PHI 1000C Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Arthur Schopenhauer, Pessimism

• School: St. John's University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1000C
• Professor: Robert Grimwade

Document Summary

Fourth book: the world as will: second aspect. Human life is a perpetual struggle against death which is doomed to failure. We strive to preserve ourselves and to live as long as possible, while knowing that life is a fragile state and death is certain. As emanations of the will, we restlessly strive to escape from suffering, but this endeavor is doomed, for life itself is characterized by this ceaseless striving that generates suffering. The pain, suffering, and misery of existence is due to the nature of the will itself. The will is an infinite aimless striving which expresses itself in each and every one of its phenomenal manifestations. When we are not striving and struggling to survive, we become restless, aimless, bored, and this is yet another form of painful frustration. All of our intellectual and artistic pursuits are attempts to ward off the restless pain of boredom.