The Schopenhauer Experiment

By Guido Coburg

When depression prevents Professor Seligman from continuing with his great scientific projects, he finds himself drawn to the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer, the 19th century philosopher Sebastián voraciously reads, admires, and idolizes. Both come together to carry out a bizarre and unprecedented experiment to solve a mystery related to Arthur Schopenhauer. Due to its precarious nature and lack of security measures, the experiment carries a risk of death.

"Something as audacious as contacting Schopenhauer would require far more complex equipment and procedures, and there was nothing to indicate that the devices in front of him could achieve such a feat. Perhaps Seligman had overestimated his equipment and talent in the belief that his great scientific achievements could be repeated in a new, extremely ambitious experiment. If this one didn't work, then Sebastián would have nothing to worry about. The experiment would end quietly, he could return to Dresden, get on with his life and continue trying to escape his personal crisis. After all, so many experiments ended in nothing, in failure, or in a useless result. Why couldn't Seligman's imagination end in the same way?"

This fictional novel pushes on our understanding of time, science, and reality, and is intertwined with vignettes of events in the life of the great pessimistic philosopher. An appendix adds an annotated chronology of the philosopher's life.

Born in Buenos Aires, Guido Coburg holds a PhD in Physics and one of his main passions is philosophy. He lived for over a decade in Germany and currently lives in The Hague, the Netherlands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guido Coburg
• Release date: Nov 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223429845

Book preview

GUIDO COBURG

THE SCHOPENHAUER EXPERIMENT

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system — except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper — without permission in writing from the author.

This is a fictional account. Apart from persons and events related to the life of Arthur Schopenhauer, the characters and events in this story are entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or events is purely coincidental.

Original title: El experimento Schopenhauer. Translated by the author.

Editorial support: Nicole Guenther (Proofreading/Editing)

Reviewer: Sylvia Bichelmeir (German to English Translations)

Copyright © 2021, 2023 Guido Coburg

All rights reserved

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

PREFACE

In all Weather Conditions

1

Eagle House

2

Baltasar Gracián

3

The Schopenhauers leave Danzig

4

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences & Letters

5

Mundane Profession of a Merchant

6

Bankruptcy of the Muhl Banking House

7

Death of Heinrich Floris

8

Prize of the Royal Norwegian Society

9

Arrival of Asiatic Cholera

10

Hegel’s Young Rival

11

A New Philosophical System

12

Caroline Medon

13

Moving to Schöne Aussicht 16

14

F. A. Brockhaus

15

Visit of Frauenstädt

16

Große Meißnische Gasse

17

Krause and the Culture of the East

18

Hegel Walking in the Distance

19

Death of Johanna

20

Dr. von Grossi’s Office

21

First Trip to Italy

22

Mercurius Praecipitatus Ruber

23

Altercation with Ms. Marquet

24

Philosophia Prima

25

To Friedrich Thiersch about Würzburg

26

To Georg Creuzer about Heidelberg

27

Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin

28

The Buddha Statue

29

Johanna’s Doubts

30

Second Trip to Italy

31

Tears of a Mother

32

Goethe and the Theory of Colors

33

Three Months of Isolation

34

Elisabet Ney

35

Victims of Cholera

36

Cure with Hot Springs

37

A Son Named Arthur

38

The Doctoral Thesis

39

Moving to Ostra-Allee

40

Caroline & Berlin

41

Flora Weiß

42

Gwinner, the Priest, the Procession

43

Adele & Sibylle

44

Johanna and the Bells

45

From Berlin to Frankfurt

46

Teresa Fuga

47

On the Black Leather Sofa

48

APPENDIX 1: CHRONOLOGY

APPENDIX 2: ORIGIN OF QUOTATIONS

PREFACE

There were several interests that inspired me to create the plot for this novel. The most important reason was the curiosity to explore Schopenhauer’s life and its connection with his philosophy. As has been argued by many commentators, there are aspects of Schopenhauer’s philosophy that have a fairly clear relationship to vicissitudes of his life and his character. In addition to his main ideas — which expose his vision of the world based on the concepts of Will and Representation —, his pessimism is the most well-known characteristic of his philosophy. Schopenhauer’s pessimistic view stems, in some way, from his description of the inner nature of the world as a blind force without a goal. Schopenhauer is considered the first pessimistic philosopher of the Western tradition, having expressed his ideas about the vanity of life, suffering, the worst of all possible worlds, and nothingness as preferable to existence, in a profound and poetic way, with aphorisms and with admirable phrases. Among his numerous thoughts exposing a dark and negative vision of the world, I will limit myself to just quoting a relevant example: And this world, this battleground of tormented and anxious beings, who exist only by one devouring the other, where therefore every predatory beast is the living grave of thousands of others and its self-preservation is a chain of torturing deaths, where the capacity to feel pain increases with knowledge, which therefore reaches its highest degree in man, a degree that is higher the more intelligent the man, — this is the world that was attempted to adapt the system of optimism, and it was tried to show us to be the best of all possible worlds. The absurdity is glaring.

Many scholars have suggested that the personal characteristics of the philosopher gave rise to his fateful vision of the world. Bertrand Russell, for example, wrote the following in relation to Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy: From a scientific point of view, optimism and pessimism are alike objectionable: optimism assumes, or attempts to probe, that the universe exists to pleasure us, and pessimism that it exists to displease us. Scientifically, there is no evidence that it is concerned with us either one way or the other. The belief in either pessimism or optimism is a matter of temperament, not of reason. Therefore, it is valid to ask how much of Schopenhauer’s thought was influenced by his life and his character, and likewise, if his pessimism is inherent to his philosophical system. Bryan Magee, a leading expositor of Schopenhauer’s worldview to the English public, criticized Schopenhauer’s pessimism as something unfortunate, mentioning that his philosophy could still be valid without that element. In his own words: His hostility to reality I regard as pathological. I accept large parts of his analysis of experience as being close to the truth, but I reject his misanthropy and his pessimism.

As for my own interest, and because of this apparent connection of Schopenhauer’s philosophy with his personality, I have always been drawn to investigate facets of his life, delving into even the smallest details. Each chapter of my novel is preceded by a fictionalized event from Schopenhauer’s life, some of which are very similar to how they occurred, while others are more imaginative. The events that I have chosen are those that I have considered most important for the analysis and for the understanding of his life and his character, although of course, they are a selection and do not try to cover all aspects of his life as a complete biography could do. But it is worth mentioning that writing about these events in a fictional way has given me more freedom of expression than if I had addressed them in an academic book. To dispel doubts about their trustworthiness and add more clarity, I have included an Appendix with a description of each of these events, trying to be as objective as possible and adding in all cases quotes from Schopenhauer himself or from letters from his friends, colleagues, and relatives. I am confident that this Appendix will be of interest to those readers who have already explored the life of the philosopher, while those who aren’t so familiar with the philosopher’s life may find it useful as a starting point.

Other themes explored in this novel are not necessarily linked to Schopenhauer or his philosophy. Among other interests that inspired me, I would mention the portrayal of events in scientists’ lives, the connection between genius and success, how to overcome depression or a major personal crisis, and integrating literature and science.

Having been educated in science and having worked in research for several years, I feel comfortable writing about the academic environment that I know quite well but that is likely to be somewhat unknown or enigmatic to many. I suspect that many readers who have chosen this book because of their interest in Schopenhauer may find strange the combination with the scientific setting in which the story develops. Nevertheless, the circumstances that take place are common in other spheres of human relations. It is also possible to conjecture a parallelism with Arthur Schopenhauer’s academic environment, an environment in which he failed to find an audience, disciples, or respect.

The word genius is found repeatedly in my novel, referring to one of its main characters, Seligman, a gifted scientist who has an internal conflict of which he is unaware. With regards to genius, I have been mainly concerned with the relation between genius and success in society, a link that many people take for granted but in many cases is illusory. Genius is another theme that was also explored by Schopenhauer in his writings, but I think the reader will not find a direct relationship to those ideas in this novel. I have tried to approach this subject without seeking to revise or make comments to the ideas of the philosopher, but from a different perspective, related in some way to the meaning of genius and success for the spiritual life and for the development of personal capabilities.

Another aspect of the plot has to do with how to recover from depression or, to put it more generically, from an obstacle in our lives that seems to be insurmountable. The two protagonists of my fictional story, Professor Seligman and Sebastián, find a way out of their crisis in an unusual way, so strange that they are not even capable of talking about it in public. With this idea I have tried to give a touch of hope by encouraging what is unconventional, although I prefer to leave the interpretation of the moral of this story to the reader. In this sense, I would like to quote Borges when he recalled a Kipling’s idea: The notion of art as a compromise is naive, for no one knows entirely what he is doing. A writer, Kipling acknowledged, can conceive a fable without grasping its moral. He must be loyal to his imagination, and not to the mere ephemeral circumstances of a supposed ‘reality’.

Last but not least, I would like to say a few words regarding another topic that motivated me to write this novel, and this refers to an inner need for merging the realms of literature and science. Ever since I first read Aldous Huxley’s Literature and Science, I have been deeply drawn to its relevance and have always felt a certain sting at seeing the separation between these two activities that are to me of vital importance. It is true that Huxley wrote his essay back in 1963, and since then we have seen countless novels written by scientists or former scientists. The reverse is not so often the case: the typical man of letters is not concerned with science, and the use of scientific terms and descriptions is not yet commonly found in literature. In that sense, Huxley’s statement is as valid today as it was sixty years ago: Science has become an affair of specialists. Incapable any longer of understanding what it is all about, the man of letters, we are told, has no choice but to ignore contemporary science altogether. I hope that the use of some technical terms and the scientific descriptions that I have made will help to balance this statement, and that the reader will find in my fictional scientific scenarios a provocative standpoint to delve into the life and character of the great philosopher of pessimism.

Guido Coburg

The Hague

April 2023

And to serve the truth in all its forms and unto death, I write that on New Year’s Eve between 1830 and 1831 I had the following dream, which foreshadowed my death during that year. — Between my sixth and tenth year of life, I had a dear friend and constant playmate who was my age called Gottfried Jänisch, who died when I was ten years old and lived in France. In the last 30 years I have probably thought of him only very rarely. — But in the dream of the night mentioned above, I arrived in a land unknown to me. A group of men were standing in the field and among them a tall, slim, adult man who, I don’t know how, had become known to me as Gottfried Jänisch himself, who welcomed me. — This dream did a lot to persuade me to leave Berlin when cholera hit in 1831. It may have been a hypothetical truth, i.e., a warning: if I stayed, I would have died of cholera.

Arthur Schopenhauer

In all Weather Conditions

(Frankfurt, 1860) Schopenhauer went out for his usual walk in the afternoon. He was undaunted by the wind, though he was aware that he had to take preventive measures due to his precarious health. Somehow, he imagined that his end was near. Death, he thought, and he knew that no one had explained it better than he had. He stopped when he arrived at the Alte Brücke, as he had done so many times before, to watch the flow of the Main River. Atma was barking, but he paid no attention to the reason. The river was flowing rapidly, and as he watched it, he felt his vision blur and a slight dizziness. He tried to breathe deeply, but his strange sensations continued. He inhaled vigorously and felt his body become lighter and weaker; with his eyesight still on the water, he noticed strange lights and figures changing color and shape. In that moment, he realized that there was something he had never seen in more than seventy years of life. All his sensations disappeared as he was able to take his eyesight off the surface of the water, and at that moment Atma stopped barking.  Schopenhauer was then seized by an enormous anguish and tightness in his chest, and realized that there were still revelations he had to receive at his age.

1

That Sunday afternoon, Seligman spent time preparing the equipment for an experiment he believed would transform his life. He did not know why, but planning the experiment had helped his recovery immensely. Unlike his typical rational approach, he had navigated this experiment in a different way.  After all, he would no longer have to give oral or written explanations to colleagues for his achievements and findings from the operation of his modern equipment and the technology that he had transformed during all those long months of illness.

Sebastián had not come to understand that way of thinking. Despite the angst and doubts that tormented him, the idea of doing a nearly impossible experiment had attracted him. In a strange way, they had come together to carry out the experiment. Both believed that Andreas had acted as a perfect link to connect them, but it was clear that it was not Andreas who had ultimately brought them together, but their shared need to understand what would happen in a few days’ time. Sebastián also didn’t understand what Seligman could achieve by carrying out this experiment and how it would benefit him if they were able to talk to Schopenhauer; furthermore, the explanations Seligman had given had been vague and enigmatic. At the same time, Seligman wondered what kind of experiment it would be, but concluded in the end that it was not worth looking for some kind of classification: it would be something singular and unique. It would be an experiment that was beyond the physics they knew. He understood that the experiment would help him to finish his difficult healing process, though the risk was very high. If Sebastián died during the experiment or an accident occurred, would his status as a professor at the university be jeopardized? What explanation would he give to the authorities? However, the risk was unavoidable. The experiment was necessary for him and, as he realized, also for Sebastián.

The deterioration of his relationship with Marion was always on his mind. As he was preparing the equipment, he was constantly reminded of when they were young. He used to look at her teenager expressions as closely as he now looked at the magical lasers he was trying to put in operation. Here was Marion in the Englischer Garten, dancing while he was playing the berimbau; people who were passing by did not pay attention to this young couple, ignorant of life’s responsibilities. Here she was again in the Duomo of Florence, with her usual funny insinuations, laughing as people looked seriously at her. That night of his return from Brazil, her face shone within the crowd at the airport. How could he ever forget that night? How could he return to that relationship? How could he reconstruct the past? Would he have to travel back in time to see her once more, when she was young? Was she really like that or was she like that only in his memory? Perhaps it would be better to forget his pain, abandon the absurd and dangerous experiment, and travel to Passau to try to find new forms of dialogue. Would Marion be able to understand him, or would that only deepen his crisis?

That year in Brazil had been difficult, but at the same time, a life-changing experience, which Marion had noticed when he returned to Munich. It came as a surprise that he decided to pursue becoming a scientist after that trip. By then, Brazil was so far away and many of his memories were forgotten, although some were present as he prepared the equipment for the next weekend. He recalled the difficulties of the arrival, the language, his steps to find a music teacher — how had that idea come about?  — and the relationships with some of his colleagues with whom he struggled to communicate. In the years that followed, during his first years at the University of Munich, he had repeatedly asked himself why he had made that trip if his interest was to be a recognized scientist, dedicated to a different kind of life, far from adventures and using methods that had little to do with what he had learned with his teachers of berimbau.

Geniuses are complex people, with aspects that not even they themselves can describe, Andreas used to think whenever he travelled to Munich to visit Seligman. On the other hand, how can a genius explain where he gets his talent? Andreas thought, as he went to visit the underground laboratory that used to fill him with dread rather than admiration.

Seligman was like other geniuses; he was astonished to see how new ideas came to his mind without him doing anything specific. He often had wondered about the origin of his talent but had never found any answer, and he loved to imagine that with the help of his new experiment he could find some type of explanation. In the biography of Schopenhauer that Andreas had bought for him, Seligman had tried to look for new clues to answer those questions. It is an original edition from eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, written by Gwinner, Andreas had said. However, Seligman did not pay much attention to those words: he was only interested in reading fragments of that old copy, regardless of whether his friend and colleague had to make an effort to obtain it. That biography had been a source of inspiration during the months of preparation for his experiment, but it had not provided him with the answers he had been searching for such a long time.

Using red chalk, he made a mark on the floor where Sebastián should stand next week in his improvised equipment. He reckoned that standing in that narrow place might be inconvenient, as he did not know how long the experiment would last. The sequence of operations was complex, and he would not be able to do the calculations beforehand, but he would have to do them live while the lasers were running. He positioned a small bag on the floor in the place marked with red chalk. With those banal materials, he would try to check how the whole set of equipment worked, including the solution of the statistical equations that were solved through the LRZ computer center operating near Munich. He might have to perform many more tests before facing such a high risk, but there were still many hours ahead and he did not know what danger his new collaborator might be in if the experiment failed. It was easy to understand the doubts that Sebastián had shown, but he knew that Sebastián would manage to overcome the fear, however distressing, to take part in the experiment. What other opportunity would he have to talk to Schopenhauer?

Eagle House

(Wimbledon, 1803) Arthur could hardly move from the pain and discomfort in his body, although no physical violence had happened to him. It was only anguish that took him, in silence, without his understanding how it happened and how it was acting so powerfully in his body. His parents’ decision to keep him in that school had been harmful to his psyche. Walking through the park, he saw his classmates in the distance. He knew they were trying to ignore him, and he imagined better times in his life, which would have to come sooner or later. He felt such intense loneliness of abandonment in that school and sensed the loneliness that may exist in his future.

2

Very early in the morning, Sebastián entered his office, surprising more than one of his colleagues, as there were several who had noticed his changes in attitude and in routine. No one had mentioned to him what they had noticed, because they did not want to get mixed up in other people’s problems, but there were many rumors going around in the physics department. Only Diego knew some details and he had been able to keep them to himself, despite being questioned on several occasions.

Sebastián sat still for several minutes in front of the computer. He could not understand where he found the strength to continue going to work, even though he did very little while he was in his office. Through a special request, he had been exempted from teaching for more than five months, which gave him a break from an activity that he found exhausting. His work was stagnant in the past two years, and he was not satisfied with the complex mathematical elaborations, conferences, or publications that had once all filled him with pride. Science no longer meant what it had in the past, and it could no longer give him any answers to his problems or help him with his life in Buenos Aires. Sebastián thought that Diego was fortunate that he did not have doubts plaguing him and making him insecure in the face of change. His friend, however, argued the opposite, saying that Sebastián’s problems would make him achieve something great that he would otherwise never have been able to achieve.

Despite Diego’s auspicious ideas, he didn’t know what that something could be, since he had tried many things, but he had always returned to science. Sebastián laughed when Diego said: Is science the only thing that can give meaning to your life?knowing that his friend spent endless days in the lab, teaching, preparing papers, and travelling to scientific conferences.

During the last year, Sebastián had spent much of his time reading Schopenhauer, and he reflected that he was finding it much easier to read philosophy despite his ailments and lack of energy. He had much more time for himself since Marcela had left him, although he spent much of the time lying on the sofa in the living room looking out over Salguero street. Schopenhauer was one of the few philosophers who helped him transform his view of the world and see his life in a different way.

One night in July, he was walking along Avenida Corrientes towards El Bajo. In his pocket, he had an anthology of articles he had been reading in La Ópera while he watched the rain hit the canopies. When he reached the corner of Corrientes and Montevideo, he stopped, hoping that the rain would also stop and that his sadness would diminish. When the rain slowed to only a few scattered drops, he crossed Avenida Corrientes in a clumsy way, prompting insults from a few drivers. He entered a branch of Librería Hernández and browsed through the philosophy section, and after a long time he approached an employee who looked at him strangely. He realized that his state of discomfort could probably be seen on his face. He tried to remain calm and pointed to a book by Schopenhauer on a shelf that was not easily accessible. The clerk squinted at him and then said in a tone of self-importance:

I recommend you to read Nietzsche, but not Schopenhauer; he is really too gloomy.

He left Librería Hernández with the copy of Schopenhauer under his arm, feeling successful and trying to avoid the uncomfortable gaze of the clerk. The rain beating down on his face did not disturb him, as he was concerned with protecting the book. Walking along Corrientes under the rain, he passed through several places that reminded him of better times. He remembered Marcela waiting at the entrance of Teatro San Martín, Marcela looking through the window at the Café across the street from Los Inmortales, and her again coming out of a fashion boutique. He remembered her again and again, and in his mind he saw himself devouring that new book by Schopenhauer when arriving at his flat in Salguero street.

Baltasar Gracián

(Berlin, 1829) He left Brockhaus’s letter on the table, accompanied by a slight tremor in his hand. He knew once more that failure