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Single Idea 21371

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness ]

Full Idea

So long as our consciousness is filled by our will, so long as we are given up to the throng of desires with its constant hopes and fears, so long as we are the subject of willing, we never attain lasting happiness or peace.

Gist of Idea

We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], I 196), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 6 'Aesthetic'

Book Ref

Janaway,Christopher: 'Schopenhauer' [OUP 2002], p.71

A Reaction

I hate this idea. It obviously leads to his Buddhism, and the eastern idea that life is generally a bad idea and to be avoided. I think Nietzsche rebelled strongly against this attitude of Schopenhauer's.

The 32 ideas with the same theme [how can happiness be achieved?]:

5835 The road of freedom is the surest route to happiness [Aristippus elder, by Xenophon]
332 One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato]
17947 Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
7812 For peace of mind, you need self-government, indifference and independence [Diogenes of Sin.]
5139 If happiness can be achieved by study and effort, then it is open to anyone who is not corrupt [Aristotle]
39 Happiness needs total goodness and a complete life [Aristotle]
5144 Happiness is activity in accordance with complete virtue, for a whole life, with adequate external goods [Aristotle]
100 The happy life is in accordance with goodness, which implies seriousness [Aristotle]
106 The best life is that of the intellect, since that is in the fullest sense the man [Aristotle]
5865 Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure [Aristotle]
5850 Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits [Aristotle]
14059 The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion [Epicurus]
20865 Happiness is the end and goal, achieved by living virtuously, in agreement, and according to nature [Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
22756 If a desire is itself desirable, then we shouldn't desire it, as achieving it destroys it [Sext.Empiricus]
6678 We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present [Pascal]
7917 Realising our future misery is a kind of happiness [Rochefoucauld]
4860 Man's highest happiness consists of perfecting his understanding, or reason [Spinoza]
5019 Supreme human happiness is the greatest possible increase of his perfection [Leibniz]
7538 The happiest people link the beginning and end of life [Goethe]
21371 We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires [Schopenhauer]
7076 Mill wondered if he would be happy if all his aims were realised, and answered no [Mill, by Critchley]
24111 Happiness is the active equilibrium of our drives [Nietzsche]
14849 We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche]
7159 The only happiness is happiness with illusion [Nietzsche]
14884 The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value) [Nietzsche]
5655 Happiness is not satisfaction of desires, but fulfilment of values [Bradley, by Scruton]
20180 A happy and joyous life must largely be a quiet life [Russell]
21743 In wartime, happiness is hating the enemy, because it gives the war a purpose [Russell]
9227 We might not choose a very moral life, if the character or constitution was deficient [Frankfurt]
4650 The quality of a life is not altogether independent of its length [Glover]
20154 Control is the key to well-being [Kekes]
20157 Well-being needs correct attitudes and well-ordered commitments to local values [Kekes]