Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint : Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime

Schopenhauer's philosophy is well known for a deeply ingrained pessimistic quality. Vasalou carefully and subtly unpacks and analyses the elements of Schopenhauer's conception of philosophical practice, suggesting that it is fundamentally and demonstrably an aesthetic practice. The book will interest those involved in studies of Schopenhauer and nineteenth-century German philosophy.

With its pessimistic vision and bleak message of world-denial, it has often been difficult to know how to engage with Schopenhauer's philosophy. Schopenhauer's arguments have seemed flawed and his doctrines marred by inconsistencies; his very pessimism almost too flamboyant to be believable. Yet a way of redrawing this engagement stands open, Sophia Vasalou argues, if we attend more closely to the visionary power of Schopenhauer's work. The aim of this book is to place the aesthetic character of Schopenhauer's standpoint at the heart of the way we read his philosophy and the way we answer the question: why read Schopenhauer - and how? Approaching his philosophy as an enactment of the sublime with a longer history in the ancient philosophical tradition, Vasalou provides a fresh way of assessing Schopenhauer's relevance in critical terms. This book will be valuable for students and scholars with an interest in post-Kantian philosophy and ancient ethics.