Arthur Schopenhauer
German · 1788–1860
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher best known for The World as Will and Representation (1818), in which he argued that the world as we perceive it is a representation shaped by our minds, and that underlying reality is a blind, striving force he called the Will. He found fame late in life and became a major influence on Nietzsche, Wagner, and — through his emphasis on representation and appearance — on later French literature including Houellebecq.