Thursday 17 May 2007

Schopenhauer vs. the German Idealists

Schopenhauer dealt professionally with Hegel at least in the German university system, but that didn't stop him in his World as Will and Representation from launching some of the most stinging invective I've ever read against the obscurantism of the German Idealists that came after Kant:
What was senseless and without meaning at once took refuge in obscure exposition and language. Fichte was the first to grasp and make use of this privilege; Schelling at best equalled him in this, and a host of hungry scribblers without intellect or honesty soon surpassed them both. But the greatest effrontery in serving up sheer nonsense, in scrabbling together senseless and maddening webs of words, such as had previously been heard only in madhouses, finally appeared in Hegel.

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