Each work of art, each philosophical thought, presents
itself as an act of liberation -- liberation from forms
and ways of thinking of the past and from the influences
and obstacles of the present. In its conflict with these
the individual work rises into a sphere beyond the
confines of time.
And in our apprehension of this apprehend the work in its unity and conflict we greatness. This is how I see the task of revealing the making and the work of Schopenhauer from within the intellectual context of his century. The task has remained unsolved until now. Scholars have usually been satisfied with the presentation and criticism of his system. He has been described and elucidated on the basis of biographical facts, and attempts have been made to analyze him critically, or to shed light on certain areas of meaning and form.
It has been thought that one ought to determine influences, perhaps also assign the system to certain complexes of problems in the history of philosophy; and quite frequently these complexes of problems have been detached from their relationship with the intellectual and cultural context from which they originated.