Deconstructing Schopenhauer

[Amphictyonis]

His studies on pessimism in particular. In short, if you haven't read it, he basiclly says the meaning of life is struggle and if we managed to create a utopia we would all go mad and destroy each other. I don't agree with this but his argument was compelling. I think, perhaps, if the technological revolution had occurred in his lifetime he would've changed his view. Would we all go mad with nothing but time on our hands? Would it be akin to being immortal? Would we get board with life? Does there need to be a yin and yang to our existence?


http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/0/7/3/10732/10732.htm


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7pwItrhEZo

[anticap]

I don't suppose we'll know until we get there, but the question does make me think of the "Eternals" in Zardoz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz).

[heiss93]

Lukacs did a very detailed deconstruction of Schopenhauer in his book The Destruction of Reason as well as the existential philosophers following him like Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Husserl.

[Amphictyonis]

I don't suppose we'll know until we get there, but the question does make me think of the "Eternals" in Zardoz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zardoz).
Or this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_a_Ridiculous_Man

He finds utopia and taints it with his lies, cunning and depravity. I'm not sure if utopia is possible? When I think of our goals as socialists I think of material abundance and as much freedom/time as possible to do what one wants. You need a little suffering to appreciate not suffering :)

I dig Sean Connery's sexy costume in that by the way. Knee high boots and a red leather strap!

[Amphictyonis]

"But misfortune has its uses; for, as our bodily frame would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere was removed, so, if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly--nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight. Certain it is that _work, worry, labor_ and _trouble_, form the lot of almost all men their whole life long. But if all wishes were fulfilled as soon as they arose, how would men occupy their lives? what would they do with their time? If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature."

[anticap]

It's a good quote, but I don't think it's a realistic worry. There will always be new problems to solve. Utopia is something you steer toward but never arrive at.

[Thirsty Crow]

It's a good quote, but I don't think it's a realistic worry. There will always be new problems to solve. Utopia is something you steer toward but never arrive at.
And humans are very good at producing "problems" themselves, even if there is no immediate material need involved, so I don't appreciate such "objections" to a possibility of a "utopian" society.