On Seeing and Noticing
by Alain de Botton | 
Why I Am So Wise
by Friedrich Nietzsche | 
Concepts and Categories
by Isaiah Berlin | 
The Examined Life
by Robert Nozick | 
The Heart of Things
by A. C. Grayling | 
Six Great Ideas
by Mortimer J. Adler | 
Ten Philosophical Mistakes
by Mortimer J. Adler | 
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
by Martin Gardner | 
The Temptation to Exist
by E. M. Cioran | 
Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
by Simon Blackburn | 
Kant in 90 Minutes
by Paul Strathern | 
What Does It All Mean?
by Thomas Nagel | 
The Meaning of Things
by A. C. Grayling | 
The Consolations of Philosophy
by Alain de Botton | 
Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
by Julia Annas | 
On the Suffering of the World
by Arthur Schopenhauer | 
Studies in Pessimism
by Arthur Schopenhauer | 
The Wisdom of Life
by Arthur Schopenhauer | 
The World as Will and Idea
by Arthur Schopenhauer | 
Existentialism Is a Humanism
by Jean-Paul Sartre |
One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on religion, ethics, politics, women and many other themes is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, Parerga and Paralipomena, which he published in 1851. He depicts humanity as locked in a struggle beyond good and evil, each individual absolutely free within a Godless world in which art, morality and self-awareness are our only salvation. This innovative and pessimistic view proved powerfully influential upon philosophy and art, affecting the work of Nietzsche and Wittgenstein among others.