Studies in Pessimism
Gathered from Schopenhauer’s later writings, these essays set out his famously bleak view of existence with unusual clarity and bite. He argues that life swings between pain and boredom, that happiness is mostly the absence of suffering, and that the will driving all living things guarantees dissatisfaction. Across pieces on the vanity of existence, the sorrows of the world, suicide, and human character, he writes as a plainspoken moralist rather than a system builder, which is why these short essays have stayed in print for well over a century. Bracing, witty, and unafraid to give offense, they offer the quickest way into his thought for anyone new to it. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects the essays in one place.
About the Author
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher whose bleak, will-centered metaphysics and elegant prose influenced Nietzsche, Wagner, Tolstoy, and Freud. Long ignored in his lifetime, he found fame only in his final years, and his pessimism became one of the nineteenth century’s most distinctive philosophical…
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