Philosophy

Schopenhauer, an embittered pessimist?

LONG FORMAT ARTICLE, Danilo Heyer | We often hear the refrain: «We must be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic! So let's not sugarcoat the future. But it's an inadequate position for anyone who wants to know whether the world is essentially good or bad; whether life is worth living; whether existence can be justified. To do so, one would have to make a metaphysical judgment of which this realism is quite incapable. Arthur Schopenhauer, the 19th-century German philosopher, is best known for his radical pessimism. But would he have offered the world anything more than an embittered philosophy, as is sometimes claimed? A careful reading reveals a surprising mix of pessimism and optimism at the heart of a practical philosophy that proves lucid and of great help to everyone. After all, is happiness attainable?

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