The World as Will And Idea: Volume 1

Written by Arthur Schopenhauer

Narrated by Leighton Pugh

Schopenhauer was just 30 when his magnum opus, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, a work of considerable learning and innovation of thought, first appeared in 1818.

Much to his chagrin and puzzlement (so convinced was he of its merits), it didn't have an immediate effect on European philosophy, views and culture. It was only decades later that it was recognised as one of the major intellectual landmarks of the 19th century. It proved to be a work that was not only to make an indelible impression on leading figures that followed him closely - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud - but also others well into the 20th century, including Carl Jung, Herman Hesse, Jorge Luis Borges, Karl Popper and Samuel Beckett.

What was the Schopenhauerian proposition that made The World as Will and Idea so important? Absorbing views from Kant and Buddhist ideas filtering almost for the first time through Europe, Schopenhauer, putting the concept of God aside, proposed that man is driven by 'a will to life'; desire, craving, wanting - these are the elements that propel him fiercely along life's path, even though it causes him suffering. It is on that basis that Schopenhauer opens the work with the statement 'the world is my idea'. Man perceives the sun and the earth but can relate to them only through his own consciousness. He makes his own world.

Though stamped as a pessimist, and certainly combative as a personality and a writer, Schopenhauer's work - and The World as Will and Idea - doesn't read darkly. Instead it is rich and challenging, as he surveys broadly philosophy, history, art, literature, music and culture generally. His opinions are strong and testing, his breadth of knowledge invigorating.

The translation recorded here is the classic rendering by R. B. Haldane. However, the numerous literary and philosophical references - Greek, Latin, German, French, Persian, etc - in both the main text and the relevant footnotes are given here in English. Thus Schopenhauer's major work can be absorbed and enjoyed directly - and especially in this intelligent, clear and committed narration by the actor and German scholar Leighton Pugh. Schopenhauer has had a long and continuing influence extending well into the 21st century, and The World as Will and Idea is one of the great stepping-stones of European thought which needs to be listened to. He added a subsequent volume later in his life, but volume 1 is the major work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ukemi Audiobooks from W. F. Howes Ltd
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781004133031

Arthur Schopenhauer

Nació en Danzig en 1788. Hijo de un próspero comerciante, la muerte prematura de su padre le liberó de dedicarse a los negocios y le procuró un patrimonio que le permitió vivir de las rentas, pudiéndose consagrar de lleno a la filosofía. Fue un hombre solitario y metódico, de carácter irascible y de una acentuada misoginia. Enemigo personal y filosófico de Hegel, despreció siempre el Idealismo alemán y se consideró a sí mismo como el verdadero continuador de Kant, en cuyo criticismo encontró la clave para su metafísica de la voluntad. Su pensamiento no conoció la fama hasta pocos años después de su muerte, acaecida en Fráncfort en 1860. Schopenhauer ha pasado a la historia como el filósofo pesimista por excelencia. Admirador de Calderón y Gracián, tradujo al alemán el «Oráculo manual» del segundo. Hoy es uno de los clásicos de la filosofía más apreciados y leídos debido a la claridad de su pensamiento. Sus escritos marcaron hitos culturales y continúan influyendo en la actualidad. En esta misma Editorial han sido publicadas sus obras «Metafísica de las costumbres» (2001), «Diarios de viaje. Los Diarios de viaje de los años 1800 y 1803-1804» (2012), «Sobre la visión y los colores seguido de la correspondencia con Johann Wolfgang Goethe» (2013), «Parerga y paralipómena» I (2.ª ed., 2020) y II (2020), «El mundo como voluntad y representación» I (2.ª ed., 2022) y II (3.ª ed., 2022) y «Dialéctica erística o Arte de tener razón en 38 artimañas» (2023).