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Philosophical Quarterly
Schopenhauer always believed that he would not have been able to accomplish his life's work if he had not inherited financial independence. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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He explains clearly the place and the importance of Schopenhauer in the history of philosophy, the strenght and modernity of his ideas, and his deep influence on later philosophers and artists. He also criticizes vigorously some aspects of his work and life.
Magee shows that Schopenhauer built his worldview on the transcendental idealism of Kant. But he went further by describing the real nature of Kant's 'thing in itself' (the noumenon), which he called rather unfortunately the 'will'. For Schopenhauer, the entire world of phenomena in time and space, internally connected by causality, is the self-objectivation of an impersonal, timelessly active will. It is an unassuageable striving, which means continued dissatisfaction for the individual.
Schopenhauer noticed a flaw in Kant's reasoning that we could only access to the 'thing in itself' through our sensory and intellectual apparatus. We know one material 'thing in itself' subjectively: our own body.
The idea of the 'will' is very modern, because it anticipated Darwin's evolutionism, Freud's unconsciousness and Einstein's holism (everything is energy).
Magee explains magisterially all aspects of Schopenhauer's penetrating worldview, like the defective intellect of mankind, because intelligence is only a late and superficial evolutionary differentiation, developed for the promotion of animal survival.
His investigation of human behaviour is based on what people do in fact, not on what they 'ought to do'. His conclusion was that what traditionally had been considered moral behaviour turned out to be self-interest.
For Schopenhauer, art is not an expression of emotion, but an attempt to convey an insight into the true nature of things. It must have its origin in direct perception, not in concepts.
Magee stresses rightly that Schopenhauer was one of the few philosophers who integrated sex in his speculations. For him, sex is the 'very process whereby the will to live achieves life. The urge towards it is the most powerful of the will's demands, next only to the brute survival of what already exists'.
He shows also his virulent atheism ('As ultima ratio theologorum we find among many nations the stake'), his misogyny and his interest in Buddhism.
His criticism of Schopenhauer is also very important and to the point.
Schopenhauer denies mankind free will. But if there is no free will, there is no morality.
More importantly, he notices that Schopenhauer didn't live a life of someone who believed in a world of only unrelieved pessimism, dominated by the inherently evil metaphysical will. His life contradicted a part of his philosophy!
This very rich book contains also excellent explanations of the philosophy of Fichte, Schelling, Vaihinger and Frege, as well as brilliant demonstrations of the influence of Schopenhauer on Nietzsche and Wittgenstein (the Tractatus).
Magee gives us also a very stark argument against solipsism.
The one point on which I disagree with Magee is the following comment: 'This is not the same as to say that these material objects are fully and completely us: that is another matter.' (p. 121)
This sometimes ferociously driven apologia pro Schopenhauer (and Kant) is the best possible presentation of a philosopher. Magee convinced me to read Schopenhauer's main work. I didn't do it until now, because I was influenced by G. Lukacs.
A book not to be missed.
That said, though there is a great deal in Schopenhauer that makes me think, I am not yet able to accept time, space and causality as concepts created by our brains as ways of making sense of the world. Magee is a Schopenhauer fan and says that it took him years to fully understand him. I have been reading Schopenhauer both via Magee and in the original in his "The World as Will and Representation" and am still not able to understand him fully.
Nevertheless I recommend Magee's book as a thoroughly thought provoking read.
Arthur Schopenhauer warned his readers about reading secondary texts. He said that reading another man's work about a great philosopher is like wanting another man to digest your breakfast for you. Would you read about history if you could travel back and see the important events yourself? Then why would you read secondary texts when you can read the original? The ideas of a great philosopher, he went on to argue, cannot fit into the 2bs of brains of the average academic! Brian Magee also warned about this in his autobiography and so it shows his confidence that he can tackle a secondary text on The Philosophy of Schopenhauer and produce a philosophical text in its own right.
Let us be honest, much is lost in translation. Many tell me that Arthur Schopenhauer's prose is polished in the original German but, I must admit, I have found it to be clunky in the English. Brian Magee can write English and he explains Schopenhauer better than Schopenhauer! Magee, you know, wrote novels and so he is a dab hand with the English language. I have never got my head around Kant until Magee showed me. Magee's history of western philosophy is spellbinding because he can explain the complex with the right word, every time. After reading Magee, I believed, no, I really understood my place in space and time. That is how well written it is. The Philosophy of Schopenhauer is a veritable love song to Western Philosophy.
I can't believe poor students buy dry philosophical introductions when this work of literature is available. I cannot praise it enough. There is no criticism in here.
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