Examines the life and times of the nineteenth century philosopher, and discusses the major points of his philosophy With equal attention to both the life and work of his subject, Safranski places the visionary skeptic in the context of philosophical predecessors and contemporaries like Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, and explores the sources of Schopenhauer’s profound alienation from their “secularized religion of reason.” Translator's Note vii Preface 1(6) BOOK ONE The Warehouse Island 7(11) Life and Le Havre 18(16) The Mountains and the Counting-House 34(18) A Father's Ghost 52(16) Weimar 68(16) The Outsider 84(17) Between Plato and Kant 101(19) Fichte and the Ego 120(12) The `Better Consciousness' 132(8) Philosophy at Arms 140(11) BOOK TWO The Thinker Without a Stage 151(12) Return to Weimar 163(14) Goethe 177(14) The Will as the `Thing in Itself' 191(18) The World as Will and Representation 209(14) The Great No 223(15) First Italian Journey 238(12) The Unattended Lecturer 250(14) Disappointment in Berlin 264(16) Flight from Berlin 280(13) On the Will in Nature 293(14) The Mystery of Freedom 307(20) The Mountain Comes to the Prophet 327(18) The Comedy of Fame 345(5) Chronology 350(3) Editions of Schopenhauer's Works, Sources, Abbreviations 353(2) Notes 355(9) Bibliography 364(10) Index 374