| In the Presence of Schopenhauer | |
| Author: | Michel Houellebecq |
| Title Orig: | En présence de Schopenhauer |
| Translator: | Andrew Brown |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Publisher: | L'Herne |
| Pub Date: | 11 January 2017 |
| English Pub Date: | 22 May 2020 |
| Pages: | 96 |
| Isbn: | 978-2-85197-832-5 |
In the Presence of Schopenhauer (fr|En présence de Schopenhauer) is a 2017 book by the French writer Michel Houellebecq. It is a personal reflection on the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the effect he has had on Houellebecq.
Houellebecq recounts how he as a 25-year-old came across a copy of Schopenhauer's Aphorisms. Houellebecq became enthralled within minutes and hunted down the philosopher's major work, The World as Will and Representation. Although a "disappointed enthusiast" for the positivism of Auguste Comte, it is in Schopenhauer's philosophy he finds consolation.
France Culture's Géraldine Mosna-Savoye wrote that "Houellebecq turns himself into a formidable commentator", and that it would be a mistake to try to read the book as "a clarification of [Houellebecq's] writings". The critic argued that the book should be read only as a confrontation with Schopenhauer's philosophy, and as such manages to make it "both present and current".[1] Joseph Hanimann of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that "Houellebecq's Schopenhauer commentaries offer an as thorough as original reading". Hanimann was particularly fascinated by Houellebecq's defense of eroticism as a viable part of art, which is in conflict with Schopenhauer's view, and wrote that "it's just a pity that he doesn't go further into such paradoxes".[2]