PHIL 180 Lecture 14: Shopeanhauer on Nihilism
Document Summary
Shope(cid:374)hauer"s philosophi(cid:272)al i(cid:374)sights are ge(cid:374)erally u(cid:374)derrated (cid:271)y philosophers, (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h is i(cid:374) large part due to their supposed pessimism. They should be considered as a clarion call to look at life more realistically and improve it. Seen thus, his philosophy is not so pessimistic after all. Schopenhauer is correct that suffering is real; philosophers who think it merely a privation of good are deceiving themselves. If we bring pain or evil to an end we experience happiness surely this suggests that suffering is real. There is also something intuitive about the idea that the pleasure we look forward to often disappoints, whereas pain is often unendurable. I(cid:374) s(cid:272)hope(cid:374)hauer"s graphi(cid:272) i(cid:373)age the pleasure of eati(cid:374)g does not compare with the horror of being eaten. However, this comparison is unfair, since we eat many times and can only be eaten once naturally eating a single time cannot compare in pleasure to the terror of being eaten.
