Nailed reality pretty close.

Schopenhauer's philosphy is a weird mish-mash of Platonic/German idealism, British empiricism, Indian mystical philosphy, and something resembling evolutionary biology, pre-Darwin. While his philosophical system (every 19th Century philosopher had to have a 'system'; there was a law or something) made little sense, Schopenhauer has several redeeming features. Most importantly, he saw the key flaw in the enlightenment project of the 18th century: its overly simplistic and optimistic view of human nature. Rousseau saw this before Schopenhauer, while Nietzsche and Freud are better known for their expositions on human irrationality. Unlike Rousseau, Nietzsche or Freud, however, Schopenhauer was not inclined towards bombast or flights of fancy: he simply pointed out the flawed nature of mankind with an insight and clarity unmatched until late 20th century advances in neuroscience and genetic research. Besides being a keen psychologist, Schopenhauer wrote perceptive essays on several other topics, and was an extremely talented writer; his essays include some of the greatest prose ever written in the German language. Schopenhauer's insights and readability (in his essays-not so much his earlier work) made him very popular among 19th Century writers. Tolstoy and Joseph Conrad, to name two of the greatest, both greatly admired Schopenhauer. One caveat about Schopenhauer-his view of the world and human nature is very pessimistic, perhaps more so than any philosopher who ever lived; to such an extent that he is, at times, unbelievable (e.g.:"The world is hell, and men are both the demons and the damned").

Love his work read his "Will and Ideas',Great insight to life.A joy.

very vague, and most often misquoted

Belived in Bhrama (God) as trancendent (and imminant) and therefore cannot be either an athiest or panthiest (as Russell claims him to be), although had his doubts at times. Pesemistic, wrote about love.