Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy Contemporary StudieS in idealiSm Series Editor: Paolo Diego Bubbio, Western Sydney University Editorial Board: Mark V. Alznauer (Northwestern University), Francesco Berto (University of St. Andrews), Alfredo Ferrarin (University of Pisa), Elena Ficara (University of Paderborn and City University of New York), George di Giovanni (McGill University), Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University), Stephen Houlgate (University of Warwick), Wayne Hudson (Charles Sturt University), Luca Illetterati (University of Padua), David Kolb (Bates College), Simon Lumsden (UNSW), Douglas A. Moggach (University of Ottawa), Lydia Moland (Colby College), Maurizio Pagano (University of Eastern Piedmont), Paul Redding (The University of Sydney), Julian Young (Wake Forest University) The Contemporary Studies in Idealism series features cutting-edge scholarship in the field of classical German Idealism and its legacy. “Idealism” is considered both in a historical and in a theoretical sense. The series features projects that center upon Kant and the post-Kantian Idealists (including, but not limited to, early German romantic thinkers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel) or upon other related forms of nineteenth-century philosophy—including those often considered to oppose Idealism, such as those of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The scholarship also seeks to critically assess the legacy of Idealism in the twentieth and twentieth-first century. The series uses the resources of classical German Idealism to engage in contemporary debates in all sub-fields of philosophy. Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy, by Jonathan Head Nietzsche and Adorno on Philosophical Praxis, Language, and Reconciliation: Towards an Ethics of Thinking, by Paolo A. Bolaños Hypotyposis in Kant’s Metaphysics of Judgment: Symbolizing Completeness, by Byron Ashley Clugston Kant and Mysticism: Critique as the Experience of Baring All in Reason’s Light, by Stephen R. Palmquist Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy Jonathan Head LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Copyright © 2021 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec- tronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Head, Jonathan, author. Title: Schopenhauer and the nature of philosophy / Jonathan Head. Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2021] | Series: Contemporary studies in idealism | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: "What is philosophy? What can philosophy offer us? What brings us to think philosophically? Arthur Schopenhauer's writings offer fascinating answers to these questions that have largely been overlooked until now. In Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy, Jonathan Head explores the surprisingly rich and compelling metaphilosophy that underlies Schopenhauer's work and argues that it offers a vital key to unlocking many of the mysteries that surround his ideas. Schopenhauer understands philosophy as grounded in a deep wonder about life and the world that is universal to the human experience, as well as meeting a fundamental need for both explanation and consolation. This account of the nature of philosophy leads to further important discussions concerning the relationship between philosophy and religion, the value of mysticism, and the possibility of social progress. Through examining Schopenhauer's account of how and why philosophy is done, this book sheds crucial new light on a thinker whose ideas continue to both provoke and inspire"-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021044205 (print) | LCCN 2021044206 (ebook) | ISBN 9781793640062 (cloth) | ISBN 9781793640079 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860. | Philosophy. Classification: LCC B3148 .H395 2021 (print) | LCC B3148 (ebook) | DDC 193--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044205 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044206 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. To the memory of my grandparents — Ivy, Rita, Len and Lesley vi Contents Acknowledgements ix Note on Abbreviations and Referencing xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1: The Need for Metaphysics 1 Chapter 2: Nature and Subjectivity 23 Chapter 3: Communicating Philosophy 51 Chapter 4: Seeking Better Consciousness 83 Chapter 5: Philosophy, Metaphor and Speculation 119 Conclusion 163 Bibliography 167 Index 171 About the Author 183 vii Acknowledgements The roots of this book go back over a decade, during which time I have been able to discuss my ideas with numerous scholars who generously gave their time to do so, including Daniel Came, Mark Walker, Keith Ansell-Pearson, Alex Neill, Peter Poellner, and especially Dennis Vanden Auweele. My thanks to all of them. I also greatly benefited from insightful comments from a number of anonymous reviewers who read the manuscript at various stages of development, and my sincere thanks goes to them too. I must also thank my philosophy colleagues at Keele University for their support during this time: Sophie Allen, Sorin Baiasu, Giuseppina D’oro, and James Tartaglia. Many thanks also to Carol Diethe and Jenny Piddock for help with reading some untranslated material from Gessamelte Briefe. I was also fortunate enough to find a great publisher for this monograph in Lexington Books, and my thanks go to the philosophy editors, Jana Hodges-Kluck and Sydney Wedbush. I am also pleased that this is being published as part of the growing ‘Contemporary Studies in Idealism’ series, and my gratitude goes to the series editor, Paolo Diego Bubbio, and the rest of the editorial board for taking a chance on this book. I must also thank Cambridge University Press for permission to use extensive quotation from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer, edited by Christopher Janaway1; Berg Publishers, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., for permission to use quotes from Schopenhauer: Manuscript Remains (V1): Early Manuscripts (1804–1818), by Arthur Schopenhauer, edited by Arthur Hübscher and translated by E. F. J. Payne; and Il Pensare for material from Jonathan Head, “Speculation and Esotericism in Schopenhauer’s Philosophy” Il Pensare—Rivista di Filosofia, Anno VIII, n. 9, pp. 153–175, 2019, http:// www.ilpensare.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Head.pdf, reprinted with permission. ix