Schopenhauer On Women

Schopenhauer's niother, Joanna, was a Bingular woman, with whom he was perpetually at war. She was lively, he was grim. She was a sentimeutalist, he detested sentiment. She was devoted to society, to gossip, to the convenances of life. He Hved for ideas, and with au alniost savage moroseness poured soorn on the round of "at homes" and sBsthetic tea partiea Both were selfish and quarrelsome. We may judge, therefore, that Schopenhauer took his notions of women partly from his mother. It goes without saying that these notions were violent in the extreme, yet not without some aspects of truth. The new woman would rave at this satire on her pretensions, and yet it would do her good to read what Schopenhauer bas to say with as much calmness as she can oommand. Woman is here depicted as emphatically "a lesser man" - indeed so far below man as to be fit ouly for the role of the old ioued Germán