Ebook: Parerga and Paralipomena Vol.1

The purpose of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer is to offer translations of the best modern German editions of Schopenhauer’s work in a uniform format for Schopenhauer scholars, together with philosophical introductions and full editorial apparatus.

With the publication of Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851, there finally came some measure of the fame that Schopenhauer thought was his due. Described by Schopenhauer himself as ‘incomparably more popular than everything up till now’, Parerga is a miscellany of essays addressing themes that complement his work "The World as Will and Representation," along with more divergent, speculative pieces. It includes his "Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life," reflections on fate and clairvoyance, trenchant views on the philosophers and universities of his day, and an enlightening survey of the history of philosophy. The present volume offers a new translation, a substantial introduction explaining the context of the essays, and extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of the work. This readable and scholarly edition will be an essential reference for those studying Schopenhauer, history of philosophy, and nineteenth-century German philosophy.

SABINE ROEHR is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New Jersey City University. She is the author of Hubert Fichte: Poetische Erkenntnis. Montage, Synkretismus, Mimesis (1985) and A Primer on German Enlightenment (1995).

CHRISTOPHER JANAWAY is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton. His most recent books include Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction (2002), and Beyond Selflessness: Reading Nietzsche’s Genealogy (2007). His most recently edited collections include The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (Cambridge, 2000), and Better Consciousness: Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Value (2009, co-edited with Alex Neill). He is General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer, in which he has translated The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics (2009), and co-translated three other volumes.

Schopenhauer's essays and aphorisms are elucidating, insightful, and wondrous. I highly recommend reading him, especially the "Aphorisms on the wisdom of life" from the present volume, and the second volume of "Parerga and Paralipomena."