Artworks have a super-time essence, while music has both super-time and super-space essences. Therefore, music is not just a copy of an idea, it is closer to the will itself. So it also has a higher value. Music and the world of representation exist almost side by side. But this kind of beauty can only give people temporary relief from will, because this pursuit of beauty can only make people fall into the trap of will itself, so it still has certain limitations.

Ethical Insights

Overview

Schopenhauer pointed out that ethics is a very simple subject. He explored human morality based on the motivations of human behavior. Base. The motivations for human behavior can be divided into three types: wanting oneself to be happy, wanting others to suffer, and wanting others to be happy. These three motivations are summarized as self-interest, viciousness, and sympathy respectively. Self-interest and viciousness are the driving forces of amorality, and only sympathy is the truly moral behavior.

Self-interest

Many ostensibly moral actions are performed for self-interest, the two most important of which are personal reputation and legal norms. The purpose of moral behavior based on personal reputation implicitly satisfies one's own desires, hoping that one can gain the respect of others and thus produce psychological satisfaction. Moral behavior forced by legal norms is done to avoid legal punishment and avoid losses. These actions have no real moral significance. The extreme form of this purpose is: everything is mine and no one else has anything. Vulgarity for this reason is often seen in extremely immoral behaviors developed in response to physiological needs such as appetite, sexual desire, and comfort. [4]

Vice

The second type of non-moral motivation is malice, which is the desire to wish others pain. Viciousness is ubiquitous, but generally its degree is mild and generally manifests as indifference and disgust between people. Human beings use politeness and cleverness to disguise this motive, so backbiting and slander are common. The two main sources of malice are jealousy and schadenfreude. Jealousy is a despicable human nature that is innate and inescapable, because the things that are envious should be admired and moved. And schadenfreude can be said to be a universal manifestation of evil. Nothing is more morally useless than schadenfreude. In its extreme form, viciousness is the desire to do as much harm as possible to others, and all acts of cruelty are simply acts of gloating over one's misfortune. All unethical behavior can be derived from the above two motivations. [4]

Sympathy

True morality is very rare, and there is only one truly moral person. People's respect for those moral behaviors just shows that those moral behaviors are different and incredible. Schopenhauer quoted Rousseau as saying: People do not feel sympathy for those who are happier than themselves, but only for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. That is, our direct empathy is limited to the suffering of others, not to their comfort. Therefore, sympathy is essentially feeling for the suffering of others, that is, seeing others as one with oneself. Starting from sympathy, to nobility, selflessness, and generosity, all the words of praise for virtue are derived from this and nothing else.

The theory of will to survive

Will is the essence of the world

The human body is also a manifestation of self-will; various activities of animals are governed by the will to survive; The activities of plants are also governed by the will to survive; the entire nature and inanimate things are no exception; reason and expression are only expressions of will and desire; knowledge is also a tool of will.

All human activities are governed by the will to survive.

Why is life so pessimistic? Or why is the will painful?

People are egoistic; the satisfaction of desires is always limited by conditions; people live in the curtain of Maya; life is suffering: "Life, the whole is fundamentally suffering, It is inseparable from pain." "Every life history is a history of pain; a criticism of intellectual optimism; happiness and happiness are included in pain; only human beings suffer the most in the world.

How to get rid of pain

An attitude of indifference; turning to art: architecture, painting or sculpture, poetry, tragedy, music (in ascending order of objectification of the will); denying the will without committing suicide; changing perspective, Acquiesce to one's own pain and love with compassion. [6]

How to read books

Schopenhauer is most opposed to those who study to death. Reading must be done without thinking. If you just read blindly, you will lose your ability to think independently, just like people who often ride horses and ride in cars and whose walking ability will inevitably weaken.

He said: There are many scholars who become like this because of reading too much. Stupid. Reading often and reading when you have a little free time is more likely to paralyze the mind than doing manual work, because you can also indulge in your own thoughts while doing manual work. We know that a spring is like a spring that has been exposed to foreign objects for a long time. Pressure will cause us to lose elasticity, and the same goes for our spirit. If we are often pressured by other people's thoughts, we will also lose its elasticity. Another example is that although food can nourish the body, if we eat too much, it will damage the stomach and even the whole body; Too much "spiritual food" is useless and harmful. The more you read, the less things will remain in your mind. The two are inversely proportional.

If you read a lot, your mind will be like a blackboard that is densely packed, overlapping, smeared and smeared. If you read without thinking, you will never gain any insights. Even if you have a slight impression, it will be superficial and not take root. It will probably be forgotten and lost soon.

Moreover, the thoughts recorded on paper are just like the footprints of a person walking on the sand. We may be able to see the path he walked, if we want to know what he saw on the road. , we must use our own eyes.

Schopenhauer was not against reading more, but against people who read without thinking. Because Schopenhauer was good at reading and thinking, this melancholy philosophical genius wrote the most important philosophical work of his life, "Will and the World of Ideas" at the age of 30. Some of his subsequent writings were just opinions on this book. explanation and extension. It should be said that as a philosopher, he completed his mission at the age of 30.

Schopenhauer’s metaphysics is built on two basic concepts:

First, although representation and will are the same and both constitute the world, will is decisive. Yes, any representation is just the objectification of the will;

Second, the will will always appear as some kind of unsatisfiable and omnipresent desire.

So the essence of the world is some kind of unsatisfied desire, so logically speaking, it can never be satisfied. So if unsatisfied desire is a form of suffering, then the world cannot escape its painful nature. People are always trying to satisfy their desires, but this satisfaction further proves and reveals the will itself. This is considered by Schopenhauer to be the saddest thing in the world. So he believes that no matter whether a person is an optimist or a pessimist, he cannot escape the fundamental pain. Optimism is just an avoidance of reality and an illusion caused by self-deception. Therefore, skeptics of pessimism can only argue from Schopenhauer's metaphysics rather than from pessimism itself.

Quotes

Life is like a pendulum, swinging between pain and fatigue.

The two greatest enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

No one lives in the past, and no one lives in the future. Reality is the only form that life truly possesses.

Ordinary people only think about how to spend their time, talented people try to make use of their time.

A single person is weak, just like the drifting Robinson. Only with others can he accomplish many things.

The greatest comfort in old age is to realize that all the strength of youth has been dedicated to the cause of never aging.

The more you read, the less things remain in your mind, and the two are inversely proportional. He reads a lot, and his mind is like a blackboard filled with overlapping scribbles.

A truth learned purely through reading is as relevant to us as artificial limbs, dentures, wax noses or even artificial skin grafts. And the truth gained by independent thinking is like our natural limbs: they alone belong to us.

When we read, others are thinking for us. We are just repeating the process of his thought activities, just like when a child learns calligraphy, he uses a pen to draw a gourd according to the strokes written by the teacher in pencil. generally. A large part of our mental activity is relieved when we read. Therefore, when we stop thinking for ourselves and read a book, we feel very relaxed. However, when reading, our minds actually become a playground for other people's thoughts. Therefore, a person who reads more, or who is immersed in reading all day long, can rest and refresh his mind, but his thinking ability will gradually lose. This is just like a person who often rides a horse will have poor walking ability. The same reason is true.

Fundamentally speaking, only our independent thinking can truly have truth and life. Because they are the only things we understand repeatedly. Other people's thoughts are like scraps from someone else's table, like old clothes taken off by a stranger.

Human faces say more and more interesting things than people’s mouths, because mouths only say people’s thoughts, while faces say the essence of thoughts.

Wealth is like sea water. The more you drink, the more thirsty you become; the same is true for fame.

A person with a great heart will always be a king relative to his heart.

People can only live according to the experience revealed by nature.

If ignorance is accompanied by wealthy businessmen, it will further reduce their worth.

The biggest mistake humans can make is to exchange health for other things outside of themselves! [1]

Things themselves remain unchanged, only people’s feelings change!

It’s either loneliness or vulgarity.

Learning is an end, not a means.

Little people are often proud of the shortcomings or mistakes of great people.

Every rose in the world has thorns. If you abandon it because you are afraid of thorns pricking your hands, then you will never be able to get the fragrance of roses. [1]

Our misfortunes are often due to our pursuit of happiness! When we start doing things, we like to hold a belief: we will definitely find some kind of happiness in the world.

Wise men always enjoy their own lives and their leisure time; while those who are impatient are always afraid of leisure and the boredom that leisure will bring to themselves, so they always find opportunities for themselves. Play some low-level fun games to give yourself some temporary pleasure.

Happiness exists in peace of mind and contentment.

A healthy beggar is happier than a dying king.

Neither give in to love nor to hatred; say nothing and believe nothing.

Life is a mass of desires. If desires are not satisfied, it will be painful, and if they are satisfied, they will be boring. Life swings between pain and boredom.

If your own eyes are focused on the whole rather than an individual life, then your behavior will look more like a wise man than a sufferer.