Schopenhauer's philosophy - briefly. Arthur Schopenhauer and his philosophy

Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is a German philosopher, one of the first representatives of irrationalism. Schopenhauer believed that the essence of the individual is the will, which is independent of the mind. This will is a blind will, which is inseparable from the bodily

The Influence of Schopenhauer's Ideas From the end of the 19th century to the present day, Schopenhauer remains one of the most widely read philosophers. His influence goes far beyond the scope of philosophy and is not confined to the proper philosophical concepts. His theory took its place in the history of natural science

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Chronology of Schopenhauer's life 1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer was born in Danzig. 1793 - before the occupation of Danzig by the Prussians, the Schopenhauer family leaves for Hamburg. 1803 travels with his family across Europe. 1805 - father's suicide. 1807 - moving to Weimar. 1811-1813 - studies in Berlin. 1814 -

A. Schopenhauer's parable about porcupines A herd of porcupines lay down on one cold winter day in a tight heap, so that, warming themselves with mutual warmth, they would not freeze. However, they soon felt pricks from each other's needles, which forced them to lie further away from each other. Then when

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In this note, I will post the first part philosophy of Schopenhauer - briefly I will tell you about the main ideas of the German philosopher of the 19th century. For this, I give the floor to Mikhail Litvak:
“Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was born into the family of a Danzig banker. Arthur's parents were in a conflict relationship, which had a severe effect on the state of mind of the child. Divorce soon followed. His mother was a famous writer. In her house there were such celebrities as Goethe, the Grimm brothers, Reingold.
In 1809, A. Schopenhauer entered Goettingen, and then transferred to the University of Berlin. In 1813 he defended his thesis. Schopenhauer remained in the background for a long time. The course of philosophy announced by him at the University of Berlin was not a success. His ambition was not satisfied. In 1833, Schopenhauer quit teaching, settled in Frankfurt am Main and began to lead the life of a lonely bachelor, a lonely life, but provided with rent after the liquidation of his father's business. His ideas were ahead of their time, and only in the last decades of his life did the soil become favorable for them, especially after the publication of Aphorisms of Worldly Wisdom.
It is this work that highest value for psychotherapeutic practice and is widely used by me in the conduct of therapeutic measures and in the pedagogical process. I often turn to his “Metaphysics of Sexual Love” (the main idea of ​​the latter is that opposites attract in sexual love: fat people like thin ones, tall ones like short ones, brown-eyed ones like blue-eyed ones, blondes like brunettes, etc.; Yu.L.). I will not give an assessment of his philosophy, since I am not an expert in this field, and I am writing a manual on psychotherapy, and not a philosophical treatise. I will only give the provisions that I use in my work.

A. Schopenhauer claims that three categories influence the fate of a person.
1. What is a person: i.e. personality in the broadest sense of the word. This should include health, strength, beauty, temperament, morality, intelligence and the degree of its development.
2. What a person has: i.e. property owned or owned by him.
3. What a person is: this is the opinion of others about him, expressed outwardly in honor, position and glory.
The elements listed in the first heading are embedded in man by nature itself; from this Schopenhauer concludes that their influence on happiness or unhappiness is much stronger and deeper than the influence of the elements of the other two categories. Compared to true personal merits, all the advantages of position, wealth, origin, turn out to be the same as a theatrical king turns out to be compared to a real one. For the good of the individual, what is most essential is that which is or occurs in him. Therefore the same external events affect everyone quite differently; being in the same circumstances, people still live in different worlds. It all depends on the personality traits: in accordance with them, the world turns out to be either poor, then boring, then vulgar, then, on the contrary, rich, full of interest and greatness. The melancholic will take for tragedy what the sanguine sees as an interesting incident, and the phlegmatic - something that does not deserve attention. With a bad personality structure, excellent objective data will create a very bad reality, which will look like a beautiful place in bad weather or through bad glass. A person cannot get out of his personality, as out of his own skin, and directly lives only in it; that is why it is so difficult to help him from outside.
This idea is strategic for all personality-oriented methods of modern psychotherapy, expressed figuratively and clearly. When patients realize that they need to remake themselves, not the world, they become much calmer.

Individuality, from the point of view of Schopenhauer, determines the measure of possible human happiness, and spiritual forces determine the ability to higher pleasures. He warns that if these forces are limited, sensual pleasures will be left to the lot of a person, a quiet family life, bad society and vulgar entertainment (therefore, the main goal of psychotherapy is to help a person develop individuality and spiritual strength; Yu.L.).
Among all personal elements, according to the philosopher, health outweighs all benefits so much that a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king. A calm, cheerful temperament, which is the result of good health, a clear mind, a restrained will and a clear conscience - these are the blessings that no ranks and treasures can replace ("Pity is the one in whom the conscience is unclean," said A.S. Pushkin). An intelligent person, even in solitude, will find entertainment in his thoughts and in his imagination, while the constant change of interlocutors, performances, trips will not protect the dullard from the boredom that torments him. For someone who is gifted with an outstanding mind and sublime character, most of his favorite pleasures are superfluous, even more than that, they are burdensome (getting rid of neuroticism, a person ceases to need what he simply could not live without; but he does not limit himself, does not impose prohibitions - he simply ceases to need it; and this happens naturally, without any violence against the personality; Dear Readers, a year ago I wrote an article "", where I analyzed in detail the differences between a mature and immature personality, using personal experience and Schopenhauer's material; perhaps it will be of interest to you; Yu.L.).

Schopenhauer's philosophy in brief

And Schopenhauer sums it up: “For our happiness, what we are - our personality - is the first and essential condition already because it is preserved always and under all circumstances; besides, it, in contrast to the benefits of the other two categories, does not depend on the vicissitudes of fate and cannot be taken away from us ... Almighty time alone rules here too.
Schopenhauer recommends developing one's "individual qualities to the greatest advantage". That is, to take care only of such development, which corresponds to the abilities, and in accordance with them, choose an occupation, position and way of life. He warns that if a person of Herculean constitution all his life will be engaged only in mental labor and leave unused those forces with which he is generously endowed by nature, he will be unhappy; even more unfortunate will be the one in whom intellectual powers predominate, and who, leaving them undeveloped and unused, will be forced to engage in some simple business that does not require the mind at all. Schopenhauer believes that it is wiser to care about maintaining health and developing abilities than about increasing wealth. But he warns that we should not neglect the acquisition of everything we are accustomed to, and at the same time emphasizes that a large excess of funds contributes a little to our happiness; if many rich people feel unhappy, it is because they do not participate in the true culture of the spirit, do not have knowledge and objective interests that could move them towards mental labor. What wealth can give has little effect on our inner contentment: the latter rather loses from the many cares that are inevitably connected with the preservation of a large fortune.

Recall that Schopenhauer lived at the beginning of the 19th century, when there were few rich people. Therefore, his thoughts, ahead of time, did not receive practical distribution. After all, all modern personality-oriented methods of psychoanalytic, humanistic, existential trends actually fulfill the emerging social order of a well-fed society of developed capitalism. There were many well-fed, but there were no happy ones. “How many people are in constant trouble, tirelessly, like ants, from morning to evening are busy increasing the already existing wealth; their empty soul is immune to anything else. Higher pleasures - spiritual - are inaccessible to them; in vain they try to replace them with fragmentary, fleeting and sensual pleasures, requiring little time and much money. The results of a happy, fortunate life of such a person will be expressed in his declining years in a decent pile of gold, which the heirs will have to increase or squander.

Schopenhauer says less about the other two categories, because there is not much to say about wealth. But everyone should take care of a good name, the one who serves the state should take care of the rank, few should take care of the glory. The philosopher proposes to take care of the development and preservation of personal properties most of all. E. Fromm later called self-love the basic love, and the sacred duty of any person is the duty to develop one's abilities.
Schopenhauer rightly noted that "envy of personal virtues is the most irreconcilable and is hidden especially carefully." Indeed, if our personality is bad, then the pleasures experienced by us are likened to valuable wine, tasted by a person who has a taste of bitterness in his mouth. Our personality is the sole and immediate factor in our happiness and contentment. Therefore, he calls to take care most of all about the development and preservation of personal qualities.
Of these qualities, a cheerful disposition is the most conducive to happiness. He who is cheerful always finds a reason to be so. If he is cheerful, then it does not matter whether he is old or young, straight or hunchbacked, rich or poor - he is happy. Therefore, Schopenhauer suggests that whenever cheerfulness appears in us, we should go towards it. What serious studies can give us is another question, while cheerfulness brings immediate benefits. She alone is the cash coin of happiness; everything else is credit cards. "Directly giving us happiness in present(highlighted by me; M.L.), it is the highest good for beings, the reality of which is realized in the indivisible present between two infinities of time. Here the ideas of Gestalt therapy are guessed - the call to live "here and now".

Schopenhauer believes that nothing harms gaiety like wealth, and nothing contributes to it more than health, which is nine-tenths of happiness. He recommends paying sufficient attention to one's health and points out that health should not be sacrificed for wealth, career, or fame. With good health, everything becomes a source of pleasure, while without it no external good can give pleasure; even the qualities of the mind, soul, temperament freeze when unhealthy. Beauty can also contribute to happiness, which Schopenhauer considers as an open letter of recommendation. Perhaps this is true, but in human society, as my practice shows, beauty is more often a factor leading to unhappiness (many people use beauty to their detriment; a person who is not aware of his beauty, and being in the Ugly Duckling scenario, suffers from low self-esteem; a person who is aware of his beauty and relies on it does not seek to develop his personality (this applies more to girls); as a result, as a rule, he uses him only as a sexual partner (you don’t want to go into society with a fool, and walk with some, and marry others), and when his beauty fades, such a person becomes useless; Yu.L.).

Schopenhauer considers grief and boredom to be the enemies of human happiness. As soon as a person moves away from one, he immediately approaches another. From the outside, need breeds grief, and abundance and security - boredom. Accordingly, the class of the poor struggles with want, and the class of the rich with boredom. The internal antagonism of these evils is due to the fact that the dullness of the mind makes a person less susceptible to suffering, but, on the other hand, it gives rise to an internal emptiness that requires external excitations. Hence - a base pastime, the pursuit of society, entertainment, pleasure, luxury, pushing to wastefulness, and then to poverty (subtly noticed !; I met such people; analyzing their life, I came to the conclusion that if it were not for poverty, in which they periodically appear, they could well develop depression with thoughts of suicide, and so - they have to make every effort to get out of the money hole; Yu.L.).
According to Schopenhauer, “nothing saves from these troubles like inner wealth - the wealth of the mind, the wealth of the spirit: the higher the spirit, the less space stays for boredom. An endless stream of thought, their ever-new game about the various phenomena of the inner and outer world, the ability and desire for ever newer and newer combinations of them - all this makes a person endowed with a mind resistant to boredom.
An intelligent person seeks to avoid grief, to obtain peace and leisure; he will seek a quiet and modest life. After all, the more a person has in himself, the less he needs from the outside. If the quality of society could be replaced by quantity, then it would even be worth living in a big world, but, unfortunately, a hundred fools put together will not make even one sane one.

Schopenhauer believes that a spiritually empty person is often afraid of loneliness, because "in loneliness he sees his inner content."
Schopenhauer could not stand spiritually empty people. I will quote the following passage in full.
“A fool in a luxurious robe is overwhelmed by his miserable emptiness, while a high mind enlivens and inhabits with his thoughts the most unprepossessing environment. Seneca rightly remarked: "All stupidity suffers from its boredom"; Jesus, the son of Sirach, is no less right: "The life of a fool is worse than death." We can say that a person is sociable to the extent that he is insolvent.

The manner in which leisure is used shows to what extent leisure is sometimes devalued. The average person is preoccupied with how to kill time; a talented person seeks to use it.
Limited people are so prone to boredom because their reason is nothing more than an intermediary in transmitting motives to the will. If at the moment there are no external motives, then the will is calm and the mind is in an idle state: after all, the mind, like the will, cannot act on its own impulse. As a result - a terrible stagnation of all human forces - boredom. In order to drive it away, small, random, randomly snatched motives are slipped into the will, wanting to excite the will with them and thereby put into action the mind that perceives them. Such motives are related to real, natural motives in the same way as paper money is to specie: their value is arbitrary, conditional. Such a motive is the playing of cards invented for this very purpose. That's why all over the world card game became the main occupation of any society; she was the measure of his worth, a clear manifestation of mental bankruptcy. Not being able to exchange thoughts, people exchange cards, trying to take a few gold pieces from their partner. Truly a miserable race!”

Schopenhauer proposes to judge a person by how he spends his leisure time. Leisure is the crown human existence, since in it a person becomes the owner of his "I". Happy are those who find something of value in their leisure time. Most, during these hours, discover an incapable subject, desperately bored and burdened by himself (it was then that a burning feeling of loneliness rolls over them, and they do their best to get rid of it: some get drunk, others go headlong into work, others spend hours chat on the phone or hang out at the TV screens, the fourth plunge into the world computer games, fifth…; this is how they realize their “meaning of life”; Yu.L.).

The observant reader has already seen in Schopenhauer's statements a future existential analysis, one of the main provisions of which is the following: many neuroses are the result of a lack of meaning in life. The philosopher does not give recommendations - this is the business of future researchers, but he exposes the emptiness of a meaningless life and does not tire of repeating that "the most valuable thing for everyone should be his personality."

“Just as a country is happy that needs little import or does not need it at all, so among the people will be the one who has a lot of internal treasures, and who requires little or nothing from the outside for entertainment ... After all, everything external sources happiness and pleasure are unreliable, doubtful, transient, subject to chance and can dry up ... Our personal properties last the longest ... Whoever has a lot in himself is like a bright, cheerful, warm room surrounded by the darkness and snow of a December night."
In his works, Schopenhauer calls for personal growth. All modern psychotherapeutic systems remove obstacles in his path. The philosopher emphasizes that only “a person with an excess of spiritual strength lives a life rich in thoughts, completely animated and full of meaning ... An impulse from the outside is given to him by natural phenomena and the spectacle of human life, as well as the most diverse creations of outstanding people of all eras and countries. Actually, only he can enjoy them, only he understands these creations and their value. It is for him that great people live, only they turn to him, while the rest, as casual listeners, are only able to assimilate some shreds of their thoughts. True, this creates an extra need for an intelligent person, the need to learn, see, educate, reflect ... Thanks to them [needs], an intelligent person has access to such pleasures that do not exist for others ... A richly gifted person lives, along with his personal life, a second one, namely spiritual, gradually turning into a real goal, and personal life becomes a means to this goal, while other people consider this vulgar, empty, boring existence the goal.

Schopenhauer proposes to proceed from the laws of nature. Then it is clear what needs to be done. “The primordial purpose of the forces with which nature has endowed man is to fight the need that presses him on all sides. Once this struggle is interrupted, unused forces become a burden, and a person has to play with them, i.e. waste them aimlessly, for otherwise he will expose himself to another source of human suffering - boredom. It torments primarily the rich and noble people. For such people in their youth, physical strength and productive ability play an important role. But later only spiritual forces remain; if there are few of them, if they are poorly developed ... then a serious disaster is obtained.
Schopenhauer sees the way out in the development of high intelligence. “Understood in the narrow, strict sense of the word, it is the most difficult and highest creation of nature and at the same time the most rare and valuable thing in the world.” As for the “most valuable”, here we can safely agree with the philosopher. As for the "most rare", here one should make a certain reservation and say that "it is rarely found in a developed form." Unfortunately, the whole upbringing and educational process is aimed at drowning out creative thinking and the development of intelligence. We have quite enough capable of creative thinking. Yes, look at the children! Because they are all smart! It is then that we make them fools, forcing them to live as stupidly as we live ourselves. The main thing is not in the amount of mind, but in its direction.

But back to Schopenhauer.
“With such intelligence, a completely clear consciousness appears, and, consequently, a clear and complete idea of ​​the world. A person gifted with it possesses the greatest earthly treasure - that source of pleasure, in comparison with which all others are insignificant. From the outside, he does not need anything other than the opportunity to enjoy this gift without interference, to keep this diamond. After all, all other - not spiritual - pleasures are of the lowest kind; they all come down to movements of the will, i.e. to desires, hopes, fears, efforts directed at another object. This is not without suffering; in particular, achieving a goal usually causes disappointment in us (such people have already chosen the wrong goal from the very beginning; Yu.L.). Spiritual pleasures lead only to the clarification of the truth. In the realm of the mind there is no suffering, only knowledge. Spiritual pleasures are available, however, to a person only through the medium, and, consequently, within the boundaries of his own mind: "all the mind in the world is useless for someone who does not have it."
One can understand Schopenhauer's pessimism. After all, he considered the mind a rare thing given by nature. My optimism is based on the fact that everyone has the makings. And people suffer not from a lack of intelligence, but from the fact that it has not received either the proper development or the right direction. The intellectual trance technique I developed allows you to develop the mind and give it an appropriate vector.

Now we already know the biochemistry of a happy life - the release of endorphins into the blood in the process of creative thinking, and this is possible with the correct use of one’s mind, but Schopenhauer already wrote: “The one whom nature generously rewarded mentally is the happiest of all ... The owner of inner wealth nothing is needed from the outside, except for one indispensable condition - leisure, in order to be able to develop their mental powers and enjoy the inner treasure, in other words - nothing but the opportunity to be yourself all your life, every day and every hour”(emphasis mine; M.L.).
He cites Aristotle's saying: "Happiness lies in exercising your faculties, whatever they may be, without hindrance." But after all, the main task of modern psychotherapy is the return of a person to himself and to such an organization of life in which he would exercise his abilities and would have an income from this. Then the feeling that you are working disappears, and there is a feeling that you are living. If I write a book, and I like it and at the same time generate income, then I feel happy. If I do it just for the money, then writing becomes hard labor. Better to do something else.
But often you can’t do what you like, then you should try to find interest in what you are forced to do (if this doesn’t work, you should change your field of activity as soon as possible - psychologically competently, without sudden movements, crawl from one area to another; Yu.L.).

Schopenhauer is right when he says that without spiritual needs there can be no true happiness. And when a spiritual life is imposed on a person without spiritual needs (the philosopher calls him a philistine), he perceives it as hard labor and tries to “depart” as soon as possible. Only sensual pleasures become real pleasures for him. “Oysters and champagne are the apotheosis of his being; the goal of his life is to obtain everything that contributes to bodily well-being. He is happy if this goal gives him a lot of trouble. For if these benefits are presented to him in advance, then he inevitably becomes a victim of boredom, with which he begins to fight with anything: balls, theater, society, cards, gambling, horses, women, wine, etc. But even this is not enough to cope with boredom, since the absence of spiritual needs makes spiritual pleasures inaccessible to him. Therefore, the dull, dry seriousness, approaching the seriousness of animals, characteristic of the philistine, characterizes him. Nothing pleases, does not excite his participation. Sense pleasures soon dry up; a society consisting entirely of the same philistines soon becomes boring.

Having no spiritual needs, the philistine seeks only those people who can satisfy his physical needs. Spiritual abilities “will arouse in him antipathy, perhaps even hatred: they will evoke in him a heavy feeling of his insignificance and deaf secret envy; he will carefully hide it even from himself, thanks to which, however, it can grow into dull malice. Here one of the types of psychological defense and its mechanisms are described ( we are talking about ; Yu.L.).

Schopenhauer saw no way out of this situation. Modern psychotherapy not only sees it, but can also help people without developed spiritual needs. Sooner or later these people get sick. Of those who fall ill, some go to a psychotherapist and are healed through personal development and spiritual needs.

Schopenhauer's thoughts on the significance of what a person has for happiness serve as a good help in psychotherapeutic work. He points out, referring to Epicurus, that a good way to get rich is to reduce your needs to natural ones, which are not so difficult to satisfy. He warns those who have become rich through talent that the talent may run dry and the earnings will stop. Therefore more reliable craft.

Schopenhauer subtly noted that people who have experienced need are less afraid of it than those who were brought up in abundance. Therefore, having become rich, they quite easily spend the acquired money and again fall into poverty. “I advise anyone who marries a dowry to bequeath to her not capital, but only the income from it, and especially to ensure that the state of the children does not fall into her hands.” Much later, E. Berne pointed out that the poor will remain poor: even if he is lucky, he will simply be a poor man who has been lucky; and the rich will remain rich: even if he loses capital, he will simply be rich, experiencing financial difficulties (Bern calls the first “a person going to wealth”, the second - “a person fleeing poverty”; Yu.L.).

Poverty of spirit leads to real poverty. Boredom leads "him [the philistine] to excesses, which will destroy, in the end, the advantage of which he turned out to be unworthy - wealth."

Schopenhauer considers the opinion of others about our life the most insignificant for our happiness. But psychotherapeutic practice shows that all the misfortunes of a person are connected with the fact that he spends too much effort on seeming, instead of using them to be. “It is difficult to understand why a person feels such great joy when he notices the favor of others or when his vanity is flattered. As a cat purrs when it is stroked, it is also worth praising a person so that his face will certainly shine with true bliss; praise can be deliberately false, it is only necessary that it meets his claims ...<…>On the other hand, it is worthy of astonishment what an insult, what serious pain every serious insult to his ambition causes him ... every disrespect, "upsetting" or arrogant treatment. He proposes to put certain limits on this. Otherwise, we will become slaves to other people's opinions and moods. And the heart of our happiness will be the heads of other people.

“It will give us a lot for happiness if we learn in time that simple truth that everyone, first of all and in reality, lives in his own skin, and not in the opinion of others, and that therefore our personal real well-being, conditioned by health, abilities, income, wife, children, friends, place of residence - a hundred times more important for happiness than what others want to make of us. To think otherwise is madness leading to misfortune." Read these lines again, or maybe two.

And now let's go further.
“To exclaim with enthusiasm: “Honor is higher than life!” means in essence to affirm: “Our life and contentment are nothing; it's about what others think of us." Brilliant thought! In fact, neurotic people work for fools. Smart people whatever you do, they will understand it as it is, but a fool, whatever you do, will understand in his own way, i.e. foolishly. So isn't it better to try to please yourself and be modest in your needs?

“To attach excessive value to the opinions of others is a universal prejudice ... it has an excessive and disastrous effect on our happiness on all our activities ... Prejudice is an extremely convenient tool for someone who is called to command or control people; therefore, in all branches of training people, the first place is given to the instruction on the need to maintain and develop a sense of honor in oneself. But, from the point of view of ... personal happiness, the situation is different: on the contrary, people should be dissuaded from excessive respect for the opinions of others.
This is what we psychotherapists do. We propose NOT to CONSIDER WITH OTHERS' OPINION, BUT TO CONSIDER IT. It is necessary to reckon only with the truth, but it is necessary to take into account the circumstances, i.e. the opinion of others, and do not rush to express your own, but wait the necessary time, during which to create the appropriate conditions so that the opinion of others and their actions do not interfere with obtaining the desired result. And so that it would not be so insulting to listen to insults, I teach my wards to respond correctly to them.

But, unfortunately, “most people attach the highest value to someone else’s opinion ... contrary to the natural order, someone else’s opinion seems real to them, and real life the ideal side of their being... Such a high appreciation of what does not exist directly for them is a stupidity called vanity. This "leads to the fact that the goal is forgotten and its place is taken by means."

“The high value attributed to someone else’s opinion, and our constant concern for it, transcend ... the boundaries of expediency to such an extent that they take on the character of a universal and, perhaps, innate mania.” On the last point, I disagree with Schopenhauer. Since a person begins to be ashamed from early childhood (for example, because he is not quite neat in bed), it seems to him that his sense of shame is innate. My practice has shown that a sense of shame is a sign of illness. This feeling often destroys intimate life, interferes with the establishment of business relationships and leads to the fact that many patients with malignant tumors turn to the doctor when they can no longer be helped. Therefore, I try to help a person get rid of it, and instead develop a mindset that will allow you to take into account other people's opinions and not get naked when it is inappropriate.

Schopenhauer writes: “In all our activities, we deal primarily with the opinions of others; with an exact study, we will be convinced that almost 1/2 of all grief and anxiety ever experienced stems from concern for its satisfaction ... Without this concern, without this madness, there would not be even 1/10 of the luxury that we have now. It manifests itself even in a child, grows over the years and becomes stronger in old age, when, after the disappearance of the ability for sensual pleasures, vanity and arrogance, one has to share power only with avarice.

Have you read the first part of the article about philosophy of Schopenhauer briefly . In the next article, entitled ", read the second part of his philosophical views.

A pessimist philosopher, an irrationalist who denies most concepts and ideas - this is exactly how Schopenhauer Arthur appeared to the general public. But what made him so? Pushed precisely to this worldview? He always believed that the will is the cornerstone of life, that driving force that breathed life into us and commands the mind. Without the will there would be no knowledge and intellect, the development of man into what he is now. So what prompted him to take this path of reflection?

Childhood

The future philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, whose date of birth falls on February 28, 1788, was born into the family of a businessman and writer. From a young age, his father tried to instill in the boy a love for his work, but did not succeed in this. Arthur received education episodically: for several months in Le Havre, with his father's business partner at the age of 9, then studying in Runge, at an elite school at 11, and by the age of 15 the young man moved to study in the UK. But the trips did not end there, and in a short period he visited several more European countries within 2 years.

A family

The relationship of Schopenhauer's parents was complicated. In the end, his father left the family, and later committed suicide. The mother was such a frivolous and cheerful person that the pessimist Arthur also did not have the patience to live side by side with her, and in 1814 they parted, but continued to maintain friendly relations. This helps the young philosopher to make many interesting and useful acquaintances among the bohemians of that time.

Adulthood

Having a fairly large amount of bank account and living on interest, Schopenhauer Arthur goes to study at the University of Göttingen as a doctor. But two years later he transferred to the University of Berlin and changed the faculty to philosophy. It cannot be said that he was a diligent student. The lectures did not attract him, and the visit left much to be desired, but those questions that really worried the future philosopher, he studied in all planes, trying to get to the heart of the problem. Such, for example, were Schelling's idea of ​​free will or Locke's theory of secondary qualities. special attention honored with the dialogues of Plato and the construction of Kant. In 1813, Arthur Schopenhauer defended his doctoral dissertation on And after that he set to work on his main work.

Philosophical writings

It is worth considering what an unusual person the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer was. Interesting facts were revealed to researchers who analyzed his personal records. As it turned out, professional dissatisfaction, a thirst for fame and weak infuriated the writer, which is why offensive and often unfair attacks against alleged competitors appeared from his pen.

In 1818, the first book, The World as Will and Representation, was published, but it went completely unnoticed by either the general public or the scientific community. The publisher suffered losses, and the philosopher received a wounded pride. In order to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes, the young German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer decides to lecture at the University of Berlin. But since Hegel taught there at the same time, the students ignored the young assistant professor with his gloomy outlook on life. Not wanting to be the object of ridicule or pity, the writer leaves for Italy, away from the bustle of the university. But a year later he returns again to try his luck on the teacher's path again. Even the death of an opponent in 1831 did not make the course more popular, and the young man leaves teaching forever.

Moving. Life with a clean slate

After leaving Berlin due to the cholera epidemic and moving to Frankfurt am Main, a new bachelor is “born” - Arthur briefly and rarely, but still flashed in his life. So, he received the award of the Norwegian Scientific Royal Society for his article. His publications were also not popular, and the reprint of the book, now divided into two volumes, again proved to be a failure. Negativism, misanthropy and despair grew more and more in Schopenhauer. He began to hate all philosophers in bulk and each one individually, especially Hegel, who infected all of Europe with his ideas.

Revolution

“And tomorrow there was a war…”. No, of course, there was no war, but after the revolution of 1848-1849, the worldview of people, their problems, goals and views have changed a lot. They began to look more soberly and pessimistically at the reality around them. This allowed opportunities to arise that Arthur Schopenhauer did not fail to take advantage of. Philosophy was briefly able to fit in aphoristic expressions and advice that pleased compatriots. The publication of this book brought the philosopher fame and glory, which he so dreamed of.

late glory

Now Schopenhauer Arthur could be satisfied with his fate. His house was full, whole pilgrimages were made to the places of his residence. Universities gave lectures on his philosophy, and there were also personal students. In 1854, Wagner sent him his famous tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungen" with an autograph, this sign of attention biographers considered especially important.

Five years later, the second edition of The World as Will and Ethics is published, and a year later, his articles, essays and aphorisms are reprinted. But the author has not seen them. Pneumonia caught him suddenly, and on September 21, 1860, Arthur Schopenhauer died. short biography, published later, managed to convey its veracity to the words of the late philosopher: "The sunset of my life became the dawn of my glory."

Pessimistic philosophy became popular in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was at this moment that the will began to mean a lot to the people who survived the fire of the Revolution. According to these postulates, suffering is good, and satisfaction is evil. The philosopher explained this position quite simply: only dissatisfaction allows us to feel our needs and desires more acutely. When the need is satisfied, then suffering does not disappear for some time, but it cannot be removed forever, which means that life is a series of suffering from birth to death. And as a conclusion from all this philosophical idea Schopenhauer says that in a world like this, it is better not to be born at all. It had a significant impact on the worldview and perception historical events personalities such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein and Leo Tolstoy. Each of these people in one way or another influenced the development of society, changed the opinion of their contemporaries about what life should be like. And all this could not have happened if it were not for the rejected and forgotten in his youth Arthur Schopenhauer.

Plan

Arthur Schopenhauer

The main ideas of A. Schopenhauer

Pessimism and irrationalism of Schopenhauer

Significance of Schopenhauer in philosophy

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) belongs to that galaxy of European philosophers who during their lifetime were not “in the lead”, but nevertheless had a noticeable influence on the philosophy and culture of their time and the next century. He was born in Danzig (now Gdansk) into a wealthy and cultured family; his father, Heinrich Floris, was a merchant and banker, his mother, Johann Schopenhauer, was a famous writer and head of a literary salon, among whose visitors was W. Goethe. Arthur Schopenhauer studied at the commercial school in Hamburg, where the family moved, then privately studied in France and England. Later there was the Weimar Gymnasium and, finally, the University of Göttingen: here Schopenhauer studied philosophy and the natural sciences - physics, chemistry, botany, anatomy, astronomy, and even took a course in anthropology. Philosophy, however, was a real hobby, and Plato and I. Kant were idols. Along with them, he was attracted by ancient Indian philosophy (Vedas, Upanishads). These hobbies became the basis of his future philosophical outlook. In 1819, the main work of A. Schopenhauer, “The World as Will and Representation,” was published, in which he gave a system of philosophical knowledge as he saw it. But this book was not successful, because in Germany at that time there were enough authorities who controlled the minds of contemporaries. Among them, perhaps the first magnitude was Hegel, who had a very strained relationship with Schopenhauer. Having not received recognition at the University of Berlin, and indeed in society, Schopenhauer retired to live as a recluse in Frankfurt am Main until his death. Only in the 50s of the XIX century. In Germany, interest in the philosophy of Schopenhauer began to awaken, and it increased after his death. A feature of the personality of A. Schopenhauer was his gloomy, gloomy and irritable character, which undoubtedly affected the general mood of his philosophy. It admittedly bears the stamp of deep pessimism. But with all this, he was a very gifted person with versatile erudition, great literary skill; he spoke many ancient and new languages ​​and was undoubtedly one of the most educated people of his time.

The main ideas of A. Schopenhauer

The following are the main ideas of Schopenhauer. In the philosophy of Schopenhauer, two characteristic points are usually distinguished: this is the doctrine of the will and pessimism. The doctrine of will is the semantic core of Schopenhauer's philosophical system. The mistake of all philosophers, he proclaimed, was that they saw the basis of man in the intellect, while in fact it - this basis, lies exclusively in the will, which is completely different from the intellect, and only it is original. Moreover, the will is not only the basis of man, but it is also the inner foundation of the world, its essence. It is eternal, not subject to death, and in itself is baseless, that is, self-sufficient. Two worlds should be distinguished in connection with the doctrine of the will: I. the world where the law of causality prevails (that is, the one in which we live), and II. a world where not specific forms of things, not phenomena, but general transcendental essences are important. This is a world where we do not exist (the idea of ​​doubling the world is taken by Schopenhauer from Plato). In our everyday life, the will has an empirical character, it is subject to limitation; if this were not the case, a situation would arise with Buridan’s donkey (Buridan is a scholastic of the 15th century who described this situation): placed between two armfuls of hay, on opposite sides and at the same distance from him, he, “possessing free will” died would be hungry, not being able to make a choice. A person in everyday life constantly makes choices, but at the same time he inevitably limits free will. Outside the empirical world, the will is independent of the law of causality. Here it is abstracted from the concrete form of things; it is conceived outside of all time as the essence of the world and man. He firmly states that freedom should not be sought in our individual actions, as rational philosophy does, but in the whole being and essence of man himself. In the current life, we see a lot of actions caused by causes and circumstances, as well as time and space, and our freedom is limited by them. But all these actions are essentially of the same character, and that is why they are free from causation. In this reasoning, freedom is not expelled, but only moved from the area of ​​current life to a higher one, but it is not so clearly accessible to our consciousness. Freedom in its essence is transcendental. This means that each person is initially and fundamentally free, and everything that he does has this freedom as its basis. Now let's move on to the topic of pessimism in the philosophy of Schopenhauer. Every pleasure, every happiness that people at all times strive for, has negative character, since they - pleasure and happiness - are in essence the absence of something bad, suffering, for example. Our desire stems from the acts of will of our body, but desire is the suffering of the absence of what is desired. A satisfied desire inevitably gives rise to another desire (or several desires), and again we lust, etc. If we imagine all this in space as conditional points, then the voids between them will be filled with suffering, from which desires will arise (conditional points in our case) . This means that it is not pleasure, but suffering - this is that positive, constant, unchanging, always present, the presence of which we feel. Schopenhauer claims that everything around us bears traces of despondency; everything pleasant is mixed with unpleasant; every pleasure destroys itself, every relief leads to new hardships. It follows from this that we must be unhappy in order to be happy, moreover, we cannot but be unhappy, and the reason for this is the person himself, his will. Optimism paints life for us as a kind of gift, but if we knew in advance what kind of gift it was, we would refuse it. In fact, need, deprivation, sorrow are crowned with death; the ancient Indian Brahmins saw this as the goal of life (Schopenhauer refers to the Vedas and Upanishads). In death we are afraid of losing the body, which is will itself. But the will is objectified through the pangs of birth and the bitterness of death, and this is a stable objectification. This is immortality in time: the intellect perishes in death, but the will is not subject to death. Schopenhauer thought so.

3. Schopenhauer's aesthetic mysticism If the world is an "arena strewn with flaming coals" that we must pass through, if Dante's "Hell" serves as its truest image, then the reason for this is that the "will to live" incessantly gives rise to unrealizable desires in us; being active participants in life, we become martyrs; aesthetic contemplation serves as the only oasis in the desert of life: it anesthetizes, dulls for a while the volitional impulses oppressing us, we, plunging into it, are, as it were, freed from the yoke of passions oppressing us and see into the innermost essence of phenomena ... This insight is intuitive, irrational (superrational ), i.e. mystical, but it finds expression and communicates to other people in the form of an artistic artistic concept of the world, which gives a genius. In this sense, Schopenhauer, recognizing the value of scientific evidence in the field of the theory of knowledge, at the same time sees in the aesthetic intuition of a genius the highest form of philosophical creativity: “Philosophy is a work of art from concepts. Philosophy has been searched for so long in vain because it was sought on the road of science instead of looking for it on the road of art.

4. The theory of knowledge The theory of knowledge is set forth by Schopenhauer in his dissertation: "On the Quaternary Root of Sufficient Reason." In cognition, there can be two one-sided aspirations - to reduce the number of self-evident truths to an excessive minimum or to multiply them excessively. Both these aspirations must balance each other: the second should be opposed by the principle of homogeneity: "Entia praeter necessitatem non esse multiplicanda", the first by the principle of specification: "Entium varietates non temere esse minuendas". Only by taking both principles into account at once can we avoid the one-sidedness of rationalism, which strives to extract all knowledge from some A=A, and empiricism, which stops at particular positions and does not reach the highest levels of generalization. Based on this consideration, Schopenhauer proceeds to analyze the "law of sufficient reason" in order to clarify the nature and number of self-evident truths. A historical review of those interpretations that previously gave sufficient reason to the law reveals many ambiguities, of which the most important, noticed by the rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza), lies in the confusion of a logical basis (ratio) with an actual cause (causa). To eliminate these ambiguities, we must first of all point out that fundamental feature of our consciousness, which determines the main varieties of the law of sufficient reason. This property of consciousness, which forms the “root of the law of sufficient reason”, is the inseparability of the subject from the object and the object from the subject: “all our representations are objects of the subject and all objects of the subject are our representations. From this it follows that all our representations are in a regular connection with each other, which can be determined a priori as far as form is concerned; by virtue of this connection, nothing isolated and independent, standing alone, standing apart, can become our object ”(in these words, Schopenhauer almost literally reproduces the formula of idealism, which Fichte gives in the three theoretical propositions of the Science Doctrine). Four kinds of the law of sufficient reason branch out from the "root". The law of sufficient reason for "being" (principium rationis sufficientis fiendi) or the law of causality. The law of sufficient reason for knowledge (principium rationis sufficientis cognoscendi). All animals have a mind, that is, they instinctively organize sensations in space and time and are guided by the law of causality, but none of them, with the exception of man, has a mind, that is, the ability to develop concepts from specific individual representations - representations, abstract from representations conceivable and symbolically denoted by words. Animals are unintelligent - lacking the ability to develop general ideas, they do not speak or laugh. The ability to form concepts is very useful: concepts are poorer in content than individual representations, they are in our minds substitutes for entire classes, the species concepts and individual objects contained under them. This ability, with the help of a single concept, to grasp in thought the essential features of objects, not only directly given, but also belonging to the past and the future, elevates a person above the random conditions of a given place and time and gives him the opportunity to think, while the mind of an animal is almost entirely chained to needs of a given moment, its spiritual horizon both in the spatial and in the temporal sense is extremely narrow, while a person in reflection can even “think away” space itself. The law of sufficient reason for being (pr. rationis sufficientis essendi). Law of motivation (princ. rationis sufficientis agendi). Our volitions precede our actions, and the influence of a motive on an act is not known from the outside in a mediated way, like other causes, but directly and from within, therefore motivation is causality considered from within. According to the four types of law, there are four types of necessity: physical, logical, mathematical and moral (i.e. psychological)

The indicated division of the law of sufficient reason into four types can be taken as the basis for the classification of sciences:

A) Pure or a priori sciences: 1) the doctrine of the foundation of being: a) in space: geometry; b) in time: arithmetic, algebra. 2) The doctrine of the basis of knowledge: logic. B) Empirical or a posteriori sciences: all are based on the law of sufficient reason for being in its three forms: 1) the doctrine of causes: a) general: mechanics, physics, chemistry; b) private: astronomy, mineralogy, geology; 2) the doctrine of stimuli: a) general: physiology (as well as anatomy) of plants and animals; b) private: zoology, botany, pathology, etc.; 3) the doctrine of motives: a) general: psychology, morality; b) private: law, history.

Understanding sociology and the theory of social action

Weber called his concept of understanding sociology. He believed that the purpose of sociological science is to analyze social action and substantiate the causes of its occurrence. Understanding in this context denotes the process of cognition of social action through the meaning that its subject himself puts into this action. Thus, the subject of sociology is all the ideas and worldviews that determine human behavior. Weber abandoned attempts to use the natural scientific method in analysis and considered sociology to be "the science of culture."

Social action, writes Weber, is an action that is related in meaning to the actions of other people and focuses on them. So, Weber identifies 2 signs of social action:

meaningful character;

focus on the expected reaction of others.

Weber distinguishes four types of social action in descending order of their meaningfulness and intelligibility:

goal-rational - when objects or people are interpreted as a means to achieve their own rational goals. The subject accurately represents the goal and chooses the best option to achieve it. This is a pure model of formal-instrumental life orientation, such actions are most often found in the field of economic practice;

value-rational - is determined by a conscious belief in the value of a certain action, regardless of its success, is performed in the name of some value, and its achievement is more important than side effects: the captain is the last to leave the sinking ship;

traditional - determined by tradition or habit. The individual simply reproduces the template of social activity that was used in similar situations earlier by him or those around him: the peasant goes to the fair at the same time as his fathers and grandfathers.

affective - determined by emotions.

social relation according to Weber, it is a system of social actions, social relations include such concepts as struggle, love, friendship, competition, exchange, etc. The social relation, perceived by the individual as mandatory, acquires the status of a legitimate social order. In accordance with the types of social actions, four types of legal (legitimate) order are distinguished: traditional, affective, value-rational and legal.

Unlike his contemporaries, Weber did not seek to build sociology on the model of the natural sciences, referring it to humanities or, in his terms, to the cultural sciences, which, both in methodology and in subject matter, constitute an autonomous field of knowledge. The main categories of understanding sociology are behavior, action, and social action. Behavior is the most general category of activity, which becomes an action if the actor associates a subjective meaning with it. We can talk about social action when the action is correlated with the actions of other people and focuses on them. Combinations of social actions form "semantic connections" on the basis of which social relations and institutions are formed. The result of Weber's understanding is a highly probable hypothesis, which must then be confirmed by objective scientific methods.

According to Weber, a social relationship is a system of social actions, social relationships include such concepts as struggle, love, friendship, competition, exchange, etc. The social relationship, perceived by the individual as mandatory, acquires the status of a legitimate social order. In accordance with the types of social actions, four types of legal (legitimate) order are distinguished: traditional, affective, value-rational and legal.

Weber's method of sociology is determined, in addition to the concept of understanding, by the doctrine of the ideal type, as well as by the postulate of freedom from value judgments. According to Weber, the ideal type fixes the “cultural meaning” of a particular phenomenon, and the ideal type becomes a heuristic hypothesis capable of ordering the diversity of historical material without being tied to some predetermined scheme.

Regarding the principle of freedom from value judgments, Weber distinguishes two problems: the problem of freedom from value judgments in the strict sense and the problem of the relationship between knowledge and value. In the first case, one should strictly distinguish between the established facts and their assessment from the worldview positions of the researcher. In the second, we are talking about the theoretical problem of analyzing the connection of any cognition with the values ​​of the cognizer, that is, the problem of the interdependence of science and the cultural context.

Pessimism and irrationalism of Schopenhauer

According to Schopenhauer's philosophy, this will is meaningless. Therefore, our world is not "the best possible world" (as Leibniz's theodicy proclaims), but "the worst possible". Human life has no value: the amount of suffering it causes is much greater than the pleasure it brings. Schopenhauer counters optimism with the most resolute pessimism - and this fully corresponded to his personal mental make-up. The will is irrational, blind and instinctive, because in the development of organic forms the light of thought lights up for the first time only at the highest and final stage of the development of the will - in the human brain, the bearer of consciousness. But with the awakening of consciousness, there also appears a means to "overcome the senselessness" of the will. Having come to the pessimistic conclusion that the incessant, irrational will to live causes an unbearable state of prevailing suffering, the intellect is also convinced that deliverance from it can be achieved (according to the Buddhist model) by escaping from life, by denying the will to live. However, Schopenhauer emphasizes that this denial, the “quietive of the will”, comparable to the transition to Buddhist nirvana, to the silence of nothingness free from suffering, should in no way be identified with suicide (which the philosopher Eduard Hartmann, who was influenced by him, later began to call for).

Significance of Schopenhauer in the history of philosophy

Schopenhauer owed his success (albeit late) both to the originality and courage of his system, as well as to a number of other qualities: an eloquent defense of a pessimistic worldview, his ardent hatred of "school philosophy", his gift of exposition, free (especially in small works) from any artificiality. Thanks to this, he (like the popular English and French thinkers highly valued by him) became primarily a philosopher of "secular people". He had many adherents of low rank, but very few able followers of his system. The "School of Schopenhauer" did not arise, but he still strongly influenced whole line original thinkers who developed their own theories. Of the philosophers who relied on Schopenhauer, Hartmann and the early Nietzsche are especially famous. They also include most of the representatives of the later "philosophy of life", whose true founder Schopenhauer has every right to be considered.

Literature:

1. Weber Max / Devyatkova R.P. // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: in 30 volumes / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1971. - T. 4: Brasos - Vesh. - 600 s. 2. Lewis J. Marxist criticism of the sociological concepts of Max Weber. - M., 1981. 3. Aron R. Stages of development of sociological thought / General ed. and foreword. P. S. Gurevich. - M.: Publishing group "Progress" - "Politics", 1992. 4. Kravchenko E. I. Max Weber. - M.: Ves Mir, 2002. - 224 p. - Series "The whole world of knowledge". - ISBN 5-7777-0196-5.