Schopenhauer In-Depth: The Total Denial of the World by the Greatest Pessimist of Philosophy

Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the most infamous philosophers of all time for his reputation of rejecting the value of life and the world. He was also one of the greatest influences on Friedrich Nietzsche. But Schopenhauer's great work, The World as Will and Representation, is a complex work with a sophisticated epistemology that but a few dare delve into.

In these two talks combined into a single video, we discuss Schopenhauer's life, Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche, the centrality of Plato and Kant to Schopenhauer's metaphysics, the twin frameworks of the world as will and the world as representation, the aesthetic means of becoming a will-less subject of knowing, the idea of genius, the indestructibility of being, happiness as a negative principle, and negating the will-to-live as a means of liberation from suffering. Through this three hour lecture, learn the reasoning behind using will-less contemplation of perception to render this very real world of ours, with all its planets, stars and galaxies, into absolute nothingness!

Taken from episodes 18 & 19 of The Nietzsche Podcast.

#schopenhauer #nietzsche #pessimism #philosophy #buddhism

[Pylypczak]

Idk- my father had a degree in Philosophy and drank himself to death at 51, although successful. My ex husband had a Philosophy degree and drank himself to death after retiring from civil service age 65. My brother had a masters, nearly finished a PhD in Philosophy, (Harpur College as it was known then) and drank himself to death at 64 after leaving the PhD program and starting a construction company. Just weird facts. Dont think to hard y’all or drink too hard haha. Im a retired RN who got sober 40 years ago. Dont know how I landed on this channel …Good luck everybody

[Vlad-fpwj]

A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.

[diegomesa]

I just can't see how Schopenhauer is a pessimist after reading The World as Will and Representation. Honestly.

[dochmbi]

Here's something really interesting. I'm currently staking my life on Schopenhauer being correct. I'm involved in a project where I'm giving my life away to the saxophone. I'm literally living a life of pure discipline. No worldly desire, only hard work, alone.

So I have to believe Schopenhauer is right as long as I keep playing saxophone

[longcastle]

Good lecture. Good speaking voice as well. And thanks for not ruining it by putting music over the lecture as many often do

[huntercohen]

80 thalers was actually a very substantial sum of money in the German States in the 19th century. A Thaler Was a very large Silver coin weighing well over an ounce of silver, usually around 30 grams and usually over 40 millimeters in diameter, with some variance from state to state as Germany was not unified at this point and was a loose decentralized confederation of territories. This amount of silver that made up one thaler had a high amount of purchasing power and the average yearly wage for a Laborer in most German territories was about 30 thalers as an annual salary, so you could imagine that 80 thalers would be a fairly substantial amount of money in Hamburg or Frankfort in the 1800s. This is actually something that I am pretty well versed in, as I am a Numismatist and an avid l collector of German States coins and I have several thalers in my collection dating back to the 1500s. Another interesting fact is that the English word "Dollar" actually comes from the Germanic word "thaler" which is it's entomological root word

[LLS]

This narrator is so casually intellectually gifted that it makes me want to chuckle. He's the kind of guy who could talk about Anything but is so gifted that I'd go along for the ride, even if it was just to Walmart.

[mykura]

First so comprehensive lecture about Schopenhauer on youtube.

[bibliofitness]

So grateful for this podcast. Has helped so much in my own readings of Nietzsche. Keep up the great work my fellow metal head 🔥

[patrickirwin]

Extremely high quality exposition and commentary.

[ernestoridiculo]

Ad 2:09:10: "The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence." (A. Schopenhauer)

[eddiebeato]

A blissful, absolutely brilliant elucidation of A. Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Congratulations to the narrator! You have done an admirable job!!!

I listened to the entire lecture, and I have to say that the narrator’s soothing voice is alike therapeutic and uplifting. Even Schopenhauer’s beautiful although dour existentialistic outlook, his incurable pessimism, could be said to be very uplifting and it is due to his marvelous philosophic mind, whose amazing puissance to soar into the essence of things, the will-to-exist, noumena, the thing in itself, is even more enthralling by all the incidental occurrences, conflicts, struggles, of life and death, as checked by our conscious self-willed existence.

In Schopenhauer’s metaphysics and this awful world of the will-to-exist, however tragic in countless contests, we are blissfully carried away into a riveting contemplation of all the phenomena of Mother Nature.

In my room I have a painting of a penitent nun (India Anacaona) whose countenance conveys the reality of a world of sorrows, sufferings and the wheel of samsara, which reminds me Schopenhauer’s asceticism. I also I have a copy of the Abduction of Psyche by the French artist William A. Bouguerrau, whose celebration of life through the uplifting powers of aesthetics, an orgasmic flight, reminds me of F. Nietzsche!

However betwixt Nietzsche and Schopenhauer’s gloomy philosophy, the latter is extremely additive, and though we may reluctantly abhor a world so rife with sufferings, conflicts, decadence, aging, illnesses, disappointments and even meaningless, some may escape this monster-will through the path of asceticism, mysticism and aesthetics.

F. Nietzsche’s solution to the problems of existence, I may argue, is in stark contrast to Schopenhauer’s mysticism, and till this day I am still struggling to set myself free from the barbaric intoxication of these Germans…

Finally, I would like to say that Schopenhauer’s will to exist is solely confined to the purview of our known world, namely, the planet Earth.

If this will-to-exist is so encompassing, so universal, so-far-reaching, even beyond the earthly shores of our little solar system, why is this intelligent life (human beings) so rare a phenomenon?

In the long stretches of cosmic time, this will-to-exist has only be able to create a bunch of intelligent, odious, bipedal critters (humans or Homo Sapiens, which are incurably tribalistic, racist and primitive), whose greed and stupidity could finally bring a nuclear disaster on the surface of the Earth.

Bravo! This is the best world of all possible worlds…thanks to those extraterrestrials, whose cool standoffishness is simply suggestive of a world of absurdity, meaninglessness and nihilism.

[Ekoorbe]

Great lecture! Thanks for taking the time to record and upload this

[invictusmaneo]

Takhle společnost si rada a velmi casto zaměňuje realismus a pesimismus...

To, ze nekdo rika pravdu a vam se to nelibi, z neho nedělá pesimistu...

Jako s tou blondýnečkou tedka v autě...

[shapethechaos]

One of the best videos on Schopenhauer, the man was a genius. Well presented.

[garrycraigpowell]

Wonderful. I've read The World as Will & Representation twice, and have never heard such a clear, concise and deep introduction to Schopenhauer as this. I used to be Schopenhauerian myself but am much more of a Nietzschean now - perhaps for reasons of temperament rather than intellect! Incidentally, I agree with you that art shouldn't be purely contemplative and Apollonian. We need the Dionysian too. I think the greatest art of all is usually a marriage of the two. Consider Dostoyevsky, Keats, Beethoven, Django Reinhardt, Turner, or Botticelli.

[allenandrews]

I'm stoked that this channel has so many listeners. And the comment section is huge !!!! Awesome.

[DRandyC]

This is a brilliant podcast. I most definitely will be reading Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.. Didn't realise Schoppenhauer's metaphysics and epistemology was such a profound and brilliant continuation of Kant's (my favorite philosopher) undertaking and approach.. Thank you so much for this.

[jonhamm]

Brilliant lecture. Intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful & kept me locked in

[kenkeyes]

Schopenhauer was not a pessimist, he was a refreshing life-positive realist.