said horrible things. My critique was about the Op of the Video and his ignorant assessment on Schopenhauer.
@EarthAngel5044 жыл бұрын
@@roygbiv176 you must not read what i wrote
@k4yser4 жыл бұрын
It not only does take courage to speak the truth, you also need to know when it's appropriate to say certain things. People aren't equal, not everyone has the same mental Ressources, which are detriment when talking about uncomfortable "truths".
@Orlor4 жыл бұрын
He's the one that starts with a S...
@TheWhitehiker3 жыл бұрын
Lucid, also gets into his subject quickly, unlike . . . .
@Kowjja8 ай бұрын
Depressed cynical guy formulates systematic philosophy and makes modern depressive cynical guys feel validated (i'm partly joking but given the recent rise in popularity of this man it really looks like that)
@skrrskrr994 ай бұрын
Now the ideas are out but most of them suck and the most popular ones are atrocious.
@viktorkukuruzovic53324 жыл бұрын
you soooo misrepresented the chicago school of economic thought, way oversimplified what they are saying and i don't think that can be attributed to ignorance. also that connection you made between schopenhauer's view on our minds and bodies and that descartes' saying is just wack
@ItsCronk4 жыл бұрын
Viktor Kukuruzović Enlighten us, liberal
@dekutja4 жыл бұрын
@@ItsCronk don't assume things. Maybe he's right. Critique is part of philosophy, otherwise it'd be ideologs repeating one another. But yeah, please elaborate, Viktor!
@pjeffries3014 жыл бұрын
You really are incredibly unfair and flat wrong on Kant. Surprising.
@ItsCronk4 жыл бұрын
How so?
@birkettbentley87002 жыл бұрын
Sorry. Vocals & audio are too poorly done.
@HxH2011DRA4 жыл бұрын
Ah nothing like reading my fellow misanthropic philosophers to help me deal with an overpopulated world
@HxH2011DRA4 жыл бұрын
@@ecogiko we are too mean (trust me I know damn well everyone could be provided with food and a home if humanity ever developed the political will. Good luck with that)
@HxH2011DRA4 жыл бұрын
@@ecogiko ok whatever you say bro. For the record I have a solution of replacing humanity with a superior hive mind species but I don't think you like that idea since you seem like a Nietzsche (Niet-Chan) type
@HxH2011DRA4 жыл бұрын
@@ecogiko Thanks! You have a great day as well!!
@HxH2011DRA4 жыл бұрын
@King Kong LOL
@clickaccept4 жыл бұрын
Its frustrating. The speaker has rigid categories, contemporary moral certainty and material worldview, which seek to instruct the audience of the tremendous complexity and importance of Schopenhauer, precisely because it has nothing but a trivial cerebral impact on him.
@clickaccept4 жыл бұрын
@King Kong Schopenhauer looked at the material world-view with dismay.
@babelbabel229811 ай бұрын
welcome to the world of trivial cerebral bro professors
@evansgate9 ай бұрын
Surely he’s not giving the “final verdict” on philosophers he covers but instead is popularizing them to a wider audience? I really enjoy Wes Cecil and his lectures and they’ve turned me on to some great minds and material for me to investigate in my own time. Not everyone has the luxury of knowing what you know about these guys.
@clickaccept9 ай бұрын
@@evansgate Pick up a copy of "essays and aphorisms" if you're looking for bitesize quips that give a more genuine flavour of Schopenhauer without being demanding.
@clickaccept9 ай бұрын
For instance, at 32:35 trying to explain Schopenhauer's view, he asserts that we are "irrational economonic actors". But this presupposes what the purpose of econcomic transaction is, and therefore the purpose of man. It is the tragedy of modern thinking, which sees rationality as prior to humanity, and categorises humanity as irrational rather than dealing with his own ignorance.
@aurora36554 жыл бұрын
You can "turn the light inward", and the see the connection between you and the world around you, but you cannot see beyond the world around you. I very much disagree with the idea that you are the universe. Too romantic and misleading. Personally, I only contend with reality, not crap business men say.
@aurora36554 жыл бұрын
Any one can write dogma. Doesn't make it real.
@threeletteragent4 жыл бұрын
Schopenhauer does not assert that you are the universe-in-itself, but rather that you are within the universe and are a microcosm of it, and thus you can extrapolate universal understanding from contemplation of the interior will.
@emmanueloluga97703 жыл бұрын
@@threeletteragent In a way its still up for challenge tho, since he completely subscribes to the Kantian idea of the exclusivity of noeumena and phenomena