Schopenhauer: The Philosopher Who Knew Life’s Pain

When Arthur Schopenhauer was walking his poodle, he looked at the world with sadness. He saw humans and animals struggling to survive in a world they never chose to be in. And from the day they were born, the suffering only worsened as they contracted diseases, heartbreak, betrayal, old age, and death.

When he saw a bird feasting on a worm, he imagined that the experience of being eaten is far more painful than the act of eating is joyful, which only confirmed his observation that life’s pain vastly outweighs life’s pleasures. Contemplating the vast amount of misery and suffering in this world, Schopenhauer concluded that it would be better if the Earth were lifeless, in a crystalline state like the Moon. Schopenhauer was aware of the inherent suffering that comes with life, which many consider a valid viewpoint.

He didn’t deny that his philosophy is “comfortless,” as he didn’t seek to sugarcoat anything and explain life as it is: marked by constant dissatisfaction, with fleeting moments of pleasure ultimately outweighed by the overall pain and frustration of existence. The amount of suffering is vast, so observed Schopenhauer. Life is a constant striving, a relentless pursuit of desires and needs that keep appearing.

So it’s no surprise that people label this philosopher ‘pessimistic’ and ‘dark. ’ But his observations aren’t unfounded. Schopenhauer based his beliefs on profound views and examinations of the nature of reality, particularly an all-encompassing force that lies at the basis of our suffering, which he called the Will, also known as the Will-to-Live.

During his solitary life, Schopenhauer wrote extensively and produced works that have stood the test of time and inspired later thinkers such as Nietzsche and Freud. His writings seem to appeal to many – not because they’re positive and uplifting but, most likely, because they unveil certain realities of life that most people are eager to sweep under the carpet. This video explores Arthur Schopenhauer and his philosophy, briefly showing who he was, what his philosophy entails, and why, according to him, life sucks.

Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher who lived from 1788 to 1860, grew up in a wealthy family of merchants. He was born in the city of Danzig, which was back then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Nowadays, it’s a city in Poland known as Gdansk.

He lost his father at a young age, and his relationship with his mother, Johanna, was complex. Johanna Schopenhauer was a domineering and overbearing figure in Arthur’s life and often criticized and belittled him. As she valued societal status, image, and social connections, she wanted her son to pursue a career in commerce, which wasn’t quite compatible with Arthur’s intellectual interests and introspective personality.

Philosophically, Schopenhauer was interested in a broad range of subjects. He admired Eastern philosophies like those found in Buddhism and Hinduism, particularly the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Theravada Buddhist scriptures. His interest in and appreciation for Eastern philosophy was uncommon at that time.

The ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza influenced him as well. During his studies at the University of Göttingen and later at the University of Berlin, he became familiar with the works of Kant, which had a significant impact on his thinking. “The World as Will and Representation” (Die Welt as Wille und Vorstellung), Schopenhauer’s greatest work, was published in 1818.

It served as the foundation of his philosophical system, in which he proposed that reality is fundamentally guided by an irrational and blind force he named the “Will,” which drives all beings to pursue and meet their needs relentlessly. He said, however, that this never-ending desire, represented by the human will, inevitably results in pain and unhappiness. As a result of Schopenhauer’s unique manner and pessimistic outlook on the world, which didn’t quite jive with the philosophical trends at that time, his philosophy did not receive much attention during his lifetime.

But many well-known intellectuals, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Leo Tolstoy, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein, would subsequently be influenced by his ideas. Schopenhauer’s other notable works include “Essays and Aphorisms” (also known as Parerga und Paralipomena), which is a vast collection of essays that explain various topics in an accessible manner, from which the compilations “Studies in Pessimism” and “The Wisdom of Life” are derived. And then there’s “The Art of Being Right,” in which Schopenhauer explores several methods for winning a debate.

Other works are: “On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason,” “On Vision and Colors,” “On the Will in Nature,” “On the Freedom of the Will,” and “On the Basis of Morality,” the latter delving into ethics and moral philosophy. Schopenhauer’s work continues to be studied and debated today. When contemplating the nature of existence, studying Eastern philosophy, particularly Hindu and Buddhist thought, Schopenhauer wondered what force lies behind the phenomena of the universe.

What drives a stone to be a stone, a mountain to be a mountain, a star to be a star? What causes a human to exist, and what lies at the basis of his endless striving and desires? His close examinations led to Schopenhauer’s idea of the Will-to-Live: an irrational, unconscious, but mighty force.

The Will-to-Live, or Wille zum Leben, or just Will, has a crucial position in Schopenhauer’s philosophical system. To understand Schopenhauer’s pessimistic outlook on life, we must be familiar with the concept of the Will. The Will permeates all aspects of existence, from objects to plants to animals and human beings.

Even the presence of a stone, for example, underlies the Will as it ‘wills’ the stone to be a stone. Similarly, the Will compels animals and humans to come into existence and behave as they do. The Will is not something we can control or reason with, as it’s an irrational force that operates autonomously.

We cannot “will” ourselves to do something, meaning we cannot control our innate driving force. The Will causes not just the human desire for survival but also our desire to procreate, our aim for status and prestige, and our ambitions. It’s the drive for self-preservation but also for improving our circumstances in the future.

We’re mostly unaware of this force pushing us behind the scenes. Even though we could rationally explain the desire or necessity for pregnancy, for example, overwhelmingly, the Will-to-live causes the urge. Animals, for instance, procreate without any rationale to support their decision; they just seem to have a natural irrational inclination to propagate.

From the viewpoint of Schopenhauer, human behavior testifies to our collective utter enslavement to this irrational force, as most of us do nothing but follow its lead. The Will-to-Live is the main reason why life sucks, according to Schopenhauer. We’ll explore the reason why later in this essay.

According to Schopenhauer, the Will and the intellect are two different things, operating separately. I quote: The fundamental truth of my doctrine, which places that doctrine in opposition with all others that have ever existed, is the complete separation between the will and the intellect, which all philosophers before me had looked upon as inseparable; or rather, I ought to say that they had regarded the will as conditioned by, nay, mostly even as a mere function of, the intellect, assumed by them to be the fundamental substance of our spiritual being. When we look at the world around us, what do we see?

Do we see the actual “things in themselves” or just representations of them? Schopenhauer believed that the objects we see are perceptual constructs our cognitive faculties produce. Our senses, intellect, and individual knowledge shape our perceptions of the world.

We all see the world in different ways. The reality as it truly is, Schopenhauer called the “noumenal world,” as opposed to the “phenomenal world,” which represents the world as we see it. The noumenal is not accessible to us, as the human capacity for perception limits itself to the phenomenal realm.

So, simply put, we cannot see reality as it is, only our mental constructs of it; we can only understand the world and engage with it through the prism of our representations, which consist of things like concepts, categories, and other mental structures that shape our understanding of reality, but also restrict us from seeing reality as it is. Schopenhauer believed that the Will-to-Live we previously discussed lies at the basis of our representations. The Will plays a significant part in how we interpret and perceive the universe because it’s the driving force behind our lives and filters our perceptions based on it.

Our inherent wants and needs directly impact how we perceive the world. The real world is a pure expression of Will, which remains hidden from our direct perception. It’s like the lines of code in the Matrix, which lie at the basis of all activity but cannot be seen by anyone trapped in it, as everyone’s perception is limited to what the system allows them to see.

As a result, we cannot see the Will. We can only see its effects in the phenomenal world. And, as observed by Schopenhauer, these effects are absolutely dreadful.

If you try to imagine, as nearly as you can, what an amount of misery, pain and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its course, you will admit that it would be much better if, on the earth as little as on the moon, the sun were able to call forth the phenomena of life; and if, here as there, the surface were still in a crystalline state. End quote. Schopenhauer saw life as inherently dissatisfactory, characterized by an unavoidable presence of suffering.

As helpless subjects of the almightly Will, our human nature torments us with endless desires and ongoing dissatisfaction. According to Schopenhauer, the pain of life far outweighs our pleasures, as its intensity is much more profound and its presence persistent. In his work ‘Studies in Pessimism,’ the German philosopher lucidly describes why and how living beings are perpetually plagued by suffering.

According to him, human existence characterizes itself by inherent discontent, and no one escapes the never-ending struggle with the irrational forces within themselves and the ongoing adversity around them. The presence of the Will makes us insatiable, driven by wants and needs, and constantly yearning for more. After we satisfy one desire, another appears.

It’s never enough. As soon as we buy our dream house, we want that dream car, then a new kitchen, then that dream vacation; then we want to sell the house and buy another dream house. And thus, the pursuit of satisfaction becomes endless, fluctuating between longing and disappointment, with no lasting cessation of discontent.

Schopenhauer held that our fleeting moments of pleasure pale compared to the misery and suffering we experience throughout life. Interestingly, he argued that, contrary to what we’d believe, ‘pleasure’ is a negative experience while ‘pain’ is a positive experience. I have reminded the reader that every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.

End quote. So, the ‘positive’ pain is much more prevalent than the ‘negative’ experiences that are, in essence, the cessation of that positive pain. While pleasure is transient and frequently superficial, pain is far more intense and leaves a lasting impression on our psyche; it’s a forceful and indisputable feeling that presses itself onto us with immense force.

The example in the introduction of this video shows how, from Schopenhauer’s viewpoint, the intensity of ‘pain’ vastly outweighs ‘pleasure’ in life. The fleeting enjoyment of eating doesn’t even come close to the excruciating pain of being eaten. Similarly, the pain of a breakup is much worse than the overall joy of the relationship.

Just look at how most romantic relationships evolve. They start with a burst of euphoria immediately overshadowed by despair from the fear of losing someone we’re infatuated with. Then, when the honeymoon period subsides, the excitement and infatuation die down, succeeded by discontent, disappointment, and boredom.

And when the relationship ends, the pain is unbearable and often long-lasting, making us contemplate why we even chose to engage in this self-torture called romantic love. But here’s where the Will deludes us, as it lets us imagine the things we desire as much more pleasurable than they are and the pains as much less painful. The reason why life sucks isn’t just because life’s pain is more painful than its pleasure is pleasurable, according to Schopenhauer.

It’s also because, in his observation, the forms of suffering that afflict humanity are countless. A typical human being suffers physical ailments, heartbreak, loss, betrayal, and, of course, the relentless march of time leading to old age and death. Schopenhauer compared the experience of youth to the anticipation of a theater performance.

We’re sitting there with high hopes, excited about what’s to come, blessed by not knowing what will happen. We only realize how our youthful optimism deceived us later in life. He wrote: If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much—and then performed so little.

The sufferings of the world weren’t just a mere observation for Schopenhauer. He was also interested in solutions to alleviate the pain of existence. One of his key proposals is asceticism, a path of sense restraint and renunciation of external pleasures, in other words: the denial of the Will.

However, Schopenhauer acknowledged that asceticism may not be suitable for everyone. So, he looked for a more realistic approach for the average human. And so, to make life more bearable, Schopenhauer suggested pragmatically setting up our lives in ways that minimize pain as much as possible.

He emphasized that the way we feel matters more than, for example, status and fame. And we’re better off choosing simple pleasures that are easy to satisfy instead of aiming for pleasures that are difficult to attain and of which the attainment comes with a high price. In particular, Schopenhauer saw intellectual pleasures as a wise choice, as they’re relatively cheap and still accessible in old age.

We also shouldn’t care about the opinions of others. Trying to be respected and liked by others means that we constantly endeavor in ways that are out of proportion to what we try to attain. Schopenhauer stated that, and I quote: In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score; it is the anxiety which is at the bottom of all that feeling of self-importance, which is so often mortified because it is so very morbidly sensitive.

End quote. Another thing we should prioritize, so believed Schopenhauer is our health, as it greatly decides how we feel. Therefore, health is more valuable than fame or wealth, as a healthy poor person is probably happier than a sick, rich person.

So, we must be smart about our choices and closely examine whether they’ll reduce or increase our suffering. But aside from these solutions, life, according to Schopenhauer, remains overall dreadful, as its sufferings vastly eclipse its pleasures. Life sucks, and so it may be said: “It is bad to-day, and it will be worse to-morrow; and so on till the worst of all.