The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

ISBN-13: 9780199297221 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 352 str.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Opis

These two important essays show Schopenhauer at his most accessible, offering two self-contained and clearly argued contributions to ethical theory, published here in a new translation that preserves Schopenhauer's style in a lucid and engaging way. This is also the only paperback edition to publish both essays together. Schopenhauer argues, in uniquely powerful prose, that self-consciousness gives the illusion of freedom and that human actions are determined, but that we rightly feel guilt because our actions issue from our essential individual character. He locates moral value in the virtues of loving kindness and voluntary justice that spring from the fundamental incentive of compassion. Morality's basis is ultimately metaphysical, resting on an intuitive identification of the self with all other striving and suffering beings. The Introduction by leading Schopenhauer scholar Christopher Janaway gives a clear summary of the argument of the essays in the context of Schopenhauer's life and works and the history of ethics in the modern period. The volume includes helpful notes, up-to-date bibliography, and a full index.
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O autorze

David Cartwright has published widely on Schopenhauer. He has edited Payne's translations of On the Will in Nature (1992) and On Vision and Colors (1994) for which he also wrote introductions. He is the author of numerous articles and has also published the Historical Dictionary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy (2005). Christopher Janaway is the author of the Very Short Introduction to Schopenhauer (2002) and Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy (OUP, 1989), and two edited collections: The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (1999) and Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator (OUP, 1998). He has also translated the Two Fundamental Problems as part of the six-volume Cambridge Edition of the Works of Arthur Schopenhauer (2009).