 When we hear the name Arthur Schopenhauer, descriptors such as pessimistic, misanthropic, and melancholic come to mind. But in this video, we will set these aside to focus on Schopenhauer's path to happiness. What does his philosophy have to offer us in respect to something so seemingly antithetical to his own worldview? To better understand, I think it would be best to first expose ourselves to his path to suffering. Schopenhauer believes like those profound philosophies of the East that suffering has its roots embedded in desire. That desire is like the alms thrown to a beggar that keeps him alive today in order that his misery may be prolonged tomorrow. No matter the number of desires fulfilled, there will always be innumerable others ready and willing to occupy any vacancy that happens to open up. Where Schopenhauer departs from his eastern influencers is that he sees no solution in the complete abolishment of desire, because as soon as one in suffering permits rest to a man, on we is at once so near that he necessarily requires diversion. On we, being a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from lack of occupation or excitement. We are doomed with desire and we are doomed without it. We are like hedgehogs clustering together for warmth, uncomfortable when too closely packed and yet miserable when kept apart. The disconsolate nature of this situation leads most to seek riches as the final solution. Should we then seek riches? No. While riches are as said by Schopenhauer absolutely good, they alone can achieve nothing, because our happiness depends on what we have in our heads, rather than on what we have in our pockets. To be happy in this worst of all possible worlds, we must at once recede into ourselves and focus all of our power on strengthening our intellect and refining the constitution of our consciousness. Throughout his masterpiece, The World as Will and Idea, Schopenhauer explains what is required of us to achieve this mastery over our will. We should begin with the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. This should be sought above all else. Second, it would be of our benefit to adopt a determinist philosophy which recognizes everything as the inevitable result of its antecedents. The reason for this indefatigable pursuit of knowledge being the more knowledge we obtain, the better we can examine ourselves. And the better we can examine ourselves, the better we can understand the passions that would eventually lead us down the path of suffering if gone unchecked. While going about this self-examination, we should strive to observe everything we uncover with pure objectivity, leaving out any personal interests that may attempt to lead us down the fruitless path of desire. If the task at hand seems daunting, Schopenhauer suggests that we look to those great minds of the past for guidance, since it is only for such loving minds that these great ones have lived. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you like and subscribe for more on Eastern and Western philosophy. And as always, thank you for talking philosophy with me. Until next time.