Wittgenstein / Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

An amazing series. Both books explained the two philosophers' works as thoroughly as an introductory book possibly could, especially the one on Wittgenstein by A.C. Grayling.

The series is made up of small, compact books that can be hidden in any bag, allowing the reader to pick it up during spare times of any duration. As there isn't very much to say about the books themselves, I will focus on the philosophies covered by the books.

Wittgenstein's philosophy fascinated me. The book divided his philosophy largely in two sections: his early philosophy, carefully established through logic, analysing the relationship between language and the world, and his later one, starting more from the base of language and metaphysics and pointing out the almost unnoticeable flaws in his earlier philosophy.

On the other hand, Grayling's criticism of Wittgenstein's philosophy, found at the end of the book, was slightly disappointing in that it sounded overly pretentious, as though he was criticising for the sake of criticising, although it is very possible that I imagined it. 

Schopenhauer's philosophy was less interesting for me, and just as confusing as, if not more confusing than Wittgenstein's. I picked up the book in the first place because Schopenhauer was Wittgenstein's biggest influence. It was a very bad idea, as it made me work backwards in time, but fortunately I had some basic knowledge on Kant, who influenced Schopenhauer greatly -- too much, even.

It was this that disappointed me: it felt like Schopenhauer had taken Kant's metaphysics, gave them a different name, and added some nonsense to it. It reminded me of the quote by Samuel Johnson: "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good." My opinion could, however, be a result of an incomplete understanding of Schopenhauer's thoughts. 

Overall, I enjoy reading books of this series and very much recommend them, although I wouldn't particularly recommend these two, as the series covers a wide range of topics.