Schopenhauer became disillusioned early in life. He quickly came to think that people, in general, are not rational and appeals to their rationality is a mistak

Schopenhauer became disillusioned early in life. He quickly came to think that people, in general, are not rational and appeals to their rationality is a mistake, if you are looking to convince them. His book is more a passive aggressive denunciation of this. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophist