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In this paper, I will protect the statement made by Schopenhauer in the essay On the Suffering of the World that good is a negative quality of life from the objection that there are pleasures in life that are more than the simple absence of pain and discomfort.
In his essay On the Suffering of the World Arthur Schopenhauer states: It is the good which is negative; in other words, happiness and satisfaction always imply some desire fulfilled, some state of pain brought to an end (Schopenhauer 7). This claim means that the evil is a positive force. The state of a person is determined by either presence or absence of evil in their life. All of the human passions and pleasures are defined by the struggle to avoid simple physical pains and fulfill the basic requirements of our bodies. The philosopher argues that despite the human mind being complex and capable of interpreting and recording the previous experiences, people are extremely simple in their nature. We look for food, clothing, a place to live, and satisfaction of our sexual desires.
So the human life is defined by these basic imperatives. We are able to experience complex emotions due to our capability to remember and foresee events. All of those thoughts are linked to the needs of our lives, and we are entirely driven by them. And all needs can be summarized by the desire to avoid suffering. Thus, Schopenhauer claims that the life is defined by the evil which makes its own existence felt and all good is nothing more than the satisfaction of avoiding the evil. Being a pessimist, the philosopher denied any bright side to the world. In his opinion, people exist to suffer, and death is the only way to be released from the constant discontent, interrupted by brief satisfaction.
That statement can be contested by the claim that not all pleasures in life can be defined by the avoidance of suffering or fulfillment of a certain need. The most evident example would be the human creativity. Men are elevated by writing, painting, building and other acts of creation. Most artists describe the immense satisfaction of completing a piece of work and perceiving the result of their labor. There seems to be no connection between the acts of creation and any basic needs of the human nature. If the artist is not driven by the need to earn money, what can be the reason to create art, but the wish to experience the true positive pleasure not defined by the avoidance of suffering? Not to mention, many artists describe true exaltation they feel after their work is complete.
They claim it is not the same as satisfying your basic needs. Whether one chooses to believe them or not, the source of their happiness can hardly be linked to the physical needs. Another example is sports. If you are playing football on your days of you are clearly not doing it to provide for yourself or avoid any possible misfortune. The pleasure of competing, just like the pleasure of creating art seems to be pure, unrelated to the suffering. It can be assumed that all pleasures are similar in nature. Thus, all pleasures are pure and unrelated to the avoidance of suffering. And the pleasures definitely can be described as a force of good. By extrapolation, it can be concluded that all good cannot be described by the absence of evil. This must mean that Schopenhauer is mistaken, and the good is indeed the positive force in the world. The evil is then nothing more than the absence of good and cannot be described as the essence of our existence.
While this argument seems solid, Schopenhauer can easily discard it. He writes If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom (Schopenhauer 8). The pleasures of creation and competition might seem pure at the first glance, but the philosopher reveals them to be negative in nature. By participating in such activities, we simply avoid boredom one of the evils of the world. Sometimes, people have the time they do not have to spend struggling to fulfill their basic needs. But at those times, we are beset by boredom. Without something to busy ourselves at those times, we would go mad just like people in the perfect world without needs or struggles. To avoid the boredom, people engage in art, sports, and games. All of those things help them feel busy. Completing their work or winning a competition allows them to escape the feeling of futility of their existence. Thus, all of those seemingly pure pleasures are nothing more than the absence of the feelings of emptiness and boredom. By disproving the primary argument, the philosopher makes the extrapolation invalid. It can be concluded that happiness and satisfaction are never positive. Thus, Schopenhauer is correct, and no good or pleasurable thing in this world has any substance without the evil that it denies.
Works Cited
Schopenhauer, Arthur. Studies in Pessimism, New York, NY: Cosimo Classics, 2007. Print.
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