The Historian of Philosophy Can Very Well…

The historian of philosophy can very well trace the course of currents of thought over the decades, identifying trends here and there, and see them as shaping the results that he identifies. In doing so, one has a view perhaps not of the evolution of thought, but of the origin of ideas, of what kind of stimulus encourages them and what kind of stimulus they respond to. This is certainly beneficial; however, the historical panorama is insufficient for the intellectual to be able to claim to be the master of such developments. In order to do this, he needs to experience the process from the inside, take on the ideas put forward as his own and let them take the path they want within him. This may not be possible for all philosophical problems, but especially for the most current ones, this exercise usually leads to very different conclusions from those that spring up with an air of immediate consecration.

An Authentic Philosopher

The impression we get after going through these almost six hundred pages of Schopenhauer’s biography signed by David Cartwright is just one: Schopenhauer is an authentic philosopher. This can be seen because, for anyone familiar with Schopenhauer’s work, his biography holds no surprises, which is tantamount to saying that his life was consistent with his philosophy or, rather, that his philosophy was real. To measure the difficulty, and perhaps the greatness of this feat, it is enough to compare it to the abundant miseries described by Paul Johnson in the lives of his intellectuals. In Schopenhauer, we see a personality engraved in every act, in every reaction; we see a man who, despite what can be said about him, neither betrayed nor falsified himself. Such integrity, which is extremely rare, deserves the highest recognition.

It Has Been Rightly Said That…

It has been rightly said that all that remains of a biography is the character of the biographee. And we see this especially in examples that would seem to contradict the rule: in the biography of men who have left an intellectual legacy. Of these men, who made their mark by something other than practical actions, after analyzing their lives we retain the image of what they were like in the practical world, the decisions they made, their temperament and their daily lives. We remember how they lived. We remember the libertine, the consequent, the sullen and the scoundrel. All of this teaches us a lot and establishes an inseparable link between the imaginative and the real.

Historiography Repeatedly Delivers Such a Shock…

Historiography repeatedly delivers such a shock that it is impossible for the student not to enter a state of revolt. This happens, for example, when we study the systematic advance of the state over freedoms, penetrating and perverting the social tissue more and more completely, so that today, transformed into a very powerful monster, it has practically annulled the possibility of reaction. Revolt is legitimate: people have risen up and heads have rolled for far less. Thinking about the “abusive” taxes of the past and comparing them with the peaceful, bovine acceptance of radically higher taxes today is a stab in the spirit. However, we have to overcome our revolt and continue studying, because first of all we need to understand exactly what happened.