Arthur Schopenhauer is a German philosopher, one of the main representatives of philosophical irrationalism, who received the nickname “philosopher of pessimism” because of his harsh judgments. His philosophy and unusual views on human nature, metaphysical analysis of the will, and aphoristic writing style had a huge influence on Z. Freud, F. Nietzsche, A. Einstein, C. Jung, L. Tolstoy, L. H. Borges and many others. What is the “will to live” and the “idea” of the world; why life is a tragedy, but in its details resembles a comedy; what gives a person knowledge; how he gets acquainted with the surrounding reality through his body and how he unravels his genius; what is love and why is a woman the main culprit of evil...Schopenhauer’s difficult-to-understand texts become fascinating reading thanks to the comments and explanations of a specialist.