The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~200,000 words · 962 passages
Cite this work
- APAArthur Schopenhauer. (n.d.). The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-1-of-3
- MLAArthur Schopenhauer. "The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-1-of-3.
- ChicagoArthur Schopenhauer. The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-1-of-3.
What it is about
The first volume of Schopenhauer's main work: the world as representation and the world as will, in four books running from knowledge to art and to the denial of willing.
Context and history
Schopenhauer published the book in 1818 and for twenty-five years almost nobody read it; in 1844 he brought out a second edition with a second volume of supplements as long as the first. This English translation spreads the whole across three volumes. He warned in the preface that the book must be read twice, because the beginning is only intelligible from the end; that is a literal requirement, not a figure of speech.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
The style of “Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung” is sometimes loose and involved, as is so often the case in German philosophical treatises. The translation of the book has consequently been a matter of no little difficulty. It was found that extensive alteration of the long and occasionally involved sentences, however likely to prove conducive to a satisfactory English style, tended not only to obliterate the form of the original but even to imperil the meaning. Where a choice has had to be made, the alternative of a somewhat slavish adherence to Schopenhauer’s _ipsissima verba_ has accordingly been preferred to that of inaccuracy. The result is a piece of work which leaves
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