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Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer the Optimist

Duncan Richter explains why Schopenhauer thinks art, especially music, can provide a kind of salvation.

Schopenhauer the pessimist is famous. He thinks of life as a pendulum swinging between pain (when we want something but don’t have it) and boredom (when we have something and no longer care much about it). He also thinks that a key to understanding life is to think about the struggle for survival, especially in terms of getting food. Consider a pepperoni pizza. For the pigs and cows from which the pepperoni is made, it’s an unthinkable nightmare: to be raised a prisoner, then slaughtered, butchered, and eaten.

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