The Germans: Schopenhauer

[@pillmuncher67]

Some fun Schopenhauer facts: After the woman died who he allegedly had thrown down the stairs, he wrote this little poem in Latin: "obit anus, abit onus" -- "The old lady died, the burden is gone". Note the wordplay with the Latin word for "old lady". He played the flute. He practiced every day. His favorite composers were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. He had a poodle named Atman. He owned a little gold-plated Buddha statue from Tibet. When his maid first saw it she laughed and said it looked like a tailor. Schopenhauer replied: "When have I ever blasphemed your god? So don't blaspheme mine." Through a common acquaintance the young Richard Wagner sent him the sheet music for one of his operas. Schopenhauer said "Tell your friend he should quit music, he's a much more talented writer." Schopenhauer lived very close to the Main river. One night, as he walked home across a bridge, he saw someone drowning below. Without hesitation he jumped into the river and saved a young man's life who had attempted suicide. For his whole life he kept in touch with this man, and never bragged about it. He had a child with a ballet dancer (AFAIR), but it died in infancy and the relationship ended soon. He wrote: "Was die Frauen betrifft, so war ich ihnen sehr gewogen, hätten sie mich nur haben wollen." -- "As far as the women are concerned, I was very affectionate towards them, if only they had wanted me." Also his sister Adele was an exceptionally gifted writer. She was very lonely and suffered, like her father and probably also her brother Arhtur, from a life-long depression. Her diaries are wonderfully sad. After Napoleon I. Bonaparte had conquered Danzig, Schopenhauer's father, a devout republican, moved to Hamburg. It is unclear to me if he ever applied for citizenship, but his son Arthur remained stateless all his life and was proud of it. He translated Baltasar Gracián's book The Art of Worldly Wisdom from Spanish into German (Baltasar Graciáns Handorakel Und Kunst Der Weltklugheit). While Goethe wrote his Farbenlehre Schopenhauer was his assistant. Years later, after he had written his own Farbenlehre, he was surprised to find that Goethe wasn't amused. He'd thought he was improving the work of Goethe, while Goethe thought, his book was already the definitive work on the subject. Turns out, both were scientifically wrong, but both their works inspired many artists. Leo Tolstoi was a fan. So were the young Friedrich Nietzsche and the young Ludwig Wittgenstein.

[@JB-jr8zw]

Exceptional comment.

[@lukaswolczyk3236]

Atma not atman,means the soul of the universe in Sanskrit.

[@Loenthall88]

Thank you for sharing these interesting it's an information on schopenhauer. It always sheds light on the person to know more about that individuals life.

[@pillmuncher67]

@@lukaswolczyk3236 You're correct. But Schopenhauer read the German translation of the Persian translation of the Upanishads and there it was called Atman, I believe.

[@pillmuncher67]

@@Sideroxylon In my youth, I was a Schopenhauer fan boy and read about everything I could get a hold of. The best biography IMO is "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy" by Rüdiger Safranksi. I read the German original, though, not because I'm pretentious, but because I'm German. :)

[@tristants9209]

25:46 By the way Upanishads are not Buddhist texts. These are Vedic writings that belong to Hinduism.

[@Dave-zb1zv]

Schopenhauer was actually enlightened. He perceived the fact that the moment after experiencing something it has been stored in memory. After that, thinking-feeling- picturing in ones head, in other words all thinking is based in the past. The mind actually lives in the past. Everything is compared in every way to what it already has stored in memory. We are ctually continusously dwelling in the past and completely unaware of it for the most part.

[@adaptercrash]

Kant already did that

[@TopekaStateHospital]

" The worst is yet to come " . - Arthur Schopenhauer.

[@taketheredpill1452]

LOL

[@seanericanderson3666]

Dear Wes, you are a wonderful lecturer. Cheers from Ottawa.

[@xstephanx94]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES DUDE!!! ITS THAT TIME OF THE MONTH!

[@JB-jr8zw]

Period?

[@Icimaintenant9]

@@JB-jr8zw no…those are exclamation points

[@JB-jr8zw]

@@Icimaintenant9 wooshh

[@Icimaintenant9]

@@JB-jr8zw sorry, had to 😜

[@tigerlilysoma588]

It's the 1st of the month? So cash your checks and come on? With like some Lil' Jon mixed in? He says yeah and okay not yes though... Jus so you know. And Bone Thugs are pretty worn out. I also don't see wat their song has to do with Pessimism? Your weird dude

[@hunterdutkiewicz2993]

Hey Wes! You are a fantastic lecturer! I've been listening to your lectures for a few years now, and I always find your humor, candor, storytelling, and information helpful and provoking. Keep it up man!

[@miguelrivera9878]

excellent lecture thanks for posting!

[@MexTexican]

I 🧡 Schopenhauer. Thank you for this and for everything dear Cecil.

[@mykura2018]

Great stuff about Schopenhauer This guy is very knowledgable = proffesional. Highly recomended.

[@firstal3799]

This is one of your best videos. I really liked Schopenhauer.

[@gaurav984504]

Jiddu Krishnamurti "The word is not the thing" == Schopenhauer "Will & Representation" - Whole of Kant & Schopenhauer is summed in one adage of Jiddu Krishnamurti's "The observer is the observed"

[@SadistAssassin]

Schopenhauer is by far my favorite philosopher!

[@demoncard1180]

"Marty! I went back in time and became a philosopher instead! Set the date on the car to 21/11/2019 and check Wes's KZbin channel!"

[@Cantbuyathrill]

I love this talk! It's shopping hour for schopenhauer books.

[@noahqyain7311]

What did you buy?

[@yurihungrifreeprincesslati8025]

I never knew I was searching for your lecture :)

[@josephbuccati2369]

Wes, Thank you for this fantastic contribution to the philosophic community, for this video and for three dozen others! Your lectures have opened many a mind to the rich history of Western philosophy: the marvelous stories that fill its annals, its capacity to augment human consciousness, and its inestimable influence on contemporary life. I bid you good health, happiness, and fulfillment as you continue on in your own pedagogical journey; and hope you remain committed to this KZbin channel for many years to come!

[@lovemonster7283]

To tell me to get back to the content itself instead of exhort myself to share your thoughts on HIS ART that he probably never agreed upon his last thought to the next coming if not he wouldn't have become a out of his mind, thinker but a serious, productive and useful member of his nation. Thank you for your advice the only produce that could be paid to never been given!

[@strato5135]

This channel is severely under-subscribed

[@firstal3799]

Many vydriscwerdcrdjen furniture thfn hputvibdvj on

[@juanjolozadap4945]

Awesome lecture! I haven't yet gotten to read a lot of philosopher's original works, but this kind of priming certainly helps me know if I want to get into it or not... Request: FREUD!

[@AmonsRealm]

25:54 what is that Buddhist text the Apana sha?

[@Pulzyfr]

Hindu text, actually The title is Upanishads and they are very much worth reading

[@michaelsteven1090]

Most today don’t read Schopenhauer front to back, or Hegel, or Kant..etc; it’s absolute insanity in this day and age..

[@piushalg8175]

Some corrections: Schopenhauer did not read the Upanishads in German but in a Latin translation of a Persian translation. (He mastered Greek, Latin, French, English and Italian and was a an outstandig stylist in German). Moreover Parererga and Paralipomena are not Latin terms, but old Greek terms.

[@adaptercrash]

I love you man for defining reality towards the future as an action produced intuition instead of some isolated guy who just sits there. Not many peoples wanted to study kants transcdental doctrines. Your biology is all manic.

[@JacquesduPlessis11]

Not sure if you read thse comments @Wes Cecil, but I have really enjoyed your Germans series so far, and am excited to listen to your translation of Thus spake Zarathustra. Thanks for the wonderful content! As a small question - did you know your Germans' playlist contains only one video of the series? Just thought I would ask, as it might be an oversight. Thanks again for the wonderful content :)

[@Deelystaniel]

Wonderful, thanks

[@ka-bapraxis5887]

If reading too much hinders a person's ability to think for themselves. What is the proper method to assimilate the information that is read with time to comprehend the read material?

[@pillmuncher67]

Just read exactly the right amount.

[@walterbishop3668]

Just don't swallow

[@JB-jr8zw]

Make your own material once you feel you have read enough material.

[@roygbiv176]

Read the right things but also give yourself some time alone to reflect on things, for instance go for walks.

[@ka-bapraxis5887]

@@roygbiv176 thank you for your insight

[@EarthAngel504]

when you speak the brutal honest truth about people, its a problem. when you really take an objective look at the world and people, even your own race, it's very easy to be accused of being a Hater.. even the Bible tells you, Ecclesiastes 1:18- For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.... this is the absolute truth. I'm pretty sure if someone was to ask me my brutal honest truth about the world,, people and even my own race, i would be called a hater, among other things. In fact, i have been. Most people hate the truth with utter contempt. and this guy Wes Cecil, he's a perfect example.. in his own words, he say. Why would you give us soo much to read about Schopenhauer, Instead of giving us 2 or 3 of his essays, about the bad things he say about people, particularly women, so we all can, in solidarity conclude he is a horrible person and a "Hater" of everyone.. roughly paraphrasing.. and this is from someone with a PhD.

[@roygbiv176]

What on earth are you on about?

[@kurts4867]

Right...I think you're saying Schop.said "horrible" things ( subjective and opinion ) but was he WRONG?? ....

[@EarthAngel504]

@@kurts4867 what are you talking about?? I never said Schnopenhauer said horrible things. My critique was about the Op of the Video and his ignorant assessment on Schopenhauer.

[@EarthAngel504]

@@roygbiv176 you must not read what i wrote

[@k4yser]

It not only does take courage to speak the truth, you also need to know when it's appropriate to say certain things. People aren't equal, not everyone has the same mental Ressources, which are detriment when talking about uncomfortable "truths".

[@pianomanhere]

Frequently, at least a selective misanthropy is justifiable. Cure the world of its toxic positivity. Embrace Schopenhauer.

[@bernardliu8526]

How come the good professor totally ignored the nihilistic, pessimistic strand in Schopenhauer, for which he was most well-known ? In fact, he was dubbed ‘The Misanthropist of Frankfurt’. He opined, for instance, something like life is a business that will always lose money, and, for sure, will end in bankruptcy.

[@TylerDonald-b2x]

He wasn’t a nihilist. Also it’s a philosophy class not a literature class. A literature class might focus on his pessimism .

[@zumzumman5135]

I do agree WAWR is a colossal work and takes some time to read but I disagree with labelling it incomprehensible. Quite the contrary, it’s about as clear as philosophy gets.

[@walterbishop3668]

Finally!

[@vandercecil9449]

Wheñ & why did the title change the word "idea" to "representation"?

[@vygotsky17]

Great. Thanks for doing Schopenhauer. Have you any plans to do Lacan?

[@Andrew_Cotton]

But Schopenhauer, although he has complete access to his own mind, as we do vis a vis our own, the mind- the whole psyche- remained unknown inscrutable and impenetrable to him, as it does for us all, due to the substratum of the unconscious mind. And that's the paradox of the psyche- its completely accessible to us yet remains elusive obscure and unknowable by us. It would take about another 50 years until Freud came on the scene who popularized the notion of the unconscious and shed light for the first time on whst lies beneath seemingly the innocuous surface appearance of things. Freud, Jung and Adler figured out quite revolutionarily that negative painful and alien emotions and experiences get sublimated and pushed down into the unconscious. But that energy has to go somewhere. It's transferred and redirected by the unconscious and released or discharged in dreams, conscious thought and behavior, slips of the tongue and parapraxis which are mistakes. Thus if im having a polite conversation with my associate Dr. Livingstone abd I refer to Dr. Freud as Dr. "Fraud", Freud would say that its not merely a mistake. There are no mistakes. What we call a mistake really evinces and is the manifestation of feelings of bitterness hostility and professional resentment towards him, and because those thoughts are unpleasant and represent something the ego rejects or fails to recognize about itself, I've sublimated the thoughts into my unconscious where they emerged later in the "mistake " I made.

[@aurora3655]

What do you recommend as reading?

[@urbanberg8034]

I would recommand the appendixes to the second edition of "The World as Will and Representation“ which are "On Death and Its Relation to the Indestructibility of Our Inner nature“ and mainly "On The Metaphysics of Sexual Love“

[@SadistAssassin]

I recommend Studies in Pessimism

[@followtheciaence]

Thank you

[@bourehimyoussef111]

Does the the representation part include the subconscious.

[@shadowforger2035]

How can you not despise das Man. He would love me. Ever see Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men? Same as Shopenhauer.

[@Gabi-tw5es]

Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not as useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over. -Schopenhauer It seems like your teacher didn't really understand Schopenhauer since he gave you his master work to read as an "introduction".

[@品味历史品味人生]

Fantastic!

[@juanjolozadap4945]

Request: Emil Cioran

[@07serda]

@5:40 unless you can find methods to go completely “out” of your mind and perhaps what you experience then is reality or at least one membrane closer to it? Like a baby inside and outside of the womb.

[@thebrocialist8300]

Very insightful. Great oration as well.

[@Dave-zb1zv]

Thinking is the response of memory. If you had no memory you could not think. You could not repeat a feeling. Nor the pictures in the head. The mind is conditioned to obey social pressure and political propoganda, The Norms keep society frozen in Time and at war within and without and between.

[@pinosantilli8297]

We do NOT fully really have our bodies. We don't know everything that is going on in our bodies. Do we know when we have cancer? Not until we have symptoms of it. Our bodies are objects in the world like anything else. Yes we have a different kind of access to it than other objects but it is still an object in the world. How else can we learn about it and perform surgeries on it?

[@roygbiv176]

Most of the body is the representation of subconscious or un-selfconscious mentation. Only certain parts of the neocortex relate to self-reflective awareness. This doesn't mean that the rest of the body, or that other people's bodies do not correspond to some first person inner life, merely that it is not directly connected to our self conscious faculties.

[@No_Avail]

31:53-33:10 Faved. Don't care if the rest of the lecture contains extremely disagreeable stuff. Based prof is based.

[@tommot7755]

Wagner prroved Schopenhauer by creating music which drives our subconsciousness crazy. e.g. Tristan & Isolde

[@IDraganM]

Did Chicago school or any other economists get actual Nobel prize or self awarded one? I assume you are aware of the difference...

[@MegaAluchi]

I would have become Schopenhaur's and Nietzsche friend easily. I studied the later in Existensialism but not the former. I love bith and the make great sense to me.

[@TylerDonald-b2x]

I doubt they would want to be friends with a big fool like you

[@Orion225]

Hegel's work is dense, abstract and incomprehensible. How come he gets so popular?😂

[@axiomtv5481]

Hey Mr. Cecil. I have finished my book, W.I.L.D., What Is Life Definitively -- which relies on Schopenhauer along with some other great philosophers. I would love for an awesome mind such as yourself to review it whenever possible. Merci beaucoup.

[@AudioPervert1]

Not that all Germans are the same, and hardly 5% of them now have any clue about Arthur Schopenhauer.

[@aurora3655]

I think a lot of ppl who come into contact with Buddha-dogma, do so because Buddhism is more akin to philosophy than religion. It's a philisophical practice that is practiced religiously. I think the same may have been true of the ancient Greek philosophers like Pythagorus, Socrates, Plato, etc. Personally, I wonder if there wasn't a European connection of some sort in relation to the Aryans who greatly influenced East Indian religious-philosophy. But I do think there was a huge influence of the Greeks on the East Indians, in terms of religious-philosophy. I think the East Indians assimilated a lot form the ancient Greeks, and perhaps the ancient Greeks were influenced by their ancient world, which may have some connection to the Aryans, or whomever influenced the Aryans? Idk. But, there are huge similarities between ancient East India and the Greeks.....On another level, I would say that the religious-philosophical ideas of both the ancient East Indians, and the ancient Greek philosophers, are still very relevant today as they we're 2000 or 3000 yrs ago; because we're still human. Perhaps because our world today still bear greater similarities, as opposed to differences, with the ancient world.

[@Lakshyam9]

There is a connection but Indian Vedanta and its concepts of 'consciousness' predated the Greeks.

[@InTheRhettRow]

3 year old comment, but the Greek, Indian, and Aryan all derive from the same Indo-European source. And the Axial Age was essentially a synchronised reformation of the individual human spirit/consciousness over the older Indo-European Paganism. Zoroastrianism was the first to do so, and exerted huge influence over the Greeks. Buddhism did essentially the same thing that Zoroastrianism did a century later in its quest to denounce the older Aryan/Vedic sacrificial cattle raiding culture.

[@KowjjaMusic]

Depressed cynical guy formulates systematic philosophy and makes modern depressive cynical guys feel validated (i'm partly joking but given the recent rise in popularity of this man it really looks like that)

[@TylerDonald-b2x]

I don’t think he was depressed

[@viktorkukuruzovic5332]

you soooo misrepresented the chicago school of economic thought, way oversimplified what they are saying and i don't think that can be attributed to ignorance. also that connection you made between schopenhauer's view on our minds and bodies and that descartes' saying is just wack

[@ItsCronk]

Viktor Kukuruzović Enlighten us, liberal

[@dekutja]

@@ItsCronk don't assume things. Maybe he's right. Critique is part of philosophy, otherwise it'd be ideologs repeating one another. But yeah, please elaborate, Viktor!

[@tatianadekun9087]

Finally!! OMG . Thanks! 😀 BTW he's from Danzig

[@kabbalisticteddy]

You are using the idea of "semantic translation" right, right?? Go to your Google Translate Machine, which creates clusters of idioms using a notion of "being synonymous," then play with this wonderful tool, swapping between origin and source language :) Do this for arbitrarily many languages, or develop a more powerful procedure answering more powerful types of questions... The data structure in question is probably a high-dimensional graph, hypergraph. Or something like it. You will then be able to read in English, and avoid translating from... German :) For example, I like to play with the Google tool in question by repeatedly swapping between source and origin, until the concept itself stabilizes :) Of course I am not a book translator (but I am in fact a novelist, okay??) so I am not using this procedure in practice, yet I suspect a variation of this procedure will give you the... right translation :)

[@kabbalisticteddy]

Also, that will not save anyone years or decades of pondering on Schopenhauer, and many others. I think you know this :)

[@kabbalisticteddy]

Many people have not reached mysticism, okay?? That is perfectly fine. Religion in itself is not about "not believing in sex outside marriage." That is very far from being correct. Yet, personally I am well aware that if I am to live a perfect life I would in fact live by these precepts, and try to work as much as I can. Yet, I also like deviating from these precepts as much as it is possible ;) Who invented Twister?? :) The game of twister, you know. There's boys and girls playing it, and they do some stuff randomly and when they can't help it, they sort of fall, sometimes... I challenge anyone to tell me if this type of game is good. Is twister a good model for, all of us?? How are we to play Twister right? Are we making fundamental errors when playing Twister, such that some people get upset? Or is it in the nature of the World we live in that we all get upset a little bit, sometimes... Did Schopenhauer play Twister? Because you mention they did not like people :)

[@kabbalisticteddy]

What is of extreme importance right now, is that we stop ideological manipulation. And we say the truth about stuff. You know. About general stuff. In general people have the right to know about whom they are, ethnically, racially, nationally. There's no need to call NZ, Aotearoa, or anything like that (oops!!) yet we must speak truthfully on these things. Evil shall come back (you haven't clarified if you are a mystic) and maybe that's what Hegel's dialectic is about.

[@kabbalisticteddy]

And that's Foucault's "grid," too. Cover-up. Attempt to cover-up. Hide what happened. That sort of strategy cannot be fruitful. I am wondering deeply about how this stuff will be covered-up, or maybe if it will be covered up. In any case, that is the first step. Saying the truth as closer to... the truth.

[@MisanthropeAwaitingBliss]

Prof! Thank you so much

[@Dave-zb1zv]

Human beings rational? No, Main human problem = thinking, feeling and imagining that I am [rational] oh yeah! To be rational means you are aware of your thought {processes} actually aware, having observed first hand, not theory or opinion. Not thinking I am when I don't really know.

[@birkettbentley8700]

Sorry. Vocals & audio are too poorly done.

[@Orlor]

He's the one that starts with a S...

[@Diomedes99]

Now the ideas are out but most of them suck and the most popular ones are atrocious.

[@C2525-k7i]

My my of of

[@Necromancyr]

algo

[@pjeffries301]

You really are incredibly unfair and flat wrong on Kant. Surprising.

[@ItsCronk]

How so?

[@TheWhitehiker]

Lucid, also gets into his subject quickly, unlike . . . .

[@HxH2011DRA]

Ah nothing like reading my fellow misanthropic philosophers to help me deal with an overpopulated world

[@HxH2011DRA]

@@ecogiko we are too mean (trust me I know damn well everyone could be provided with food and a home if humanity ever developed the political will. Good luck with that)

[@HxH2011DRA]

@@ecogiko ok whatever you say bro. For the record I have a solution of replacing humanity with a superior hive mind species but I don't think you like that idea since you seem like a Nietzsche (Niet-Chan) type

[@HxH2011DRA]

@@ecogiko Thanks! You have a great day as well!!

[@HxH2011DRA]

@King Kong LOL

[@aurora3655]

You can "turn the light inward", and the see the connection between you and the world around you, but you cannot see beyond the world around you. I very much disagree with the idea that you are the universe. Too romantic and misleading. Personally, I only contend with reality, not crap business men say.

[@aurora3655]

Any one can write dogma. Doesn't make it real.

[@threeletteragent]

Schopenhauer does not assert that you are the universe-in-itself, but rather that you are within the universe and are a microcosm of it, and thus you can extrapolate universal understanding from contemplation of the interior will.

[@emmanueloluga9770]

@@threeletteragent In a way its still up for challenge tho, since he completely subscribes to the Kantian idea of the exclusivity of noeumena and phenomena