Question

Is there anything valuable to be learned from Schopenhauer’s pessimism? Why or why not?

Answer 1

According to Schopenhauer’s views about pessimism discussed in his work influential work, The World As Will and Representation; will is an aimless striving which generally can never be fully satisfied, thus life is essentially full of dissatisfaction. The analogy Schopenhauer used was that of; a pendulum that swings back and forth, going between struggle and boredom. According to him, there are occasional moments of genuine happiness, which are very brief in comparison to the extensive time spent either while struggling or getting bored. Anything valuable that I have learned from Schopenhauer’s pessimism is the fact that his views are dominated by his lack of belief in God as we always find a positive meaning behind everything of life if we are not an atheist as we believe in the scheme of God.