Schopenhauer and Indian Philosophy

Anomie’s Eastern origins

“…Schopenhauer’s ([1844/1859] 1958: 574) claim, inherited from the Buddha, can be summarized as follows: ‘this will is a striving that is bound to frustrate itself.’ Like the Buddha, Schopenhauer argued that thirst causes pain, even borrowing the term ‘thirst’ from the translated Buddha, as highlighted in the epigraphs to this article (Schopenhauer, [1818/1859] 1969: 312; cf. Nanajivako, 1970; Cooper, 2012: 269).…”

“…Indeed, as App’s painstaking historical research has shown, ‘the tirelessly repeated notion about Schopenhauer’s “late acquaintance with India” and his “even later knowledge of Buddhism” is entirely without a foundation’ (App, 1998: 12, quoted in Atzert, 2008: 82; cf. Berger, 2004; Singh, 2010: 94f; Cooper, 2012; Cross, 2013: 37ff). Regardless of Schopenhauer’s reason for dismissing early Buddhist influence, 4 his work is strewn with references to translations of Buddhist texts and Orientalist works on Buddhism (especially see his list of recommended sinology readings, [1836/1854] 1889: 361n–363n; for a compilation of all cited works on Buddhism in Schopenhauer’s corpus, see Nicholls, 1999: 200–3)) and there is no doubt about his affinity for the religion.…”

“…Comparing the state followed by the affirmation of the will-to-live to the Buddhist notion of saṃsāra (Schopenhauer, [1844/1859] 1958: 609f), a world of egoism, craving, desire, and suffering, or, the ‘world of excessive worldliness’ (Singh, 2010: 91), Schopenhauer ([1844/1859] 1958: 623) summarized the essence of Buddhism as follows:All improvement, conversion, and salvation to be hoped for from this world of suffering, from this Samsara, proceed from knowledge of the four fundamental truths: (1) dolor [the truth of suffering], (2) doloris ortus [the truth of the origin of suffering], (3) doloris interitus [the truth of the destruction or cessation of suffering], (4) octopartita via ad doloris sedationem [the truth of the eightfold way to the cessation of suffering]. 5 The present history of ideas is exclusively concerned with how the Second Noble Truth influenced Schopenhauer and, in turn, Durkheim (for other studies showing the influence, affinities, and differences between the Four Noble Truths and Schopenhauer’s philosophy, see Dauer, 1969: 11f; Nanajivako, 1970; Nicholls, 1999: 188f; Singh, 2007: 57f; 2010: 97f; Cooper, 2012: 269f).…”

“…Schopenhauer, following in the footsteps of a number of Indologists and Romantics of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century ‘Oriental Renaissance’ (Cross, 2008), who embraced Indian thought to critique the deficiencies of Western culture, rather than to show the latter’s superiority (e.g., Schlegel, [1808] 1967), was one of the first Western thinkers to incorporate the ideas contained in early European translations of Eastern philosophy and religion, especially Vedānta and Buddhism, into his philosophical system (e.g., App, 1998; Singh, 2007: Chapter 4; 2008; 2010: Chapter 7; Barua, 2008; Berger, 2008; Cooper, 2012; Cross, 2013). The term ‘unquenchable thirst’ ( unlöschbaren Durst ) employed above to describe the affirmation of the ‘will’ or ‘will-to-live’ is a direct reference to Indian thought, specifically the Buddha’s Second Noble Truth (Nanajivako, 1970; Cooper, 2012: 269). A Frenchman central to the institutionalization and development of sociology, Émile Durkheim, was influenced by Schopenhauer, an underappreciated intellectual connection that can be seen in a number of themes throughout his work (Meštrović, 1988a; 1988b; 1988c; 1989a; 1991: Chapter 7).…”

“… 4. Dauer (1969: 9) speculated that Schopenhauer’s various dismissals of influence from ‘Indian teachers’ could be a sign of psychological repression, though Cooper (2012: 267) more convincingly argued his contradictory remarks resulted from his belief that he had elevated the mythical insights of Eastern religions into ultimate truths. …”