Tag: Arthur Schopenhauer

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Why does Scruton not examine the role of Melot in Death-Devoted Heart more closely?

Tristan und Isolde echoes themes from Romeo and Juliet and Othello, so it is unlikely that Wagner did not have both plays in mind when he composed his opera. The Othello theme is especially clear in the regrets expressed by King Marke that he could not clearly see, just as Othello could not clearly see. Melot, like Iago, faces death if he cannot make good the claim of adultery; (more…)

Christopher Ventris as Palestrina in the 2009 Bavarian State Opera production of the opera.

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Hans Pfitzner
Palestrina
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Rafael Kubelík
Deutsche Grammophon, 1989

Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina is one of the unsung masterpieces of twentieth-century opera. (more…)

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

Why I write is very simple: I believe that, in the final analysis, ideas — not economics, not technology, not brute force — are the decisive factor in history, and I believe that history is going in the wrong direction. (more…)

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Marta Petreu
An Infamous Past: E. M. Cioran and the Rise of Fascism in Romania
Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005

‘The Romanians, what have they ever done for us, eh?’ So might Emil Cioran, himself a Romanian, have wondered when he wrote his third book The Transfiguration of Romania, published in 1936. Bewailing Romania’s insignificant past and culture, he proposed a program that would transform the country in parallel with the contemporary national revivals in Germany and Italy then underway. (more…)

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Timothy Ryback
Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life
London: Vintage, 2010

I want to thank the commenters who have reacted to my previous articles, providing many useful insights and bits of information. This is the kind of reactive, collaborative, or even “crowd-sourced” discovery of history which was indeed impossible before the blessed age of the Internet.  (more…)

Young Arthur Schopenhauer

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Part 3 of 3

Schopenhauer on Genius

In contrast with the mediocre majority of mankind, there is the rare genius. Schopenhauer’s ruminations on the tragic loneliness of the genius, no doubt in part autobiographical, are some of the most touching and the most consoling. There is reason to think Hitler sympathized with and perhaps attempted to live up to the model of the Schopenhauerian genius. (more…)

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Part 2 of 3

Schopenhauer’s political views were based on his extremely low assessment of the intellectual and moral quality of the great majority of mankind. One could not rule against the will of the people, therefore:

[T]he people is sovereign: But this sovereignty never comes of age and therefore has to remain under the permanent care of a guardian: (more…)

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Part 1 of 3

I recently came across a collection of Arthur Schopenhauer’s writings entitled Essays & Aphorisms.[1] It really is wonderful stuff, ruthlessly realistic, insightful, and often very droll. (more…)

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“Spinoza was neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He neither laughed at life nor grieved over it. It is possible that he understood it.” —Edgar Saltus, The Anatomy of Negation

After making something of an effort to keep up with the terrific output of Vox Day’s Castalia House imprint, I’m now poking my nose into Kevin Slaughter’s doings over at his Underworld Amusements publishing venture. (more…)

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Editor’s Note:

Religion for Infidels (London: Holborn, 1961) was Anthony Ludovici’s last book. In it, he addresses the increasing population of individuals who have religious or spiritual inclinations and yet find it impossible to believe in revealed religions such as Christianity.  (more…)

Man as microcosm

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Part 6 of 7 (other parts here)

6. All and Nothing

In my account of ekstasis, I have drawn principally on two philosophers: Heidegger and Schopenhauer. And Hegel has been peeping out at certain points in my discussion (he will have a much bigger role to play very soon). But the truth is that the ideas I have been expounding in this essay have deep roots in the Western tradition, and are much older even than Hegel.

(more…)

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Part 5 of 7 (other parts here)

5. Can Biology Explain Ekstasis?

I have already mentioned that scientists speculate that cave art (and religion, language, etc.) comes about as a result of some kind of genetic mutation, perhaps a “sudden, serendipitous, genetically-based brain reorganization.” (more…)

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Part 3 of 7 (other parts here)

3. Art Begins in Wonder

My thesis, quite simply, is that art, religion, and language are all made possible by a mental or cognitive act which I have called elsewhere ekstasis.[1] To better understand what this consists in, I will ask the reader to consider a simple (or, perhaps, not so simple) question. (more…)