Reconstructing Schopenhauer’s Ethics: Hope, Compassion, and Animal Welfare

249 Pages·2019·8.248 MB·English

by  Sandra Shapshay

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RECONSTRUCTING SCHOPENHAUER’S ETHICS
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RECONSTRUCTING
SCHOPENHAUER’S ETHICS
Hope, Compassion, and Animal Welfare
Sandra Shapshay
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ISBN 978– 0– 19– 090680– 1
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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For Marcia Baron and Allen Wood, mentors and friends
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Citations to Schopenhauer’s Works xiii
Introduction 1
1. A Tale of Two Schopenhauers 11
2. Schopenhauer’s Pessimism in Light of
His Evolving System 37
3. Freedom and Morality 97
4. Compassionate Moral Realism 139
5. A Role for Reason in Schopenhauer’s Ethics 193
Conclusion 211
Bibliography 215
Index 221
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PREFACE
This reconstruction of Schopenhauer’s ethics has been in the works
for nearly ten years, but my interest in Schopenhauer, and especially
his philosophy of value, dates back to a conversation that I had with
Arthur Danto while I was a graduate student at Columbia University.
We were discussing my interest in writing a dissertation on Kantian
aesthetics, which prompted him to ask: “Do you know who is the
most underrated and underappreciated philosopher in Western phi-
losophy?” I thought about this for a little while and then answered
gamely, “Hmmm . . . I don’t know . . . maybe Heidegger?” To which
he replied, “Schopenhauer!”
His somewhat enigmatic pronouncement sent me on a quest
to find the philosophical treasures locked up in this earlier Arthur’s
works, and my work focused at first on his aesthetic theory. But
I came to realize that it is his ethical thought that is probably the most
underrated part of this underrated philosopher, and the central aim
of this book is to defend an interpretation of his ethics as both an
original and promising contribution to the subject. Careful attention