Jokes from the Most Pessimistic Philosopher - Schopenhauer

Try Brilliant's tutor for free: https://brilliant.org/Weltgeist/ . You’ll also get 20% off an annual Premium subscription.Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYT▶ Follow us on X for updates: https://x.com/WeltgeistYTTIMESTAMPS:00:00 Introduction02:19 The Underworld17:11 The Surface34:15 The HeightsOUR ANALYSES: ▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_INietzsche was a professor of Greek and intimately familiar with both Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad. He admired the Greeks for their way of life, their culture, and specifically how they justified life as an aesthetic phenomenon, through art.In particular he was fond of using Odysseus as an exemplar of this Greek ideal. Wily, cunning Odysseus, throughout the Odyssey, brushes with darkness but is never consumed by it. He escapes from the cave of the Cyclops, he visits the Underworld but never quite enters it (he takes what needs from Tiresias, converses with Achilles, and leaves), he manages to hear the Siren’s Song without being bewitched by it, he enjoys his time with Circe and Calypso but never loses sight of his ultimate goal: Ithaca. Odysseus sticks bravely to the surface, he doesn’t fall into the trap of the “introspective present”; he always pushes onwards.For Nietzsche, Odysseus represented the best of mankind. A joyful affirmation of life in spite of its sufferings, which are many. In particular Nietzsche singles out his conversation with Achilles in Hades, where Achilles says he’d rather live as a poor farmer than “reign over the endless dead.” For Nietzsche, this was not Achilles showing regret, nor Odysseus flattering his audience of pacifists (the Phaeacians) but rather a Homeric song of praise for life. The Greeks were such staunch affirmers of life that even the lowest life possible is preferable to being dead. The Greeks, in this way, loved life in a way that is alien to us: they took the totality of existence, and in dreaming up their world of gods and myths, managed to say yes to it so much that even a miserable existence would make them happy.This video was sponsored by Brilliant. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUPPORT US ON PATREON:▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYTSchopenhauer on being alone and how to deal with society:▶ https://youtu.be/eSbaqqDfGxU▶ SCHOPENHAUER'S WORKS:Parerga and Paralipomena vol. 1: https://amzn.to/3pK6xCjParerga and Paralipomena vol. 2: https://amzn.to/3jJa2p0The World as Will and Representation vol. 1: https://amzn.to/3FPGkIjThe World as Will and Representation vol. 2: https://amzn.to/3FT0nFC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the most influential German philosophers. His philosophy of the Will has influenced thinkers and scientists such as Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and even Albert Einstein. In many ways, Schopenhauer will also anticipate existentialism. In this video, the first in a series on the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, we take a deep dive into the first part of Schopenhauer's magnum opus: The World as Will and Representation. We look at Schopenhauer's metaphysical system, his indebtedness to Immanuel Kant, and his philosophy of the Will. In subsequent videos we'll discuss Schopenhauer's ethics and aesthetics. If you want to be notified when these are uploaded, please subscribe to the channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The World as Will and Representation, masterpiece of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, doubles as a great introduction to the Stoic philosophy. Both in volume I and in volume II, we are treated to a fair summary of the entire philosophical movement of Stoicism with plenty of (untranslated Latin and Greek) quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and other notable Stoics. Schopenhauer admired the rationality of Stoicism, but ultimately had to discard the system because of one fatal flaw which we'll cover in this video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s talk about money. Money and property are the subject of the third chapter in Schopenhauer’s manual for the good life, Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life. As we saw in the previous part in this series, Schopenhauer makes it clear that money, by itself, is not enough to make someone happy. True happiness can only come from within, by having good health and developing your intellect and your talents. However, there’s an obvious point to be made here: in order to develop your talents, or enjoy art, or read philosophy, you need free time. And in order to have free time, you need money.Money, for Schopenhauer, is simply the means with which you buy time. Money, by itself, is never the goal. But Schopenhauer isn’t a dreamer either. He won’t tell you that you can be happy as a starving artist, living on the street, so long as you’re chasing your passion.If you’re lucky, you are born into a wealthy family. If you’re like most of us, you’re not so lucky, and you need to work to earn money.But having to work for money is not the biggest obstacle to a happy life. The real problem, is greed.“Riches, one may say, are like sea-water; the more you drink the thirstier you become…”In your quest for money and wealth, there is constant pressure on you to limit your desires. Money has a tendency to take hold of someone. People want more money than they need – it becomes an addiction. Before you know it, the money you earn is not simply your ticket to freedom. You want a big house, a fancy car, a huge pool. Champagne and oysters. The trick is to keep your desires low and your money high. If you allow yourself to get trapped into keeping up with the Joneses, your money becomes useless because you spend everything you make.The goal of money is to be free, not become a slave to your possessions or luxurious lifestyle.Again we find Schopenhauer in agreement with the Stoics, and the Greeks in general. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WATCH: SCHOPENHAUER Explained: The World as Will and Representation (ALL PARTS)https://youtu.be/f-djIdl8WO4Arthur Schopenhauer believed in magic. In an essay called "On the Will in Nature" Schopenhauer tells us, without a hint of irony, he believes in the magical abilities of some humans. How can such a smart and accomplished person fall for the act of a showman illusionist? This has puzzled readers for centuries. Yet, in Schopenhauer's system as explained in The World as Will and Representation, there is room for magic. This video aims to show exactly how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUPPORT US ON PATREON:▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYTWATCH:▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Socrates: https://youtu.be/DM78nStythg▶ Why Nietzsche Hated Plato: https://youtu.be/nEhNRuPh4AsOUR ANALYSES: ▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdAThucydides was an Athenian historian and general. He lived in the 5th century BC at a time when Sparta and Athens went to war. He wrote down an account of this war in the work entitled History of the Peloponnesian War. Not only is this work considered to be one of the first scholarly works of history, it also cemented Thucydides as the father of scientific history. The History is marked by an objective, detached, some may say cold, style. Thucydides wanted to differentiate himself from Herodotus, the other great historian of Antiquity, whom he accused of making up stories or embellishing his history. Thucydides wanted to be as objective as possible in his assessment and carefully selected sources and eyewitness accounts with a critical mindset. These elements might give an early hint as to why Nietzsche admired Thucydides. His praise for the Athenian historian is a consistent feature in his work, from Daybreak to Twilight of the Idols, written 7 years apart. Scholars have noted that throughout Nietzsche’s works, amid all the praise, not a single critical note is raised against him. In this video we’ll take a deeper look at this praise. We’ll go over Nietzsche’s assessment of Thucydides as it appears in Daybreak and Twilight of the Idols and analyse the relationship between the two through two famous passages in the History of the Peloponnesian War: the so-called Melian Dialogue and the funeral oration of Pericles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support us on Patreon, get access to exclusive videos:▶ https://www.patreon.com/WeltgeistYTOUR ANALYSES: ▶ Beyond Good and Evil: https://youtu.be/WIHXZUltfqk▶ The Antichrist: https://youtu.be/qej1Z8Qzq_c▶ Genealogy of Morals: https://youtu.be/6PUx4cOfFcI▶ Twilight of the Idols: https://youtu.be/YpVr_NEvWYA▶ The Will to Power: https://youtu.be/He6ZC7ZFBt8▶ Daybreak: https://youtu.be/cOL2z7nuXdA▶ The Joyful Science: https://youtu.be/U0fTBOJ-C_ITIMESTAMPS:00:00 Introduction00:49 The ascetic ideal04:18 Scientific victories07:26 Nihilism in science10:35 ChatGPTThis is an exploration of an idea in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals called the ascetic ideal. In short, Nietzsche finds this ideal behind every big aspect of human culture: art, philosophy, religion, and even science.The ascetic ideal is that which promotes a movement away from the material world, that which denies life and strips humanity of its uniqueness. The ascetic ideal is the precursor to nihilism.In the Genealogy, Nietzsche explores this concept as it rears its head in religion (Christianity), philosophy (Schopenhauer), art (Wagner), and science (Darwin, astronomy). ChatGPT and advancements in large language models and artificial intelligence, seem to fit the pattern of modern science whose trajectory Nietzsche criticizes in the Genealogy.Science took away our special place in the universe (Copernicus), our divine origin (Darwin) and now it threatens to take away our language (ChatGPT).Music:"Zombie Hoodoo" and "Ghost Dance" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may not realize it, but hidden in his collection of essays, Arthur Schopenhauer has worked out a more or less systematic philosophy of religion. This is the first part in a series of videos that will cover Schopenhauer’s unique outlook on religion. If you want to be notified when the other parts come out, please consider subscribing and clicking the bell button.Schopenhauer’s main gripe with religion is with the distinction they make between meaning in sensu proprio versus in sensu allegorico. “Sensu proprio” is the Latin term he uses which basically means “in a literal sense.” Sensu allegorico, of course, means “in an allegorical sense.” What happens with religion, is they present some kind of dogma, which might be true in an allegorical sense, but they have to pretend to mean it in a literal sense. Religion cannot pretend its main tenets are merely allegorical because doing so would mean to undermine their own credibility.In the second part, we will zoom in on Schopenhauer’s criticism and evaluation of Christianity and the theological problem of reconciling the Old with the New Testament. The main religious text in Christianity, the Bible, is composed of the Old and the New Testament. The problem is that Schopenhauer sees an optimistic worldview in the Old and a pessimistic worldview in the New Testament.It is pretty well-known that Schopenhauer greatly admired both Buddhism and Hinduism. It’s said he read the Upanishads every night before bed, and at the end of his life he even taught himself Sanskrit. Let’s take a closer look at his thought on these Eastern religions. Recall how in the previous parts we saw how Schopenhauer calls religions pessimistic or optimistic depending on how they interpret the nature of the material world. According to this classification, Judaism was optimistic while Christianity was pessimistic. Buddhism and Hinduism of course, are both pessimistic with regards to the material world. The Buddhistic acknowledgement that life is suffering, that earthly happiness cannot be found, the strict ascetic lifestyle of Buddhists and Brahmans, these factors are, in Schopenhauer’s lexicon, signs of a pessimistic religion: a religion that regards with contempt the material world and seeks to turn away from it through fasting, meditation, and abstinence. The question is, where does this pessimism come from? Ultimately, the pessimistic outlook must stem from an epistemic scepticism regarding the material world. What this means is that there must be a conviction that the material world is not the world of supreme importance, that something exists beyond mere matter, that the material world is an illusion. We see how Buddhism and Brahmanism (or Hinduism) are in fundamental agreement (even if there are some particular differences) with Schopenhauer’s metaphysical as well as moral teachings. While New Testament Christianity is certainly in agreement with Schopenhauer’s moral teachings, it is lacking on the metaphysical front. Buddhism and Hinduism, on the other hand, score well on both fronts. For this reason, Schopenhauer ranks the Eastern religions as the most perfect expressions of truth to be found in religion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter two in Schopenhauer’s practical handbook on the good life, Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, is entitled “What a man is.” While Schopenhauer admits that there are two other sources of happiness, namely in possessions and in reputation or fame, he argues that only in this category can you find lasting happiness. You might be surprised to hear that Schopenhauer, the famous pessimist, is such a proponent of a cheerful character. It’s even more important than intellect or physical health…Of course, you could say that a cheerful disposition is the result of happiness, not the cause of it. Not necessarily so for Schopenhauer. While we should always welcome a merry feeling when it arrives, “for [it] never comes inopportunely,” its arrival is ultimately largely out of our control. We should enjoy it when it’s here but learn to be content without it. We can make our lives better, however, if we work on the conditions that make it easier for cheer and joy to arrive on our doorstep. Schopenhauer gives us a quick list of recommendations, such as the need for daily exercise in the open air, cold baths, the avoidance of stress and negative emotions. Pain and boredom.The human experience is characterized by a constant struggle of avoiding both pain and boredom, but this is a fool’s errand, because, “in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two.”It’s obvious how we can win the battle against the first enemy, pain. This is an objective condition. Good health, and also enough money and property to live comfortably. Chances are, if you are watching this YouTube video, your problem, in Schopenhauer’s terms, is not pain, but boredom.Boredom is a subjective state of mind. Therefore, the cure for boredom is found within yourself. The cure for boredom is the development of the intellect – study!Nothing pleasures the mind so much as the contemplation of ideas. To the great mind, ideas never run out and so the pleasure gained from them is infinite. And because the pleasures of the intellect are subjective, even the most boring of objective circumstances, for example, waiting in line, become bearable for the intellectually gifted person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices