It is well known how much the philosophy of will from Schopenhauer (A. Schopenhauer, 1788-1860) extols art, especially music, which Thomas Mann referred to as the `artistic philosophy par excellence`.

Only music saves us from the chains of individualization and self-preservation, as it reveals unabashedly the very essence of the world: the will, without the mediation of concepts or representations.

How is it possible, however, for aesthetics to be so closely connected to first philosophy as in this work? Markos Tsetsos critically examines the conditions of this very modern type of thinking by exploring the entirety of Schopenhauer's `irrationalist` philosophy: from epistemology to philosophy of nature, to the metaphysics of feeling, and to ethics.

Each study thematically corresponds to one of the books in `The World as Will and Representation`, Schopenhauer's essentially unique work, because the book at hand is an introduction both to Schopenhauer's musical aesthetics and to his philosophy as a whole.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]