Schopenhauer's encounter with Indian thought : representation and will and their Indian parallels

312 Pages·2013·1.561 MB·English

by  Schopenhauer, Arthur, Schopenhauer, Arthur, Cross, Stephen

Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
24
.
MONOGRAPH NO
Schopenhauer’s
Encounter
with Indian Thought
Representation Will
and and Their Indian Parallels
STEPHEN CROSS
Schopenhauer’s Encounter with Indian Thought
The Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
Monograph Series was started in 1974. Works are
published in the series that deal with any area of Asian
philosophy, or any other field of philosophy examined
from a comparative perspective. The aim of the series
is to make available scholarly works that exceed article
length, but may be too specialized for the general
reading public, and to make these works available
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orthography of non-Western languages.
Monograph no. 24 | Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy
Schopenhauer’s Encounter
with Indian Thought
Representation and Will and
Their Indian Parallels
Stephen Cross
University of Hawai‘i Press | Honolulu
© 2013 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cross, Stephen, author.
Schopenhauer’s encounter with Indian thought : representation
and will and their Indian parallels / Stephen Cross.
pages cm.—(Monograph / Society for Asian and Comparative
Philosophy ; no. 24)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3735-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788–1860. 2. Hindu philosophy.
3. Buddhist philosophy. 4. Will. 5. Representation (Philosophy)
I. Title. II. Series: Monograph . . . of the Society for Asian and
Comparative Philosophy ; no. 24.
B3148.C76 2013
193 — dc23 2012042322
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper
and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Council on Library Resources.
Designed by April Leidig
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
In memory of my father,
Noël John Cross,
and of
Kathleen Raine,
poet, scholar, and lover of India

When all desires that cling to the heart are cast away,
then a mortal becomes immortal.
—Katha Upanisad
True salvation, deliverance from life and suffering, cannot
even be imagined without complete denial of the will.
Till then, everyone is nothing but this will itself.
— Schopenhauer,
The World as Will and Representation

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xv
one
Introduction 1
two
Schopenhauer in Context: The “Oriental Renaissance” 9
Three
Schopenhauer’s Indian Sources: Hinduism 20
Schopenhauer’s Initial Contact with the “Oriental Renaissance”:
Das Asiatische Magazin 20
Schopenhauer’s Encounter with the Bhagavad Gītā 23
Schopenhauer and Upanisadic Thought: The Oupnek’hat 25
The Oupnek’hat: How Reliable a Source? 32
four
Schopenhauer’s Indian Sources: Buddhism 37
Schopenhauer’s Earliest Contacts with Buddhism 37
Rémusat, Deshauterayes, and I. J. Schmidt: Schopenhauer and the
Mahāyāna 40
Schopenhauer’s Personal Attitude to Buddhism 45
five
“Representation”: Schopenhauer and the Reality-Status of the World 49
The Starting Point for Philosophy: The World as Representation 50
Schopenhauer and Kant: The Separation of the Ideal from the Real 53
The Understanding (Verstand): Causality as the Root of Intuitive
Perception 58