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On the Suffering of the World
On the Suffering of the World | Arthur Schopenhauer
3 posts | 2 read | 1 reading | 2 to read
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
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Bookwomble
On the Suffering of the World | Arthur Schopenhauer
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“A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”

quote
Bookwomble
On the Suffering of the World | Arthur Schopenhauer
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“If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.”

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Bookwomble
On the Suffering of the World | Arthur Schopenhauer
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Where he's good, Schopenhauer is very good (On the Suffering of the World, On Thinking for Yourself, On Philosophy and the Intellect), but where he's bad he's execrable (On Women). Dour and pessimistic, he's the Morrissey of philosophy. All is vanity, life is short and joy is fleeting. I wonder if today he would be diagnosed with clinical depression, rather than the romantic melancholia of genius. 👇🏻👇🏻

Bookwomble So, that said, I found much in common with him, in a mordantly humourous way, as I'm inclined to a glass-half-empty view of life (much as I seek to amend that). Where I think he goes wrong, particularly so in his views upon women, is in not challenging the assumptions and cultural perspectives of his time and place. He takes these views as given and does not seem to be conscious of the possibility that the qualities he berates in woman...👇🏻👇🏻 7y
Bookwomble ...may arise due to the rôles forced upon them by society, nor does he seem to consider that his own perspective may be skewed by the privileged position he holds in that society as a man.

Worth reading, though I'm sure he would not have said the same about this review, laden as it is with plebian affectations to style, parentheses and devoid of original thought, relying instead upon a dissection of the thoughts of another. 3.5/5🌟
7y
Nute This was often the male viewpoint of his time/era. 7y
Bookwomble @Nute Sure was. There's also currently a certain "leader of the free world" (whose name I shan't mention) whose head is still firmly stuck up that hole. 7y
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