Literary critics state that Albert Camus (1913-1960) wrote his novel “The Stranger” under the influence of Schopenhauer (1788-1860), but they are completely wrong. Camus created a protagonist, named Meursault, who displays indifference and defeatism that do not exist in Schopenhauer’s work. Worse still, Camus did not provide any useful advice to his readers. If anything, he promoted the idea that anxiety, despair, and aggressiveness are normal. Schopenhauer actually did his best to combat those and keep them at bay. I find it more accurate to say that Schopenhauer was acutely aware of how difficult it is to attain success and happiness. In his books, we can find exceptionally clever observations on how to steer away from high risks and protect one’s happiness. The categorisation of Schopenhauer as pessimistic is wrong but provides a cheap excuse for pointing fingers and avoiding the effort of studying his works. The truth is that his advice can contribute more to human flourishing than the inaccuracies of allegedly optimistic people. It is equally unfair to link Schopenhauer to works by Franz Kafka such as “The Trial,” which presents human existence as absurd, and human rights abuses as normal. Schopenhauer did acknowledge that success and happiness take lots of effort, but did not discourage people from pursuing their dreams. According to Schopenhauer, individuals will strive all their lives to accomplish goals, and fail rather often, but he still categorised striving as normal and healthy. People are driven to pursue one goal after another without ever attaining satiety, but the process itself can be motivating and exciting. Certainly, striving is better than passivity, despair and defeatism. For instance, Schopenhauer’s objectivity and practicality do not have anything to do with the profound anxiety depicted by Edvard Munch (1863-1944) in his painting “The Scream.” It is a completely different world. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/human-flourishing-and-schopenhauers-pessimism/

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