On fragmentation
The attainment of happiness, “the good life,” or what the Greeks termed eudaimonia, is a superfluous and ever-failing endeavor. The incessant desire for happiness (the supreme good) is paradoxically what prolongs the state of suffering. Moreover, “the good life” can only be reduced to temporary gratifications, interim feats of tranquility, or an apotheosis of one’s subjective meaning without reconciliation of true human purpose. Beyond these momentary reliefs, the ability to embody lasting happiness, or the “highest good,” is a null pursuit, only for one to be reminded that suffering is part of the very fabric of such a pursuit. In striving for happiness, one merely halts progress towards the goal of happiness itself. This striving (and thus suffering) works beyond individual pursuits towards the good life, but rather, is depicted in the artistic tissues of human culture. To consider suffering as immanent in existence, the notion of philosophical fragmentation should be considered a major byproduct and symptom of cosmic disorder. And so, one may look to the German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Philipp Mainländer.
Arthur Schopenhauer and Philipp Mainländer’s philosophies of pessimism not only poetically depict the state of decay that festers throughout human life but provide a systematic understanding of why lasting happiness may never be achieved. By contextualizing Schopenhauer and Mainländer’s pessimism within modern culture, one can look at the humanities, and especially its state within the 20th century, and recognize the fragmentation and dissolution of structure that holds it hostage. The humanities are in a deadlock of striving towards the fragmentation of itself. Human culture, particularly personified in the arts, is constantly reaching toward nothingness; in the will toward creative endeavors, such endeavors have recognized the absurdity and failure of being able to truly create anything new. And so, in this striving for a good life via creative expression, there is inadvertently a will-to-nothingness. From the Schopenhauerian “will-to-life” to the Mainländerian “will-to-death,” one can recognize the current state of the arts via philosophical fragmentation. Of course, to contextualize the decay of human culture as manifested in art, and likewise “the good life,” one must be familiar with the pessimistic notions of Schopenhauer, Mainländer, and the philosophical fragmentation that inhabits existence.
The primary relationship between suffering and happiness in Schopenhauer’s philosophy is his idea of the “Will-to-Live” or simply the will. This will to life is intrinsic in all existing things – plants strive to grow, animals strive to survive, and humans strive for happiness. The will, then, is the fundamental source of suffering – it is the irrational, blind, and primary function of being.[1] From this, it is the natural conclusion for Schopenhauer that one must cease the will to cease suffering, and only from this, one may experience glimpses of the good life. Likewise, for Schopenhauer, the will may only be ceased through two methods – a deep engagement with art, or living a life of asceticism. For Schopenhauer, a deep engagement with art was a way of interacting with platonic ideals; whether it be experiencing art, analyzing art, or creating art, one may momentarily cease the will whilst being in communion with the sublime.[2] Through this communion, one could experience an imaginative representation (be it a painting, poetry, etc.) of the will that had met its goal – a finished state of striving. On the other hand, a life of asceticism was another method – in living a life of complete resignation of desire, one could then cease the desire for happiness. In this cessation of desire for “the good life,” one could inadvertently cease the will and thus suffering itself. Thus, it is no surprise that Schopenhauer’s methods for the destruction of suffering (and thus the attainment of happiness) directly parallel Buddhist philosophy.
For the Buddha, suffering could only be destroyed through the absolute annihilation of the renewal of existence; since the origin of suffering is existence, that which causes the renewal of existence (or the will) is the ultimate perpetrator which negates the ability of lasting happiness. [3] To reach the state of Nirvana (enlightenment), then, the total annihilation of suffering would then require something approximate to nothingness, or, emptiness. Thus, the Schopenhauerian endeavor is essentially a method of reaching such a state through a recognition of the will. While the Buddha does not necessarily advocate for the extremity of asceticism, (in fact Buddha considers it an excess or vice rather than a productive practice towards the “middle path” of Nirvana), one can see how Schopenhauer adopts the utility of asceticism into his understanding of attaining momentary happiness. [4] To engage with ascetic contemplation is to symbolically annihilate the renewal of existence – it is to become one with a sense of emptiness through the total negation of desire or the will. Furthermore, the Buddhist destruction of suffering likewise parallels Philipp Mainländer’s analysis of existence and is arguably even closer in its ethos than it is to Schopenhauer’s philosophical pessimism.
Now that one may have a general understanding of Arthur Schopenhauer’s “Will-to-Live,” it then follows that Philipp Mainländer’s “Will-to-Death,” may be understood. Rather than the Schopenhauerian notion that existence is striving to for a complete state of being, Mainländer inverts thewill, in a few ways:
(a.) the will has a goal and is not an irrational and blind force.
(b.) the will is not a single unified force but an amalgam of disunified individual wills.
(c.) the will is the manifestation of being aiming towards nothingness.
In this way, Mainländer posits a sort of Hegelian view, that existence has an ultimate goal (non-existence), and the will is a sort of measure of its progress.[5] Because, for Mainländer, the will is not simply a blind force for life but rather is a manifestation of being’s (or “God’s”) aim towards nothingness, Mainländer suggests that the true nature of the will, then, is a will-to-die, – in things ceasing to exist, they fundamentally serve the purpose of being’s goal, which is to not be.[6] However, since being cannot not be simply due to its immanent nature, it is required to carry out a process of fragmentation thus causing multiple wills rather than the unified Schopenhauerian will. For Schopenhauer, the will is like an ocean in which every part of existence continues to manifest (e.g. human life is just the seafoam and the whole of nature the rest); for Mainländer, it is the same, however, it is an ocean that aims to fragment itself into smaller and smaller bodies of water, puddles, drops, a mist, and eventually, nothing. Thus, for Mainländer, this is why humans simultaneously experience a sense of oneness with existence while also a feeling of fragmentation and detachment because of our own subjective experiences. We experience reality the way we do because it is the organic expression of a disunifiedwill – reality is unfinished, or fragmented. In this way, Mainländer paints a very pessimistic picture of the universe, in which, all facets of existence, including ourselves, are all but atomic units of the decaying body of God (being). And so, while one may now generally understand Mainländer’s inversion of Schopenhauer’s “will-to-live” into the “will-to-die,” the notion of fragmentation must especially be considered to apply and expand these ideas to the decomposition, rather than simple sublimity, of art.
Fragmentation may generally be understood as a sort of entropic force innate to existence. While philosophical fragmentation typically conveys the dissolution of structures in ideas, ethics, art, etc., physical fragmentation may be represented in instances of stars imploding, molecules breaking down (water becoming gas), or even the immanence of wave properties in atomic particles depicted in quantum theory. However, there is much to be said about the former mirroring the latter. With the advent of the scientific enlightenment and the developments of quantum theory in the early 20th century, one may attribute initial artistic expressions as a bit reactionary. Moreover, the fragmentation of the arts in reaction to scientific inquiry resulted in the dissolution of structure exhibited in various disciplines. One may consider the evolution from realism to cubism and abstract art, the progression from mathematical fugues of classical music to the avant-garde atonality of 20th-century composition, or the dissolution of structure in poetry orienting itself from the metrical translations of Shakespeare to the free-verse of Charles Bukowski. In these ways, philosophical fragmentation manifested in the humanities, and thus, human culture, is directly paralleled to the disunifying scientific entropy that inhabits existence itself. Just as the universe is expanding and stars continue to implode, the dissolution of structure in the humanities aims toward a vapor – a miasma of absurdity. Now, I am not suggesting that the human race should halt any creative endeavors; rather, it is in recognition of this absurd entropy that indirectly fuels the creative faculties of man, nonetheless.[7] From this perspective, it seems that everything that exists is subconsciously pursuing a state of non-being but unable to fully do so; this, of course, is consistent with Mainländer’s conception of “God,” that, reality is an un-whole movement toward nothingness.
Now that the notion of fragmentation has been conveyed, I must return to my original point: the “good life” is a superfluous endeavor. Because of the cosmological scale of suffering that the Buddha entails, our inability to escape the will, and the fragmentary nature of reality, we are forced to reconcile a meaningless (or at least, disunified) existence. While some may take these pessimistic notions and turn to a life of nihilistic behavior, I suggest that the entropic state of reality and immanent suffering of existence calls for a radical and necessary compassion towards other human beings. While philosophical pessimism generally agrees with the premise that “nothingness is preferable to being,” I suggest that those who are still being, should embrace the tragedy of a fragmented existence. [8] Taking such a premise as an axiom, I further suggest that through a universal understanding of the human condition in the face of suffering (and thus the human predicament), compassion is a necessary tool to revitalize the last redemptive quality of human life: the creative faculties which man has been imbued with. While I shall go on to discuss the fragmentation of the humanities, I likewise adamantly condemn the nihilistic conclusions that a reader may come to – by illuminating the fragmented state of existence, the necessity for compassion and creativity becomes that much more significant. This being said Mainländer’s fragmented world is evident in many facets of human culture; fragmentation incessantly occurs in the evolution of the arts, is reflected in the sciences, and suffocates all possibility of the “good life.” By using the framework of Mainländer’s fragmented will, and then returning to the Schopenhauerian and Buddhist suffering, one realizes that lasting happiness is an unattainable state. Thus, one must draw insights into the philosophically pessimistic lens of “the good life” by first discussing the fragmentation of fine art.
Realism, Surrealism, and Ontological Death
The dissolution of fine art in the last few centuries and up into the 21st century is just one example of fragmentation within human culture. Concerning realism, one might think of the Dutch master, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, or even the modern realism of Andrew Wyeth. While realism is alive and well in the modern era, the movement of depicting objects and subjects as close to reality as possible is no longer in vogue. One might consider the realism depicted by Dutch painter Paulus Potter (1625-1654) who scrupulously detailed the lives of farm animals and monotonous landscapes. One such painting is his Two Pigs in a Stye (1649).While one might interpretively imbue a sense of romantic qualities to the monotony of such a painting, it is clear that the mode of realism is an unembellished arrant nakedness of everyday life. In a sense, this lack of romanticism portrays a unified depiction of reality – romantic qualities are absent, the picture is as clear as the painter could define it, and there is no warping of shadows, light, or physical structures. The notion of realism can be understood as an assumptive movement in art pre-existing modern developments in physics, in which, man imagines reality as a unified unwavering condition. While one could further discuss the fragmentation of art from the movement of realism to impressionism and expressionism, I shall turn the discussion to the stark backlash of scientific enlightenment in the 20th century. That is, upon recognition of quantum theory, the movement of surrealism further dissolved the mainstream conception of a unified reality in fine art.
At the turn of the 20th century, developments in physics engendered a crisis within the humanities – that, if reality could be reduced to pure waveforms via the lens of quantum mechanics, how can man define the purpose and value of human life if he lives within a fragmented reality? Furthermore, upon the dissolution of a mainstream conception of objective reality or “truth” via scientific discoveries – “an unreflective harmony of community and consciousness was shattered by the discovery of subjective freedom” (Ware 139). As the results of subatomic studies determined that reality was composed of fragmentary breaks, seemingly broken episteme, and a shattered essence of being, it became only natural for the surrealists to have an informed response. Moreover, the surrealist movement fashioned itself from the scientific developments of quantum theory, in which humanistic depictions were dissolved by the “…assertion that each event in space-time is experienced in a different way by each observer witnessing it…to still cling to an illusory scrap of an image – than the slow and indeterminate swelling of waves of spaces or of something that could still be like pure space, as the ultimate expression of reality” (Parkinson 560-561). Throughout the movement of surrealism, the notion of nothingness being the “ultimate expression of reality” is mystified through discontinuities in physical structure and the defying of unified materiality. One example of this artistic response to the seemingly absurd state of existence is Salvador Dali’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954). Dali’s Disintegration depicts a symbolic mode of reality as conveyed by quantum theory; that, because reality itself may be an expression of pure nothingness, or at least, an unfinished state, then memory’s final expression is likewise the negation of itself. In a sense, there is an ontological death of the self expressed in Dali’s painting. If one assumes Mainländer’s philosophy to be an accurate reflection of being; that, existence is in pursuit of reaching the finality of nothingness, it then follows that memory is simply one manifestation of this pursuit. Rather than memory being an expression of unity, it is an expression of its ontological aim toward fragmentation, “disintegration,” or death.
Ontological death, or, the stripping down of being to a final resolution of nothingness, can further be elaborated on via Mainländer’s philosophical pessimism. If the surrealist movement was reactionary to 20th-century scientific developments, one may consider Mainländer’s philosophy to prophetically anticipate the entropic spiral of the humanities. That is, the fragmentation of fine art fulfills the metaphysical speculations that Mainländer lays out: “…His [God’s, Being’s, a unified will, etc.] essence is gradually weakened and extinguished…everything tends toward weakening and extinction, from the inorganic materials (solids, liquids, gases) to plants, to animals, to human beings…only mankind would be able to become aware of this original proclivity and consequently act to accelerate this process of mass dissolution” (Jaña 113). While Mainländer paradoxically ascribes a determinist view in light of the indeterminate landscape of quantum theory, one can nonetheless conclude that the proclivity towards nothingness is representative of the eventual post-human state of physical entropy. That, something like subatomic pure space is simply another representation of Mainländer’s ontological disintegration. Furthermore, the only reason why Man may become aware of this original tendency for fragmentation is due to his over-evolved state. [11] In the awareness of one’s mortality man is inadvertently fixed on the primordial horror of being – that the over-evolved state of human consciousness consequently forces man to recognize his own finitude. Moreover, the intersection of human self-awareness, the developments in quantum theory, and art’s imitation of such developments have concluded in the consistent aim towards fragmentation and ontological annihilation.
The state of fine art continues to fragment in the 21st century, especially in the digital world and the passive uprising of artificial intelligence. At this point, man-made art is purely an option as AI has furthered the generation of paintings, drawings, digital art, etc. In a sense, the dissolution of fine art continues because of the commodification of art itself and the devaluation of art via copied images. At one point, art was not only a representation of human talent, but a practical trade for those in the industry of producing works for cathedrals, private estates, and commissioned portraits. With the advent of artificial intelligence, the value of man-made art is more of a novelty rather than of necessity to experience the aesthetic sublime – because the current generation is now chronically attached to the internet it is likewise under the constant subjection to indefinite amounts of simulacra. [12] While one can generate a romantic painting through AI, or simply Google paintings of the like, the experiential novelty of art is predominantly deprived. Consumption of art within the digital mainstream is no longer a form of opportunity for purposeful Schopenhauerian aesthetic reflection but exists merely as a byproduct of depressive hedonia. [13] And so, the novelty of images in themselves is only achievable if a certain level of sacrifice or effort is now attached – e.g. visiting a museum, commissioning an artist, or the practice of art itself. All in all, the Mainländerian will-to-nothingness supersedes mere metaphysical speculation and is directly translated into the artistic products of human beings. The fragmentation of fine art subsists not only in the dissolution of structure from realism to surrealism but continues to ontologically negate itself via the advent of a technological (and thus scientific) singularity towards post-human creativity (AI). This being said, it naturally follows that the issue of fragmentation expressed in Mainländer’s philosophy and how it is exhibited in other art forms is called into question.
Twentieth-Century Composition and Experimental Rock
Another instance of fragmentation within the humanities can be seen in the emphasis on atonality, repetition, and dissonance in music. In the last few centuries, music has marched towards the death of structure – the Baroque period produced the mathematical fugues of Bach, the Classical era comprised the dynamic genius of Mozart, and the Romantic period engendered the swelling nocturnes of Chopin. However, by the twentieth century, the atonality and dissonance of Schoenberg’s and Stravinsky's pieces engendered the musical zeitgeist of the modern era. Likewise, one may note the paradoxical acceleratory nature of music, especially within the last century. That is, many serious-minded musicians had reached such experimental qualities within the 20th century that some compositions may ironically be seen as derivative of the monophonic tones exhibited in medieval chants. As the Romantic era ended, the modernist movement in Opus-oriented music focused on fragmenting the prior structures of past musical phenomena. Schoenberg’s use of atonality became a definitive characteristic of twentieth-century composition due to the rejection of the mainstream understanding of tonality that
“…endured from the time of Bach to the early twentieth century. Its main characteristic was the persistence of a “tonal center” or “common fundamental tone,” to which the chords and lines throughout a work referred by well-defined hierarchical and functional relationships. Key provided the composer with two properties that allowed music to be better understood: a unity of structure that owed from the pervasive allegiances of lines and chords to the tonal center.” (Simms 10).
In defying these sorts of “allegiances” of chords to a tonal center, Schoenberg consistently purported that his compositions contained no musical key; the rejection of this “unity of structure” parallels the inherent philosophical fragmentation of being that Mainländer upholds. In abandoning a tonal center, the structure of Schoenberg’s work symbolically lends itself to the Mainländerian disunified will in creative endeavors – the product of Schoenberg’s creativity implicitly negates the gesture of a unified structure of being. [14] In Schoenberg’s creation, there is a paradoxical sense of destruction, musical liquidation, and raw entropic energy. [15] Likewise, the use of dissonance and “ugly” repetition was carried forward by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. In the first part of his famous TheRite of Spring (1913), Stravinsky puts forth the thunderous and pummeling chord strikes of the “Augurs of Spring.” This section of the composition relays a sort of hypnotic and hellish repetition of breaks and discontinuities; while the listener waits patiently for the next rise or release in tone, the “Augurs” uncompromisingly inflicts blow after blow of dissonant noise. [16] And so, it is unsurprising that the progenitors of atonality in modernist composition influenced the use of dissonance and repetition in the latter half of the twentieth century; moreover, the use of such methods carried over specifically into the scene of experimental rock.
For a moment, I’d like to use the experimental rock band, Swans, as a primary example of the serious-minded use of dissonance in the 1980s and up to the last decade that is representative of artistic fragmentation. Swans is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and frontman Michael Gira. With an initial desire to be a visual artist, Gira formed Swans in his late twenties at the height of the No-Wave scene in New York City. The “No-Wave” scene was a short-lived movement in the late 1970s to early 80s that comprised a small collective of visual and musical artists that adamantly challenged the structure of songs themselves and the listener, and often upheld nihilistic and anti-post-industrial social themes. In a sense, the No-Wave scene was an unholy intersection of punk rock and independent cinema. Michael Gira released Swans’ first album, Filth, in 1983, and is still to this day considered a classic of the No-Wave movement. Throughout the album, one can follow Gira terrorizing the listener with themes of grotesque domination – “Use sex for control / Use power for power / Use hate for freedom / Use money for cruelty” – sitting harshly between walls of incendiary noise, whipped sheet metal, and vastly sustained chordal dissonance. [17] In a sense, there is a sort of tribalistic motif throughout Swans’ discography. Even up to their most recent album, The Beggar (2023), the use of hypnotic repetition and sheer volume elicits an attempt for transcendence from the listener. In one interview, Gira states: “It was an extraordinarily hot day…[there were] these open trajectories of sound and these slave-ship rhythms, so I found myself being pulled by this luminescent thread…It’s this moment where the music…takes you to an essential place.” (Soulsby 262-263). Through sheer dissonance and repetition, Gira attempts to bring himself and the audience to a sort of ritualistic submission to sound in itself; however, in this quasi-spiritual act, there is inadvertently a complete rejection of musical structure and an embracing of pure interpretation. While one may view Swans’ discography as a sort of panoramic interpretation of sound, there remains an immanent rejection of traditional song structure and tonal methodology – Gira is a composer of blissful hellscapes in which the stages of grief are elicited from the listener until eventual acceptance is achieved. In general, the musical progression of atonality and dissonance within the twentieth century depicts the extremes of artistic fragmentation up to current times.
To tie the prior subjects back into the notion of philosophical pessimism, I must again return to the Mainländerian disunified will. Mainländer’s will-to-death is not merely manifested in material organic and inorganic subjects but even in metaphysical aspects such as art, music, and ideas. Rather than viewing art and philosophy as disciplines that build upon each other, one might view them as metaphysical manifestations of Mainländer’s will; that, in the very pursuit of “building” upon itself, it inherently acts as a negation. The movement towards fragmentation is, perhaps, accelerated by the awareness and reaction to scientific development (such as quantum theory); however, this fragmentation of ideas has continued far before 20th century developments. One might consider the Buddhist recognition of the destruction of suffering through the annihilation of the renewal of existence, or Lucretius’s atomism, in which, atoms are ceaselessly accelerating in a void of infinite space, thus, one’s current world (and body) is already deteriorating. [18] So, while one may suggest that the bleak nihilism of the 20th century is characterized by the response to the catastrophes therein (WWI, WWII, etc.) and the philosophical and artistic backlash of the natural sciences, the idea of fragmentation precedes the acceleration of 20th-century consciousness. That being said, the consequences of ideas (ideas produced by prior ideas) are not insofar that they create new positively-charged syntheses, but rather, they act as a will-to-nothingness because the syntheses themselves hold preserved negations of prior dialectics.[19] This Hegelian mode of considering how ideas function is an inversion of upward progress in the mainstream conceptual sense of historical philosophy. For Mainländer, negation is the building block towards the ultimate goal of nothingness; possessed by the will-to-death, the fragmentation of not only the physical world but of humanistic metaphysical wills (ideas, music, art, etc.) is a mere symptom of being’s aim towards annihilation – “…the suicidal removes not only the phenomenal being, but also the noumenal being, every suicide is, in fact, a deicide” (Bolea 7). Likewise, if we briefly take Lucretius’s atomism into account, the Mainländerian will is consistent – if nothingness is being’s goal, then the death of the body (and the world) is progress towards being’s self-destruction. Thus, the metaphysical qualities which arise from the body (ideas) are subject to this same will, in which, fragmentation into absurdity is inevitable.
Reconciliation and Compassion
Given the content of this essay, it is unsurprising that one might come to nihilistic conclusions – how can one reconcile the act of creativity if the will for creation itself is disunified? How can one muster the energy for creative endeavors if such creative endeavors are ultimately meaningless? How can one justify a meaningful life despite the aim towards nothingness in all that one practices? All of these questions are very important ones to meditate on in the context of “the good life.” And so, returning to my original point, lasting happiness is simply impossible from a philosophically pessimistic view. Considering the ever-fragmenting nature of reality, a “long-lasting” anything is simply out of reach. And so, the primary question to consider, then, is: how can one knowingly continue to exist in a fragmented world in which “the good life” is unattainable? To answer this, I shall suggest a necessity of art for-itself and the utility of compassion.
While a life of asceticism is simply too extreme for Buddha, Schopenhauer still argues for a method of aesthetic reflection to temporarily silence the will and thus suffering. That is, instead of just consuming art, one must become the artist at work. Now, this may seem like something reserved for artists by occupation, however, the notion of aesthetic input can be translated to any form of mindful practice – journaling, cooking, boxing – in the end, almost every practice may become an art form in itself so long as aesthetic reflection is involved. For Schopenhauer,
“…the best architecture dismisses with mere decoration and frippery and shows us…all basic properties of elemental matter. When we experience such architecture, we feel the same satisfaction that comes from contemplation of rock, sky, stream, and ocean in nature… aesthetic pleasure involves a “quieting” of the individual will—one's personal desires, struggles, and dissatisfactions fade into the background” (Hannan 104).
While this alleviation is temporary and not wholly satisfactory for human happiness, it nevertheless allows a necessary break from one’s attention to cosmic suffering so that one may reorient the self. Likewise, artistic practice takes us from the consumptive mode of the self and provides a sense of communion with “pure idea” that continually appears new to us and eternally reoccurs through other means.[20] All art, in a sense, is recycled one way or another – but, despite the dissolution of structure representative in the last century, one must assert creative endeavor even though it historically aims to negate itself. And so, while art nonetheless continues to fragment, the utility of art endures via the practice for-itself rather than the goal of producing an end – “What Art really reveals to us is Nature’s lack of design…her absolutely unfinished condition” (Wilde 73). If man could only do one sole practice, no matter how minimal it was, he would nonetheless create art of it – thus, aesthetic input can be found even in small daily activities. With purposeful contemplation, one may find utility in aesthetic reflection regardless of the continually fragmenting nature of artistic ends. Modern consciousness demands a militant romantic – rather, it requires him. Furthermore, in the face of cosmic suffering, the need for compassion accompanies the utility of aesthetics.
If one views reality simultaneously through Mainländer’s radical pessimism and Buddist philosophy he shall reach an unsavory conclusion: the world is fragmented and within everyone subsists an individual will, a microcosm of suffering. If human beings are mere manifestations of a disunified will aiming towards nothingness, then the will-to-death is inadvertently a method of annihilating suffering. Though Mainländer succumbed to suicide himself, he championed the ordinary man’s ability to face suffering head-on in an almost Nietzschean fashion; that is, if one considers death to be the ultimate salvation from the suffering of life, then one's orientation towards death is connoted with a sense of serenity that is akin to the Stoic sage (Beiser 206 – 207). However, for those who choose to continue living despite these pessimistic speculations, there remains a single pursuit to embody: to minimize the suffering of others. Although death may be the sole redemption of suffering, one cannot consider people to embody the Mainländerian ascetic, who, ultimately sees death as the only motion towards true happiness (nothingness). While some may consider suicide a truly valid option, one cannot likewise suggest that it is purely a product of philosophical speculation rather than the influence of mental illness. Thus, a universal understanding of the human condition is a necessary one to continually foster in society. If the masses orient themselves toward an understanding of suffering on an egoistic rather than purely intellectual level, then the minimization of collective suffering may be attributed through perhaps even legislative means. From this, sympathy, empathy, and compassion may be considered the highest virtues to foster in the public. While one may consider not all suffering equal, the cause of suffering – the renewal of existence – is equal.[21] And so, when considering what it means to live a “good life,” one must consider the unfortunate circumstance that man is “made equal” under a patriarch of pain and not pleasure. Thus, the utility of compassion is found not only in the collaborative (and thus creative) endeavors of man but also in the education and value of reciprocity.
In conclusion, the world is fragmented, and individuals are mere manifestations of a disunified will. This goal of this will, according to Mainländer, is to acquire the absolute stillness of nothingness, and thus, is implicated in the manifestations of human culture. Beyond just existential speculation, the fragmentation of the will is evident in the history of artistic endeavors. In examining the dissolution of structure in fine art and music, it is conclusive that the Mainländerian will-to-death is representative not only in existential aspects but also in the metaphysics of ideas. While scientific developments like quantum theory may have accelerated the awareness of immanent entropy, the artistic developments of the 20th century merely embody Mainländer’s conclusions. While fine art and music are just two examples of the fragmentation of the humanities, there are many more that one may consider: the dissolution of structure in poetry and literature, the rise of non-narrative film, and avant-garde fashion to name just a few. That being said, the awareness of this fragmentation should not condemn one to feelings of nihilism. Rather, the awareness of these developments should inadvertently call for a universal understanding of reality’s disunified state, and in this recognition, consider the aesthetic practice a necessary means of temporary satisfaction in man’s microcosm of suffering. Likewise, the recognition of being’s aim towards nothingness should elicit compassion from individuals to consider the only pursuit justified in the face of a fragmentary existence – to minimize the suffering of others. Despite long-lasting happiness being unattainable, this awareness should provide further reason to engage with compassion toward those who are still living rather than abandoning to amoral conditions. If fragmentation is the basis of all existence, then compassion (literally meaning “suffer with”) may be considered the pessimist's basis for all morality.[22] While nothingness is essentially an ultimate salvation according to philosophical pessimism and we may never truly “live the good life,” we should still orient ourselves towards the reduction of collective suffering. [23] Though life may be rendered meaningless through the lens of philosophical pessimism, man inadvertently is imbued with a glimmer of freedom rather than Sisyphean masochism; man’s efforts are reconciled by the notion that, because he resides in a desert of existence, suddenly, anything is possible.
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[1] See Schopenhauer, Arthur. “The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3).” Project Gutenberg, pg. 145.
[2] Referring to the term used by the romantic poets, the “Sublime” was the awe-inspiring aspects of man’s relationship with nature – this could be through feelings of beauty, ecstasy, or even horror.
[3] “Verily, it is that thirst (or craving), causing the renewal of existence…” Guignon, Charles B. The Good Life. Hackett Pub., 1999. Pg. 75.
[4] “…the habitual practice, on the other hand, of asceticism…which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.” Guignon, Charles B. The Good Life. Hackett Pub., 1999. Pg. 74.
[5] “…In like manner the spirit of the time, growing slowly and quietly ripe for the new form it is to assume, disintegrates one fragment after another of the structure of its previous world.”
Hegel. “Preface on Scientific Knowledge.” Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, n.pag.
[6] See Bolea, Stefan. “Toward the ‘Never-Born’: Mainlander and Cioran.” Revue Roumaine de
Philosophie, vol. 65, no. 1, 2021, p.148
[7] “Creating—that is the great salvation from suffering, and life’s alleviation. But for the creator to appear, suffering itself is needed, and much transformation.” Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Sec. XXIV. n.pag.
[8] If nothingness truly is preferable to being, this is not to say that we should simply cease existing. There are many things which may be believe to be preferable, but do not act upon due to collectively imposed obligations – e.g. extramarital affairs, theft, etc. Compassion towards others is such an obligation for the minimization of collective suffering. We must, in a Nietzschean sense, practice Amor Fati.
[11] “The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns…Most people learn to save themselves by artificially limiting the content of consciousness.” Zapffe, Peter Wessel. “The Last Messiah.” Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas, n.pag.
[12] “What we see are potentially infinite copies or iterations of an object that can be confused for the original, in fact, they might as well be the original; and therein lies the potential for simulacra to devalue meaning.” Ward, Nathan D., "Social Ontology, Spectacle, and Hyperreality: A Critical Examination of Searle, Debord And Baudrillard." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015. Pg. 15.
[13] “Depressive hedonia” refers to what philosopher Mark Fisher would define as “…constituted not by an inability to get pleasure so much as it by an inability to do anything else except pursue pleasure.” Capitalist Realism. Pg. 22.
[14] “The historical movement in which traditional tonality was set aside, Schoenberg said, reached back at least to the time of Bach; it gained strength in the romantic period and came to a climax at the turn of the twentieth century” Simms, Bryan R., 'Schoenberg's Evolution toward Atonality', The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908–1923. pg. 11. Bottom of Form
[15] “Unmaking, decreating, is the only task man may take upon himself, if he aspires, as everything suggests, to distinguish himself from the Creator.” Cioran, E. M. The Trouble With Being Born. Penguin Classics, 2020. Pg. 6.
[16] Listen to the “Augurs” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-wKqy5HnU.
[17] Swans. “Power for Power.” Filth, Michael Gira, Roli Mosimann, Vanguard Studios, NY. 1983;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgJzRkRly5Q; Grow, Kory. “Why Swans Licked CBGB’s Floor and Beat Sheet Metal.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018.
[18] Trépanier, Simon. “Lucretius.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 22 Sept. 2023, n.pag.
[19] “But this mere Being, as it is mere abstraction, is therefore the absolutely negative: which, in a similarly immediate aspect, is just Nothing…The Nothing which the Buddhists make the universal principle, as well as the final aim and goal of everything, is the same abstraction.” Hegel. “First Subdivision VII. Being.” The Doctrine of Being. n.pag.
[20] See Schopenhauer, Arthur. “The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3).” Project Gutenberg, pg. 309.
[21] According to Buddhism.
[22] See Madigan, Timothy. “Schopenhauer’s Compassionate Morality.” Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas, 2005.
[23] “It is, what we see every day,—the phaenomenon of Compassion; in other words, the direct participation, independent of all ulterior considerations, in the sufferings of another, leading to sympathetic assistance in the effort to prevent or remove them; whereon in the last resort all satisfaction and all well-being and happiness depend. It is this Compassion alone which is the real basis of all voluntary justice and all genuine loving-kindness. Only so far as an action springs therefrom, has it moral value; and all conduct that proceeds from any other motive whatever has none.” Schopenhauer, Arthur. “The Basis of Morality.” The Project Gutenberg, Chap 5. n.pag.
