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On The Sufferings of The World: Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer argues that human existence is characterized by endless striving without fulfillment and that life is suffering. He provides several arguments for this pessimistic view: comparing the feelings of a predator eating its prey shows that pain generally outweighs pleasure; seeing others worse off than yourself provides little consolation for mankind's suffering as a whole; and life's disappointments would make old friends meeting after years feel complete disappointment in life. Schopenhauer maintains this philosophical view of life's suffering despite people preferring to believe that all is good.

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458 views2 pages

On The Sufferings of The World: Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer argues that human existence is characterized by endless striving without fulfillment and that life is suffering. He provides several arguments for this pessimistic view: comparing the feelings of a predator eating its prey shows that pain generally outweighs pleasure; seeing others worse off than yourself provides little consolation for mankind's suffering as a whole; and life's disappointments would make old friends meeting after years feel complete disappointment in life. Schopenhauer maintains this philosophical view of life's suffering despite people preferring to believe that all is good.

Uploaded by

ABHISHEK JAMOD
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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On The Sufferings of the World

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher who earned


the title, “Philosopher of Pessimism,” because of his generally dour
views of human existence. Schopenhauer argued that the essence of hu-
man existence was characterized by endless striving without any hope of
fulfillment—another way of saying, “Life is suffering.”

T
he pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or,
at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader
wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare
the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating
the other.
The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the
thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and
this is a form of consolation open to everyone. But what an awful fate this
means for mankind as a whole!
We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the
butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey. So it is that
in our good days we are all unconscious of the evil Fate may have presently
in store for us—sickness, poverty, mutilation, loss of sight or reason….
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children
in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and
eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know
what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when
children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but
to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means. Neverthe-
less, every man desires to reach old age; in other words, a state of life of
which it may be said: “It is bad to-day, and it will be worse to-morrow; and
so on till the worst of all” . . .
If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are
old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have
at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life
as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time
when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of

Arthur Schopenhauer. Studies in Pessimism. Trans. Thomas Bailey Saunders. London:


Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1893.
Suffering 35

dawn, promised so much—and then performed so little. This feeling will so


completely predominate over every other that they will not even consider
it necessary to give it words; but on either side it will be silently assumed,
and form the ground-work of all they have to talk about. . . .
If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone,
would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so
much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of ex-
istence? or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon
it in cold blood.
I shall be told, I suppose, that my philosophy is comfortless—because
I speak the truth; and people prefer to be assured that everything the Lord
has made is good. Go to the priests, then, and leave philosophers in peace!
At any rate, do not ask us to accommodate our doctrines to the lessons you
have been taught. That is what those rascals of sham philosophers will do
for you. Ask them for any doctrine you please, and you will get it. Your
University professors are bound to preach optimism; and it is an easy and
agreeable task to upset their theories.

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