The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics (Oxford World's Classics)

Expands on Schopenhauer's ethics presented in the fourth book of the first volume of his main work.

After you studied many philosophers from Plato to Sartre you will come to the conclusion as I did that Schopenhauer is the greatest. His style is the best. he is readable and tries to simplify things and not to wrap his writing in layers of poor logic, compounded words, unclear ideas which show that these ideas are not clear in the author's mind himself. Simplicity is the seal of truth and Schopenhauer's philosophy is very simple and readable, he was the best prose writer in the German Language at his.Based on Kant's foundation of the thing-in-itself and metaphysics, he built his own. He regarded Kant's doctrine of the coexistence of freedom and necessity as the greatest of all achievement of the human mind. He wrote "Prize essay on the freedom of the will" and the "Basis of morality" in which he criticised Kant's basis of morality of Duty and proved irrevocably that it is Compassion instead.The book of "The two fundamental problems of ethics" is a self standing book, simple, clear and concise. After reading it I recommend reading the main book of Schopenhauer "The World as will and representation, Vol I & II" it will make everything clearer and will plant the idea of the Will, freedom morality in the soul.I also recommend the book The Will's Harmonic Motion: The Completion of Schopenhauer's Philosophy. this book gives a brief account for Schopenhauer and then bring it to a conclusion and completion.

Schopenhauer may not be one of the megastars of philosophy, like, for example, Aristotle or Kant, but he must be considered a major player all the same. Few of his contemporaries are as read an appreciated today. One important reason for this, I believe, is that he is so very accessible. He is a philosopher that I am not afraid to read in the original German. The two essays presented in this book concern the fundamental problems of ethics. Anyone genuinely interested in the problem of free will should read the first essay, "Of the Freedom of the Will", which is both lucid and convincing. In the second essay, Schopenhauer presents his theory that the sole foundation of morals is compassion and that this ultimately is due to the fact that all plurality is only apparent, that is, we find ourselves in others. Regardless of whether we find this convincing or not, it is fascinating reading.