The Riddle of the World: A Reconsideration of Schopenhauer's Philosophy, by Barbara Hannan.

Abstract

The Riddle of the World appears to be a reliable and accessible guide to Schopenhauer's philosophy for at least four reasons. The first is that it is published by Oxford University Press. The second is that the book is thin and promises to be an easy read. The third is that the author characterizes herself as a faithful expositor and assures us that ‘anyone who reads this book will get a fair idea of what Schopenhauer really said’ (p. xi). The fourth is that the author tries to include formulations that are both commonsensical and familiar to analytically-trained philosophers. The readers for Oxford were John Heil and Ted Honderich, who the author acknowledges thankfully. The philosophy editor at OUP (NY) was Peter Ohlin, who is also positively mentioned. A glance at the book's bibliography suggests that this study was not extensively informed by existing Schopenhauer scholarship, since it contains no references to refereed journal articles on Schopenhauer in English or other languages. This omission includes the ninety-plus volumes of Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch — close to a century's worth of articles on Schopenhauer that date from 1912 to the present. Absent also is the large, two-volume Parerga and Paralipomena, the final work which initiated Schopenhauer's fame in the 1850's. There is also no mention of the four-volume set, in English, of Schopenhauer's manuscript remains. Of the ninety-one bibliographic entries, eight are secondary source references (about 9%) that represent contemporary Schopenhauer studies. Those who might wish to pursue further studies in Schopenhauer after reading this introductory book are given little guidance about where to go next. Hannan admits that her somewhat autodidactic approach does not aim to reflect existing Schopenhauer scholarship, stating that her background is in analytic metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, not the history of philosophy.