SCHOPENHAUER: How To Be Happy - Developing Your Inner Life (pt. 2)

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