ABSTRACT
When Frederick Copleston, the eminent late historian of philosophy at the University of London, was invited to write a new preface for his book on Schopenhauer’s philosophy, he used the opportunity to revise or at least qualify some of the judgments which he had made concerning that philosophy some 30 years previously. The preface itself is telling in many aspects, but amongst the most significant statements which Copleston makes there is that, in assessing the philosophy of Schopenhauer, we must recognize that ‘A good deal depends … on our estimate of Schopenhauer’s overall vision of reality … Whether or not one mistrusts worldviews, it is with reference to his own vision of reality that Schopenhauer has to be judged.’2
