The North American Division of the Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft held its biannual meeting in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association’s Eastern Division Meeting in Montreal, QC Canada on Friday, January 6, 2023. The set of presentations covered various themes in Schopenhauer’s metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology. In the first part of our session: Paul Katsafanas (Boston University) discussed Schopenhauer in relation to the history of drive psychology; Jessica Berry (Georgia State) offered a ‘minimalist’ reading of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics which encourages us to pay more attention to Schulze’s influence; and Anthony Jensen (Providence College) discussed the reception of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of history in late 19^th century figures like Eduard von Hartmann and Philipp Mainländer.

Next, we heard Qinyi Luo (Georgia State) offer a productive and critical take on Sandra Shapshay’s recent interpretation of Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy; Aaron Barker (University of Washington) then spoke on Schopenhauer’s Kantian account of moral reform; Jesse Lopes (Boston University) next argued that contemporary vision science endorses some definitively Schopenhauerian views about the structure of perception (and that Tyler Burge should take note of this); and, lastly but certainly not least, Marie-Michèle Blondin (Collège Montmorency) offered an exciting reading of Schopenhauer’s Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life according to which the aphorisms are a kind of medical service, offering advice on how to avoid pain and suffering in this life without advocating an explicit model of positive happiness.

The subsequent discussions, though regrettably brief, were fruitful, with several members of the audience raising penetrating questions for our speakers to think about. As always, it was wonderful for the Schopenhauerians of N. America to get together to discuss their recent work, and we hope that you will consider joining us for our next session. |

Dr. Sean T. Murphy is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Providence College. His research focuses on various philosophers in the classical German tradition. He is the Assistant Director of the North American Devision of the Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft.