Arthur Schopenhauer: Encyclopedia II - Arthur Schopenhauer - Life

Arthur Schopenhauer - Life

Schopenhauer was born in Stutthof (Sztutowo) Poland, near Danzig (Gdańsk). He was the son of Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer and Johanna Schopenhauer, a middle class mercantile family of Dutch heritage, although they had strong feelings against any kind of nationalism. Indeed, the name Arthur was selected by his father especially because it was the same in English, German, and French. His parents were both from the city, and Johanna was an author as well. After the city fell to Prussia during the second partition of Poland in 1793 the Schopenhauer family fled to Hamburg; in 1805 Schopenhauer's father died, possibly by suicide, and Johanna moved to Weimar. Because of a promise to pursue a business career, Schopenhauer remained in Hamburg. His disgust of this career, however, drove him away to join his mother in Weimar after only a year. He never got along with his mother; when the writer Goethe, who was a friend of Johanna Schopenhauer, told her that he thought her son was destined for great things, Johanna objected: she had never heard there could be two geniuses in a single family.

Schopenhauer studied at the University of Göttingen and was awarded a PhD from the University of Jena. In 1820, Schopenhauer became a lecturer at the University of Berlin; it was there that his opposition to Hegel began.

While in Berlin, Schopenhauer became involved in a consuming lawsuit from a Caroline Marquet. She asked for damages from him, a man of independent means, on the basis that she was injured when Schopenhauer allegedly pushed her. Marquet had noisily attracted Schopenhauer's attention. Then, Marquet's companion witnessed her as being prostrate outside of his apartment. Marquet claimed that the philosopher had assaulted and battered her after she refused to leave his doorway. In this manner, she succeeded in gaining, through the court, a portion of Schopenhauer's limited wealth. His reputation was permanently damaged by her legal machination.

Schopenhauer's health deteriorated during the year of 1860. He died of natural causes on September 21 of the same year at the age of 72.

Schopenhauer called himself a Kantian and despised Hegel. He formulated a pessimistic philosophy that gained importance and support after the failure of the German and Austrian revolutions of 1848.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki