Event today: "Schopenhauer: Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist"
Schopenhauer worked to provide an answer to the important question of how to live.
Event Today: Monday, June 13 ~ 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST
“Schopenhauer: Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist”: David Bather Woods in conversation with Patrick Hassan
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) almost wasn’t one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century. Born in the Free City of Danzig to a family of shipping merchants, he was destined for a life of imports and exports until his father died in a suspected suicide. After much deliberation, the young Schopenhauer invested his inheritance in himself and his philosophical vocation. But the long road to recognition was a difficult one, with Schopenhauer spending all but the last decade of his life in total obscurity. Yet his ideas and style went on to influence great thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Sigmund Freud, as well as artists such as the composer Richard Wagner and writers Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, and many more.
A singular and remarkably influential thinker, Schopenhauer is usually described as an extreme pessimist. He questioned the purpose of existence in a world where pain and suffering are inescapable and happiness is all too brief. Our speaker David Bather Woods is interested in Schopenhauer’s pessimism in the context of his life experiences, revealing the philosopher’s relentless fascination with the world and making a case for his contemporary relevance. Despite his pessimistic outlook on human existence, Schopenhauer didn’t give up on life. Rather, he recognized that the question of how to live becomes even more pressing, and he worked to provide an answer.
David Bather Woods is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on the 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, especially his philosophical pessimism and his moral and political philosophy. Hi latest book, Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist was published in November 2025 by The University of Chicago Press.
Patrick Hassan is Senior Lecturer at the University of Cardiff. His primary areas of interest are moral and existential philosophy in the context of 19th century European thought, particularly Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
Register here for the event, free or by donation.
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End of the Season:
This newletter is the final scheduled broadcast of our Sprint/Summer period. We will resume again at the beginning of the academic year. In the meantime, make sure to have a look at our latest issue of The Philosopher, ‘Towards a Critical Theory of Finance‘, guest edited by Paul North. This is a bumper issue that has been many months in the making (and appears a little later than our usual spring issues as a result). Subscribers can access the digital edition immediately and will be receiving copies in the post in the coming days (subscribe here, or purchase an individual copy here). You can watch the recording of our two events on Finance linked to the issue here and here.
Wishing all of our readers a deeply restful, thoughtful, and restorative summer!
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Closing:
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Enjoy today’s event, and we’ll see you in September!
Marie Snyder, Substack Manager