Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the greatest and most influential Western philosophers of all time. An intellectual giant. Even those who didn’t agree with his extreme pessimism respected him for his brilliant insights on human nature, and the nature of existence itself.
Schopenhauer was also the first major influence on another great figure of Western philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche. Reading Schopenhauer changed the direction of Nietzsche’s life. In fact, he remained one of Nietzsche’s biggest philosophical influences throughout his life, since much of Nietzsche’s philosophy, no matter how original, is actually a response to Schopenhauer.
But why isn’t this essay titled simply "Schopenhauer’s 8 tips on reading"?
It’s because people seem to be crazy about Nietzsche, while Schopenhauer unfortunately gets little to no attention outside academic circles. I believe that’s unfair, since a good portion of Schopenhauer’s philosophy is highly practical and suitable for general population, as you will se in this essay. So if I have to use the “Nietzsche-effect” tactic to get some well-earned recognition for this pessimistic but compassionate thinker, I am ready to do so.
The 8 tips on reading that I am about to share come from volume 2 of Schopenhauer’s "Parerga and Paralipomena." It is a collection of essays and aphorisms and his most accessible work. I have put "Parerga and Paralipomena" in my upcoming book recommendation list so I thought it was appropriate to share some lessons from it, and even more for those lessons to be on reading.
In his work, Schopenhauer doesn’t actually list 8 tips on reading. I have rather extracted what I felt were some of the most practical takeaways from a chapter titled "On Reading and Books."
Understand the process of reading
Schopenhauer explains what reading really is, saying that "when we read, someone else thinks for us."
Although we like to think of reading as an intellectual effort, he says that, while reading, we are spared from thinking most of the time.
This should be our first clue as to how important it is to be mindful of what, or rather, who, we are reading. Because we are not just reading, we are letting someone else guide our mind.
Don’t replace thinking with reading
If while reading we are letting someone else think for us, then there is a clear danger in reading too much. And I believe this danger is most easily seen in those who read 100 books a year but don’t have a single original thought.
"…whoever reads very much and almost the whole day, but in between recovers by thoughtless pastime, gradually loses the ability to think on his own – as someone who always rides forgets in the end how to walk."
If one of the main goals of reading is the development of our mind, then reading too much is the most counterproductive thing that we can do, as it leaves us with little or no time to spend with our own thoughts.
"Just as a coiled spring finally loses its elasticity through the sustained pressure of a foreign body, so too the mind through the constant force of other people’s thoughts."
Take time to digest what you’ve read
"And just as one ruins the stomach by too much food and so harms the entire body, so too we can overfill and choke the mind with too much mental food."
Further, Schopenhauer warns that it’s not only the amount of mental food that’s the problem, but the fact that people don’t take enough time between their mental meals to properly digest them.
Just as with physical food, the benefits are not obtained from the very act of eating but from proper digestion and absorption of nutrients, with mental food too, we need an adequate amount of time to digest it and reap the benefits.
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