​
​​​​​
INSPIRATIONS AND INFLUENCERS (True Influencers, not the social media talentless attention seekers)
​
Arthur Schopenhauer
​
This month’s influencer is the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer whose pessimistic philosophy was among the first in the Western tradition to share and affirm significant tenets of ancient Indian philosophy, such as asceticism, denial of the self, and the notion of the world-as-appearance.
As a student of philosophy Schopenhauer read Plato, Aristotle and Kant, as any student of philosophy would, but in 1814 he read the Latin translation of the Upanishads, a collection of sacred Hindu texts that were largely unknown in Europe and form the philosophical core of the Vedas (composed between 800 and 500 BC), they are known as Vedanta (the end of the Vedas) and explore concepts like Brahman (ultimate reality), and Atman (the self). He wrote that “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death” and called them “the production of the highest human wisdom".
Shopenhauer’s magnum opus is Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (1818), usually translated as either The World as Will and Representation, or The World as Will and Idea. His philosophy posits that the universe is driven by a metaphysical force that he termed “Wille zum leben” (will to life) that all living creatures are subject to and is the source of suffering and struggle in life, but for humans it is far worse because of our greater self awareness.
Arthur Schopenhauer was born on 22 February 1788 the son of a wealthy merchant, his father died when he was Arthur was 17 years old and left his son a large inheritance which allowed him to live independently and devote himself to philosophy.
This was fortunate because Schopenhauer’s work was largely unappreciated until the last decade of his life, European philosophy was then dominated by the Idealism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel which Schopenhauer called "senseless sham wisdom" and "mind-destroying", and he regarded Hegel as a “flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan”.
Recognition did not arrive until the 1850s by which time Schopenhauer was in his sixties, and he died peacefully in 1860 at the age of 72 in Frankfurt am Main.
Although Schopenhauer believed that life was unrelentingly awful, he did offer a few methods of coping with it. Have low expectations, especially for wealth or status, and focus on avoiding pain and misfortune. Cultivate your mind and personality, as these are the only things fully within your control and not subject to external misfortune. Accept misfortunes as an inevitable part of existence and learn from them. Avoid other people as they cause stress and unhappiness. Limit desires as they are illusory and pursuit leads to boredom and frustration. Stay healthy both mentally and physically.
I will end with this quotation from Schopenhauer:
“There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy... So long as we persist in this inborn error... the world seems to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in things great and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence... hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of what is called disappointment.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer