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Full Idea
Nothing else can be stated as the aim of our existence except the knowledge that it would be better for us not to exist.
Gist of Idea
The only aim of our existence is to grasp that non-existence would be better
Source
Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], II 605), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 8 'Denial'
Book Ref
Janaway,Christopher: 'Schopenhauer' [OUP 2002], p.110
A Reaction
Nonsense on stilts. Nietzsche rebelled against this. If there is such 'knowledge' then it obviously has nothing to do with the aim of our existence. It is just a rejection of aims. The aim is making the best of existence, not spurning it.
Related Idea
Idea 18231 Anaxagoras said a person would choose to be born to contemplate the ordered heavens [Anaxagoras]
| 21380 | The only aim of our existence is to grasp that non-existence would be better [Schopenhauer] |
| 9261 | The 'Ethics' is disappointing, because it fails to try to justify our duties [Prichard] |
| 19628 | At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them [Cioran] |
| 22444 | A moral system must deal with the dangers and benefits of life [Foot] |
| 8059 | The good life for man is the life spent seeking the good life for man [MacIntyre] |
| 6850 | Wittgenstein pared his life down in his search for decency [Monk] |
| 19738 | Values are an attempt to achieve well-being by bringing contingencies under control [Kekes] |
| 20145 | Values help us to control life, by connecting it to what is stable and manageable [Kekes] |