Arthur Schopenhauer

1788–1860 · German · 19th Century

Known for: Philosophy's greatest pessimist who named his poodle after the Hindu concept of self and scheduled lectures to compete with Hegel—and lost

Brilliant, misanthropic, and desperately jealous of Hegel. He scheduled lectures opposite Hegel's and lost dismally. His World as Will and Representation argued blind, striving will underlies all reality.

A gifted writer—the most readable German philosopher. Passionate about Eastern philosophy, particularly Buddhism and the Upanishads. He anticipated psychoanalysis and existentialism.

What Arthur Schopenhauer would be watching

The “if they lived today” Q&A on this page gives Arthur Schopenhauer Melancholia (2011) as a favourite film. Their reason: “A planet destroys Earth and the depressed woman is the only one who handles it well. Vindication.” Rankquant scores it above 38% of films, drawn from 532 IMDb reviewers individually re-centred rather than averaged raw. The full film & TV rankings are built the same way.

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