Pathei mathos. Schopenhauer’s doctrine of wisdom and the ancient Greek Sophia

Abstract

In the face of growing de-objectification and depersonalization, which in the realm of knowledge have asserted themselves through the unconditional claim of science to objectivity, it is advisable to remember the old, and for the most part now forgotten, concept of wisdom, and its philosophical scope. This is here done using Schopenhauer as an example. In his philosophy, wisdom plays a central role, as a not only theoretical but also practical perfection of man. In order to grasp the essence of the wisdom so highly placed as accurately as possible, it is confronted in the essay, on the one hand, with Gadamer’s concept of hermeneutic experience and, on the other hand, with the concept of wisdom expressed in the ancient Greek saying “taught by suffering”. The investigation leads to the conclusion that the wisdom by Schopenhauer, although at first sight similar and in part even related to the two concepts of wisdom mentioned above, is however fundamentally different from them, since its purpose is not to instruct man about the insurmountable limits of his mortality and thereby assign to him his appointed place in life, but rather to lead him away from the will to live at all.