This is pretty cool looking... I bet it would be even cooler if I knew who this guy was *i might know who this is, but i'm slow XD*

Thanks!
I guess he's one of the most-popular second-rate philosophers
By that I mean he's one of the first to pop up once you start studying philosophy (or German history... or anything closely related), but his philosophy isn't en vogue these times... but since he has that close connection to Nietzsche you can't really pass him by. Personally, I like his writing style.

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Remembering Cherigirl...
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The most philosophy I've taken is the basic class here at my highschool XD And that just had the very basics and the most well known people in it... Perhaps I'd come across him in college?

Well, I guess you should know Schopenhauer if you're German, but I don't really see the need to teach US students about German philosophy if it's not that relevant anymore. I think you should be taught about Kant or Hegel, because they continue to have great impact on today's society. And American analytic philosophy, like the late Donald Davidson's.

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Remembering Cherigirl...
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If you are studying philosophy, then you will know that Nietzsche in fact CRITICIZED Schopenhauer, because Schopenhauer believed that morality stems from compassion, which, if you read the works of Nietzsche, you will know to be not the case as regards his own beliefs.

Schopenhauer is FAR more interesting than Hegel, who basically ripped off Kant. (Come to think of it, "THE WILL AS WORLD AND REPRESENTATION", by Schopenhauer, is essentially a rip-off of Kant, too!)

A good student expands on his teacher's views by criticizing them. In the case of Nietzsche, he had to criticize Schopenhauer, both for being loyal to Kant and for being a pessimist.

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Remembering Cherigirl...
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I think there are two ways of looking at it. If you'd like to read something which had an actual impact, read Kant, Hegel or Nietzsche. If you'd like to read something interesting (from a literary p.o.v.), I agree with you and would reccommend Schopenhauer. Many people who read philosophy for its entertainment value, and for letting "reason run free" as Schopenhauer himself put it, prefer Schopenhauer over Hegel anytime.
As for their relation to Kant, I think Schopenhauer stresses Kant's analytic side whereas Hegel stresses the abstract side. But of course it's both a stylistic issue as well as an issue of actual content.
I hold on to the belief that Hegel's philosophy was far more important in our history of ideas than Schopenhauer's philosophy was (not counting its influence on Nietzsche, Marx, Freud...).

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Remembering Cherigirl...
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I get you Nietzsche was indeed inspired by Kant, although he hated him, even going so far as to call him "a moral fanatic a la Rousseau". (I have read "The Social Contract" by R., and it is exceedingly, well, er, exceedingly fanatical . . .)