SOURCE: "Schopenhauer Today," translated by Robert Kolben, in The Critical Spirit: Essays in Honor of Herbert Marchuse, edited by Kurt H. Wolff and Barrington Moore, Jr., Beacon Press, 1967, pp. 55-71.

Horkheimer was a German-born American sociologist and philosopher. In the following essay, which was originally delivered as a lecture on the one-hundredth anniversary of Schopenhauer's death, Horkheimer addresses Schopenhauer's philosophies of history and politics, declaring that "Schopenhauer is the teacher for modern times. "

Arthur Schopenhauer regarded fame with no less detachment than the majority of thinkers who finally gained it. Public recognition left him so indifferent that when he partook of it at last he did not even have to belittle it, either to himself or to others. He could relish the signs of future veneration and even succumb to the temptation of agreeing with Seneca's optimistic judgment that fame follows merit unfailingly. What great respect for the...