Jakob Norberg, “Schopenhauer’s Politics”
Usually dismissed as the most apolitical of German philosophers, the pessimist Schopenhauer was in fact a contrarian acutely aware of the defining debates of his time and consciously opposing both conservatives and socialists, orthodox Christians and secular radicals, political Hegelians and historicists. A closer look at Schopenhauer's writings in their context reveal a paradoxical figure: a reactionary anti-nationalist, elitist anti-aristocrat, anti-socialist advocate of compassion. Denying that politics could ever be the medium of emancipation or restoration, fraternal unity or redemptive struggle, Schopenhauer saw it as necessary dimension of human life but a severely limited one, without metaphysical substance, simultaneously indispensable and insufficient.
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