The World as Will and Representation, in Two Volumes (Dover Books on Western Philosophy)

Translated from the German by E.F.J. Payne, with an editor's preface and translations of the prefaces from the first three German editions, an appendix of criticism of Kantian philosophy, and an index following text. The first English translation was entitled The World as Will and Idea, and was released in three volumes from 1883-1886, but this translation did not included the content of the two expanded editions - Payne's translation was the first to do so. Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung is one of the most important philosophical works of the nineteenth century, the basic statement of one important stream of post-Kantian thought. It is without question Schopenhauer's greatest work. Conceived and published before the philosopher was 30 and expanded 25 years later, it is the summation of a lifetime of thought. Thought it was initially met with indifference, it later became extremely influential to the thought of such authors and philosophers as Charles Darwin (who quotes it in The Descent of Man), Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.