I regard the biography of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) as worth studying because it provides a wonderful illustration of Schopenhauer’s ideas; he practised what he preached at each opportunity and published extensive notes about his thoughts.
Schopenhauer is one of the best German-language thinkers and essayists, but he was born in Danzig, which nowadays is called Gdansk and belongs to Poland.
His parents were both hard-working and successful, each of them in their own way. His mother was named Johanna. By the time Arthur Schopenhauer was still a teenager, she had already attained best-seller status with her romantic novels.
Nevertheless, the largest share of the family income came from Arthur Schopenhauer’s father. His full name was Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer and had attained a remarkable success in an import-export business in which he was a partner.
An early setback in Schopenhauer’s life
The family wealth enabled Arthur Schopenhauer to benefit from a excellent education, but life didn’t spare him a massive setback in his infancy. When he was five years old, his father died unexpectedly.
Joanna Schopenhauer could not make up for the lost father, but devoted vast resources to Arthur’s education. She hired teachers to tutor Arthur at home in languages (German, French and English), music, and other subjects. For what concerns primary education, Arthur was primarily home schooled.
In 1797, Arthur began attending the Gymnasium, that is, the secondary education in preparation for the university. He was only nine-years old when he enrolled in the Gymnasium. That is very young for today’s standards, but was not unusual in the eighteenth century.
Schopenhauer’s biographers note that he was a loner at the Gymnasium. In his work “Parerga and Paralipomena,” we find Schopenhauer’s own explanation for his loneliness. He felt that he was more intelligent and sophisticated than his peers. It was difficult for him to enjoy their jokes, games and sports.
Schopenhauer’s personality as shown in his early life
In today’s terminology, I would characterize Schopenhauer as a Sigma personality. In other words, I would define him as a lone wolf or a strikingly independent personality. I don’t know the percentage of the population that fits this description, but I would venture that the percentage is very small.
Let me mention a few traits of Sigma personalities; they are analytic, quiet, extremely curious, voracious readers, strikingly independent, self-confident, self-reliant, concentrated on their pursuits, and difficult to sway or intimidate.
Six years later, in 1803, Arthur Schopenhauer enrolled at the University of Göttingen. He had just turned fifteen. He first enrolled to study medicine, as instructed by his mother. He had not yet given much thought to the choice of a future profession but was happy to leave the Gymnasium.
By 1803, Schopenhauer’s personality was already shaped. I have characterized him a lone wolf or Sigma personality, but in a positive way. He was not predatory or aggressive, but wanted to figure things for himself and choose his own path.
First momentous decision in Schopenhauer’s life
Six months at the University of Göttingen proved sufficient for Schopenhauer to realize the he did not want to become a physician. He attended medicine classes and took the exams to please his mother, who was paying for the studies. Nonetheless it had become clear to him that his key interest was philosophy in the widest sense, not medicine.
Since Arthur was fully dependent on his mother’s financial support, he did not want to upset her. On the other hand, he did not want to quit his interest in philosophy. Thus, he decided to do both; he kept taking lessons on medicine and passing exams but devoted all his spare time to reading philosophy.
Eventually, he talked to her and managed to convince her to change the direction of his studies and also the location. Why? Because the University of Göttingen was renowned for its law, medicine, and natural sciences, but less strong in philosophy.
In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the University of Berlin possessed the strongest faculty in philosophy. Arthur Schopenhauer managed to convince his mother to allow him to move from Göttingen to Berlin in order to pursue his vocation.
Schopenhauer’s biography as illustration of his philosophy
I regard the removal from Göttingen to Berlin as the initial turning point in Schopenhauer’s biography. It’s more important than the death of his father Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer. The reason is that his father’s death was a fortuitous setback and the consequences foreseeable.
In contrast, the effort to convince his mother to let him quit studying medicine altogether and concentrate on philosophy is not to be underestimated. Schopenhauer’s personality as vastly self-reliant starts to show. His lone-wolf traits had set him on a path that was far from self-evident.
In my next article, I’ll continue presenting Schopenhauer’s biography and the lessons we can draw from the turning points in his life. As we will see, every step in his development leads key ideas in his later philosophy. It is an unusual experience to witness a philosophical system taking shape little by little.
If you are interested in applying rational ideas in your own life here and now, I recommend you my book “The philosophy of builders.”
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