Abstract
Schopenhauer’s Parerga and Paralipomena reveals a distinct similarity with the content of Lichtenberg’s first and second volumes of the Vermischte Schriften, the various editions of which Schopenhauer referred to in his discussion of Lichtenberg.2 It is the function of this transitional chapter to point out some of the ideas concerning education that Schopenhauer shared — if only in part — with Lichtenberg.
Man’s theoretical knowledge, unless it becomes practical, is like a blooming rose that delights others by its color and fragrance, but nevertheless, decays — without producing any fruits or results.1
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Notes
Schopenhauer, op. cit., V, p. 685.
Ibid, V, p. 595.
Ibid, V, p. 27.
Ibid, V, pp. 527–28. Herder is, parenthetically, referred to as a sophist!
Ibid, V, p. 595. Cf. Trachsler’s categorization: “Lichtenberg ist weder Dichter noch Philosoph.”, op. cit., p. 31.
Ibid, V, pp. 643-44. B. Russell, almost a century later, wrote: “One result of the work we have been considering is to dethrone mathematics from the lofty place that it has occupied since Pythagoras and Plato,ö,” A History of Western Philosophy (New York, 1945), p. 831.
Ibid, IV, p. 128. Cf. VS, I, pp. 53, 55, 84, 85.
Ibid, IV, p. 221. Cf. VS, I, pp. 56, 57.
Ibid, IV, p. 200. The acme of terminological confusion is reached, according to Schopenhauer, in Hegel’s infamous definition of “Natur” - which he defined as “die Idee in ihrem Andersein.”, Ibid, IV, p. 203.
Ibid, V, p. 528. Cf. VS, I, p. 81.
Ibid, V, p. 386. See also IV, p. 213; Cf. VS, I, p. 70.
Ibid, V, p. 302.
Ibid, V, p. 303. Cf. VS, VI, pp. 48-49; B. and. F., p. 235.
Ibid, IV, p. 262. Cf. VS, I, p. 123; VS, IV, p. 56.
Ibid, IV, p. 298. Other “real” philosophers were, according to Schopenhauer: Plato, Descartes, Hume, Locke, Spinoza. Ibid, IV, p. 191. Said Josef Rattner: “Immanuel Kants öusserung jedoch, dass er eine ”kopernikanische Wendung“ in der Philosophie veranlasst habe, eine völlige Neuorientierung, deren hohe Bedeutung seiner Meinung nach erst hundert Jahre nach ihm geböhrend gewördigt werden könne, wird man röckhaltlos beipflichten können.”, Grosse Pödagogen (Mönchen, 1956), p. 75.
Schopenhauer’s stress on the necessity of learning the classical languages, especially Greek, was not fully shared, however, (as was pointed out in the chapter on Curriculum) by Lichtenberg.
Schopenhauer, op. cit., V, p. 521. See also Schopenhauer, op. cit., V, pp. 507, 512, 520, and IV, p. 165.
. VS., I, p. 221.
Schopenhauer, op. cit., V, p. 521.
Ibid, V, p. 522. Cf. VS, I, pp. 155, 171, 219, 221.
Ibid, V, p. 585. Cf. VS, I, p. 120.
Ibid, V, p. 591. Cf. VS, I, p. 55.
Ibid, V, p. 514.
Ibid, V, p. 666.
Ibid, V, p. 667. Cf. VS, I, p. 224; Werke, I, p. 420.
Ibid, V, p. 665. Cf. VS, II, p. 154. The teaching of Christianity at university level would mean, Schopenhauer maintained, the “editing of Jewish mythology as philosophy.”, Ibid, IV, p. 168.
Ibid, V, p. 665. Cf. VS, I, P. 94.
Ibid, V, p. 517. This is another instance where Schopenhauer stressed the importance of a differentiated curriculum. Cf. VS, I, pp. 46–47.
Ibid, V, p. 339. Cf. VS, I, p. 199.
Ibid, V, p. 340. Lichtenberg observed that, when metaphysics or religion was taught to young students, the outcome of such instruction inevitably led the students to believe in the immortality of the soul., VS, I, p. 59
VS, I, p. 58.
Ibid, I, p. 234. Schopenhauer’s revelation in regard to a masterpiece of a “Christian” fraud is here, it seems, pertinent. Wrote Schopenhauer: “Sieh” z.B. nach England, wo dreister Pfaffentrug den, von Konstantin dem Grossen, in Opposition zum Judensabbath, eingesetzten christlichen Sonntag dennoch lögenhafterweise mit jenem, sogar dem Namen nach, identifizirt, um Jehovah’s Satzungen för den Sabbath, d.h. den Tag, da die von sechstögiger Arbeit ermödete Allmacht sich ausruhen musste, weshalb er wesentlich der letzte Tag der Woche ist, zu öbertragen auf den Sonntag der Christen, den diem solis, diesen ersten, die Woche glorreich eröffnenden Tag, diesen Tag der Andacht und Freude.“, V, p. 371.
Schopenhauer, op. cit., IV, p. 152.
Ibid, IV, p. 123. Cf. VS, I, pp.12, 57, 81, and Voltaire, op. cit., p. 443. Cf. also VS, I, 54, 57.
Ibid, V, pp. 27–28. It is noteworthy that the basic purpose of Göttingisches Magazine und Literatur, as announced by Dieterich, was to promote “knowledge of nature and of man, physics, natural history and philosophy, physiognomy - pro and con -, historyö” F. Lauchert, G. Chr. Lichtenberg’s schriftstellerische Thötigkeit in chronologischer Uebersicht dargestellt. Mit Nachtrögen zu Lichtenberg’s “Vermischten Schriften” und textkritischen Berichtigungen (Göttingen, 1893), p. 44. Schopenhauer had no use for Herbart’s philosophical writings either, op. cit., V, p. 209.
Ibid, V, p. 525.
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Øksenholt, S. (1963). Schopenhauer and Education. In: Thoughts Concerning Education in the Works of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7528-7_7
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