Tag Archives: arthur schopenhauer

In the Free Will Debate, Does the Truth Matter?

According to the New York Times this morning, researchers have discovered a curious correlation between belief (or disbelief) in free will and behavior: [W]hen people doubt free will, they do worse at their jobs and are less honest. This raises … Continue reading

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A Great Arthur Schopenhauer Quote

This Arthur Schopenhauer quote is in Susan Neiman’s exceptionally interesting book, Evil in Modern Thought  (Princeton 2002, p. 203): [T]he astonishment that urges us to philosophize obviously springs from the sight of the evil and wickedness in the world. If … Continue reading

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Some Perpective on the New Year: A Bit of Pessimistic Buddha-Wisdom from Arthur Schopenhauer (and Monty Python)

A little something to keep life and the New Year in perspective. Arthur Schopenhauer, from Book 1, Section 16 of The World as Will and Representation (1818, translated from the German by E.F. Payne): For whenever a man in any … Continue reading

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“It is right it should be so”? William Blake and the Problem of Suffering

In the below lines from “Auguries of Innocence” (written in the first decade of the 1800s) William Blake suggests that suffering and joy are necessarily woven together—and are, metaphorically, the clothing of the soul. But why suffering must accompany joy … Continue reading

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