Chapter 59 Book IV The World as Will Revisited §59

Having examined in the most general terms, studied the first and least basic outlines of human life, and within this sphere we have convinced ourselves a priori that true happiness is impossible in its entirety, that life is In essence, it is suffering in various forms, and it is a consistent unfortunate situation; then, if we now use the method of proving after the fact, are willing to delve into more specific situations, and are willing to imagine some situations and describe the nameless troubles in examples, experience and If we discuss the troubles pointed out by history, regardless of which side people look at or under which considerations, we can more vividly arouse in our minds the belief that "life is just pain".Still, [if this were done,] this chapter would be endless, and would take us away from the "general" position that is fundamentally philosophically indispensable.In addition, it is easy for people to regard such a description as a deliberate clamor for life's troubles, just like the clamors that have been repeated in the past; what's more, since this description is based on individual facts, people can also accuse it of one-sidedness.Our arguments about suffering, which are inevitable and grounded in the nature of life, are entirely dispassionately philosophical, general and a priori inferred, and such reproaches and suspicions cannot be laid upon us.But it is everywhere easy to verify this belief a posteriori.Anyone who has awakened from the dream of youth, who has paid attention to his own experience and that of others, and made many observations in life, in the history of the past and the present, and finally in the works of the great poets, If, then, some deep and indelible prejudice had not clouded his judgment, he might well have come to the conclusion that this world is the realm of chance and error [both], and that both exist within it. He ruthlessly dominates both the big and the small.Beyond them there is ignorance and malice waving their whips, so that anything better has to break through with difficulty, and that which is noble and wise hardly shows itself to be useful or noticeable; but the absurd in the kingdom of thought And paradox, vulgarity and tedium in the realm of art, viciousness and cunning in the realm of deeds, virtually maintain their dominion save for brief intermissions.On the contrary, excellence of any kind is often only an exception, one case in a million.Then there is the fact that if this excellence is revealed in a work that has been handed down from generation to generation, it will still be like a star when it is isolated and shelved after the quality of the work has exhausted the envy of contemporary people. Like a stone, it seemed to have sprung from another order of things than that which governs the world. —As for individual life, any history of life is also a history of pain; for the life of any man is, as a rule, a succession of misfortunes great and small, although [it is in vain] that one tries to conceal them as much as possible.And one conceals it because he knows that other people must rarely feel concern and sympathy, but almost always contentment, when they think of these disasters which happen to be from which he is now spared. —But perhaps no one, if he is sober and candid at the same time, would like to repeat this life at the end of his life; There is a world-famous solitude in the play "Letter", and the basic content of this solitude can be summed up as follows: Our situation is so distressing that it would be better not to exist at all.If suicide really offers us non-existence, so that the alternative "existence or non-existence" can be revealed in the full sense of the phrase, then suicide should be unconditionally chosen as the most desirable [merit] fulfillment ( the ultimate perfection that should be devoutly sought).But there is still something in our [heart] telling us: things are not like this, this is not the end, and death is not absolute destruction.The patriarch of history has said the same thing, and probably never contradicted it, when he said: There never was a man who, not several times, did not want to live another day.On this account, the shortness of life that people so often complain about may be justified. —Finally, if one were to display before every man's eyes the dreadful pains and torments with which his life opened [undeniable], the man would tremble with terror; if one would Lead one of the most die-hard optimists to visit regular hospitals, field hospitals, surgical operating rooms, prisons, torture chambers, slave confinement places, prisons and execution grounds; , [While you look,] pain crawls away from cold curiosity, and at last show him Ugolino's starvation prison; then, at last, he must also see the best possible world What is going on.If Dante wrote his "Purgatory" without drawing materials from our real world, where else could he draw materials?And our real world has turned into a decent hell indeed.On the contrary, when Dante sets out to describe the heavens and their bliss, insurmountable difficulties lie before him in accomplishing the task, for our world just has no material for it; Instead of writing about the joys of heaven, there is nothing left to do but repeat to us what his ancestors, his Beatrice, and some saints taught him in heaven.But it fully shows what kind of world this is.It is true that people's lives are like some low-grade commodities, which are covered with a layer of false glory on the outside.All pain is always covered up, on the contrary, all high-sounding and glorious things must be shown off.The more deficient he is in his heart, the more he wants to be seen as lucky in the eyes of others. [Man's] ignorance can reach such a point that the opinions of others become the chief object of every human effort, though the original meaning of the word vanity is almost uniform in all languages ​​to mean emptiness and nothingness, It has already shown that this approach is meaningless. —but even before all this deceit, the misery of life could easily be so multiplied—and this is a daily occurrence—that people who fear nothing more than death now fear Longing to beg to die.Yes, if fate really uses all its insidiousness, then even the last retreat of the sufferer will be blocked, and he will be left in the hands of the ruthless enemy to suffer cruel and chronic torture, incurable .At this time, it is useless for the tortured person to cry to his god for help, and he has to remain in the hands of fate without mercy.But this incorrigibility is just a mirror to the untameable will of his, the objectivity of which is himself. — Just as no external force can alter or annul this will, so no alien force can relieve him of his suffering, which arises from life, and life is the manifestation of that will.A man has to turn back and rely on himself, both in everything and in the main things.It is utterly vain that man invents gods for himself, in the hope of courting and flattering them for what only his own willpower can achieve. Since the "Old Testament" has regarded the world and human beings as a creation of God, then the "New Testament" has to let people know that salvation and relief from the sufferings of this world can only start from the world itself. That God becomes man.Man's will is, and will continue to be, his everything—the thing upon which he depends.Penitents, martyrs, saints, etc., of all faiths and names, willingly and willingly endure any kind of torture, because in these people the will to live has canceled itself, so even the slow destruction of the phenomenon of will is what they want. welcome now.But this will be discussed in detail later, so I won't preemptively talk about it here. —Besides, I cannot help saying here that optimism seems to me to be true if it does not belong to people who pretend to be nothing but empty words behind a sunken heaven, who talk without thought. ; that would appear not just as an absurd idea but as a truly immoral idea, as a vicious satire on the nameless suffering of mankind. —One must not think that Christian teaching may be conducive to optimism, since, on the contrary, world and calamity are used almost synonymously in the Gospels.