Schopenhauer, Philosophy and the Arts

This collection brings together thirteen essays by some of the most respected contemporary scholars of Schopenhauer’s aesthetics from a wide spectrum of philosophical perspectives. The dynamics of the empirical will and Will as a thing-in-itself in the interplay of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and philosophy of fine art has important implications for the freedom, salvation and tragic suffering of the artist, the representation of Platonic Ideas in art, and the role of artistic inspiration, emotion and aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful and sublime. These essays examine the unique theory Schopenhauer developed to explain the life and work of the artist, and the influence his aesthetic philosophy has had on subsequent artistic traditions in such diverse areas as music, painting, poetry, literature and architecture. The authors present Schopenhauer’s thought as a vital and enduring contribution to aesthetic theory, and to the idealist vision which continues to guide Romantic and neo-Romantic art.

• Will appeal not only to specialists in nineteenth-century German idealist philosophy, but also to readers interested in the subsequent development of Romanticism, Symbolism and other artistic movements that drew inspiration from Schopenhauer’s aesthetics • No other comparable systematic treatment of these aspects of Schopenhauer’s philosophy

List of contributors; Editor\'s acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of appearance and Will in the philosophy of art Dale Jacquette; Part I. The Work of Art: Schopenhauer on the Nature of Artistic Creation: 2. Knowledge and tranquility: Schopenhauer on the value of art Christopher Janaway; 3. Schopenhauer and the aesthetics of creativity Lucian Krukowski; 4. Art as liberation: a central theme of Schopenhauer’s philosophy John E. Atwell; Part II. The Experience of Beauty:Schopenhauer\'s Theory of Aesthetic Encounter: 5. Pleasure and knowledge in Schopenhauer’s aesthetics Paul Guyer; 6. Schopenhauer and aesthetic recognition Cheryl Foster; 7. Schopenhauer on beauty and ontology Nathan Rotenstreich; 8. Schopenhauer, Heidegger, art and the will Julian Young; Part III. Schopenhauer’s Enduring Influence on the Arts: Idealism and Romanticism: 9. Schopenhauer on music as the embodiment of Will Lawrence Ferrara; 10. Schopenhauer and the musicians: an inquiry into the sounds of silence and the limits of philosophizing about music Lydia Goehr; 11. Metaphysics and aesthetics: a case study of Schopenhauer and Thomas Hardy T. J. Diffey; 12. Schopenhauer according to the Symbolists: the philosophical roots of late nineteenth-century French aesthetic theory Shehira Doss-Davezac; 13. Schopenhauer’s philosophy of architecture Mitchell Schwarzer; Bibliography of selected sources on Schopenhauer\'s aesthetics; Index.