WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.899 Welcome back to the Deem Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:03.899 --> 00:00:08.439 a dossier on a man who is arguably the most paradoxical 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:11.140 figure in the entire history of Western thought. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:13.359 That's a big claim, but I think it holds up. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.699 It really does. We're looking at a philosopher 00:00:15.699 --> 00:00:19.140 who is, for all intents and purposes, the patron 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:21.859 saint of gloom. I mean, this is the man who argued 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:24.359 that existence is a business that doesn't cover 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:26.980 its costs. Right. Not exactly a motivational 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:29.640 speaker. Not at all. And yet, and this is the 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:32.060 part that hooked me immediately, he was the primary 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.020 source of comfort for people like Albert Einstein, 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:37.740 Leo Tolstoy, and Erwin Schrödinger. It's a fascinating 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:40.340 contradiction, isn't it? We are talking, of course, 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:43.460 about Arthur Schopenhauer. the so -called godfather 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:45.640 of pessimism. Right. And usually when you hear 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:48.380 pessimism, you think of, I don't know, a teenager 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:51.479 in a dark room listening to sad music or maybe 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:53.460 a nihilist who thinks nothing matters. Yeah, 00:00:53.500 --> 00:00:56.020 very simplistic, almost cartoonish idea of it. 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:58.899 But Schopenhauer is doing something much, much 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:01.939 more rigorous and strangely much more vibrant 00:01:01.939 --> 00:01:05.030 than that. We have a massive stack of sources 00:01:05.030 --> 00:01:08.049 here today. His biography, his essays from Parerga 00:01:08.049 --> 00:01:10.730 and Paralapamana, and of course this absolute 00:01:10.730 --> 00:01:13.870 brick of a masterpiece, The World as Will and 00:01:13.870 --> 00:01:16.450 Representation. It is a doorstop, that one. It 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:18.650 really is. And the mission for this deep dive 00:01:18.650 --> 00:01:22.069 is to figure out how this guy, who is by all 00:01:22.069 --> 00:01:25.549 accounts a misanthropic... curmudgeon who literally 00:01:25.549 --> 00:01:27.650 pushed his neighbor down the stairs. We will 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:29.409 definitely get to that. How that guy developed 00:01:29.409 --> 00:01:31.969 a theory of the universe that is so strangely 00:01:31.969 --> 00:01:35.409 comforting that it sat on Einstein's wall. Exactly. 00:01:35.609 --> 00:01:38.450 If we only look at the label pessimist or, you 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:40.370 know, the caricature of the grumpy old man, we 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:43.269 miss the treasure. Schopenhauer is really the 00:01:43.269 --> 00:01:45.489 missing link between the cold logic of Western 00:01:45.489 --> 00:01:48.560 science, the world of Newton and Kant. And the 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:50.859 spiritual depth of Eastern philosophy. That's 00:01:50.859 --> 00:01:52.400 a great way to put it. He connects those two 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.680 worlds. He really does. He's the guy who connects 00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:57.019 the European Enlightenment to the Upanishads. 00:01:57.659 --> 00:02:00.040 Decades. I mean, decades before it was cool to 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:03.319 do so. And to understand him, we have to go deep. 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:06.459 We have to talk about his rivalry at Hegel. We 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:08.680 have to talk about the will. And yes, we absolutely 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:10.639 have to talk about his obsession with poodles. 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.319 I cannot wait to get to the poodles. But I really 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:15.560 want to get to the will. Because that is the 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:19.639 engine of his whole system. And frankly, it changes 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:21.879 how you look at everything from gravity to your 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.340 own cravings. It's a total paradigm shift. But 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:26.800 let's start with the man himself. Because you 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:28.860 can't really separate Schopenhauer's philosophy 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.620 from his life. He wasn't the guy sitting in an 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:34.340 ivory tower just, you know, speculating on logic. 00:02:34.539 --> 00:02:36.780 He was a guy with some serious family trauma 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:38.659 and a chip on his shoulder the size of Berlin. 00:02:39.099 --> 00:02:41.400 That is putting it mildly. Understand, Arthur, 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.379 you have to understand the world he was born 00:02:43.379 --> 00:02:46.479 into. It's 1788. He's born in Danzig, which is 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:49.259 modern -day Gask. And the first thing to note, 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:52.039 which distinguishes him from so many other starling 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.580 artists or philosophers, is that this is not 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:57.280 a rags -to -riches story. Not at all. No, he 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:59.699 was born with a silver spoon. A platinum spoon. 00:03:00.409 --> 00:03:03.710 Arthur was born into the absolute 1%. He was 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:06.650 a trust fund baby, essentially. He was. His father, 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:09.289 Heinrich Flores Schopenhauer, was a patrician 00:03:09.289 --> 00:03:11.590 merchant. He was part of the Henseatic League 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:14.509 elite. Extremely wealthy, very international, 00:03:14.830 --> 00:03:17.530 very Republican in the anti -monarchy sense. 00:03:17.710 --> 00:03:20.530 Okay, so a powerful family. Immensely. And his 00:03:20.530 --> 00:03:23.250 mother, Johanna Schopenhauer, was this lively, 00:03:23.349 --> 00:03:25.710 artistic socialite who would go on to be famous 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:28.210 in her own right. But the atmosphere in the house, 00:03:28.330 --> 00:03:31.099 well... The sources describe it as heavy. The 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:33.580 sources mention the father, Heinrich, cast a 00:03:33.580 --> 00:03:36.539 very, very long shadow over Arthur's early life. 00:03:36.780 --> 00:03:39.469 It sounds like he was a pretty intense guy. Heinrich 00:03:39.469 --> 00:03:41.810 was a complicated man, incredibly successful 00:03:41.810 --> 00:03:44.250 in business, but prone to severe bouts of anxiety 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:47.949 and depression. He was described as moody, exacting, 00:03:47.949 --> 00:03:51.169 and controlling. And he had a very specific vision 00:03:51.169 --> 00:03:53.569 for Arthur. And it wasn't philosopher. Oh, God, 00:03:53.610 --> 00:03:55.310 no. He didn't care about Arthur's inner life. 00:03:55.389 --> 00:03:57.930 He wanted a successor. He wanted a little Heinrich. 00:03:58.069 --> 00:04:00.009 He wanted a merchant prince who could take over 00:04:00.009 --> 00:04:02.310 the international shipping business. This leads 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:04.870 to that famous merchant's trap story in the biography. 00:04:05.930 --> 00:04:08.069 I found this really manipulative, honestly. It's 00:04:08.069 --> 00:04:09.949 like a master class in how to guilt trip your 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:13.270 kid. It was a classic devil's bargain. So Arthur 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:16.689 is a teenager, maybe around 15 or 16, and he's 00:04:16.689 --> 00:04:18.370 starting to show these signs of intellectual 00:04:18.370 --> 00:04:22.370 curiosity. He's bored by ledgers and shipping 00:04:22.370 --> 00:04:24.850 manifestos. He wants to read books. He wants 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.269 to go to the gymnasium, which is the academic 00:04:27.269 --> 00:04:29.850 high school track in Germany, to prepare for 00:04:29.850 --> 00:04:32.930 university. He wants to read poets. He wants 00:04:32.930 --> 00:04:35.550 to study Latin and Greek. Heinrich sees this 00:04:35.550 --> 00:04:37.750 happening and he panics. He thinks, I'm losing 00:04:37.750 --> 00:04:40.189 my air to the clouds. Right. He's getting soft. 00:04:40.490 --> 00:04:42.750 Exactly. So he sits Arthur down and makes him 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:45.310 an offer. And it's a clever offer. A really clever 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:48.149 offer. It's diabolical. He says, OK, Arthur. 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:50.790 You have a choice. We can stay here in Hamburg 00:04:50.790 --> 00:04:53.149 and you can go to that boring school with the 00:04:53.149 --> 00:04:56.589 strict teachers and learn your Latin or R. Here 00:04:56.589 --> 00:04:59.629 it comes. We can go on a glamorous grand tour 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:01.829 of Europe. We'll go to London. We'll see Paris. 00:05:01.930 --> 00:05:03.730 We'll cross the Alps. We'll stay in the best 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:06.910 hotels. But if we go, you have to promise me 00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:09.430 that when we return, you will enter a merchant 00:05:09.430 --> 00:05:12.089 apprenticeship and never mention the university 00:05:12.089 --> 00:05:16.069 again. That is dirty. He dangled the entire world 00:05:16.069 --> 00:05:18.170 in front of a curious kid to kill his dream. 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:20.860 Of course, a teenager is going to pick the road 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:23.560 trip. How could he not? And he did. He chose 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.040 the travel. And to be fair, the travel was educational, 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:28.019 but perhaps not in the way his father intended. 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:30.509 What do you mean? Well, he spent two years touring 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:33.769 Europe. He saw the slums of London, which horrified 00:05:33.769 --> 00:05:36.569 him. He saw the galleys in Toulon where prisoners 00:05:36.569 --> 00:05:38.990 were chained to benches, rowing until they died. 00:05:39.149 --> 00:05:41.290 He saw the suffering of the world firsthand. 00:05:41.670 --> 00:05:44.269 This wasn't just a vacation. It was his first 00:05:44.269 --> 00:05:47.389 exposure to the raw misery of humanity. So it 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:49.629 hardened his pessimistic worldview even then. 00:05:49.730 --> 00:05:52.189 It planted the seeds. But when he came back, 00:05:52.410 --> 00:05:54.889 he had to pay the piper. He had to sit in the 00:05:54.889 --> 00:05:58.040 counting house. For two years. He sat in a merchant's 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.639 office in Hamburg, stacking receipts, checking 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.500 cargo lists, bored out of his mind. He called 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:06.779 it a galley slave existence. He felt he was selling 00:06:06.779 --> 00:06:08.939 his soul. He wrote later that he spent those 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.600 years grieving for his lost life. Just watching 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:14.500 his potential wither away. Exactly. Under the 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.579 fluorescent lights, metaphorically speaking, 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.439 of the family business. But then the story takes 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:22.660 a very dark turn. And this is the event that... 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:26.180 ironically sets him free. It's a moment of tragedy 00:06:26.180 --> 00:06:28.560 that becomes the catalyst for his entire career. 00:06:28.779 --> 00:06:32.720 Yes. In 1805, when Arthur is just 17, his father 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.339 Heinrich falls into a canal behind their warehouse 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:38.060 in Hamburg and drowns. And the sources suggest 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:40.160 this wasn't just an accidental slip on a wet 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.740 dock. It is widely believed and was certainly 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:44.819 believed by Arthur at the time to be suicide. 00:06:45.449 --> 00:06:47.329 Heinrich had been spiraling mentally. He was 00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:49.269 becoming paranoid, thinking he was going bankrupt, 00:06:49.370 --> 00:06:52.189 even though he was incredibly rich. Arthur was 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:54.550 devastated, but he also interpreted this through 00:06:54.550 --> 00:06:57.449 a very specific lens. He believed that he had 00:06:57.449 --> 00:07:00.189 inherited his father's darkness. He thought that 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:02.709 mental anguish, that gloom, was in his blood. 00:07:02.910 --> 00:07:06.589 So he sees himself as the heir to this psychological 00:07:06.589 --> 00:07:10.209 burden. But practically speaking, the death changed 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:13.009 everything for his future. It did. It was a tragedy, 00:07:13.089 --> 00:07:16.110 but it was also a liberation. His mother, Johanna, 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:18.529 didn't waste much time gruiting. She took her 00:07:18.529 --> 00:07:20.550 share of the money and moved to Weimar to start 00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:23.170 a new life as a literary figure. She got out 00:07:23.170 --> 00:07:26.930 of town fast. Immediately! And Arthur? Well, 00:07:27.129 --> 00:07:29.870 after a brief period of trying to stick to the 00:07:29.870 --> 00:07:32.329 promise he made his father, his mother eventually 00:07:32.329 --> 00:07:34.730 told him, don't be an idiot, follow your dream. 00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:37.990 He quit the apprenticeship. And crucially, he 00:07:37.990 --> 00:07:40.370 was left with a massive fortune. Forget the merchant 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:43.290 life, I'm rich. Exactly. He invested his inheritance 00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:45.949 in government bonds. The returns gave him an 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:48.050 annual income that was roughly double what a 00:07:48.050 --> 00:07:50.170 tenured university professor made at the time. 00:07:50.269 --> 00:07:52.209 I think this is such a crucial detail for the 00:07:52.209 --> 00:07:54.490 listener to grasp. We often hear about philosophers 00:07:54.490 --> 00:07:57.550 who are struggling or who are dependent on patronage. 00:07:57.990 --> 00:08:00.230 Schopenhauer never had to work. He never had 00:08:00.230 --> 00:08:02.629 to please a dean or a publisher or a bishop. 00:08:02.730 --> 00:08:05.269 That is the absolute key to his intellectual 00:08:05.269 --> 00:08:08.310 ferocity. You have to remember, most philosophers 00:08:08.310 --> 00:08:12.170 of his day, like Hegel, Fichte, Schelling were 00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:14.829 academics. They were civil servants. They had 00:08:14.829 --> 00:08:17.250 to tow the line of the Prussian state or the 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:19.250 Lutheran church. They couldn't rock the boat. 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:22.589 They couldn't just say, God is dead, or the world 00:08:22.589 --> 00:08:24.769 is meaningless without risking their livelihood. 00:08:25.209 --> 00:08:27.470 Schopenhauer was intellectually sovereign. He 00:08:27.470 --> 00:08:30.029 could say whatever he wanted, no matter how offensive, 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:33.049 bleak, or atheistic, because nobody could fire 00:08:33.049 --> 00:08:35.929 him. He was writing for the truth, not for tenure. 00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:38.190 So he's free. He finally gets his education. 00:08:38.389 --> 00:08:40.470 He learns his Greek and Latin at record speed. 00:08:41.470 --> 00:08:44.169 But now we have to talk about his mother, Johanna, 00:08:44.250 --> 00:08:46.509 because if the father gave him the money and 00:08:46.509 --> 00:08:48.909 the depression, the mother gave him the neurosis 00:08:48.909 --> 00:08:52.269 and, well, the misogyny. It's a relationship 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:54.789 that Freud would have had a field day with. Johanna 00:08:54.789 --> 00:08:56.830 Schopenhauer was a remarkable woman, actually. 00:08:56.850 --> 00:08:59.470 When she moved to Weimar, she reinvented herself. 00:08:59.629 --> 00:09:02.049 She became a literary celebrity. She was a novelist. 00:09:02.330 --> 00:09:05.230 a very successful romance novelist. Her books 00:09:05.230 --> 00:09:07.929 were bestsellers across Europe. She ran the hottest 00:09:07.929 --> 00:09:11.350 salon in town. Goethe, the Goethe, the most famous 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:13.950 man in Germany, was a regular guest at her tea 00:09:13.950 --> 00:09:17.570 parties. She was optimistic, social, fun, and 00:09:17.570 --> 00:09:20.070 very modern. And then you have Arthur. Enter 00:09:20.070 --> 00:09:23.210 Arthur. He catches up with her in Weimar, and 00:09:23.210 --> 00:09:26.419 he is the polar opposite. He's gloomy. He's critical. 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:29.240 He's arrogant. He walks into her parties and 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:31.580 starts lecturing people on the misery of existence 00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:33.799 and how shallow they all are. That must have 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:35.679 gone over well. Like a lead balloon. They moved 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:37.759 in together for a while, right? Which sounds 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:40.000 like a sitcom premise, The Pessimist and The 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.500 Socialite. I'd watch that show. It was a disaster. 00:09:42.820 --> 00:09:45.200 It lasted only a short time before they realized 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.460 they couldn't stand each other. We have letters 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:50.179 where Johanna just unloads on him. She wrote, 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:56.690 Ouch. She told him that all his intelligence 00:09:56.690 --> 00:09:59.830 was worthless because he had no grace. She said 00:09:59.830 --> 00:10:02.549 his propensity to pick holes in people overshadowed 00:10:02.549 --> 00:10:05.230 everything else. She essentially told him, you're 00:10:05.230 --> 00:10:07.309 smart, but you're a jerk and nobody likes you. 00:10:07.549 --> 00:10:11.129 Wow. That is brutal coming from your mom. But 00:10:11.129 --> 00:10:13.809 the tension really exploded with the famous argument 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:16.220 over his dissertation. The rubbish argument. 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:19.019 This is legendary. So Arthur completes his first 00:10:19.019 --> 00:10:22.320 major philosophical work. It has this incredibly 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:25.759 clunky academic title on the fourfold root of 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.320 the principle of sufficient reason. Catchy. I 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.620 can see the movie poster now. Right. He brings 00:10:30.620 --> 00:10:33.120 a copy to Johanna. Now, remember, she writes 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:36.059 light romantic fiction. She's a pop culture icon 00:10:36.059 --> 00:10:38.700 of her day. She picks up this dense philosophical 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:41.799 text, looks at the title and just sneers. She 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:44.340 makes fun of it. openly mocks him she says the 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:47.159 fourfold root what is the something for apothecaries 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:50.320 is it a turnip is it a root crop she's just belittling 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:53.220 his life's work and arthur being arthur doesn't 00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:55.220 just take it he doesn't say mom it's a metaphor 00:10:55.220 --> 00:10:58.919 no he snaps back with incredible venom he says 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.419 my work will be read long after your rubbish 00:11:01.419 --> 00:11:03.940 is rotting in the recycling bin of history talk 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:06.580 about a mic drop yeah but the crazy thing is 00:11:06.580 --> 00:11:11.830 he was right he was 100 accurate Today, nobody 00:11:11.830 --> 00:11:14.090 reads Johanna Schopenhauer's romance novels unless 00:11:14.090 --> 00:11:16.750 they are studying Arthur's biography. But the 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:19.730 fourfold root is standard reading in any doctoral 00:11:19.730 --> 00:11:22.250 philosophy program. He won the War of Legacy, 00:11:22.450 --> 00:11:24.929 but he lost the mother. That exchange pretty 00:11:24.929 --> 00:11:27.049 much ended the relationship, didn't it? It was 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.850 the final nail. She eventually threw him out. 00:11:29.909 --> 00:11:32.590 She took a lover, a man named Gerstenberg, who 00:11:32.590 --> 00:11:35.779 was significantly younger than her. Arthur, who 00:11:35.779 --> 00:11:39.080 idolized his father, saw this as a betrayal of 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:41.360 his father's memory. He viewed it as disgusting. 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:44.320 So you just cut her off. Completely. He left 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.960 Weimar in disgust and basically never spoke to 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.059 his mother again. She lived for another 24 years 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:51.340 and he didn't even go to her funeral. So let's 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.100 take stock here. He's alienated his mother. His 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:56.399 father is dead by suicide. He has no job, no 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.659 wife, no kids. He is completely alone with his 00:11:59.659 --> 00:12:02.429 money and his dark thoughts. Yeah. This seems 00:12:02.429 --> 00:12:04.730 like the perfect laboratory for a philosophy 00:12:04.730 --> 00:12:07.470 about how the world is a miserable, lonely place. 00:12:07.690 --> 00:12:11.429 It certainly set the emotional stage, but we 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:13.129 have to give him credit. He didn't just wallow 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:16.009 in his apartment. He took that isolation and 00:12:16.009 --> 00:12:18.490 channeled it into one of the most ambitious systems 00:12:18.490 --> 00:12:21.110 of thought ever built. He moved to Dresden, and 00:12:21.110 --> 00:12:24.649 between 1814 and 1818, he wrote The World as 00:12:24.649 --> 00:12:27.830 Will and Representation. Okay, let's unpack this 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:31.360 book. The World as Will and Representation. It 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:33.940 sounds intimidating, but the core concept is 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:36.659 actually very graspable if we take it step by 00:12:36.659 --> 00:12:39.019 step. Where do we start? We have to start with 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:41.700 Immanuel Kant. Schopenhauer worshipped Kant. 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:43.600 He thought everyone else was an idiot, but Kant 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.419 was a genius. He saw himself as Kant's only true 00:12:46.419 --> 00:12:49.059 heir. So you need to get Kant to get Schopenhauer. 00:12:49.220 --> 00:12:51.559 You need the basic Kantian distinction, Kant 00:12:51.559 --> 00:12:54.059 said. We don't see the world as it actually is. 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.340 We only see phenomena. This is the rose -colored 00:12:56.340 --> 00:12:58.620 glasses idea, right? Or maybe VR headset is a 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:01.399 better modern analogy. A VR headset is a perfect 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:04.399 analogy. Kant argued that our brains are not 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:07.419 passive mirrors reflecting reality. We have built 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:10.580 in software specifically space, time and causality. 00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:12.700 So our brains are actively building the world 00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:15.440 we see. Constantly. Everything we experience, 00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:17.559 the microphone in front of me, the wall over 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.539 there, the flow of seconds on the clock, we only 00:13:20.539 --> 00:13:22.899 experience because our brain formats it that 00:13:22.899 --> 00:13:26.039 way. It imposes that structure. So the real microphone, 00:13:26.179 --> 00:13:28.700 the thing that exists independently of my brain. 00:13:29.259 --> 00:13:31.840 processing it, I can never know it. Exactly. 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:34.740 Kant called that the noumena or the thing in 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.899 itself. Ding and switch. And for Kant, the noumena 00:13:37.899 --> 00:13:41.000 is locked away. We are trapped in our own simulation. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.240 We can never take the headset off. We can never 00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:45.820 know what reality is like outside of space and 00:13:45.820 --> 00:13:48.580 time. And this is where Schopenhauer steps in 00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:51.139 and says, hold my beer. He does. He says, Kant, 00:13:51.379 --> 00:13:53.120 you were right about the simulation. You were 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.340 right about the headset, but you missed a back 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:58.200 door. Schopenhauer argues there is one object 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:00.440 in the entire universe that we experience from 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:03.039 two different angles. Ourselves. Our own bodies. 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:04.960 Think about your hand. You can look at your hand. 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:06.539 You can see it in space. You can move it. You 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:08.799 can measure it. In that sense, it's just an object 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:11.600 like a tool or a cup. That is the representation 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:14.179 part. The outside view. The world of phenomena. 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:17.080 Right. But you also feel your hand. You feel 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:19.019 it from the inside out. I have an internal experience 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:20.919 of it. Precisely. You experience it from the 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:22.899 inside. When you decide to pick up a coffee cup, 00:14:23.019 --> 00:14:25.500 you don't calculate the geometry or the firing 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:29.580 of neurons. You feel a strive, an urge, an intent. 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:33.120 You want the coffee. Schopenhauer calls this 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:36.720 inner experience will. Will. Now we need to be 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:39.519 really careful with this word will. Because when 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:43.169 I hear will, I think of free will. I think of 00:14:43.169 --> 00:14:45.570 making a rational choice. I will go to the gym 00:14:45.570 --> 00:14:48.519 today or I will write this report. And that is 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:51.159 the biggest trap for new readers. Schopenhauer 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.580 does not mean rational free will. He means the 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:56.179 exact opposite. He means a blind, unconscious 00:14:56.179 --> 00:14:59.340 driving force. It's a hunger. It's a craving. 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:02.179 It's the feeling of thirst before you even think 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:04.679 the word water. Like an impulse. Yes. It's the 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:06.559 impulse that makes you pull your hand away from 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:08.340 a hot stove before you've even processed the 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:10.720 pain. It's pre -rational. It's the engine, not 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.100 the driver. Okay, so deep down, the core of me, 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:15.340 the thing that powers the robot, is just this 00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:19.730 desperate, blind... Striving. Yes. That is the 00:15:19.730 --> 00:15:21.929 thing in itself of the human being. But here 00:15:21.929 --> 00:15:24.549 is the massive leap. This is the moment Schopenhauer 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:27.450 goes cosmic, he says. If the inside of me is 00:15:27.450 --> 00:15:30.070 will, and my body is just a physical object made 00:15:30.070 --> 00:15:32.509 of atoms like everything else. Then the inside 00:15:32.509 --> 00:15:34.129 of everything else must be will too. Then the 00:15:34.129 --> 00:15:36.490 inside of everything else must be will too. Everything. 00:15:36.570 --> 00:15:40.129 Like the dog. Right. The tree outside. The rock. 00:15:40.409 --> 00:15:42.970 Everything. He argues that the force that makes 00:15:42.970 --> 00:15:45.730 a crystal grow into a specific shape. The magnetic 00:15:45.730 --> 00:15:48.350 force that pulls iron, the gravity that pulls 00:15:48.350 --> 00:15:50.730 a stone to the earth, and the desire that drives 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:53.450 a tiger to kill a gazelle. It is all the same 00:15:53.450 --> 00:15:57.649 stuff. It's all will. It's one singular, undifferentiated 00:15:57.649 --> 00:16:01.190 force. So the universe isn't a rational clockwork 00:16:01.190 --> 00:16:03.590 machine like Newton thought. And it's not a divine 00:16:03.590 --> 00:16:06.549 plan like the Christians thought. It's a monster. 00:16:07.100 --> 00:16:09.720 a blind hungry thing it's a seething boiling 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:13.139 ocean of energy he calls this metaphysical volunteerism 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:15.940 he argues that the intellect our ability to think 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:18.480 do math record this deep dive is just a tiny 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:20.860 flicker it's a tool that the will evolved to 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.399 help it get what it wants it's a servant we think 00:16:23.399 --> 00:16:25.279 we are in charge we think we are the writers 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:27.860 but we are just the horse the will is the writer 00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:31.179 or maybe better We are the lame man riding on 00:16:31.179 --> 00:16:33.559 the shoulders of a blind giant. The giant is 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:36.000 the will and we're just the guide trying to steer 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.320 it away from cliffs. That is a spooky thought. 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:41.289 It makes gravity sound almost alive. The rock 00:16:41.289 --> 00:16:43.970 wants to go down. He explicitly makes that connection. 00:16:44.210 --> 00:16:46.669 He uses the analogy of a blind man feeling a 00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:49.309 cube. The blind man feels the resistance of the 00:16:49.309 --> 00:16:52.190 object. That resistance, that refusal to be pushed 00:16:52.190 --> 00:16:55.149 aside, is the object's will asserting its existence. 00:16:55.809 --> 00:16:58.090 Gravity is just the will of the earth reaching 00:16:58.090 --> 00:17:01.190 out to pull things toward its center. Wow. Okay, 00:17:01.309 --> 00:17:03.129 so we have this picture of the universe. It's 00:17:03.129 --> 00:17:05.829 one giant, blind, hungry force called the will. 00:17:06.150 --> 00:17:08.450 And we're just little fragments of it, thinking 00:17:08.450 --> 00:17:11.089 we are individuals. This leads us directly to 00:17:11.089 --> 00:17:13.670 why he is the godfather of pessimism. Because 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:15.869 if the universe is made of wanting, that's a 00:17:15.869 --> 00:17:18.329 huge problem. It is a catastrophe. Because what 00:17:18.329 --> 00:17:21.609 does it mean to want? To strive. It means you 00:17:21.609 --> 00:17:24.349 lack something. You are in a state of deficiency. 00:17:24.809 --> 00:17:27.710 I want that sandwich because I'm hungry. I want 00:17:27.710 --> 00:17:29.990 that promotion because I feel unappreciated. 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:33.390 I want a new car because mine is old. The wanting 00:17:33.390 --> 00:17:36.589 comes from a negative state. Right. So as long 00:17:36.589 --> 00:17:38.910 as you are willing, which is always, because 00:17:38.910 --> 00:17:41.650 you are in pain. You are suffering the pain of 00:17:41.650 --> 00:17:44.630 lack. But let's say you get the sandwich. You 00:17:44.630 --> 00:17:47.150 get the promotion. What happens then? You feel 00:17:47.150 --> 00:17:50.910 good. You celebrate. For a bit. For how long? 00:17:51.450 --> 00:17:54.319 Ten minutes. Maybe a day. If it's a really good 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:57.359 sandwich, maybe 20 minutes. Exactly. Schopenhauer 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.900 says satisfaction is negative. It's not a real 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:02.259 thing added to you. It's just the removal of 00:18:02.259 --> 00:18:04.599 the pain. It's like scratching an itch. It feels 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:06.799 good only because the itch was annoying. But 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.160 once the itch is gone, you don't stay happy. 00:18:09.299 --> 00:18:11.220 No, you just look for the next thing or you just 00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:13.819 sit there and feel empty. And that sitting there 00:18:13.819 --> 00:18:15.859 is what Schopenhauer calls the second enemy, 00:18:16.059 --> 00:18:19.650 boredom. If you aren't suffering from wanting, 00:18:19.789 --> 00:18:21.829 you are suffering from boredom. The will has 00:18:21.829 --> 00:18:24.009 nothing to chew on, so it starts eating itself. 00:18:24.329 --> 00:18:26.309 This is the famous pendulum analogy. I have it 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:29.069 here in the notes. I love this. Yes, it's one 00:18:29.069 --> 00:18:32.509 of his most powerful images. He writes, life 00:18:32.509 --> 00:18:35.029 swings like a pendulum backward and forward between 00:18:35.029 --> 00:18:38.029 pain and boredom. That's it. That's the whole 00:18:38.029 --> 00:18:40.210 human condition in one sentence. When you want 00:18:40.210 --> 00:18:42.829 something, you are in pain. When you get it, 00:18:42.890 --> 00:18:45.930 you are bored. And then you invent a new want 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:48.470 to escape the boredom. And you are back in pain. 00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:51.890 It's an endless cycle. That is incredibly bleak. 00:18:51.890 --> 00:18:54.440 It basically says happiness is impossible. Or 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:56.319 at least sustainable happiness is impossible. 00:18:56.700 --> 00:18:59.299 He argues that happiness is a mirage. It's just 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:01.519 the fleeting moment of transition when the pain 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.019 stops before the boredom sets in. And because 00:19:04.019 --> 00:19:06.859 of this, he does this grim accounting. He treats 00:19:06.859 --> 00:19:09.359 life like a business balance sheet. Life is a 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:12.559 business that does not cover its costs. That's 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:14.940 the line. He argues that the quantity of suffering 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.339 in the world so vastly outweighs the quantity 00:19:17.339 --> 00:19:19.700 of pleasure that non -existence would be preferable. 00:19:19.799 --> 00:19:22.349 He challenges the listener. If you want to know 00:19:22.349 --> 00:19:24.470 if pleasure or pain is stronger, compare the 00:19:24.470 --> 00:19:26.509 feelings of an animal eating another animal to 00:19:26.509 --> 00:19:28.490 the feelings of the animal being eaten. Wow. 00:19:28.670 --> 00:19:30.609 Yeah, the pleasure of the tiger does not match 00:19:30.609 --> 00:19:33.789 the terror of the gazelle. Not even close. Exactly. 00:19:33.930 --> 00:19:37.109 The tiger eats for 10 minutes. The gazelle loses 00:19:37.109 --> 00:19:40.789 its entire existence in agony. So the net result 00:19:40.789 --> 00:19:43.609 of the universe is suffering. This sounds a lot 00:19:43.609 --> 00:19:45.789 like antinatalism, the idea that we shouldn't 00:19:45.789 --> 00:19:48.890 have kids. Was he an antinatalist? Philosophically, 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:51.440 yes. He didn't go out and pick at maternity wards, 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:55.240 but his logic led there. He argued that if procreation 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:58.000 was done out of pure reason instead of the blinding 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.339 sexual impulse, which is the will at its most 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:03.339 powerful, the human race would die out. Because 00:20:03.339 --> 00:20:06.160 no rational person would choose to create more 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:09.119 suffering. He asks, would a truly compassionate 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:12.160 person force the burden of existence onto someone 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:15.099 else? He says we cold -bloodedly impose life 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:17.980 on our children. But wait, if life is a bad business 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:19.859 deal, if the costs are higher than the revenue, 00:20:20.019 --> 00:20:23.420 did he advocate suicide? Because that seems like 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:25.700 the logical conclusion to his accounting. This 00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:27.920 is a very common misconception, and it's a really 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:30.339 important one to clear up. People assume Schopenhauer 00:20:30.339 --> 00:20:32.460 says kill yourself, but he actually condemned 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:35.319 suicide. Why? If the store is losing money, why 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:37.619 not close it down? Because Schopenhauer looked 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:39.900 at the motivation. He said the person who commits 00:20:39.900 --> 00:20:42.759 suicide doesn't hate life itself. They hate their 00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:45.160 life. They hate the pain. They actually want 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:47.319 a better life. They want happiness. They're just 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:49.460 frustrated. They can't get it. So it's an act 00:20:49.460 --> 00:20:52.279 of frustrated desire. It's an act of will, a 00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:54.460 massive act of will. It's a tantrum of the will. 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.140 You are destroying the body because you are frustrated. 00:20:57.319 --> 00:21:00.240 You can't satisfy the will. You haven't silenced 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.700 the desire. You've just broken the machine. So 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:06.019 you can't rage quit the game. You have to. Beat 00:21:06.019 --> 00:21:09.079 it or transcend it. Exactly. You have to transcend 00:21:09.079 --> 00:21:11.599 it. You have to deny the will, not destroy the 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.359 body. Okay, so we are trapped on this pendulum. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:18.740 The universe is a blind monster. Please tell 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:21.079 me he offers a way out. Or is this deep dive 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:23.299 just going to end with us staring into the abyss? 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:26.200 Don't worry. He does offer an escape. Two escapes, 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:28.559 actually. A temporary one and a more permanent 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:30.359 one. Let's start with the temporary one. I think 00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:32.779 we all need a break right now. The temporary 00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:36.160 escape is art. Schopenhauer had a profound theory 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:39.079 of aesthetics. He believed that when we truly 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:41.880 get lost in a work of art, a painting, a tragedy, 00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:44.900 a symphony, something neurological shifts, for 00:21:44.900 --> 00:21:47.740 a moment we stop asking, how can I use this? 00:21:47.779 --> 00:21:50.059 Or what can I get from this? We stop striving. 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:53.180 We stop striving. We stop wanting. We just perceive. 00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:57.900 We become, in his words, a pure, will -less subject 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:00.079 of cognition. That's the phrase. He calls it 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.569 a holiday from the will. A holiday from the prison 00:22:02.569 --> 00:22:05.150 of our own desires. Think about a beautiful sunset. 00:22:05.470 --> 00:22:07.250 If you are a real estate developer, you look 00:22:07.250 --> 00:22:09.269 at it and think, I could build condos here and 00:22:09.269 --> 00:22:12.009 make millions. That is the will. That is striving. 00:22:12.089 --> 00:22:14.349 You are trapped in the business of life. What 00:22:14.349 --> 00:22:16.029 if you're not trying to profit from it? But if 00:22:16.029 --> 00:22:17.829 you are an artist or just a lover of beauty, 00:22:17.890 --> 00:22:19.789 you look at it and you see the colors, the form, 00:22:19.910 --> 00:22:21.990 the idea. You want nothing from it. You don't 00:22:21.990 --> 00:22:24.349 want to eat the sun or own the sky. And in that 00:22:24.349 --> 00:22:27.349 moment, the pain stops. He had a specific love 00:22:27.349 --> 00:22:30.769 for Dutch Golden Age still lifes, right? which 00:22:30.769 --> 00:22:32.890 I always found funny, those paintings of lemons 00:22:32.890 --> 00:22:35.490 and dead pheasants and shiny goblets. It seems 00:22:35.490 --> 00:22:37.390 mundane, but he loved them because they were 00:22:37.390 --> 00:22:40.549 mundane. He said these artists took insignificant 00:22:40.549 --> 00:22:43.950 objects, things that usually trigger our appetite, 00:22:44.069 --> 00:22:46.990 our will, and painted them with such objective 00:22:46.990 --> 00:22:49.670 beauty that we stop thinking about eating the 00:22:49.670 --> 00:22:52.549 fruit and just look at the form. It calms the 00:22:52.549 --> 00:22:55.279 beast inside us. It proves that we can detach 00:22:55.279 --> 00:22:58.359 from our cravings. But painting was lower on 00:22:58.359 --> 00:23:00.279 the ladder for him. He had a whole hierarchy 00:23:00.279 --> 00:23:03.519 of art. He did. And at the very top, above all 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.019 else, was music. Right. This is crucial for understanding 00:23:07.019 --> 00:23:10.140 his influence on culture. He argued that other 00:23:10.140 --> 00:23:13.599 arts, sculpture, painting, poetry, they copy 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:16.539 the ideas of nature. They copy the platonic forms, 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:18.660 which are themselves just objectifications of 00:23:18.660 --> 00:23:20.500 the will. They're one step removed. They're a 00:23:20.500 --> 00:23:23.259 copy of a copy. A copy of a copy. But music, 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:26.019 music is different. Music is a copy of the will 00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:28.799 itself. What does that mean? How is music a copy 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:31.140 of the will? It means music bypasses the intellect. 00:23:31.609 --> 00:23:34.269 It bypasses the visual world. It speaks directly 00:23:34.269 --> 00:23:36.549 to the gut, to the emotions, to the striving. 00:23:36.690 --> 00:23:39.289 Think about a melody. It starts. It wanders. 00:23:39.289 --> 00:23:41.569 It builds tension. It gets to striving. It hits 00:23:41.569 --> 00:23:44.369 a dissonance. That's the pain. And then it resolves 00:23:44.369 --> 00:23:46.710 into a chord. And that's the satisfaction. And 00:23:46.710 --> 00:23:49.829 then it starts again. It moves again. Music mimics 00:23:49.829 --> 00:23:52.349 the ebb and flow of desire perfectly. It's the 00:23:52.349 --> 00:23:54.710 emotional soundtrack to existence. That makes 00:23:54.710 --> 00:23:56.650 so much sense. You can look at a painting and 00:23:56.650 --> 00:23:59.410 feel detached. But a piece of music can make 00:23:59.410 --> 00:24:02.089 you cry before you even know why. It hits you 00:24:02.089 --> 00:24:05.349 viscerally. Exactly. He said music is the language 00:24:05.349 --> 00:24:08.750 of the engine room of the universe. While other 00:24:08.750 --> 00:24:11.130 arts show you the movie, music shows you the 00:24:11.130 --> 00:24:13.369 projector. It's a direct line to the thing in 00:24:13.369 --> 00:24:16.569 itself. Okay, so art gives us a holiday. It's 00:24:16.569 --> 00:24:19.450 a nice weekend break. But holidays end. What 00:24:19.450 --> 00:24:21.809 is the permanent solution? How do we stop the 00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:23.750 pendulum for good? This is where we have to travel 00:24:23.750 --> 00:24:27.009 east. And we have to talk about how weird Schopenhauer 00:24:27.009 --> 00:24:29.809 was for his time. In the early 19th century, 00:24:29.970 --> 00:24:32.829 European philosophy was very, well, European. 00:24:33.309 --> 00:24:36.430 It was Christian or it was Greek. But Schopenhauer 00:24:36.430 --> 00:24:38.690 was obsessed with Indian philosophy. He didn't 00:24:38.690 --> 00:24:40.349 just dabble, right? He didn't just read a summary. 00:24:40.609 --> 00:24:44.150 No, he was a devotee. He had a Latin translation 00:24:44.150 --> 00:24:47.079 of the Upanishads called the Upnakat. He read 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:49.099 a few pages of it every single night before bed, 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:51.960 like a Bible. He called it the solace of my life 00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:54.299 and the solace of my death. That is incredibly 00:24:54.299 --> 00:24:57.299 high praise for a German atheist in the 1800s. 00:24:57.380 --> 00:25:00.680 What did he find in these ancient Sanskrit texts 00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:03.059 that the Germans were missing? He found confirmation. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:06.180 He realized that the Hindu sages had figured 00:25:06.180 --> 00:25:08.339 out his system thousands of years before them. 00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:11.920 Specifically, he latched on to the concept of 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.240 Maya and Tattvamasi. Let's break those down. 00:25:15.299 --> 00:25:17.579 Start with Maya. Maya is the illusion of the 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:20.220 physical world. The idea that this world of separate 00:25:20.220 --> 00:25:22.660 objects and separate people is a veil, a trick 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:25.240 of the light. Schopenhauer connected this directly 00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.920 to Kant's phenomena. So our mental software space 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:30.180 and time, that's the illusion. He said space 00:25:30.180 --> 00:25:32.700 and time are the veil of Maya. They are the scissors 00:25:32.700 --> 00:25:34.779 that chop the world up into little pieces. They 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:37.539 make me think I am me and you are you. They create 00:25:37.539 --> 00:25:39.859 the illusion of individuality. But that is the 00:25:39.859 --> 00:25:42.900 illusion. Right. Because in the noumena, in the 00:25:42.900 --> 00:25:46.039 will, there is no space. There is no time. And 00:25:46.039 --> 00:25:47.960 if there is no space, there can be no separation. 00:25:48.180 --> 00:25:52.039 There is just the one. The single, unified will. 00:25:52.299 --> 00:25:56.880 That leads to Tattiva Masi. That art thou. It's 00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:59.259 the profound realization that you are the other. 00:25:59.339 --> 00:26:02.319 You are the universe. Schopenhauer argued that 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:05.140 individuality is a joke. It's a temporary ripple 00:26:05.140 --> 00:26:07.259 in the ocean. The ripple thinks it's special, 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:11.000 but it's just water. So deep down, I am you and 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:13.200 I am the listener and I'm the poodle we're going 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.779 to talk about. Precisely. We are all the same 00:26:15.779 --> 00:26:17.980 actor in different costumes. The will is playing 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:20.400 hide and seek with itself. And this metaphysical 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:23.180 realization isn't just trippy stoner talk. For 00:26:23.180 --> 00:26:26.180 Schopenhauer, it is the basis of his entire system 00:26:26.180 --> 00:26:28.480 of ethics. This is the part of Schopenhauer I 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:31.970 find. genuinely moving. For a guy who is so grumpy 00:26:31.970 --> 00:26:34.670 in real life, his theory of morality is incredibly 00:26:34.670 --> 00:26:36.910 beautiful. It is, and it's a direct attack on 00:26:36.910 --> 00:26:39.309 Kant. He hated the way Kant did ethics. Kant 00:26:39.309 --> 00:26:41.369 was all about rules, the categorical imperative. 00:26:41.609 --> 00:26:43.769 You do the right thing because it's your rational 00:26:43.769 --> 00:26:46.509 duty. It's a cold, logical calculation. Schopenhauer 00:26:46.509 --> 00:26:48.970 said that's nonsense. You don't help an old lady 00:26:48.970 --> 00:26:50.809 across the street because you solved a logic 00:26:50.809 --> 00:26:52.569 puzzle or because you want to follow a rule. 00:26:52.769 --> 00:26:54.849 You do it because you feel something. You feel 00:26:54.849 --> 00:26:59.279 mitleid. compassion, literally suffering with, 00:26:59.539 --> 00:27:02.640 Schopenhauer asks. How is it possible for me 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:05.259 to feel another person's pain? It shouldn't be 00:27:05.259 --> 00:27:07.839 possible if we are separate, isolated entities. 00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:11.279 If I pinch you, I shouldn't feel it. But we do 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:13.859 feel it. When we see a child fall, we wince. 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:17.539 When we see a disaster on the news, we cry. Schopenhauer 00:27:17.539 --> 00:27:19.940 says that wince is the metaphysics breaking through. 00:27:20.099 --> 00:27:23.690 For a split second, the veil of Maya slips. You 00:27:23.690 --> 00:27:26.450 realize on a gut level that the child is you. 00:27:26.589 --> 00:27:29.170 The barrier of individuality dissolves. That 00:27:29.170 --> 00:27:31.490 is why you help. Compassion isn't a rule. It's 00:27:31.490 --> 00:27:33.769 an insight into the true nature of reality. It's 00:27:33.769 --> 00:27:36.450 the moment you realize you are hurting yourself. 00:27:36.710 --> 00:27:38.710 And this naturally extended to animals. And this 00:27:38.710 --> 00:27:40.450 is where Schopenhauer was light years ahead of 00:27:40.450 --> 00:27:42.890 his time. Light years. You have to remember the 00:27:42.890 --> 00:27:45.670 prevailing view in the West, coming from Descartes 00:27:45.670 --> 00:27:48.089 and the church, was that animals were biological 00:27:48.089 --> 00:27:52.730 machines. Automata. They had no souls. If a dog 00:27:52.730 --> 00:27:55.730 cried out in pain, it was just like a gear grinding 00:27:55.730 --> 00:27:58.109 in a clock. Schopenhauer hated that view. He 00:27:58.109 --> 00:28:00.970 called it revolting and barbarous. He said it 00:28:00.970 --> 00:28:04.009 was a stain on Western civilization. He pointed 00:28:04.009 --> 00:28:06.230 out that in the East, animals were respected. 00:28:06.490 --> 00:28:09.009 He hated how the English language uses the pronoun 00:28:09.009 --> 00:28:12.390 it for animals. He wanted to use he or she. Yes. 00:28:12.509 --> 00:28:15.410 He said using it treats them like objects when 00:28:15.410 --> 00:28:17.490 in fact they are subjects. They are manifestations 00:28:17.490 --> 00:28:20.720 of the will just like us. He saw the will in 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:22.960 them just as clearly as in humans. He writes 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:24.980 these heartbreaking descriptions. The source 00:28:24.980 --> 00:28:27.059 mentions him looking at a baby elephant whose 00:28:27.059 --> 00:28:29.480 mother had been killed by a hunter. He saw the 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:31.500 grief and said, that is the same suffering I 00:28:31.500 --> 00:28:34.140 feel. That is the same will. And he walked the 00:28:34.140 --> 00:28:37.579 walk. We have to talk about the poodles. Finally. 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:40.359 The poodles. Schopenhauer was never without a 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:42.380 poodle. For his entire adult life, he usually 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:44.700 named them Atman. Which is the Sanskrit word 00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:47.259 for world soul. Exactly. Or sometimes he called 00:28:47.259 --> 00:28:49.759 them butts. which is a more common German dog 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:53.440 name. But imagine walking in the park in Frankfurt 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:56.660 in 1850. You see this wild -haired, terrifying 00:28:56.660 --> 00:28:59.619 philosopher who scares the local children just 00:28:59.619 --> 00:29:02.980 cooing over a poodle named World Soul. Why poodles 00:29:02.980 --> 00:29:05.299 specifically? Was there a reason? He thought 00:29:05.299 --> 00:29:07.740 they were incredibly intelligent, but more importantly, 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:10.339 he felt dogs were better companions than humans. 00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:13.960 He said dogs live entirely in the present. They 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:15.880 don't torture themselves with the past or the 00:29:15.880 --> 00:29:18.700 future. They are transparent. He said looking 00:29:18.700 --> 00:29:21.259 into a dog's eyes was a relief from the duplicity 00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:23.599 and acting of human society. I think a lot of 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:25.819 our listeners can relate to that. Be the person 00:29:25.819 --> 00:29:28.160 your dog thinks you are. Schopenhauer would say 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.059 you can't be that person because you are human 00:29:30.059 --> 00:29:31.940 and therefore tortured by intellect, but you 00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:34.119 can learn from the dog. Okay, so we have this 00:29:34.119 --> 00:29:36.900 image of this saintly poodle lover who believes 00:29:36.900 --> 00:29:40.240 all life is one. It sounds great, but we have 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:42.039 to pivot. We have to talk about the other guy. 00:29:42.750 --> 00:29:44.549 The guy who lived down the hall from a certain 00:29:44.549 --> 00:29:47.529 seamstress. The contradiction. The man versus 00:29:47.529 --> 00:29:50.569 the philosophy. This is the juicy stuff. So set 00:29:50.569 --> 00:29:53.210 the scene. It's the 1820s. He's living in a boarding 00:29:53.210 --> 00:29:56.329 house in Berlin. Right. He's young. He's arrogant. 00:29:56.529 --> 00:29:59.589 And he's incredibly sensitive to noise. He values 00:29:59.589 --> 00:30:02.849 silence above all else for his thinking. He once 00:30:02.849 --> 00:30:05.690 wrote a whole essay called On Noise, where he 00:30:05.690 --> 00:30:07.470 just complains about the cracking of whips in 00:30:07.470 --> 00:30:10.220 the street. A man after my own heart. and there 00:30:10.220 --> 00:30:13.180 is a seamstress named caroline louise marquet 00:30:13.180 --> 00:30:15.400 she is standing in the entryway of his apartment 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:18.019 chatting loudly with a friend and schopenhauer 00:30:18.019 --> 00:30:20.460 comes out and asks her to leave she refuses they 00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:22.759 argue he goes back inside comes out again she's 00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:26.500 still there still chatting and then the great 00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:29.740 philosopher of compassion the man who says we 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.700 are all one grabs her and physically throws her 00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:35.220 out of the entryway And she falls. She falls. 00:30:35.339 --> 00:30:37.500 She claims she is permanently injured, paralyzed 00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:40.359 on one side. She sues him. And she wins. She 00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:43.059 wins. The court accepts that he caused her injury. 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.039 They order Schopenhauer to pay her a quarterly 00:30:46.039 --> 00:30:48.339 pension for the rest of her life. He had to pay 00:30:48.339 --> 00:30:51.319 her for 20 years. It was a constant financial 00:30:51.319 --> 00:30:54.059 reminder of his failure to live up to his own 00:30:54.059 --> 00:30:57.480 ideals. But it's his reaction to her death that 00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:00.079 really shows the disconnect. It's what he wrote 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:02.710 on the death certificate. Yes. When she finally 00:31:02.710 --> 00:31:05.710 died, years later, Schopenhauer received the 00:31:05.710 --> 00:31:08.309 certificate, and he wrote a note on it in Latin. 00:31:08.930 --> 00:31:12.250 Obit anus, abit onus? Translate that for us. 00:31:12.430 --> 00:31:15.609 The old woman dies, the burden departs. Wow. 00:31:16.379 --> 00:31:19.819 Cold. That is ice cold. Incredibly cold. It shows 00:31:19.819 --> 00:31:21.839 that while he understood compassion intellectually 00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:24.500 as the basis of the universe, he struggled to 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:26.960 practice it with actual human beings. He was 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:28.960 a misanthrope. He didn't like people. And he 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:31.440 was deeply paranoid. Paranoid how? Oh, deeply. 00:31:31.720 --> 00:31:34.240 He slept with loaded pistols next to his bed. 00:31:34.339 --> 00:31:36.900 He kept a sword nearby. He hid his valuables 00:31:36.900 --> 00:31:39.259 and secret hollows in his furniture. He lived 00:31:39.259 --> 00:31:41.720 in constant fear of thieves and revolutionaries. 00:31:41.720 --> 00:31:43.859 He trusted no one. He would check the register 00:31:43.859 --> 00:31:45.839 at hotels to see who else was staying there before. 00:31:45.900 --> 00:31:49.000 he checked in. It's such a strange duality. He 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:51.859 loves humanity in the abstract. He weeps for 00:31:51.859 --> 00:31:54.099 the baby elephant, but he hates his neighbor. 00:31:54.319 --> 00:31:56.920 It's a common failing of intellectuals, I think, 00:31:56.920 --> 00:31:59.700 to love the idea but despise the particular. 00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:03.960 But his ego was also a massive problem. We have 00:32:03.960 --> 00:32:05.920 to talk about the Hegel rivalry. This is one 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:08.019 of the funniest failures in academic history. 00:32:08.779 --> 00:32:11.339 This is the mean girls of 19th century philosophy. 00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:14.759 It really is. So Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:18.000 was the absolute rock star of German philosophy 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.960 at the time. He was the state philosopher. Everyone 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:23.359 loved Hegel. His lectures were packed. Hundreds 00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:26.240 of students, standing room only, people hanging 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:28.180 from the rafters. And he was an optimist, right? 00:32:28.259 --> 00:32:30.380 Totally. He was explaining history as the rational 00:32:30.380 --> 00:32:32.880 march of progress, the world spirit coming to 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:35.200 self -consciousness. It was optimistic. It was 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:37.500 patriotic. The Prussian government loved it. 00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:40.119 Schopenhauer arrives at the University of Berlin 00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:43.779 as a young lecturer. He's just written The World 00:32:43.779 --> 00:32:46.519 is Will. He thinks he is the next messiah of 00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:49.180 thought. And he decides, out of pure spite and 00:32:49.180 --> 00:32:51.680 arrogance, to schedule his lectures at the exact 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:54.579 same time as Hegel's. He wanted a showdown, a 00:32:54.579 --> 00:32:57.339 philosophical cage match. He thought once the 00:32:57.339 --> 00:32:59.319 students hear the truth of the will, they will 00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:02.519 abandon the charlatan Hegel. He really believed 00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:04.359 the students would choose the difficult truth 00:33:04.359 --> 00:33:07.049 over the popular trend. And what happened? Hegel 00:33:07.049 --> 00:33:10.910 had 200 students. Schopenhauer had five. Five. 00:33:11.109 --> 00:33:13.769 That is humiliating. It was devastating. He taught 00:33:13.769 --> 00:33:16.549 the semester to an essentially empty room, and 00:33:16.549 --> 00:33:19.450 then he just quit academia entirely. He took 00:33:19.450 --> 00:33:21.710 his ball and went home. He spent the rest of 00:33:21.710 --> 00:33:24.069 his life hating university philosophy professors. 00:33:24.450 --> 00:33:27.450 He called them sophists who just wanted a paycheck. 00:33:27.809 --> 00:33:31.069 He called Hegel a clumsy charlatan and said his 00:33:31.069 --> 00:33:33.630 writing was presumptuously scribbled nonsense. 00:33:34.250 --> 00:33:36.619 I mean, have you read Hegel? He's not entirely 00:33:36.619 --> 00:33:38.960 wrong about the nonsense part. Hegel is hard. 00:33:39.220 --> 00:33:42.240 Hegel is notoriously difficult, but Schopenhauer's 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:44.960 hatred was personal. He felt ignored, and for 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:47.259 most of his life, he was. That's the sad part 00:33:47.259 --> 00:33:49.279 of the story. He wrote his masterpiece in his 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:53.839 20s, and then nothing. Silence. Decades of silence. 00:33:54.140 --> 00:33:56.599 The world is Will was a commercial flop. At one 00:33:56.599 --> 00:33:58.359 point, the publisher told him they were pulping 00:33:58.359 --> 00:34:01.039 the unsold copies to use as waste paper. Imagine 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:02.980 hearing that your life's work is being turned 00:34:02.980 --> 00:34:06.539 into scrap. It made him bitter. He settled in 00:34:06.539 --> 00:34:09.179 Frankfurt and became this eccentric village elder 00:34:09.179 --> 00:34:13.139 figure. He lived a rigid routine. He woke up, 00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:16.280 had coffee, wrote, played the flute. He played 00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:18.659 the flute every day, usually Rossini, which is 00:34:18.659 --> 00:34:21.380 surprisingly cheerful music for a pessimist. 00:34:21.460 --> 00:34:23.920 I find that hilarious. And then went to the Englischer 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:26.320 Hof for dinner every evening. Yeah, people would 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:28.639 come to watch him eat. Like a tourist attraction. 00:34:28.820 --> 00:34:31.300 Towards the end of his life, yes. Because, and 00:34:31.300 --> 00:34:33.619 this is the twist, he eventually became famous. 00:34:33.820 --> 00:34:35.820 It took a long time, though. What was the catalyst? 00:34:36.099 --> 00:34:40.400 It took until 1851. He was in his 60s. He published 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:43.539 a collection of essays called Parerga and Paralapomena. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.960 Appendices and Omissions. Another great title. 00:34:47.079 --> 00:34:50.099 Terrible title. Great book. It was wittier, more 00:34:50.099 --> 00:34:52.780 accessible. It had essays on ghosts, on dueling, 00:34:52.820 --> 00:34:54.579 on women, which were terrible, we should mention. 00:34:55.019 --> 00:34:57.340 Absolutely misogynistic. Right. He viewed them 00:34:57.340 --> 00:35:00.079 as big children, probably stemming from his mother 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.920 issues. Almost certainly. But the book was a 00:35:02.920 --> 00:35:06.099 hit. And suddenly, the zeitgeist caught up with 00:35:06.099 --> 00:35:10.079 him. The 1848 revolutions had failed. European 00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:13.639 optimism was dead. People were ready for pessimism. 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:15.699 They were ready to hear that the world wasn't 00:35:15.699 --> 00:35:18.070 getting better. And Schopenhauer became a celebrity. 00:35:18.230 --> 00:35:20.969 He loved it. For a guy who claimed to deny the 00:35:20.969 --> 00:35:23.769 will and seek nothingness, he really enjoyed 00:35:23.769 --> 00:35:26.070 the ego boost. He read every review. He told 00:35:26.070 --> 00:35:28.230 his friends to cut out articles about him. The 00:35:28.230 --> 00:35:30.570 Buddha of Frankfurt finally got his due. Let's 00:35:30.570 --> 00:35:32.849 talk about that legacy, because even if he was 00:35:32.849 --> 00:35:35.630 a flawed man, the ideas exploded. Who did he 00:35:35.630 --> 00:35:38.699 influence? The list is staggering. First, the 00:35:38.699 --> 00:35:41.079 artists. We mentioned music earlier. Richard 00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:43.840 Wagner became a total devotee. He sent Schopenhauer 00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:46.239 a copy of his opera The Reign. Schopenhauer didn't 00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:48.579 really write back. He preferred Mozart and Rossini. 00:35:48.699 --> 00:35:51.059 Still with the Rossini. But Magner said Schopenhauer's 00:35:51.059 --> 00:35:52.780 philosophy was the only thing that made sense 00:35:52.780 --> 00:35:55.139 of his music. Tristan and Isolde is basically 00:35:55.139 --> 00:35:57.960 Schopenhauer set to music unending longing that 00:35:57.960 --> 00:36:01.280 can only be resolved in death. And writers. Tolstoy 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.619 called him the greatest genius. Thomas Mann, 00:36:03.980 --> 00:36:07.099 Marcel Proust, Thomas Hardy, even Jorge Luis 00:36:07.099 --> 00:36:10.300 Borges, they all love that dark, realistic view 00:36:10.300 --> 00:36:13.059 of human psychology. Schopenhauer was the first 00:36:13.059 --> 00:36:15.079 to really say, we are not rational creatures. 00:36:15.420 --> 00:36:17.780 And that leads us to the scientists. This is 00:36:17.780 --> 00:36:20.380 the connection that always surprises me. Einstein. 00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:22.960 Einstein kept a portrait of Schopenhauer in his 00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:25.820 study right next to Faraday and Maxwell. He said 00:36:25.820 --> 00:36:28.239 Schopenhauer's writing was a continual consolation 00:36:28.239 --> 00:36:31.019 in the face of the hardships of life. I think 00:36:31.019 --> 00:36:33.300 Einstein liked the idea that the world works 00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:36.280 according to these vast, impersonal forces. It 00:36:36.280 --> 00:36:38.980 wasn't a personal god judging you. It was a magnificent, 00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:42.340 coherent system. It helped Einstein detach from 00:36:42.340 --> 00:36:44.760 the chaos of politics and focus on the laws of 00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:47.179 nature. And Schrodinger. Yeah. The quantum mechanics 00:36:47.179 --> 00:36:50.460 guy. Berwyn Schrodinger, yes. He was deeply influenced 00:36:50.460 --> 00:36:52.920 by the one will idea. He used it to think about 00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:55.800 the unity of consciousness. The idea that I and 00:36:55.800 --> 00:36:58.480 the universe are not separate. That's very Schopenhauerian. 00:36:58.539 --> 00:37:01.099 In fact, Schrodinger's interest in the Upanishads 00:37:01.099 --> 00:37:04.260 came directly through Schopenhauer. And we can't 00:37:04.260 --> 00:37:06.880 forget Freud. It seems so obvious. Freud basically 00:37:06.880 --> 00:37:10.340 took Schopenhauer's will and renamed it the id. 00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:13.739 Think about it. An unconscious, driving sexual 00:37:13.739 --> 00:37:16.820 force that dominates our rational mind. That 00:37:16.820 --> 00:37:19.420 is pure Schopenhauer. Freud claimed he discovered 00:37:19.420 --> 00:37:22.460 it independently, but the resemblance is suspicious. 00:37:23.300 --> 00:37:25.139 Schopenhauer drew the map of the unconscious. 00:37:25.900 --> 00:37:28.780 Ford just colonized it. So as we wrap up this 00:37:28.780 --> 00:37:31.840 deep dive into the abyss, what is a takeaway? 00:37:31.940 --> 00:37:34.579 Why should a modern listener who maybe isn't 00:37:34.579 --> 00:37:37.739 depressed care about this 19th century curmudgeon? 00:37:38.059 --> 00:37:41.159 I think Schopenhauer offers a very powerful antidote 00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:43.739 to the toxic positivity of our culture. We are 00:37:43.739 --> 00:37:45.619 constantly told that if we just buy the right 00:37:45.619 --> 00:37:47.539 thing, achieve the right goal, find the perfect 00:37:47.539 --> 00:37:50.159 partner, we will be permanently happy. Manifest 00:37:50.159 --> 00:37:52.539 your best life. Good vibes only. Exactly. And 00:37:52.539 --> 00:37:54.780 Schopenhauer says, stop. That is a lie. You will 00:37:54.780 --> 00:37:56.699 never be permanently satisfied. Suffering and 00:37:56.699 --> 00:37:58.920 dissatisfaction are features, not bugs. They're 00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:00.780 the default setting. That sounds depressing, 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.920 but it's also a relief. But it's liberating. 00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:06.059 If you accept that life is difficult and that 00:38:06.059 --> 00:38:08.519 winning is impossible, you can stop beating yourself 00:38:08.519 --> 00:38:11.239 up. You can step off the treadmill. You can lower 00:38:11.239 --> 00:38:13.480 your expectations and actually enjoy the small 00:38:13.480 --> 00:38:16.340 things. You can find solace in art. You can cultivate 00:38:16.340 --> 00:38:18.639 compassion for others because you know they are 00:38:18.639 --> 00:38:21.460 struggling just as hard as you are in this penal 00:38:21.460 --> 00:38:24.340 colony of existence. It's a strange kind of comfort. 00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:26.519 We are all in the gutter, but some of us are 00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:28.780 looking at the stars. Or at least looking at 00:38:28.780 --> 00:38:31.989 a nice painting of a lemon. Precisely. His solution 00:38:31.989 --> 00:38:34.530 wasn't to change the world. He thought the world 00:38:34.530 --> 00:38:36.929 was unfixable. His solution was to change the 00:38:36.929 --> 00:38:40.849 self, to deny the will, to find moments of peace. 00:38:41.190 --> 00:38:43.150 I want to leave the listeners with a final image. 00:38:44.230 --> 00:38:47.090 Schopenhauer died in 1860. He was sitting on 00:38:47.090 --> 00:38:50.010 his couch. His heart just stopped. And his grave 00:38:50.010 --> 00:38:52.650 is in Frankfurt. It's a very simple grave, a 00:38:52.650 --> 00:38:55.579 heavy slab of granite. And on it, there is no 00:38:55.579 --> 00:38:57.940 date of birth, no date of death, no epitaph, 00:38:57.960 --> 00:39:00.800 no here lies a philosopher. Just the name. Arthur 00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:03.480 Schopenhauer. As if to say, I am the will. I 00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:05.840 am inevitable. You know who I am. Or perhaps, 00:39:05.960 --> 00:39:08.599 as he suggested in his philosophy, the individual 00:39:08.599 --> 00:39:11.320 details don't matter. The dates don't matter. 00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:14.420 The form has dissolved. He has returned to the 00:39:14.420 --> 00:39:17.280 one. Here is a provocative thought to end on. 00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:20.440 Schopenhauer said life is like a dream we were 00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:24.300 all sharing. If that's true. then your curiosity, 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:26.920 you listening to this right now, is just the 00:39:26.920 --> 00:39:29.880 universe trying to understand itself. Maybe the 00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:31.980 will isn't just blind hunger. Maybe it's also 00:39:31.980 --> 00:39:34.079 blind curiosity. I like that. A little optimistic 00:39:34.079 --> 00:39:35.820 for Schopenhauer, but I like it. He's not here 00:39:35.820 --> 00:39:38.199 to argue with me. Thanks for listening to The 00:39:38.199 --> 00:39:39.360 Deep Dive. We'll see you next time.