Schopenhauer and the Diamond-Sutra

Ryan, Christopher (2020) Schopenhauer and the Diamond-Sutra. In: The Oxford Handbook of Schopenhauer. Oxford Handbooks . Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 363-379. ISBN 9780190660055

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Abstract / Description

Commentators on Schopenhauer’s philosophy have been at odds with one another concerning the signification of the "nothing" with which he closed the first volume of The World as Will and Representation in 1818, and how this relates to Schopenhauer’s proposition that the will is Kant’s thing-in-itself. This chapter contends that Schopenhauer’s works contain two conceptions of soteriological nothing: an early conception that is ontological and contrasted with the vanity of phenomenal life, and a later conception in which nothing is employed as an apophatic denial of our epistemological categories. Schopenhauer sought to conceal the way in which his use and understanding of these concepts had changed by 1860 by appending a handwritten note to the close of the first volume that cited Isaak Jacob Schmidt’s translation of the Diamond-Sūtra, an explanation of the Buddhist concept of prajñāpāramitā. Examination of Schmidt’s treatise throws some light on the development of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and soteriology between 1818 and 1860.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	will; nothingness; soteriology; prajñāpāramitā; Diamond-Sūtra; Buddhism; Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788-1860
Subjects:	100 Philosophy & psychology > 190 Modern western philosophy
Department:	School of Social Professions (to June 2021) School of Social Sciences and Professions
Depositing User:	Christopher Ryan
Date Deposited:	06 Aug 2020 14:42
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2022 01:58
URI:	https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/id/eprint/5909

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