PHILOSOPHY
The World’s Greatest Pessimist
The ‘wilfully’ pessimistic Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur hated people. Arthur hated crowds. Arthur hated life. To Arthur, life was ‘a constantly prevented dying’, much the same way that walking was ‘a constantly prevented falling’.
It’s difficult to say what was the breaking point in Arthur’s relationship with life. It could’ve been his unconventional look. A man whose crazed mop of hair was equal to his objectionable personality.
Arthur hated many things in life. He despised women almost as much as he despised the Jews. This man was no fun at parties. There would be no frolicking on the beaches while Arthur was around.
Arthur’s greatest claim was his masterwork. A response to fellow philosopher Kant. Most great philosophies stem from a response to other philosophies. And so it came to pass that ‘The World As Will And Representation’ was Arthur’s big moment. A running commentary on the theories proposed by Kant.
Arthur coined the phrase ‘A Will To Live’ in describing his response to Kant. His retort was that we can sense within our every mental action the workings of our will and that it’s a constant struggle to survive and reproduce. The will to live, the will that drives us, was making us all very unhappy. Arthur…
