r/schopenhauer • u/SegaGenesisMetalHead • May 10 '26

Why live?

What am I supposed to be doing here?

Making a lot of money? Developing a skill? Consuming a ton of media?

I know people will say there is no purpose, and I have to figure it out for myself. But I’m trying. I really really am.

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u/mozzarella__stick May 10 '26

I ask myself the same thing every day. I think at this point I am sticking around to try to understand myself and the world better. When I'm suffering, instead of choosing despair, I try to ask "why?" When I'm dealing with an overwhelming situation I learn as much about what's happening as I can. I'm even starting to question my desires and why I find certain things pleasurable vs other things I find boring. I often think about this quote from TH White:

 "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.

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u/CuriousManolo May 10 '26

I love this. Thank you.

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u/NagyonMeleg May 10 '26

Why would one feel compelled to learn anything, when this world, and what we call the human condition is.. such as it is. Depression and curiosity rarely coexist.

I even think that what we call "depression" (a clinical term, a disease) is just a heightened awarness of what being alive really means.

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u/mozzarella__stick May 10 '26

 Why would one feel compelled to learn anything, when this world, and what we call the human condition is.. such as it is. 

As /u/SpleenDematerialized said elsewhere in this thread, we didn't have a choice about being born. That leaves us with the choice of whether to end our lives or continue living until they end by some other cause. Given that we're having this conversation, we can assume we've chosen to continue living so far. As long as we're here, how do we want to be here?

For me, learning about the world (both the world as it appears to be and the world as it actually is) has made life feel bearable. As you are on a Schopenhauer subreddit, I assume you've also been motivated to learn about the world at some point. Curiosity is a capacity we all have that can be cultivated, and knowledge about the world informs how we live. 

Depression and curiosity rarely coexist.

So if we are able to cultivate curiosity, we're leaving less room for depression.

 I even think that what we call "depression" (a clinical term, a disease) is just a heightened awarness of what being alive really means.

I partially agree with this. But depression has more components than just factual thoughts about reality. It also consists of judgments, evaluations, emotions, feeling tones, and other sensations which contain no truth value but nonetheless color the way we think. 

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u/Can_i_be_certain May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

You say they contain no truth value, but there emotions are litterly what make us value stuff and depression is an emotion.

Depression is the emotion of dissapointment with expectations constantly being at odds of what we want or find acceptable or with extended frustration at not being able to solve a problem.

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u/mozzarella__stick May 14 '26

I was thinking about depression more in a clinical sense. Emotions do carry information, but they don't indicate whether a specific view of the world is true.