1st Edition

Schopenhauer's Early Fourfold Root Translation and Commentary

By F. C. White Copyright 1997
    112 Pages
    by Routledge

    108 Pages
    by Routledge

    Schopenhauer’s Early Fourfold Root constitutes a landmark in Schopenhaurian scholarship. It is a translation with concise commentary of Schopenhauer’s doctoral thesis as submitted to the University of Jena and published at Rudolstadt in 1813. In spite of the great and increasing interest in the writings of Schopenhauer in the English-speaking world, this work has never been translated before, and its long awaited appearance fills the only remaining gap in the philosophical works of Schopenhauer available to English-speaking readers. Schopenhauer’s thesis of 1813 is very different from the 1847 edition well known to English readers, and its appearance in translation will enable students and scholars alike to make sense of the development of Schopenhauer’s thought in a way that has been possible so far only to those at ease with Schopenhauer’s German. The translation, which keeps a fine balance between readability and philosophical accuracy, is accompanied by a commentary enabling students as well as established scholars to follow Schopenhauer’s thought with comparative ease.

    Contents: Introduction; A survey of the principal doctrines put forward so far concerning the principle of sufficient reason; Insufficiency of the account given so far and an outline of a new one; On the first class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing it; On the second class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing it; On the third class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing it; On the fourth class of objects for the subject and the form of the principle of sufficient reason governing it; General remarks and conclusions; General survey with comments on Schopenhauer’s text, by F.C.White; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    F. C. White

    ’Like a painting restored to its original colours, the Fourfold Root emerges in this lucid rendition as the work of an incisive and disciplined young thinker. Scholarly understanding of Schopenhauer’s philosophy will benefit from this new translation, and the book’s succinct survey of the argument will aid the less experienced reader.’ Dr Christopher Janaway, Birkbeck College, University of London