The Dark Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German Philosopher known for his deep philosophical reflections.

For Schopenhauer, the underlying force of reality is the Will (also called will to live or will to life), which is the essence of existence. It is an unconscious and blind desire that restlessly strives for more activity. The will is the tornado that swirls inside of us and throws us from one place to the other, it is the source of our insatiable appetite that results in strife and misery.

But if the world is will, it must be a world of suffering. Each individual bears within himself a disruptive contradiction; the realised desire develops a new desire, and so on endlessly. For Schopenhauer, life is evil because pain is its basic stimulus and reality. Pleasure is merely a negative cessation of pain.

As soon as suffering ceases, we are overcome by boredom, in other words, more suffering. Boredom is nothing other than the sensation of the emptiness of existence.

Schopenhauer’s writing is far from the sterile and academic German of the time, his work is straight-forward, colloquial, concrete, full of metaphors and anecdotes. His philosophy sent him on a quest for tranquility and peace of mind. He offers as alternatives the denial of the will, the wisdom of life through philosophy, aesthetics and ethics.

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📚 Recommended Reading

▶ The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1
▶ The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 2
▶ Parerga and Paralipomena (Essays and Aphorisms)
▶ The Wisdom of Life
▶ On the Suffering of the World

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🎶 Music used

1. Mysterious Ambient Background Music – The Rake – CO.AG Music
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5. Anguish – Kevin MacLeod
6. Aftermath – Kevin Macleod
7. You've Seen The Butcher [Just Background Music] - Dane Gerous Schmidt & Arianna Tysinger

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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📝 Sources

- The World as Will and Representation – Arthur Schopenhauer
- Parerga and Paralipomena – Arthur Schopenhauer
- Durant, W. (1961). Story of philosophy. Simon and Schuster.
- Magee, B. (1997). The philosophy of Schopenhauer.
- Schopenhauer - BBC In Our Time Podcast
- The Germans: Schopenhauer by Wes Cecil
- Nietzsche and Schopenhauer's Pessimism – Lecture

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction: Arthur Schopenhauer
(7:47) The World as Will and Representation
(15:07) The Will to Reproduce
(16:36) The World as Evil
(22:52) The Denial of the Will
(25:11) Philosophy: The Wisdom of Life
(27:32) Aesthetics
(30:45) Ethics

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Thanks for watching!

#schopenhauer #willtolive

[Eternalised]

*"Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and ennui."* — Schopenhauer


Thanks a lot to my Patrons:
Jay B, Evangelos Barakos, Lynne Benson, Ryon Brashear, Jeanette, Mr X, Spirit Gun, Ramunas Cepaitis, Justin Raper

[Sylentmana]

Nothing will make you a pessimist faster than interacting with the legal system.

[PJ-nsum]

"Life is a miserable thing. I have decided to spend mine thinking about it."

-Schopenhauer

[PJ-nsum]

"To marry is to halve one's rights, and double one's duties."

-schopenhauer

[arielconstante]

My favorite philosopher, even not agreeing with many of his ideas. He had a very raw vision into pessimistic views, but very realistic by his time standards. Many of his views are still present in our relationships and society. I love his criticism of the academics of his time.

[PJ-nsum]

"Since love is a deception practiced by nature,
marriage is the attrition of love and therefore must be disillusioning.
Only a philosopher could be happy in marriage, and philosophers do not marry."
-schopenhauer

[tarhunta]

It's not "dark" philosophy it's honest and true philosophy.

[dolphineachonga]

I read his book once and got too depressed about life after. So avoided reading any of his works. Perhaps dismissed him too quickly. From your perspective, I've actually found a sense of hope there. I think I'll dust the old books and read them again. Thanks for all your hard work. I love the simple way in which you tackle these philosophers.

[providence]

1:40 the importance of being polyglot for social scientist.
11:00 The definition of will by Schooenhaur
15:07 The most evil will of reproduction
25:10 The importance of thinking your self
28:30 The importance of any kids of art.
30:43 The importance of being altruistic.

[WeltgeistYT]

A good introduction to one of the most profound thinkers ever. The World as Will and Representation changed my life, as it has changed many others.

[StudioHighway]

In 1969, when I was 18 years old, I came across a book in German: "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung". Though I couldn't wrap my mind around it yet, this voice really got through to me. Schopenhauer's perception of life awakened my intellect and self-awareness up to a point, that not only I learned how to think for myself properly, but also how to put it into words. Language and ideas appeared as being closely connected and interconnected. Through their interactions they procreate and bear fruit. The highest value within the human realm is compassion. The capacity to take the suffering of other humans (and all living beings eventually) at heart. And goodnes is the will to act upon it and reach out. The greatest disaster in our existence would be losing our humanity. Love only can be perfect between imperfect people. At the end of his life, Schopenhauer came to a stunning conclusion: goodness of heart is the greatest, most valuable treasure, it surpasses everything else, even genius! Worshipping intellect leads to self-depravation. Unselfish love and unbiased observation: the pillars of human existence!

[thomaslodger]

A fantastic video on Schopenhauer. However, this is still an introduction to him and his entire work. I honestly cannot imagine a more fitting introductory video on Schopenhauer; he is one of (if not) my favorite philosopher. To all the people who watch this video and are interested, please delve deeper into Schopenhauer. Nietzsche nearly worshipped him until he realized that there should be no idols. Look into this mans beautiful thoughts and make sure you understand him. Eternalised, you did an amazing job (as always, your videos are so good; I don't think you can impress me more than you already have) and I hope that you make some videos on him in the future (whether it be near or far).

[PJ-nsum]

"Where as history teaches us that at each time something different has been,
philosophy endeavors to assist us to the insight that at all times exactly the same
was, is and will be."
-schopenhauer

[PJ-nsum]

And fulfillment never satisfies.
Nothing is so fatal to an ideal as its realisation.

-schopenhauer

[malcador]

My favorite philosopher. I discovered his work through True Detective season 1. This whole arm of philosophy is the only thing that really helps me feel understood. It's really difficult to have conversations with "regular people" about such taboo ideas. But, it's the truth, and it can't be unseen.

[jakekrupicki]

I love how Arthur Schopenhauer wanted to learn deeply about many different subjects, I feel like it was that which gave him the ability to be so simply direct yet to make such informative analogies to explain his ideas.

[ikdeikke]

I really resonate with this, I agree with a lot of the things he said. life is really rough and I understand people that just want to move on and stop existing. They just cant handle it any more. Im sure anyone that has had some extremely rough times has thought about it plenty of times, like myself. But its still very sad when people leave us. But I can totally understand why.

[mushroommagic]

I really love Schopenhauer, he has a very living and interesting writing style.

[PaleRiderTCG]

My all-time favourite thinker. World As Will And Representation absolutely changed my life.

[Philo-Vids]

We all have experienced those sour moments of pessimism and fatalism, but to endure the flagellations of pain, despair, boredom, depression and one thousand of other evils, would require some self-imposed discipline, sturdiness, mental fortitude, and best of all, a passion for some healthy activity distracting our mind from the awful specters of existence.