Editing Arthur Schopenhauer (section)

== Education ==
He moved to Weimar but did not live with his mother, who even tried to discourage him from coming by explaining that they would not get along very well.{{r|Cartwright|p=131}} Their relationship deteriorated even further due to their temperamental differences. He accused his mother of being financially irresponsible, flirtatious and seeking to remarry, which he considered an insult to his father's memory.{{r|Cartwright|p=116,131}} His mother, while professing her love to him, criticized him sharply for being moody, tactless, and argumentative, and urged him to improve his behavior so that he would not alienate people.{{r|Cartwright|p=129}} Arthur concentrated on his studies, which were now going very well, and he also enjoyed the usual social life such as balls, parties and theater. By that time Johanna's famous salon was well established among local intellectuals and dignitaries, the most celebrated of them being [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]. Arthur attended her parties, usually when he knew that Goethe would be there—although the famous writer and statesman seemed not even to notice the young and unknown student. It is possible that Goethe kept a distance because Johanna warned him about her son's depressive and combative nature, or because Goethe was then on bad terms with Arthur's language instructor and roommate, [[Franz Passow]].{{r|Cartwright|p=134}} Schopenhauer was also captivated by the beautiful [[Karoline Jagemann]], mistress of [[Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach]], and he wrote to her his only known love poem.{{r|Cartwright|p=135}} Despite his later celebration of asceticism and negative views of sexuality, Schopenhauer occasionally had sexual affairs—usually with women of lower social status, such as servants, actresses, and sometimes even paid prostitutes.{{r|Cartwright|p=21}} In a letter to his friend Anthime he claims that such affairs continued even in his mature age and admits that he had two out-of-wedlock daughters (born in 1819 and 1836), both of whom died in infancy.{{r|Cartwright|p=25}} In their youthful correspondence Arthur and Anthime were somewhat boastful and competitive about their sexual exploits—but Schopenhauer seemed aware that women usually did not find him very charming or physically attractive, and his desires often remained unfulfilled.{{r|Cartwright|p=22}}

He left Weimar to become a student at the [[Georg August University of Göttingen|University of Göttingen]] in 1809. There are no written reasons about why Schopenhauer chose that university instead of the then more famous [[University of Jena]], but Göttingen was known as more modern and scientifically oriented, with less attention given to theology.{{r|Cartwright|p=140}} Law or medicine were usual choices for young men of Schopenhauer's status who also needed career and income; he chose medicine due to his [[Natural science|scientific interests]]. Among his notable professors were [[Bernhard Friedrich Thibaut]], [[Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren]], [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach]], [[Friedrich Stromeyer]], [[Heinrich Adolf Schrader]], [[Johann Tobias Mayer]] and [[Konrad Johann Martin Langenbeck]].{{r|Cartwright|p=141–144}} He studied [[metaphysics]], [[psychology]] and [[logic]] under [[Gottlob Ernst Schulze]], the author of ''[[Aenesidemus (book)|Aenesidemus]]'', who made a strong impression and advised him to concentrate on [[Plato]] and [[Immanuel Kant]].{{r|Cartwright|p=144}} He decided to switch from medicine to philosophy around 1810–11 and he left Göttingen, which did not have a strong philosophy program: besides Schulze, the only other philosophy professor was [[Friedrich Bouterwek]], whom Schopenhauer disliked.{{r|Cartwright|p=150}} He did not regret his medicinal and scientific studies; he claimed that they were necessary for a philosopher, and even in Berlin he attended more lectures in sciences than in philosophy.{{r|Cartwright|p=170}} During his days at Göttingen, he spent considerable time studying, but also continued his flute playing and social life. His friends included [[Friedrich Gotthilf Osann]], [[Karl Witte]], [[Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen]], and [[William Backhouse Astor Sr.]]{{r|Cartwright|p=151}}

He arrived at the newly founded [[University of Berlin]] for the winter semester of 1811–12. At the same time, his mother had just begun her literary career; she published her first book in 1810, a biography of her friend [[Karl Ludwig Fernow]], which was a critical success. Arthur attended lectures by the prominent [[post-Kantian]] philosopher [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], but quickly found many points of disagreement with his epistemology; he also found Fichte's lectures tedious and hard to understand.{{r|Cartwright|p=159}} He later mentioned Fichte only in critical, negative terms{{r|Cartwright|p=159}}—seeing his philosophy as a lower-quality version of Kant's and considering it useful only because Fichte's poor arguments unintentionally highlighted some failings of Kantianism.{{r|Cartwright|pages=165–169}} He also attended the lectures of the famous Protestant theologian [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]], whom he also quickly came to dislike.{{r|Cartwright|p=174}} His notes and comments on Schleiermacher's lectures show that Schopenhauer was becoming very [[Criticism of religion|critical of religion]] and moving towards [[atheism]].{{r|Cartwright|p=175}} He learned by self-directed reading; besides Plato, Kant and Fichte he also read the works of [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]], [[Jakob Friedrich Fries|Fries]], [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi|Jacobi]], [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]], [[John Locke|Locke]], and much current scientific literature.{{r|Cartwright|p=170}} He attended philological courses by [[August Böckh]] and [[Friedrich August Wolf]] and continued his naturalistic interests with courses by [[Martin Heinrich Klaproth]], [[Paul Erman]], [[Johann Elert Bode]], [[Ernst Gottfried Fischer]], [[Johann Horkel]], [[Friedrich Christian Rosenthal]] and [[Hinrich Lichtenstein]] (Lichtenstein was also a friend whom he met at one of his mother's parties in Weimar).{{r|Cartwright|p=171–174}}