The world is two parts of will and representation

Author's name: Arthur Schopenhauer Publisher: Dar Al-Kitab Al-Jadid Al-Muttahed Year of publication: 2024 Literary classification: Philosophy and Thought Brief about the book: If interpreting the opinions of many philosophers through the facts of their lives fails at times, it certainly succeeds in the case of Schopenhauer; because the facts of his life reveal many points in his intellectual doctrine, or at least are clearly connected to these points, and in this he is the opposite of his teacher "Immanuel Kant," who was not the monotonous dry pattern of his life revealing anything of his opinions, nor could he be connected in any special way in thinking, and this truth about Schopenhauer will be clearly evident through the presentation of his life. Arthur Schopenhauer was born in Dantzig city on February 22, 1788. His father was a wealthy merchant, somewhat interested in cultural matters. However, he was characterized by a kind of independence in opinions and a dry temperament. As for his mother, she was a woman of high intellectual talents, once famous as a story writer. Later, she had a literary salon in Weimar. Arthur showed excellent mental ability in childhood, then devoted himself to studying humanities and natural sciences, and later moved to study philosophy at a relatively late age at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin. In 1813, he wrote his first book, "The Fourfold Root of the Principle of S sufficient Cause," which earned him a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena, in which he presented a theory of knowledge based on Kant's view of the idealism of time, space, and categories. During his stay in Dresden—from 1814 to 1818—his creative genius produced a philosophical book containing a summary of his thinking. He was thirty years old when he finished it, so it is truly astonishing that his thinking was complete and reached this level of maturity at such a young age. This book— which more fully expressed Schopenhauer's doctrine—is "The World as Will and Representation," and its title in German is Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. It is also noteworthy that Schopenhauer lived forty-one years after publishing this book, during which he found nothing to cause him to reconsider his main ideas contained in it. It is known that from his youth, he kept a notebook in which he recorded his ideas. Thus, the book was an objective expression of his general view of life, a view he did not abandon until the end. In 1819, Schopenhauer took a teaching position at the University of Berlin, so daring as to schedule his lectures at the same times as Hegel's. However, he naturally could not attract the audience from Germany's greatest philosopher. In 1821, he retired from teaching, then secluded himself in Frankfurt am Main, where he lived a lonely, bleak life with no friends except a dog named "Atma" (which is "the universal soul" in Indian philosophy). The reason for this retreat was clear: he completely failed in teaching. His main book also did not achieve any success, while Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte—whom he considered closer to charlatans than true philosophy—were raised to the rank of geniuses and enjoyed great success in all circles. Schopenhauer continued to live this dark, bleak life, writing other less important books until he died in 1860. However, fame had begun to decline in the last decade of his life, especially after Julius Frauenstädt wrote his book "Letters on Schopenhauer's Philosophy" (Briefe über die Schopenhauersche Philosophie). But it was clear that fame came too late, as it failed to bring any joy to his gloomy life.