Arthur Schopenhauer Critical Essay | Critical Essay by John Oxenford

Critical Essay by John Oxenford

SOURCE: "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy," in The Westminster Review, Vol. III, No. 2, January 1, 1853, pp. 388-407.

An English critic and playwright, Oxenford was a well-known translator of Goethe when the following article appeared in The Westminster Review in 1853. One of the first writings to have introduced Schopenhauer to the English-speaking world, "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy" was also translated into German; it was widely read in Germany, sparked reactions in France and Italy, and garnered Schopenhauer a number of admirers. In the article, Oxenford outlines Schopenhauer's metaphysics, contextualizing Schopenhauer in relation to Kant and his academic contemporaries.

Few, indeed, we venture to assert, will be those of our English readers who are familiar with the name of Arthur Schopenhauer. Fewer still will there be who are aware that the mysterious being owning that name has been working for something like forty years to subvert that whole system of...
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