Audiobook · read by volunteers
Studies in Pessimism
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)
Read by D.E. Wittkower · 10 chapters · 3 h 25
About the book
Why is life so full of suffering, and what can a thoughtful person do about it? In these essays, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer gives his answer with unusual bluntness. Happiness, he argues, is mostly the absence of pain, and wisdom lies in expecting less from the world.
Yet this is not a gloomy read. Schopenhauer writes with wit and elegance, and his essays touch on subjects as varied as the vanity of existence, suicide, education, women and even noise. Whether or not you agree with him, he is never dull.
Ten short chapters, about three and a half hours, in an English translation by T. Bailey Saunders. A stimulating introduction to one of the most provocative minds of the nineteenth century, and an invitation to argue back.
Introduction
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher who made significant contributions to metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. His main work, The World as Will and Representation, appeared in 1818, and in it he argued that the world we experience is only the surface of a blind and restless will. For most of his life he was little read, and only in his last decade did he gain wide recognition. His ideas influenced many later thinkers and artists, among them Nietzsche, Wagner and Freud.
Studies in Pessimism is a selection of essays drawn from his later collection Parerga and Paralipomena, published in 1851. The English volume was assembled by T. Bailey Saunders (1860-1928), who translated several of these essays in the 1890s and published them in a series of small books. The topics include the sufferings of the world, the vanity of existence, suicide, immortality, education, women and noise, and the volume closes with a few parables.
Schopenhauer is often called a pessimist, but he is also one of the most readable of the major philosophers. His essays are clear, concise and full of examples and quotations, and they invite the reader to think rather than simply follow an argument. Their tone can be sharp, and some of his views, particularly on women, will strike modern readers as dated.
This recording has ten chapters and lasts about three and a half hours, read by a LibriVox volunteer. It is a good place to start with Schopenhauer, and a rewarding listen for anyone curious about philosophy and its uses in everyday life.
Public domain
Arthur Schopenhauer died in 1860: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text