SCHOPENTTAITER, ARTHUR, a German philosopher, son of Johanna Schopenhauer, an authoress of teusiderable distinction (bum 1770, died 1e38), was burn at Danzig, Feb. 22, 1788. lie studied first at GOttingen, where the lectures of Schulze inspired hint with a love of philosophy, and afterward at Berlin and Jena, iu the last of which places he graduated in 1813. During the same year he published his first treatise, Ueber die 'vier facile Wurzel des 8atzes coin zareichendth U-rande (Rudulst. 1813, 2d ed. Fraukf. 1847), in which he lays clown the logical basis of his future sys:eru. Schopenhauer spent the winter of 1813 at Weimar, where he enjoyed the society of Goethe, and the orieutalist Friedr. .Maier, who first turned his attention to the ancient Indian literature and philo sophy, the study of which exercised a great influence on his future development. He then proceeded to Dresdon, where he published a treatise on sight and color Weber tins &hen used die lierben, Liep. 181G), which was followed. three years later, by his great work, Die Well als Wale unit •nnxk:lun// (The World considered as Will and Id:et, Leip. 1819; 211 ed, 1844). After 1820 Schopeuhauer lived partly in Italy and partly in Berlin, up till 1831, when he fixed himself iu Fraukfurt-on-the-Slain, devoting himself uniuter ruptedly to the elaboration of his system. The fruits of his studies were Ueber den Willett in der Natal. (Frankf. 1886); Lieber die Freikeit des liaens, Ueber das Fwncbirnegd
der Moral, the supplemreuts to his principal work, which appear in the 2d edition of 1844; and Parema and Paralipoinena (Berl. 1851). He died Sept. 21, 1860. The fundamental doctrine of Schopenhaner is that the only essential reality in the universe is St ill; that what are called appearances exist only in our subjective representations, and‘are Merely forms under which single original will shows itself. This will is not necessarily accom panied by self-consciousness, though it ever strives after_ its attainment, and hence Sehupeuhauer declared himself the uncompromising opponent of all the contemporary systems—those of Fichte, Schelling, and Ilegel—in which the "absolute reason," "con sciousness," etc., are posited as the necessary basis of thought. For his great rivals, Schopenhaner professed the most unmeasured scorn—calling Hegel. for example, a mere "scribbler of nonsense"—and in return was treated by them with such sovereign con tempt that for years his name was almost unknown to the majority of German students. His taeories of ethics and wstlietics also rest on peculiar and not very intelligible grounds. The best account of Schopenhauer's philosophy is to be found in Frallell stades !ride (their die Sehopenhawersehe Philosophie (Leip. 1854). See Life, by Helen Zimmerli (1876).