Arthur Schopenhauer discussion

Use this thread to discuss "Schopenhauer" by Elbert Hubbard.

I am in agreement with Hubbard when he bemoans that the word "pessimism" is not the best word to describe Schopenhauer's works, but that it is hard to find an alternative.

I personally nominate the term "philosophical-pessimism" that Wikipedia defines as follows: "Philosophical pessimism is not a state of mind or a psychological disposition, but rather it is a worldview or ethic that seeks to face up to the distasteful realities of the world and eliminate irrational hopes and expectations (such as the Idea of Progress and religious faith) which may lead to undesirable outcomes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessimi...

I think that "philosophical-pessimism", as defined above, is an adequate label for Schopenhauer's works.

What delineates this fact MJD and your choice for this label?

India wrote: "What delineates this fact MJD and your choice for this label?"

Schopenhauer certainly does not seem to be an optimist (and he is directly critical of the idea that the world is the "best of possible worlds"), but the word "pessimist" - to me at least - has too much baggage in terms of being used to describe someone lost to despair.

I think that Schopenhauer is similar to the protagonist at the end of the book Candide. Even though he has been disillusioned by the optimistic view that he was taught, he nonetheless does not curl up in a corner in despair. At the end Candide says "let us cultivate our garden" in a manner that seems to reject the idea the world is a Garden of Eden that doesn't need cultivation, but at the same time is not a barren desert that doesn't allow for cultivation.

Another way of putting it is that his philosophy seems similar to the Buddha's "Four Noble Truths":
"The truth of suffering (Dukkha) The truth of the origin of
suffering (Samudāya) The truth of the cessation of suffering
(Nirodha) The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering
(Magga)"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religio...
I see the first two truths in isolation from the last two as pessimism, but I would describe the four altogether (and Buddhism as a whole) to be philosophical-pessimism. In the same way, while the parts of Schopenhauer's works where he is talking about suffering and its causes could be seen as pessimism, I think that his work as a whole - in which he talks about the saving grace of art and such - can better be described as philosophical-pessimism.