SCHOPENHAUER Explained: Ethics of Compassion (pt. 2)

[@MathwithMing]

There’s something astonishingly elegant about Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Once the central metaphysical thesis, ‘the world is both Will and representation’, is understood, all the other aspects of his philosophy follows as its immediate corollaries.

[@WeltgeistYT]

Yes, it's beautiful. Even more so: his entire philosophy is actually captured in the title of the work: The World as Will and Representation.

[@nova8091]

All good philosophy, I think, operates on the basis of one central idea, which naturally flows down

[@blankspace6362]

Schopenhauer, my favourite philosopher. Your analysis is so clear and explained in easy to understand language. This is going to be a good channel. Cheers.

[@WeltgeistYT]

Thank you!

[@samuelterry6354]

Schopenhauer is one of those writers who make you feel wiser just by reading his words. I love all his work; he has the best quotes.

[@WeltgeistYT]

Agreed, and his essays tackle such a wide range of topics too. Going from the Latin language to death to literary criticism... An amazing and clear thinker and writer.

[@rachmondhoward2125]

Schopenhauer philosophy is difficult to grasp but thank you for making it easier to facilitate understanding.

[@nfragala]

I sincerely appreciate your work. Thank you.

[@RtaniDean]

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you. The dichotomy of a win win one may atone to be in this state of BEingness.

[@FR-yr2lo]

Awesome. Bernardo Kastrup made me discover this idealist philosopher. His worldview makes more sense than materialism.

[@WeltgeistYT]

Kastrup is good. Nice book on Schopenhauer

[@vodkatonyq]

Schopenhauer's ethics are elegantly beautiful.

[@briancarroll3541]

food for ascetic thought; 'depression' has been described as (one's) feeling the pain of the entire world. i can attest that one never chooses to feel this much, only not to feel.

[@satnamo]

What can a poor man give ? 1. Wisdom 2. Compassion Patience, compassion and simplicity are 3 greatest treasures in mankind; But man tends to chase after the ends And forgets about das root: Returning to das source is returning to tranquility. There is no happiness higher than rest. Break das flower-topped arrows of Mara And death will never touch me again. Painful is birth. Painful is death. Painful is birth and death Over and over again.

[@gamislatte5470]

reading few pages of Schopenhauer before going to sleep every night has been the solace of my life and shall be the solace of my death...

[@WeltgeistYT]

Highly recommended evening ritual!

[@gamislatte5470]

@@WeltgeistYT yes..especially his essay on "The Sufferings of the World"...which mysteriously gives me calm and serenity hehe..

[@ArturoDelCastillo4]

that was beautiful

[@WeltgeistYT]

Thank you.

[@calvingrondahl1011]

Are we the filing system of the universe? Infinite boundaries?

[@Existentialist-earthling52]

I understand the reasons behind Nietzsche's scron of pity, however I have always been against it. Accessive pity is bad. But the scron comes dangerous close to a forsake of compassion. There are few things I can think of that are less life affirming then that. I am with Schopenhauer on this.

[@madhavichembolli8400]

Can you please explain what the last quote youve added in the video means? Basically without will the universe in itself is nothing? Is this nothingness a state of good or a state of bad? What if the universe stops exerting will on itself, we too will cease to exist, will we not? Is he telling us to embrace nothigness in short?

[@WeltgeistYT]

The ascetic sees behind the illusory veil of the world as representation; he recognizes that the world is Will. To this kind of person, the world as we ordinarily know it, with suns, moons, trees, etc., ceases to be meaningful. And yes, Schopenhauer would prefer nothingness over this wordly existence, because the world is fundamentally a place of great suffering.

[@NihilRuina]

"There is no you or I. No this or that". Why then, is there any need for compassion? When I am hurting you I am really hurting myself, yet there is no you and there is no myself. You only think there is. So again, what need is there of compassion? Schopenhauer only thinks there is a need for compassion because his thinking is still within the scope of multiplicity. If all is one, then there is no need for anything. You only think there is. Schopenhauer's ethics contradicts his meta physics.

[@briancarroll3541]

i wish i could ask A.S. about the ethical dilemma surrounding the individual enjoyment of music.

[@faja98]

There is contradictions and missing parts: Why and how the one will is collapsed in all the wills and laws that generate suffering?... In 4:42 you talk about denial of the will, and that it is the cause of all suffering in the world... but why you should abolish the will, if it is the one, the unifying? If you abolish the will what stays? Your compassion is a way to go back to this unified position...So you dont abolish the will but the collapsing causes... how do you do that?... by understanding them... the missing part...

[@vodkatonyq]

Compassion is only a diminishing of the suffering caused by the will. The denial of the will on the other hand is the complete extinguishing of the suffering caused by the many manifestations of the will into nothingness through asceticism. As Sophocles said: "Not to be born is, beyond all estimation, best", therefore the most ethical position: to prefer the non-suffering of nothingness to the suffering willed into existence. Since Schopenhauer understands that that path (asceticism) is extremely difficult for most of mankind, he recommends compassion as the most ethical position as it is a diminishing of the suffering caused by the will and even a temporary state in which the separateness of the principium individuationis vanishes and the sufferer and consoler experience the unity and completeness of the will, as also experienced through the sublimation of the will via art.

[@faja98]

thank you... I think your answer says precisely that the problem is in the collapsing causes of the unified will, and I tell you the solution is in understanding them, because they arent blind but have history, that's why compassion is a path to understanding, that ends in the ascetic insight of seeing that history and solving its complexity, that dualisticaly is called extinguishing... everything good

[@riflemanslament9594]

Easier to read than Kant. But still hard to read.

[@joebloggs339]

It seems like a logical fallacy to jump from the image of the turtles on the beach to the reality of human existence. While much of human existence for many people was tragic, over time, life has improved for billions of people. It isn't only suffering. There is a great deal of happiness and joy. So not every newborn is necessarily just adding to the amount of suffering - they may be increasing the amount of happiness in the world also. Also, I suspect that a lot of these deep thinkers learned to deny their more emotionl aspects of themselves, perhaps due to trauma early in life? As a result, people who have been traumatized emotionally and subsequently deny their feelings and defend against this mental maneuver with the defense of intellectualization, will go their whole life feeling a sense of weightiness about everything in their life, and will try to think their way out of the problem bc it is all they know how to do. When that doesn't work, they will conclude that life is hopelssly difficult, without seeing the solution bc the truth has been hidden from them by their own mind out of survival.