Researching Schopenhauer's Philosophy

Research Question: How does Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher renowned for his extreme pessimism, approach the question of happiness?

Source 1

Delgado Suárez, J. (2020, February 4). ▷ the 10 rules of Schopenhauer to be happy here and now. Psychology Spot. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://psychology-spot.com/schopenhauer-on-happiness/.

The author of this web page is a psychotherapist and used to be an award-winning professor of psychology. The writing is inspiring, accessible, and formal with direct quotations from Schopenhauer’s manuscript “The Art of Being Happy” and an analysis of his philosophy. I have taken notes of the ten tips Suárez synthesized based on Schopenhauer’s manuscript, including “avoid envy and comparisons”, “valorize what you have as if you were going to lose it tomorrow”, and “balance the attention between the present and the future.” Since I cannot find an English translation of Schopenhauer’s manuscript “The Art of Being Happy,” this source assists me by providing direct quotations from this work in English.

Source 2

Woods, D. B. (2020, August 18). For Schopenhauer, happiness is a state of semi-satisfaction: Aeon Essays. Aeon. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://aeon.co/essays/for-schopenhauer-happiness-is-a-state-of-semi-satisfaction.

This article is written by David Bather Woods, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, posted on a philosophy-oriented website. The author uses the personal life of Schopenhauer as a window to understanding his philosophical pessimism. Interestingly, Schopenhauer’s take on happiness, according to Woods, differs from those described in my first source. According to Woods, Schopenhauer sees happiness as “no more than the absence of pain and suffering; the moment of relief occasionally felt between the fulfillment of one desire and the pursuit of the next.” From there, Woods branches off to specific ways of achieving “the absence of pain and suffering”, such as recalling past pain to generate feelings of joy for the present and reflecting on possible mishaps that did not happen.

Source 3

Schalkx, R., Bergsma, A. Arthur’s advice: comparing Arthur Schopenhauer’s advice on happiness with contemporary research. J Happiness Stud 9, 379–395 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9039-9

Although this is a peer-reviewed research paper with a long list of references, I found the language much less articulate and insightful than my previous two sources. The writing was packed with miscellaneous information about Schopenhauer but fails to connect them coherently with each other. However, the source does reaffirm the validity of my other sources by concurring “temporary happiness seems to be the only possibility” according to Schopenhauer and that, to achieve it, “we must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires.” In sum, Schopenhauer seems to equate achieving happiness with reducing misery.