Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint
Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime

“Arthur Schopenhauer considered the drive to philosophize as an expression of a form of wonder provoked by the ubiquity of suffering and death. In Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint: Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime, Sophia Vasalou looks carefully at Schopenhauer’s philosophic practice and the visionary qualities of his works, arguing that his practice is best understood as an aesthetic one, closely aligned with the experience of the sublime. Using her reading of Schopenhauer's thought as a practice of cultivating the perspective of the sublime, Vasalou locates Schopenhauer in a philosophic tradition found in the ancients-Plato- the Stoics-and Epicureans-emphasizing philosophy as practice and as expressive. And against the dominant literature that finds Schopenhauer’s philosophic argumentation wanting, and thereby raises the question of why read Schopenhauer at all, she suggests a reading of Schopenhauer that serves to express a standpoint that is peculiarly our own and that can be critically examined in a way in which is a form of self-criticism, demanding that we directly confront the temptations deriving from this standpoint and reflect on the ideals of character that govern the way we respond to it. Writing in an inviting, self-reflective, and expressive fashion, Vasalou draws the reader into the text. She artfully engages Schopenhauer’s philosophic writings and the Anglophone literature relevant to her topics. Her views are original; her argumentation is well-rehearsed and generously evenhanded. Vasalou brings a fresh and welcome voice to Schopenhauer studies in a philosophically evocative way.”
--David Cartwright, University of Wisconsin Whitewater