SOURCE: "Schopenhauer," in A History of Western Philosophy, and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Simon and Schuster, 1945, pp. 753-59.

One of the preeminent thinkers of the twentieth century, Russell wrote a number of important works in philosophy, including Principia Mathematica (1910-13), a highly influential study in mathematical logic that he co-authored with Alfred North Whitehead. In the following essay, Russell briefly describes Schopenhauer's life and the relative importance of his ideas in the history of philosophy.

Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is in many ways peculiar among philosophers. He is a pessimist, whereas almost all the others are in some sense optimists. He is not fully academic, like Kant and Hegel, nor yet completely outside the academic tradition. He dislikes Christianity, preferring the religions of India, both Hinduism and Buddhism. He is a man of wide culture, quite as much interested...