synopsis:

In his major work Schopenhauer argues that humans are active creatures who find themselves compelled to love, hate, desire, and reject. All that drives us is The Will and all that exists is a representation of this will. Although the will is entirely real, it is not free, nor does it have any ultimate purpose. Rather, it is all-consuming, pointless, and negative, "all life is suffering." There is no escape from the will in nature; expressions of the will are seen throughout nature - in the struggles of animals, the stirring of a seed, the turning of a magnet. The only purpose in life must be that of escaping the will and its painful strivings. In this we can see the influence Buddhism had on schopenhauer's thinking. The arts, with their "will-less perception," provide a temporary haven, especially music, the highest of the arts. The only final escape is sheer extinction of the will. Outright suicide will not do because it is an assertion of the will. The three aids to salvation are philosophic knowledge, contemplation of works of art, and sympathy for others. Ethics are senseless, they can only be based on the feeling of compassion.

on this book:

Schopenhauer was the first major European philosopher to make a point of atheism and suicide. His work was totally neglected the most time of his life, when Hegel, another German philosopher, was the main thinker. Nowadays his work is seen as of extreme importance. It had an enormous influence on Nietzsche's thinking and the existentialist thinkers in general.