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The Palgrave Schopenhauer Handbook pp 107–128Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

A Dream Within a Dream: Idealism and Pessimism in Schopenhauer’s Philosophy

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism ((PHGI))

Abstract

Virtually everyone who has studied The World as Will and Representation knows that its author was both a transcendental idealist and a pessimist.  But why did Schopenhauer endorse these two -isms, and how philosophically fruitful was their union? These are the questions I shall address in this chapter.

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

—Edgar Allan Poe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Trent University, Peterborough, Canada

    Douglas McDermid

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  1. Douglas McDermid
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Correspondence to Douglas McDermid .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Sandra Shapshay

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McDermid, D. (2017). A Dream Within a Dream: Idealism and Pessimism in Schopenhauer’s Philosophy. In: Shapshay, S. (eds) The Palgrave Schopenhauer Handbook. Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62947-6_6

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