名人小故事哲学思想家11：Schopenhauer 叔本华

Schopenhauer

叔本华

Schopenhauer was the son of a wealthy merchant, Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer, and his wife, Johanna, who was a famous local writer. In 1793，when Danzig came under Prussian sovereignty, they moved to the free city of Hamburg. Arthur enjoyed a gentlemanly private education. He then attended a private business school, where he became acquainted with the spirit of the Enlightenment and was exposed to a Pietistic attitude sensitive to the plight of man.

叔本华出生在富有的商人之家，父亲名叫海因里希·弗洛里斯·叔本华，母亲约翰娜是当地小有名气的作家。1793年，格但斯克被普鲁士占领，他们一家搬到了自由城市汉堡。叔本华在汉堡受到了贵族式的私人教育，然后他进入一所私立商学院学习，在那里他接触到启蒙思想，也培养了自己对人类痛苦极其敏感的虔诚态度。

The World as Will and Representation was born during Schopenhauer's residence in Dresden. It was written in a non-academic style, with an ironic, aristocratic tone. Friedrich Nietzsche, who found a copy of The World as Will and Representation in a second-hand bookstore, did not put the book down until he had finished it. According to Schopenhauer, existence is the expression of an insatiable, pervasive will generating a terrible world of conflict and suffering, senselessness, and futility. Very shortly, the world is a bad joke. The “will to live” perpetuates this cosmic spectacle. The goal of someone who sees through the illusions of life is the denial of this powerful will to live. Love serves the reproductive interests of the species and sexual impulse, the most powerful motive in human existence.

《作为意志和表象的世界》这本著作是叔本华住在德累斯顿期间写下的。这本书的风格是非学术性的，而是嘲讽的、贵族式的语气。尼采曾在一个二手书店里发现了一本《作为意志和表象的世界》，他一口气把它看完才放回书架上。叔本华认为，存在是一种无所不在，贪得无厌的意志的表象，这种意志产生了一个充满矛盾、痛苦，没有丝毫感情和意义的恐怖世界。简单地说，这个世界就是个拙劣的玩笑。“生存的意志”使这世界世世代代运转下去。某些人想要看穿生命假象的目的否定了这种强烈的意志。爱情只是为物种的繁衍和性冲动服务，这是人类存在最强有力的动机。

At the beginning of 1820, Schopenhauer advertised a course of lectures to be given at the same time as Friedrich and Hegel’s. But when Hegel attracted more students the course did not proceed. The epidemic of cholera, during which Hegel died, drove him to Frankfurt. After that, he lived in relative isolation, preferring the company of dogs to people. Five-sixths of human beings are worth only contempt, he once wrote. It was claimed that he once pushed a neighbor down a flight of stairs for disturbing him. As a result, the unlucky seamstress could not continue in his former profession.

1820年初，叔本华建议开一堂课，恰巧这门课与费希特和黑格尔的课是同时开的。当黑格尔吸引了更多学生的时候，叔本华的这门课就无法继续进行了。后来, 因为黑格尔所死于的那场霍乱的流行，叔本华搬到了法兰克福。此后，他生活在一个相对隔绝的环境里，与人的陪伴相比，他更喜欢狗的陪伴。他曾经写道，六分之五的人只佩得到轻蔑。有人称，他曾把邻居推下楼梯， 理由只是他受到了打扰。结果，这个不幸的女裁缝再也不能继续做她的工作了。

Shopenhauer died in Frankfurt of a heart attack on September 21, 1860. Nearing his death he had said to Eduard Grisenbach: “If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else... Who am I really?...”
 

叔本华于1860年9月21日在法兰克福去世，死于心脏病突发。他死前曾对格莱森和说：“如果有时我认为自己不幸的话，那是因为一个困惑，一个错误。我已经错误地把自己当成了别人…我究竟是谁呢？…”