At the apex of his influence, from about 1860 up to the start of World War I, Schopenhauer was known first and foremost as a philosopher of pessimism. Still today, his main reputation is as one of the few philosophers to have argued that it would have been better never to have been.
Sandra Shapshay aims to complicate and challenge this predominant picture of Schopenhauer's ethical thought, arguing that while the pessimistic, resigned Schopenhauer represents one side of the thinker, there is another, more hopeful side that is equally important to his legacy and essential to fully understanding his philosophy. Schopenhauer's ethical thought contains a hopeful, progressive strand, and the main task of this book is to reconstruct it. The resulting position, which Shapshay terms "compassionate moral realism," offers a hybrid Kantian moral realist/sentimentalist theory and a Schopenhauerian value ontology of degrees of inherent value.
The reconstruction is novel in three main ways. First, it views Schopenhauer as a more faithful Kantian than most commentators have been apt to recognize. Second, it sees Schopenhauer's philosophy as an evolving rather than static body of thought, especially with respect to the place of the Platonic Ideas in his system; Schopenhauer's views in the philosophy of nature changed as he encountered proto-Darwinian thought, and this change weakens Schopenhauer's own grounds for pessimism. A third novelty is the claim, concerning his ethical thought, that there are really two Schopenhauers rather than one: the "Knight of Despair" and the "Knight of Hope" distinction introduced in this book helps to capture the incompatibility between the resignationist and the compassionate moral realist sides of Schopenhauer's ethical thought.
Industry Reviews
"The volume is intrinsically rewarding and masterfully argued; it improves on some issues with Schopenhauer's thought (e.g., his account of the freedom of will) and establishes groundwork for further development of an environmental ethic that restores unity with the natural world with differing degrees of inherent value." -- D.P. Prianti, CHOICE
"The greatest merit of Shapshay's Reconstructing Schopenhauer's Ethics is that it enables one to read Schopenhauer in a completely new way.... Reconstructing Schopenhauer's Ethics is a remarkable achievement that should revitalize contemporary interest in Schopenhauer's philosophy in an era that, surely, needs a lot more compassion DL both for human and non-human animals DL than is currently being shown." -- Society for German Idealism and
Romanticism Review
"...[T]his book is one of a kind. I am sure it will become a vigorously discussed landmark in Schopenhauer studies....Korsgaard's incluence on Kantian ethics in the last two decades has been tremendous, and I would not be surprised to see Shapshay, with her exciting new take on Schopenhauer's ethical thought, exercising a similar influence upon Schopenhauer studies." -- Dennis Vanden Auweele, KU Leuven, Kantian Review
"This book will change a lot of minds about Schopenhauer. It shows the great appeal of the compassion-based ethics that has been recognized but sidelined in most treatments of him. It argues that this ethical life does not remain a mere second-best (to an unappealing resignation), but gets promoted to primacy as Schopenhauer's thinking evolves. It connects this change with his rethinking his metaphysics, under the influence of proto-Darwinian views. The book's
refreshing view of Schopenhauer will give many new reasons to read him."--John Richardson, Professor of Philosophy, New York University
"In this engaging book, Sandra Shapshay presents a new Schopenhauer: not the pessimist endorsing resignation, but an ethicist of hope and compassion. Shapshay argues for this provocative interpretation with historical and textual sensitivity; she makes a persuasive case that Schopenhauer's compassionate realism is a distinctive and compelling ethical position."--Rachel Zuckert, Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University
"This elegantly written book provides a much-needed rehabilitation of Schopenhauer as an ethical theorist. Shapshay resists the dominant portrayal of Schopenhauer as a life-denying pessimist, and argues that his moral theory, which advocates of a life of compassionate action, stands in its own right. Schopenhauer emerges as a hopeful and progressive thinker, who widens the circle of compassion to encompass all sentient beings."--Christopher Janaway, Professor
of Philosophy, University of Southampton
