Jens Lemanski - Language, Logic, and Mathematics in Schopenhauer

• Jean-Yves Bziau (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

• Hajnal Andrka (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary)

• Mark Burgin (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)

• Razvan Diaconescu (Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania)

• Andreas Herzig (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse, France)

• Arnold Koslow (City University of New York, USA)

• Jui-Lin Lee (National Formosa University, Huwei Township, Taiwan)

• Larissa Maksimova (Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia)

• Grzegorz Malinowski (University of Lodz, Poland)

• Francesco Paoli (University of Cagliari, Italy)

• Darko Sarenac (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA)

• Peter Schrder-Heister (University Tbingen, Germany)

• Vladimir Vasyukov (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia)

It is probably not often the case that all three terms given in the title of the volume are mentioned in the same breath, and then also in connection with Arthur Schopenhauer. At first glance, the philosopher, who was born in Gdansk in 1788 and died in Frankfurt in 1860, seems typically not to be associated with any of the three topics mentioned, not with language, nor with mathematics, and certainly not with logic. Many philosophers seem to have a prejudiced view of Schopenhauer as a philosopher of the Irrational and of contradiction: His philosophical systemso the view might gois determined by the irrational principle of the will, which man should finally overcome in a mystical way and with the help of self-knowledge. In such a system, themes such as language, mathematics or logic, which are considered rational and exact, do not seem to play a significant role.

Serious scholarly opinions testify to this prejudice: The Romanist Eugenio Coseriu, for example, already judged as follows in the title of his 1979 essay: The Case of SchopenhauerA Dark Chapter in German Language Philosophy [, p. 431]

But these extreme positions have not remained without opposition: Gerold Ungeheuer, a famous communication scientist in Bonn has vehemently defended Schopenhauers philosophy of language against Coseriu: According to my judgment [] Coserius claims are mistaken, and according to my insight Coserius methods are contestable [].