Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint

With its pessimistic vision and bleak message of world-denial it has often been difficult to know how to engage with Schopenhauers philosophy. His 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 Schopenhauers work. The aim of this book is to place the aesthetic character of Schopenhauers 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 Schopenhauers relevance in critical terms. This book will be valuable for students and scholars with an interest in post-Kantian philosophy and ancient ethics.