Editing Arthur Schopenhauer (section)

==== Buddhism ====
Schopenhauer noted a correspondence between his doctrines and the [[Four Noble Truths]] of [[Buddhism]].<ref>Abelson, Peter (April 1993).
[http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/peter2.htm Schopenhauer and Buddhism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628204330/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/peter2.htm |date=28 June 2011 }}. ''Philosophy East and West'' Volume 43, Number 2, pp. 255–278. University of Hawaii Press. Retrieved on: 12 April 2008.</ref> Similarities centered on the principles that life involves suffering, that suffering is caused by desire ([[taṇhā]]), and that the extinction of desire leads to liberation. Thus three of the four "truths of the Buddha" correspond to Schopenhauer's doctrine of the will.<ref>[[Christopher Janaway|Janaway]], Christopher, ''Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy'', pp. 28&nbsp;ff.</ref> In Buddhism, while greed and lust are always unskillful, desire is ethically variable – it can be skillful, unskillful, or neutral.<ref name="David Burton 2004, page 22">David Burton, "Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation: A Philosophical Study." Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, p. 22.</ref>

Buddhist [[nirvāṇa]] is not equivalent to the condition that Schopenhauer described as denial of the will. Nirvāṇa is not the extinguishing of the ''person'' as some Western scholars have thought, but only the "extinguishing" (the literal meaning of nirvana) of the flames of greed, hatred, and delusion that assail a person's character.<ref>John J. Holder, ''Early Buddhist Discourses.'' Hackett Publishing Company, 2006, p. xx.</ref> Schopenhauer made the following statement in his discussion of religions:<ref>
"Schopenhauer is often said to be the first modern Western philosopher to attempt integration of his work with Eastern ways of thinking. That he was the first is true, but the claim that he was ''influenced'' by Indian thought needs qualification. There is a remarkable correspondence in broad terms between some central Schopenhauerian doctrines and Buddhism: notably in the views that empirical existence is suffering, that suffering originates in desires, and that salvation can be attained by the extinction of desires. These three 'truths of the Buddha' are mirrored closely in the essential structure of the doctrine of the will." (On this, see Dorothea W. Dauer, ''Schopenhauer as Transmitter of Buddhist Ideas''. Note also the discussion by Bryan Magee, ''The Philosophy of Schopenhauer'', pp. 14–15, 316–321). Janaway, Christopher, ''Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy'', p. 28&nbsp;f.
</ref>

<blockquote>If I wished to take the results of my philosophy as the standard of truth, I should have to concede to Buddhism pre-eminence over the others. In any case, it must be a pleasure to me to see my doctrine in such close agreement with a religion that the majority of men on earth hold as their own, for this numbers far more followers than any other. And this agreement must be yet the more pleasing to me, inasmuch as ''in my philosophizing I have certainly not been under its influence'' [emphasis added]. For up till 1818, when my work appeared, there was to be found in Europe only a very few accounts of Buddhism.<ref>''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Vol. 2, Ch. 17</ref></blockquote>

Buddhist philosopher [[Keiji Nishitani]] sought to distance Buddhism from Schopenhauer.<ref>''Artistic detachment in Japan and the West: psychic distance in comparative aesthetics'' by S. Odin – 2001 – University of Hawaii Press.</ref> While Schopenhauer's philosophy may sound rather mystical in such a summary, his [[methodology]] was resolutely [[empirical]], rather than speculative or transcendental:

<blockquote>Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.<ref>''Parerga & Paralipomena'', vol. I, p. 106., trans. E.F.J. Payne.</ref></blockquote>

Also note:

<blockquote>This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.<ref>''World as Will and Representation'', vol. I, p. 273, trans. E.F.J. Payne.</ref></blockquote>

The argument that Buddhism affected Schopenhauer's philosophy more than any other [[Dharma|Dharmic]] faith loses credence since he did not begin a serious study of Buddhism until after the publication of ''The World as Will and Representation'' in 1818.<ref>Christopher McCoy, 3</ref> Scholars have started to revise earlier views about Schopenhauer's discovery of Buddhism. Proof of early interest and influence appears in Schopenhauer's 1815–16 notes (transcribed and translated by Urs App) about Buddhism. They are included in a recent case study that traces Schopenhauer's interest in Buddhism and documents its influence.<ref>App, Urs [http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp200_schopenhauer.pdf Arthur Schopenhauer and China. ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' Nr. 200 (April 2010)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704192558/http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp200_schopenhauer.pdf |date=4 July 2010 }} (PDF, 8.7&nbsp;Mb PDF, 164 p.; Schopenhauer's early notes on Buddhism reproduced in Appendix). This study provides an overview of the actual discovery of Buddhism by Schopenhauer.</ref> Other scholarly work questions how similar Schopenhauer's philosophy actually is to Buddhism.<ref>Hutton, Kenneth [http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2014/12/Hutton-Schopenhauer.pdf Compassion in Schopenhauer and Śāntideva. ''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'' Vol. 21 (2014)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414055301/http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2014/12/Hutton-Schopenhauer.pdf |date=14 April 2015 }}</ref>