Life Is Suffering

Pessimism and the Quest for Peace

Arthur Schopenhauer by J. Schäfer, 1859 (Wikimedia Commons | )

Pessimism is a philosophical worldview developed in the 19th century predominantly and most importantly by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Pessimism holds that suffering is intrinsic to life, and advocates ascetic renunciation in response to life’s adversities, directed at following an upright, ethical lifestyle and cultivating understanding as an important tool for cognizing and dealing with the hardships and myriad occasions inherent in life.

Schopenhauer’s philosophy was broadly influenced by the metaphysics and ethics of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, as well as by the philosophers Plato and Kant. The principal mature formulation of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, The World as Will and Representation, retains much stylistically of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant — including the use of abstract terms such as a priori and a posteriori, subject and object, pure and empirical — but he turns these to the service of forming his own worldview. The World as Will and Representation stands on its own as a major and foundational philosophical text. The ethical doctrines of Buddhism and Christianity are particularly reflected in the Pessimistic ethics of Schopenhauer.

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion founded in India around the 5th century BCE by an Indian…