The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer-Religion a Dialogue and The Art of Controversy

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Religion a Schopenhauer, in his Dialogue on Religion, borrowing from, in admixture, David Hume’s Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion and Cicero’s dialogue The Nature of the Gods , employs two Philalethes, the voice of philosophy, and Demopheles, the voice of the people, and thereby compares the philosophical view with the “metaphysics of the masses”; a few representative
“They found it easier to burn Vanini that to confute him.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer , Dialogue on Religion
“You’ve no notion of how stupid most people are.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer , Dialogue on Religion ; voice of Demopheles
The Art of The Art of Being 38 Ways to Win an Argument is an acidulous and sarcastic treatise written by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in sardonic deadpan. In it, Schopenhauer examines a total of thirty-eight methods of showing up one's opponent in a debate. He introduces his essay with the idea that philosophers have concentrated in ample measure on the rules of logic, but have not engaged with the darker art of the dialectic, of controversy. Whereas the purpose of logic is classically said to be a method of arriving at the truth, dialectic, says Schopenhauer, "...on the other hand, would treat of the intercourse between two rational beings who, because they are rational, ought to think in common, but who, as soon as they cease to agree like two clocks keeping exactly the same time, create a disputation, or intellectual contest."