The Meaning of Life Based on Schopenhauer’s View

Schopenhauer哲学的基本思想是，所有的生物，人类和动植物都是由一个目的来推动生命的。然而，这将是盲目的，无用的，不合逻辑的和无方向性的。叔本华否认任何目的或意义的生活除了延续人类。在这方面，我不同意他的意见。人与动物和植物不同，其最终目的是为了生存。另一种方式来从意志的控制暂时逃离。这就是审美体验，我赞成这个观点。

The basic idea guiding Schopenhauer’s philosophy is that all creatures, human plants and animals are driven by one aim-the will to life. And yet this will is blind, useless, illogical, and directionless. “We see at once from the instinct and mechanical skill of animals that will is also active where it is not guided by any knowledge. The one-year-old bird has no notion of the eggs for which it build a nest; the young spider has no idea of the prey for which it spins a web; the anti-lion has no notion of the ant for which it digs a cavity for the first time. Even in us the same will in many ways acts blindly; as in all those functions of our body which are not guided by knowledge, in all its vital and vegetative processes, digestion, circulation, secretion, growth, and reproduction(114-15).” First, we need to understand what “will” means. According to Schopenhauer, it may also be interpreted as desire, demand, craving and urging. That is to say everything we do is driven by will, the will for power, for happiness, for pleasure and for fame. Schopenhauer believes human’s life is made up of numerous insatiable desires and happiness is only an sensational experience when the sense of satisfaction is temporarily removed from us. Life is about unceasing suffering from unfulfilled desires. The essence of pleasure is pain. Only the man who suffers can experience the sense of satisfaction. Since life is full of pain, is there any way out? Schopenhauer says one may abandon all desires, deny the will and pursue inner peace, just like the asceticism in Buddhism. This may sound a little bit pessimistic, however, it gives us some useful warnings that we do not deserve happiness instinctively, and life does not owe us the achievement of any goals. At least it tells us life isn’t always a good thing and it is not full of happiness. This view keeps us from blind optimism. As for the asceticism, I believe most of us cannot give up the lures in life. Instead the desire for a better life and society becomes the motive driving the development of the world, especially the thriving capitalism in western countries. Therefore life is not only about mere suffering but also happiness after that or even the progress of entire human history. Maybe that’s one meaning of suffering. Many people who are having relationship with others often complain how sad and painful they are, but if you ask them why they do not leave this man or woman since everything is so terrible. Then they fall into silence, hiding in an corner to taste the sweetness of relationship. In addition, if we cannot choose the occurrence of suffering, we can enjoy it through which we may get some surprise. We are told that happiness is good while suffering is bad. But we do not know many good qualities and morals come from suffering, like compassion, patience, and so on. I call this the philosophy of suffering. 

Based on the view of Schopenhauer, nothing in this world is real except the will. The time, space and causality are all phenomenal, through which the will represents. Each individual, or we say, each “I” is a makeup of a specific time and space. Death of one individual is just the annihilation of one me, which has no great significance over the world. Ironically, we can say there are many “me”s living for human so the purpose of continual of life has been achieved according to Schopenhauer. Yes, this idea may sound absolutely pessimistic while it is also a little bit reasonable for us that we can draw some lessons. It coincides with some of my thoughts. As we grow up , the dream to be the hero or some extraordinary man or woman one day may be broken. We finally know most of men live an ordinary life. We are no big man. Every day there are news of murders, killings and disasters and every day people dying. However, the world never stops moving for any of them. At that time, I feel cruel about the world, about myself while at the same time, and sad about human being. Each time when an disaster happens, man seems so helpless, poor, fragile and small. The loss of me means nothing to the world. However, from another perspective, it means more to myself and my loved ones. Casting the stone of each “me” into the river of  human history won’t even stir up a little wave, while every man is the only existence for himself and his friends and families. He can use the existing himself to experience things and encountering people. Sometimes we need to look around or in ourselves to find the meaning of life. I call it the weapon against pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer denies any purpose or meaning of life except perpetuation of human. In this regard, I disagree with him. Man is different from animals and plants whose ultimate goal is to survive. If it was thousands of years ago, I may have some doubts about my certainty because man was more like wild animals rather than civilized species at that time. Our purpose is no longer about how to survive but how to live a better life in this world. We may have to taste suffering but also enjoy so many beautiful and marvelous things. This is one view we can choose as the meaning of life. Schopenhauer holds that the sexual love the representation of will to gain perpetuation of species. It is wrong. Otherwise how we explain the love between homosexuals and the choice of dink families if we insist the ultimate will for human is to reproduce. Love is not about the sexual intercourse spurred from the desire for perpetuation of human species, but more about the sexual impulse embedded in our bodies. It’s more accurate to say it’s an instinct for sex than such great reason. Or it may be for love. When we love someone, we have the desire and impulse to have sex with him or her.

Schopenhauer thinks there is another way to temporarily escape from the control of will. That is aesthetic experience. He believes all human have various degrees of aesthetic experience. It is not about appreciating the thing itself, but the loss of ourselves while falling into aesthetic contemplation. That is when we are not in the control of torturing of insatiable desires. This may sound a little bit extreme. But I think it is reasonable. The art, including painting, music, architecture can not only provides us aesthetic experience, but can also send us into another time and space  away from where we suppose to be. They are the magic works of best human beings. Enjoying these masterpiece is a meaning we can endow with our life in this world.

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