Schopenhauer was born in 1788 in Danzig, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. His father was a wealthy merchant who intended his son for a commercial career. After his father’s death, Schopenhauer turned toward academic life. He studied in Göttingen and Berlin, engaging deeply with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and later reacting strongly against the dominant post Kantian systems.

Berlin at the time was the intellectual center of German philosophy. Hegel’s lectures attracted large audiences. Schopenhauer, confident in his own originality, scheduled his lectures at the same hour as Hegel’s, hoping to compete. The result was a failure. Students chose Hegel. Schopenhauer’s lectures were poorly attended, and he eventually abandoned his academic career.

For much of his life, he remained marginal to the philosophical mainstream. Only later, especially after the publication of his essays and aphorisms, did he gain recognition. His personality was famously sharp, often caustic. He valued independence and cultivated the image of a solitary thinker. This solitude aligned with his philosophical vision: truth does not emerge from collective historical processes but from individual insight.