This degree in fundamental philosophy, first published in 1813 when it led to my Ph.D., became the basis of my whole system.So the book shouldn't be out of stock, it's just that I haven't known anything about the situation for 4 years. On the other hand, it seems unreasonable to release such an infantile work again, with all its faults and flaws.For I know that a complete revision is time-impossible; moreover, once this period is over, the period of my real influence will come, which I believe will last a long time, because I am very serious about Seneca's assertion. Confidence: "Even if envy has silenced your contemporaries, there will always be someone who can impartially judge."1 I have therefore done my best to perfect the work of my youth, and , in view of the shortness and erratic nature of life, being able to revise the works of my 26 years old at the age of 60 is enough to make me feel honored.

-------- ① Seneca: EP. 79 In doing this work, however, I intend, whenever possible, to be lenient to my younger self, to allow him to speak, and even to speak freely of his thoughts.But I had to interrupt his train of thought wherever there was something wrong or superfluous, or even the best part left out.This happens from time to time; and so often does it happen that the reader may take it for an old man reading aloud the work of a young man, who often has to put down his book and interrupt to give his opinion on the subject. It is obvious that this book has been revised over long intervals, so that it falls short of the unity and wholeness of those coherent works.There are such great differences in style and expression that any sophisticated reader can be sure whether it is an old man or a young man who is speaking.For the contrast between the two is striking, on the one hand, is the mild and unassuming way of talking of the young man, who confidently presents his point of view, and who, while still naive, believes with great seriousness that all their pursuits are for the sake of Philosophy, truth, and truth alone.Whoever promotes the truth, therefore, wins their respect; on the other hand, the old man's obstinate and stiff way of talking, always with a touch of sternness, must have at last discovered the mercenary, The true nature and practical purpose of the nobles who drift with the tide, yet have to fall into it.Now, those who profess to see truth as their only pursuit are actually busy studying the intentions of powerful and powerful people, and "God is moldable from any material" is extended even to the greatest Among philosophers, don't we understand the consequences of such a stupid liar like Hegel being called a great philosopher with peace of mind?In this case, the impartial reader can forgive me if I occasionally vent my dissatisfaction.We do see German philosophy suffer humiliation, become the laughing stock of other nations, be thrown out of the door by true science, like whores, have to sell themselves day after day for dirty deals; the minds of today's generation of scholars Befuddled by Hegelian nonsense: impotent, vulgar and confused, prey to a cheap materialism, a basilisk crawling out of an eggshell, and Can kill people.Let's not talk about these, let's get down to business.

The reader will then have to excuse the difference in tone, since it cannot be supplemented here as in an appendix, as it is in my magnum opus.Also, the distinction between what I wrote when I was 26 and what I wrote when I was 60 is irrelevant, the only thing that really matters is that anyone who wishes to find a way into the whole of philosophy through first principles man, and by this means gaining a secure foothold and a clear understanding, should derive from this pamphlet something essential, secure, and true, and that is what I hope.The extension of some parts has now become a concise theory of the whole cognitive faculty, which explains it from a new and peculiar aspect by restricting itself strictly to the study of the principle of sufficient reason; However, only in the relevant parts of the first and second volumes of "The World as Will and Representation" and "Critique of Kant's Philosophy" can we find its complete exposition.

Arthur Schopenhauer In Frankfurt am Main, September 1847