Why this book?
- To become acquainted with Schopenhauer's view on the concept of happiness.
- To study 50 practical rules about the way of life.
- To understand the connection between philosophy and everyday human experience.
- To find a more realistic perspective on joy and suffering.
About the book
The Art of Happiness is a work by Arthur Schopenhauer that presents his view on well-being and the way of living in the form of fifty rules for life. These rules are shaped by his philosophical and ethical reflections and attempt to strike a balance between accepting the realities of life and the pursuit of tranquility.
In this book, contrary to the common perception of his philosophical pessimism, Schopenhauer seeks to offer practical solutions for a better life. He believes that complete and lasting happiness is unattainable, but by recognizing one's limitations, desires, and abilities, one can lead a less painful life.
This book is suitable for those interested in the philosophy of life, personal development, and Schopenhauer's thought. The reader encounters a combination of practical wisdom, ethics, and a philosophical view of the human experience.
The wisdom of life, as a theoretical principle or doctrine, is perhaps more or less synonymous with the term 'eudaimonics' in Greek. Such wisdom should presumably teach us to live as happily as possible, and at the same time, its task must be to lead us to a solution between two limitations; that is, to encourage us to spend our brief lives, on the one hand, free from a tendency toward Stoicism and, on the other, devoid of Machiavellianism. In the first tendency, it is presumably not necessary to completely take the path of renouncing attachments, self-mortification, or deprivation, for this science is intended for the ordinary human being, and this ordinary human being, in seeking his own well-being by adopting that very path, is confronted with a multitude of (sensory, common) desires and inevitably resorts to the second path, to Machiavellianism, that is, to practical rules that bring him happiness, but such happiness obviously comes at the cost of destroying the happiness of other individuals, and for the ordinary person, such a thing is not necessarily contingent upon reason. Therefore, the scope of the wisdom of life likely lies somewhere between the domains of Stoicism and Machiavellianism, though both extreme aspects may be considered a shorter but unsuccessful path to the goal: the wisdom of life teaches us how to achieve happiness as much as possible, without excessive asceticism and self-mastery, and without treating another merely as the only possible means to our own end.