schopenhauer1

Yes I agree, but the main question is, are all these theories commensurate? What would it take to prove who is right? Are they all right? Can they be ...

I see this plus-stroke or minus-stroke more characteristic of contingent harms. Structural harm would be a constant in the equation. Well, that is a d...

So Nussbaum's theory seems to say that morality is based on values that are defined by the opportunities for people to use their capacities. I am sayi...

This is exactly the debate I had earlier in the Wittgenstein thread. Neo-Pythagorean types might argue that our epistemological capacities MUST find p...

Hell, let's take something as simple as sleep. There are ten sleep-potentials. Eight of them are really good sleepers. They can sleep for 8-10 hours w...

There are ten architect-potentials. They all have the opportunities to allow their productive forces free. eight of them do well, achieve success. The...

Doing things with words, or getting things done with words? Those are two different things.

Yes, I agree that it should be sequential and in light of other essays but I do not have any access to his books online and I am not keen on hand-typi...

Yes, there is an ironic twist that suicide is not even enough to do anything for you- the damage is done. This is definitely playing with dark humor. ...

Schopenhauer does have a conception of character in his core philosophy. He thinks that people's characters are more-or-less fixed. Thus, only a very ...

Schopenhauer was indeed an elitist. However, I often wave off much of Schop's views to grandiose prattle that is not his philosophy "proper" (his view...

You just recognized that I gave concrete examples of it, as that post set out to do. In fact, the four examples were meant to showcase the variations ...

That is not what most Philosophical Pessismists are doing. Deprivation is the root of most ideas of structural suffering. Nobility seems to be a shift...

Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh. — E.M. Cioran, Trouble with being born What do you think that is conveying @...

It does. This is precisely the definition of pessimism which is misconstrued with Philosophical Pessimism. As I see it, PP is more about a metaphysica...

Philosophical Pessimism is not the common word "pessimism" (the glass is always half empty). You can be "happy" or "contented" at any particular time,...

You do not have to be aware of your own state of suffering. There is the primary lived experience, and the self-awareness of it. The deprivation is pa...

I don't see it as a disposition or a mood but what is the case. In other words, metaphysically, life is structurally and contingently suffering. A lit...

Speaking of consciousness.. Anyone want to unpack those?

Yes, this might be my theme all along with pessimism. There is actually an odd therapeutic joy in knowing it and sharing it with others. To be deny th...

Apathy yes, but more like inertia. There is no use killing yourself, it seems to convey, so in an odd way anti-suicide. It's actually the opposite of ...

Yes, this quote also makes me think of what the feeling is when someone is speaking a language you do not understand. Our mind's architecture is built...

Wow, powerful and sad anecdote to exemplify the point. I think his main idea here is that every point you are to kill yourself was always too late. On...

Can you elaborate on that?

This one might have something to do with the idea that by acting one is legitimizing the very grounds of being. But we cannot help but act. @"Baden" T...

Here's one:

I think I see what you're saying. Joy in the absurd gets us through. Cioran's ironic musings is a kind of intertia of grounding. Best to keep a distan...

Yes, good point. This is what Schopenhauer meant I believe, when he said: "Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment — a question which man puts t...

Excellent point! I like the fruit analogy too. There is nothing to even give to death at that point. More great stuff. I think you nailed it with the ...

Someone had me and I am not committing suicide so survival, maintenance/comfort-seeking, and entertainment-seeking mediated through cultural instituti...

Once again, existentialcomics has the appropriate comic this week: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/295

Here is another aphorism: “A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idlenes...

Yes, I agree with this assessment. Being born has already been inflicted. If Schopenhauer is correct, suicide thwarts the very feeling of relief that ...

Not sure I understood this one. Can you explain that?

Next aphorism: “Only optimists commit suicide, optimists who no longer succeed at being optimists. The others, having no reason to live, why would the...

Little bit toxic? Ha, I think their point is that life is more than a little bit toxic :p. Cioran's charm is his sense of irony in the glee he gets fr...

As for that quote, I think it is perfect. I don't know what it is, but some of the most glee comes from the pessimistic turn of phrases from these aut...

Oh, I have no doubt that Cioran himself would hate what I'm doing. His aphorisms are meant to be their own analysis and probably should be read in the...

Is that translated: I have never read a Buddha sermon or a page of Schopenhauer without grinding rose? Oh I think it's something like grinding pink or...

Here's my take. I think he is saying that suicide doesn't take away the fact that we have existed in the first place. By the very fact we have gotten ...

Excellent quote.. but we are jumping ahead.. What do you think this first one means about always killing yourself too late?

Okay.. maybe keep going with that. I wasn't thinking along those lines but it could raise some interesting points.

As far as I know, he wasn't so much a philosopher of Will like Schopenhauer, so this might not quite have to do with that. Certainly, that can be a ch...

True, has absurd elements, but what is he saying about suicide?

One of his most famous quotes- enigmatic yet meaningful. Any thoughts what he is trying to convey? “It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, si...

Let's say a lot of opportunities are a product of contingency- right person, right place, right time. What works for some people, doesn't work for all...

People don't question the role. There is no real way out of the situation. You either accept it (survive in a socialized context of equipment-maintain...

If opportunities are not guarantees, then where does that leave the CA? There is no clear path to any endeavor labeled "well-being", if that can even ...

Also let me add.. the situation is, "Hey buddy, you get a chance to have to maintain the equipment (survive) or die...that is the choice you are given...

Well, you can deny what is the case, but if it is the case, it is the case. I don't see how subsequent generations can dodge characterizing the social...