On Human Nature: Essays in Ethics and Politics Book

Reading this book makes it abundantly clear how Schopenhauer earned the nickname the great pessimist.

("We have been taking a look at the depravity of man , and it is a sight which may well fill us with horror. But now we must cast our sight on the misery of his existence; and then when we have done so and are horrified by that too, we must look back again at his depravity. We may then find that they hold the balance to each other. We shall perceive the eternal justice of things; for we shall recognize that the world itself is the final judgement on it, and we shall begin to understand why it is that everything that lives must pay the penalty of its existence. First in living then in dying.And thus the evil of the penalty accords with the evil of the sin")

Like Hobbes he favors monarchy and the ideal of a platonic republics over democracy's leveling effects , he sees human beings as monsters of egoism who are more brutish then animals and openly detests the masses. Moreover he doesnt subscribe to any utopian ideas in change or progreess, and holds a deterministic view in regards to the question of free will. Towards things that irritate him he sacrifices philosophical rigor and any standard of objectivity by being unrelentingly and comically scathing in his rants , see his essay "On woman" for further proof. Though he should be given credit as stuborness is something he admits to and owns , as he dismisses competing ideas and asserts that " My standard is truth"

Life is central for Schopenhauer " i am no proffessor of philosophy" and his reflections and observations on it are both stylish and stimulating. as they tend to spark explosions of thoughts ala nietzsche. i will not comment so much on my itnerpreatations though the allusions and the influence is obvious as Schopenhauer expounds a theory that all things outwardly are the manifestation and objectification of an apriori will. Such a will is the thing in itself and the unconscious and primordial guiding force behind all our actions and explanations. Also one can't end talking about Schopenhauer without allotting him due credit for being one of the first western philosophers to navigate and integrate eastern hindu and buddhist ideas into his writings.