196 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path
Schopenhauer pictures the matter differently. He
thinks of the ground of the universe not as an all-wise
and all-good being, but as blind drive or will. The funda-
mental trait of all willing is eternal striving, ceaseless
yearning for satisfaction that can, however, never be at-
tained. For as soon as we attain the goal of our striving,
a new need arises, and so on. Satisfaction lasts less than
an instant. The whole remaining content of our life is un-
satisfied craving—that is, dissatisfaction, suffering. If
our blind urge is finally dulled, then we become content-
less, and infinite boredom fills our existence. Therefore,
the best course is to stifle wishes and needs, to extirpate
our wanting. Schopenhauer’s pessimism leads to inactiv-
ity; his ethical goal isuniversal sloth.
By a fundamentally different method, von Hartmann
tries to found pessimism and then use it for ethics. Fol-
lowing a favored tendency of our time, von Hartmann at-
tempts to found his worldview on experience. From
observation of life, he seeks to discover whether plea-
sure or pain predominates in the world. Reviewing ev-
erything that appears good or fortunate to us in the light
of reason, he shows that all supposed contentment
proves on closer inspection to be illusion. It is illusory to
believe that we have sources of happiness and satisfac-
tion in health, youth, freedom, adequate income, love
(sexual pleasure), compassion, friendship and family
life, self-esteem, honor, fame, power, religious educa-
tion, pursuit of science and art, hope of life hereafter, or
participation in cultural evolution. Soberly considered,
every pleasure brings much more evil and suffering into
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