Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation'

Schopenhauer''s The World as Will and Representation is one of the central texts in the history of Western philosophy. It is one of the last monuments to the project of grand synthetic philosophical system-building where a single unified work could aim to clarify resolve and ground all the central questions of metaphysics epistemology ethics religion aesthetics and science. Poorly received at its initial publication it soon became a powerful cultural force inspiring not only philosophers but also artists writers and musicians and attracting a large popular audience of non-scholars. Perhaps equally importantly Schopenhauer was one of the first European philosophers to take non-Western thought seriously and to treat it as a living tradition rather than as a mere object of study. This volume of new essays showcases the enormous variety of contemporary scholarship on this monumental text as well as its enduring relevance.