Arthur Schopenhauer
Life swings between suffering and boredom.
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
His doctoral thesis, revised in 1847. He asks readers to read it before anything else. Not yet in our corpus.
The World as Will and Representation, I essential
His great book, dated 1819 (out at the end of 1818). Almost ignored on publication. Revised by him in 1844 and 1859: we quote the last edition of his lifetime.
The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics (including the Essay on the Freedom of the Will) essential
Two prize essays. The Essay on the Freedom of the Will was awarded the prize by the Royal Norwegian Society in 1839. We quote the revised edition of 1860.
The World as Will and Representation, II (Supplements) essential
Fifty chapters supplementing the four books of the first volume: death, love, the suffering of the world, the critique of optimism. Enlarged in 1859.
Parerga and Paralipomena essential
Shorter, easier essays, including the Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life: the book that finally made him famous. The old translations (Bourdeau, Saunders) are reordered selections, not the book as he published it.
The Art of Being Right (Eristic Dialectic)
A manuscript from the 1830s that he never published; edited after his death. Not yet in our corpus.