Schopenhauer: ‘The World as Will and Representation’: Volume 1 (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer) by Christopher Janaway (PDF)

Description

First published in 1818, The World as Will and Representation contains Schopenhauer’s entire philosophy, ranging through epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, aesthetics and philosophy of art, to ethics, the meaning of life and the philosophy of religion, in an attempt to account for the world in all its significant aspects. It gives a unique and influential account of what is and is not of value in existence, the striving and pain of the human condition and the possibility of deliverance from it. This translation of the first volume of what later became a two-volume work reflects the eloquence and power of Schopenhauer’s prose and renders philosophical terms accurately and consistently. It offers an introduction, glossary of names and bibliography, and succinct editorial notes, including notes on the revisions of the text which Schopenhauer made in 1844 and 1859.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Best writer of any philosopher…already makes him my favorite. He’s actually quite funny on top of being a total genius, love the endless ways he finds to trash Hegel….if you read one philosophy book in your life this is the one to read (well, Arthur demands you read a few other things before this, his Fourfold Root essay and some Kant. I’d suggest getting a summary on these, both are a pretty dull slog….Kant is a nightmare to read, scared me off of philosophy in college for 30 years it’s was so awful…but Schopenhauer is a joy to read, and was maybe the only guy in the 18th century who aligned his thought system with the Indian Veda’s….oh it’s just so worth the effort to read the book. He is to philosophy what Chopin is to music. Melodic, original, elegant, profound.

⭐The translation of these Cambridge Schopenhauer books is amazing. Unfortunately they are not quality books and don’t last as long as most paperbacks should these days.And as usual Amazon shipped in a paper envelope and seriously damaged the book, again.

⭐an excellent work.

⭐If you are familiar with Schopenhauer you are undoubtedly interested in how this translation stacks up against Eric Payne’s…If you aren’t and want to get to the meat of his philosophy, you have come to the right place. This is his magnum opus, with the forthcoming second volume containing supplementary essays. This book unveils his metaphysical system, which forms the backbone of his thought. If you are merely seeking his various and well-known rants on art, women, noise, etc., then you are looking for the two-volume Parerga and Paralipomena, which has also been edited into myriad smaller books multitudinous times.The World as Will and Representation would never survive such a butchering. Schopenhauer is massively misunderstood, misquoted, and quoted out of context. It is unfair to containerize his philosphy in short form, but I’ll give an honest attempt.He picks up where he feels Kant left off, with the world as representation, which is to say mental picture. It is a biological fact that our brains receive a “feed” of sensory data through the nerves, and build a picture from it, which is the world we know. The problem then becomes, what, if anything, is the real world, the “thing in itself,” apart from being represented in the mind? Space, time, and cause/effect thus become merely the “program” that our minds use to build this representation, and we have no reason to believe that they are valid outside of it. Even science cannot penetrate this veil.Schopenhauer’s answer to the nature of the thing in itself is actually quite simple: our will. The desires and emotions we experience play out in time but not in space, and are the inner mechanism of causality. They are the direct line to ultimate reality, which he characterizes as an infinite striving. Applying this then to the rest of nature, he sees it in animals, plants, magnetism, gravity, and energy itself. Like white light through a prism the blind and indivisible will manifests itself through space and time as every single phenomenon in the universe, yourself included. Multiplicity is thus seen as an illusion, and death becomes a moot point.And as for the translation? I don’t speak German but whereas Payne’s translation was perhaps more literary and fluid, this is more modern, more technical, and definitely more particular. I am very familiar with the older translation and I feel that this one is considerably more careful. Between that fact and the supplementary notes I do believe it is currently definitive.

⭐I gave this 1 star primarily for the ambiguous existence of this edition. The work itself does not need rating and the translation here is the main draw of this edition. However the book I received, purchased from Amazon ($100 cheaper for the hardback than other places) is a cheap fake made-on-the-spot book, not an actual hardcover at all but one of those glossy disgusting things you see as kids books. It is mysterious since I ordered Vol 2. as well which is only available in hardback. vol 2 is radically different in quality, being a real clothe bound hardback, which leads one to question the cheaper price on amazon. It is I believe fraudulent to sell something of this quality. I recommend buying the softcover, it is a made to print. which is how the other soft cover in the series are. It is frustrating that vol 2 is not soft cover as well making this all tricky business, it seems you will have to spend 200 upwards to get an actual hardcover of vol 1.UPDATE: I spent the 200 plus on a third party seller and it was the same thing, which I would best describe as an ‘institutional copy’. for any and everyone just buy a soft cover of vol 1. the softcover is unassuming yet higher quality.

⭐Full disclosure up front. I have both the Kindle edition and the paperback edition. The Kindle edition is formatted poorly, with noted interspersed directly into the text, which interferes with legibility. At least this is the case on my Kindle Fire 10”, the Kindle app for Windows, the cloud reader, and the iPhone app. Because of this, I ordered the paperback edition of both volumes.Initially, Volume 2 was scheduled to arrive one day ahead of Volume 1, but due to a postal service quirk, they arrived together the day Volume 1 was scheduled to arrive. This is not a disappointment: the dopamine hit of getting them both together was much better than two smaller dopamine hits of them arriving separately.Though I have not started the books in earnest, I have read the introduction and scanned Schopenhauer’s prefaces, and read the open wing two paragraphs of the first section, and find the translation easy to follow. I look forward to digging into it in depth. However, as this work is in large part a response to Kant, I chose to back up a step or three and take on Kant’s three critiques before diving head first into TWAWAR.I highly recommend the paperback versions over there Kindle versions, even though they are a bit pricier.

⭐This is the best translation in English you can get, with a very good critical apparatus.However, it is quite expensive so I suggest you maybe think about it. It is quite useful for a specialist. If you do want a cheaper version in English, be sure to take one that does have “Representation” in the title, and not “Idea” or “Presentation”.

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