"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

I think Schopenhauer's theories are continuously reassured through the study of modern psychology. Dan Gilbert of Harvard, in his enlightening studies of human happiness, constantly brings me back to Schopenhauer. The second I accepted the notion of being 'ad interim', continuously becoming and never being, I suddenly found myself overwhelmingly content with the notion that I will never be content! It was liberating...

I love philosophy. Thanks for uploading these videos.

Schopenhower's pessimism and misanthropy is hysterically funny! He should have become a stand-up comic.

This is the best discussion I've heard on Schopenhauer.

Thank you for posting !

As Zhuangzi (Chinese daoist philosopher of 4th centiry A.D.) succinctly put it in the 18th chapter of the book that bears his name "Happiness is the absence of searching for happiness." or, in Burton Watson's translation, "Perfect happiness knows no happiness"

That's an excellent reference! I began my philosophical pursuit in Taoism (Daoism) with the Tao Teh Ching, then became utterly entranced with the book of Chuang Tzu [penguin translation] (aka Zhuangzi). The parallels between German pessimists and Chinese philosophers allows me to justify putting them all on the same book shelf together! :) I also very much enjoyed Montaigne's essays on solitude, incidentally...

Thank you for uploading this video.

Ah, thanks for the re-up!

Just when Béatrice Han-Pile points out that Schopenhauer thinks life is ultimately meaningless, the programme has to stop abruptly, because of a fault. Quite absurd and somehow fitting.

Thank you Lord Bragg. Excellent work.

Great videos from this channel.

Wonderful lecture!

Fantastic video thank you

Simple explanation of "will to live", this fits exactly to the "survival of the fittest", the ones who does have this quality survives, the ones with low will to live perish, because of the failure in the fight with the environment to survive. So the quality of "will to live" is better and better coded in our genes.

Just interview Beatrice Han-Pile, tell the interviewer to shut up, she's got this all figured out.

Arthur Schopenhaue is my best friend someone more than a family or .....

He certainly identified the "need" to reproduce as a philosophical imperative, but also recognized the renunciation of biology....inherited from Goethe and built upon by Nietzsche

"Lay bare the true nature of the world". Wagner created the Trisian chord after taking this man in his philosophy.

@HisokaThorongil Christopher Janaway is an excellent scholar, both on Schopenhauer and on Nietzsche.

The woman was the only intelligent person there, she's brilliant.

Hi. I share the same traits with this man. I have to say that he would absolutely hate social media if he thinks he had it bad back then he can ask me how I view what is happening. Ehh let's see what else yes the "will" chapter I call it statement its like fighting to leave our mark so to remind ourselves that we are living or that we have a cause all the fightings all the hate all the love all of that is us saying screaming desperatly wanting to exist and if we had the perfect world, well such thing doesn't exist if everything was perfect we would argue and make wars over the blue tones of the sky or of the flowers etc. I don't know if he talked about that but we are also like computers our brain has different capabilities like if say something you might not have the power to understand so in order to grasp what I'm saying you will translate what I said differently or cause damage to yourself or the system so I don't know what he expected but he can share as much wisdom as he wants but the majority doesn't have this power so in reality the message is delivered only to a handful of people I don't know why people like us exist and we are not that many we don't build with our hands we are not there like doctors or footballers but we have this build up thing in our system that gives us the power to dive and explore so many angles and areas so we can point the errors of a system and give a direction to rebuild or correct the system to be more sufficient and efficient but doing this we expose and we have to expose a lot of things reaching to the core and telling the truth is something that people don't like because it either means they have faults and they have to be corrected or either they have no desire at all for changes even if it's is beneficial to all Ehh what else yeah the reproduction.. Hmm even if earth was hell humans would still be moderately happy if they had some space to walk and reproduce this explains how life can continue under dictatorships like that one with Hitler etc But in the end of the day depending on how you see it even if people don't like us and feel they don't need us and even if we feel that this world is not really meant for us and what we say has little impact I want to thank schopenhauer for putting his work out there for people like me to see it's like a letter exchanging ideas or finding a friend. It seems our type existed since forever and maybe at only one time and who knows when we thrived and people build great things around what we were saying I want to thank not only schopenhauer but everyone that is like us and is out there we are not many but we are not alone I ll leave a quote If TV is bad and social media is evil then metaverse is Satan I know that people like us will feel more and more lonely as we progress in times where just by saying the truth means you are mental Ehh anyway yeah these thoughts and consepts come to us from a very young age and it's not easy when you finally understand that you have so little in common with the majority of this planet seems unlucky but whatever

If anyone is interested in researching Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation," then click the link below where you will find a compilation of sources for this work. We are always adding sources and welcome suggestions for new citations. ithinkphilosophy.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-world-as-will-and-representation-by.html

On another (ironic) note, Beatrice's chuckle at the end was ember to my will to life.

It makes me crazy that Bragg fucked up the timing of the interview and had to cut off one of the panelists in mid-sentence just as she was explaining Schopenhauer's influence of Camus' sense of the absurd! On the other hand, perhaps a very Schopenhauerian moment. I waited in vain. My will was thwarted. A definitive answer was denied me.

How come you don't have any videos on Leibniz?

The idea that life in the world is full of suffering is common between Hinduism and Buddhism. ✌️🕊️

Links between animals and human are walking on two legs.

Arther Schopenhauer feels more honest like the navigator of a ship, alone. Who would be the ship’s captain then... more God like?

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER JAMAIS PODERIA SER CONSIDERADO COMO FILÓSOFO PAI DO PESSIMISMO. ERA UM HOMEM CUJA INTELIGENCIA JÁ ALCANÇAVA O FUTURO DOENTIO EM QUE ESTAMOS. LI TODOS OS SEUS LIVROS...

Unfortunately, this audio is not for a layman interested in philosophy. I am sure it would be quite enjoyable and useful for a philosophy student.

Give me pessimism when the TIME warrants it

Infinite and Meaningless, now that made moi LOL. .

Nietzsche didn't lead people the wrong way in their extreme skepticism, he tried to tell a few million idiots that they SHOULD NOT FEEL the feelings they were feeling

According to many scientists the universe will "die" when it runs out of energy.. Will this also be the death of the Will?

That's Melvyn Bragg! He's not *that* bad.

There are unforgettable passages in Schopenhauer's work that haunt my mind. Life these days is light yet more tragic than ever. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche foresaw this. Thankfully the Earth looks after its own. The Schumann Resonance has dramatically increased and we will soon be brought up sharp! Research what I say. We are a part of a larger system...

I agree with Schopenhauer's assertion logic never won an argument. It's all about massaging one's self interest, desires, and will that wins the day. Take 911 Truth for example. Logic is clearly on the Truth side, yet the "sheeple" are not motivated into action because they can't see how going up against a mass murdering, baby killing, cabal will serve their best interests, desires, while confronting their will comprised of preconceived notions fit for a Grimm's fairy tale. It's too painful and inconvenient to grasp the truth to make it serve their desires, interests, and will. Enter Albert Einstein, "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Why not move to the country away from the noise of the rabble in the city, good sir? It troubles me to see you endure more suffering than is already inevitable in this wicked world.

i am a nihilist to the core...but i am libertarian on most sophomoric philosophical issues...meh

but aren't we all striving towards perfection..? isnt that the nature of progress...?

叔本华的哲学，让我清楚的看清世界。

to be pessimistic is the best way to be misanthrope, asceticist and reject gynocentrism.

What a load of nothing. What is Schopenhauer offering humanity? Nothing. Certainly he'd bore most women stiff. We know stuff...without this bluff called philosophy. Emperor. Put your clothes on.