{"id":3051,"date":"2013-05-17T16:31:18","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T16:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=3051"},"modified":"2013-05-17T16:31:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T16:31:18","slug":"arthur-schopenhauer-relates-to-your-arizona-irs-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/arthur-schopenhauer-relates-to-your-arizona-irs-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Schopenhauer relates to your Arizona IRS Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
The time between the moment you decide to resolve your IRS problem and when you get a settlement can be excruciating. \u00a0Scott Allen E.A. of Tax Debt Advisors has the expertise to help you through the IRS maze and will get the best settlement option available. \u00a0Scott offers a free Arizona initial consultation and can be reached at 480-926-9300.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer is quite a character but there is something intriguing about his philosophy that just may help you during the time you are working your way through your IRS problem with Scott Allen E.A..<\/p>\n

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)<\/div>\n

Finding Meaning Through Aesthetics, Sympathy, Music, and Passivity<\/p>\n

Arthur Schopenhauer was born in 1788 in the city of Danzig, Germany on the Baltic Sea. \u00a0 \u00a0He was the son of Heinrich and Johanna Schopenhauer, who were both descendants of wealthy German middle class families. \u00a0In 1805 Schopenhauer\u2019s father committed suicide when he was only 16 years old. \u00a0His mother, who was a famous author, kicked Arthur out of her home when Goethe told her that her son was destined for great things. She followed this up with a letter and wrote, \u201cI hope I never have to see you again.\u201d She could not tolerate any competition from her son for the attention she desired only for herself. \u00a0There is no doubt that these experiences contributed to Schopenhauer\u2019s view of the world and his philosophy.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer knew at a very young age that he was a genius. \u00a0A fact that his parents often wished was not discovered by their son until after he was out of their home. \u00a0There are letters from his parents written to him when he was a child asking him why he was so disagreeable? \u00a0Why do you need to challenge what everyone says and not accept what others have to say? \u00a0He was convinced of his genius all his life. \u00a0Schopenhauer sincerely believed in his genius and his purpose in life was to bring his view of the truth to others not able to \u201csee the target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schopenhauer became a student at the University of Gottingen in 1809. \u00a0There he studied metaphysics and psychology. \u00a0In 1818 Schopenhauer published his masterpiece, The World as Will and Idea. \u00a0 \u00a0In 1820, Schopenhauer became a lecturer at the University of Berlin. \u00a0It was there that he came into direct competition with \u00a0G. W. F. Hegel, whose philosophy he despised. \u00a0He scheduled his own lectures to coincide with Hegel\u2019s in an attempt to destroy student support of Hegel\u2019s philosophy. \u00a0However, only 5 students came to his first lecture and none came to his second and Schopenhauer dropped out of academia and never taught at a university again. \u00a0This was the only job that Schopenhauer ever had and it lasted only one day.<\/div>\n

While living in Berlin, Schopenhauer was named as a defendant in a law suit by a woman named Caroline Marquet. \u00a0She asked for damages, alleging that Schopenhauer had pushed her. \u00a0Knowing that he was a man of some means and that he disliked noise, she deliberately annoyed him by raising her voice while standing right outside his door. \u00a0Marquet alleged that the philosopher had assaulted and battered her after she refused to leave his doorway. \u00a0Her companion testified that she saw Marquet prostrate outside of his apartment. \u00a0Because Marquet won the lawsuit, he made payments to her for the next twenty years. \u00a0When she died, he wrote on a copy of her death certificate, \u201cObit anus, abet onus.\u201d \u00a0(Latin for, \u201cThe old woman dies, the burden is lifted). \u00a0Schopenhauer tended to rub people the wrong way and if they got in his way he was not hesitant to abuse them in his writings, verbally or as in this example physically.<\/p>\n

Schopenhauer was considered a liberal in his social views: he was strongly against taboos on issues like suicide and homosexuality. \u00a0He condemned the treatment of African slaves and supported the abolitionist movement in the United States. \u00a0He was very concerned about the rights of animals and praised the establishment of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London and the Animals\u2019 Friends Society in Philadelphia.<\/div>\n

In 1831, a cholera epidemic broke out in Berlin and both Hegel and Schopenhauer fled the city. \u00a0Hegel returned prematurely, caught the infection and died a few days later. \u00a0Schopenhauer moved south and settled permanently in Frankfurt in 1833. \u00a0He remained there for the next 27 years living all alone except the companionship of two poodles named Atma and Butz. \u00a0He enjoyed good health until 1860. \u00a0He died sitting in his armchair of heart failure on September 21 of that year at the age of 72.<\/p>\n

Schopenhauer\u2019s philosophy is considered by many to be deeply pessimistic. \u00a0But he obviously must have made some valid observations since Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Wagner, Mahler, Schoenberg, Darwin, Proust, Kafka, O\u2019Neill, Tolstoy and Einstein credit him for having great influence on their work. \u00a0This list includes leaders in philosophy, music, science, psychoanalysis, authors and playwrights. \u00a0The breath of Schopenhauer\u2019s influence makes his life and work worthy of serious review.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer wrote that the will is a blind, rationally inaccessible force that is a primitive energy. \u00a0This energy manifests itself in and through everything. \u00a0The will gives us pleasure so that we will reproduce and pain so that we will avoid being eaten. \u00a0It is impersonal, insatiable and dwells within us. \u00a0It is a source of considerable suffering. \u00a0After you satisfy the cravings and desires of the will, you have a brief respite, but then typically you become bored. \u00a0As Schopenhauer put it, \u201cLife is nothing but a pendulum swinging between the pain of unfulfilled desires and boredom. \u00a0Once we fulfill our desires then we are satiated and our strivings are quieted momentarily but we immediately sink into boredom or emptiness.\u201d \u00a0Schopenhauer says that unsatisfied desires often have unfortunate and painful consequences. \u00a0So the two options for human existence are pain and boredom. \u00a0As long as one is alive, they are under siege by the will and the only way to eliminate that is to eliminate one\u2019s self. \u00a0Schopenhauer felt that Buddhism offered a way to minimize the negative effects of the will.<\/p>\n

Even though Schopenhauer was so pessimistic in his views of life, does not mean that he did not enjoy life. \u00a0Nietzsche reminds us in his book, Beyond Good and Evil, \u201cOne must remember that Schopenhauer played the flute every night after dinner.\u201d \u00a0Nietzsche felt that Schopenhauer still found things in life that he enjoyed despite his pessimistic philosophy.<\/div>\n
One must ask the question, \u201cWas Schopenhauer\u2019s view of life appropriate for everyone or just Schopenhauer?\u201d \u00a0And secondly, was Schopenhauer more vulnerable to the strivings of the will than others? \u00a0Was he such a pained, fearful, neurotic person that his personality influenced his philosophy or did he actually discover the truth about certain things that led to his view of the world? \u00a0I think it highly probably that we are all affected to one degree or another by this will, but that degree differs from person to person. \u00a0And we are probably more prone to the effects of the will at certain stressful points during our lives than others. \u00a0Schopenhauer would disagree with my points here. \u00a0He felt that we are all affected by the will beyond our ability to deal with it and find meaning in life. \u00a0All we can do is try to minimize its effect on us.<\/div>\n
The world is not just will to Schopenhauer, it is also idea. \u00a0The world is what we think it is and that is always an illusion or a perception. \u00a0The world is what our mind tells us it is. \u00a0There is no reality, only illusion and even though an illusion is shared by many, it is still not reality. \u00a0Life is just a spark in between two pools of darkness without any meaning or purpose.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer felt himself in competition with Hegel. \u00a0In one of his writings he stated, \u201cI wish to apologize to the reader of the future for mentioning Hegel, a philosopher you have never heard of.\u201d \u00a0Hegel celebrated the human spirit and taught his students how to enjoy that spirit. \u00a0He believed that the human spirit controlled the destiny of history. \u00a0In another classroom across the hall was Schopenhauer saying, \u201cThere is a force that wells up in you. \u00a0It is always there. \u00a0It gnaws at you. \u00a0It is always victimizing you because it wants more and more. \u00a0If you get what you want, you get bored. \u00a0If you get what you want it might even be painful. \u00a0Usually you don\u2019t get what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schopenhauer contradicted Hegel by saying that history doesn\u2019t have a rational direction. \u00a0History is just things happening and they happen because of this will that we experience through us, that is at work all the time trying to express and satisfy itself. \u00a0He would say things like \u201cwe have these fancy philosophical types who are telling us we can celebrate the human spirit. \u00a0They are telling us that we can learn to conquer our desires through reason. \u00a0They tell us that we can be creative and remove ourselves from the will that is pulsating through us. \u00a0That is all fine and good, but just let yourself experience your life and think about how you want food, sex, and excitement. \u00a0Sometimes you get what you want and most of the time you don\u2019t. \u00a0Most of your desires are not met at all. \u00a0So you suffer. \u00a0You are always in a state of tension because of suffering, because of desire, because of the will. \u00a0You are not even conscious of the will. \u00a0It is buried below your conscious mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you can see Schopenhauer\u2019s philosophy is very unpleasant and pessimistic. \u00a0His ideas did not make people feel comfortable. \u00a0Some have referred to it as \u201cmetaphysics from hell.\u201d \u00a0Life is a state of being where your desires are not satisfied and your questions are never answered. And you are stuck. \u00a0There are no options except suicide and if you give in to suicide then you gave in to the will. \u00a0This is pretty pessimistic stuff.<\/div>\n
Nietzsche and Schopenhauer started at the same point with the same data and came to different conclusions. \u00a0Both looked at life very accurately, both had no supernatural belief; both looked directly at the reality of death, and both looked at nothingness. \u00a0Nietzsche affirmed and embraced life and Schopenhauer chose to negate it. \u00a0Hume and Schopenhauer had the same basic beliefs and reacted much differently. \u00a0Hume was a very pleasant English gentleman and on his deathbed was asked how being an atheist he could be so calm facing death. \u00a0Hume replied that there was nothing before he was born and he didn\u2019t want to be bored with an association of those who thought they were going to heaven. \u00a0There was absolutely no hint of pessimism or regret. \u00a0So it seems that personality and life experiences must have an impact on the philosopher\u2019s philosophy. \u00a0It has been said that one must first understand the life of the philosopher before trying to understand their philosophy and that one follows the other. \u00a0But Schopenhauer did not just take us to the edge of the abyss and leave us there to fend for ourselves. \u00a0He offered remedies to the human condition as he saw it. \u00a0His remedies are valuable insights into living life whether or naught you believe in effects of the will.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer offers four methods of escape from this pulsing energy he called \u201cthe will.\u201d \u00a0 The first solution is what he called aesthetic contemplation. \u00a0For example we can get our minds off of things by seeing a movie or watching a sporting event. \u00a0During Schopenhauer\u2019s time you might go look at a painting or other types of art to get your mind off the underlying agony that is the constant companion of all humans. \u00a0He admits that this type of relief is only fleeting and cannot sustain permanent relief. \u00a0This notion of getting disengaged from life by getting one\u2019s mind off of its misery can be helpful for a while. \u00a0This may explain why the entertainment industry is so popular today.<\/p>\n

The second suggestion Schopenhauer makes is the cultivation of sympathy for one\u2019s fellow beings. \u00a0That too is only temporary. \u00a0It was Schopenhauer\u2019s view that we should recognize that everyone is struggling with the will. All of us are suffering from its manifestations. \u00a0We all suffer the same agonies, and the realization that we are all in this together makes coping with it easier. \u00a0Having true sympathy or compassion, and understanding that everyone is struggling with the same thing, partially removes the ravages of the will. \u00a0It is not a cure, but at least something that can temporarily help us along and perhaps engender a noncompetitive acceptance of the condition we all face as human beings.<\/div>\n

The third suggestion is music. \u00a0He believed that music has a special capacity to capture the will and lessen its negative impact on us. \u00a0Schopenhauer believed that music has a calming effect. \u00a0Music for Schopenhauer is not meant to make us understand anything. \u00a0It is to get us away from thinking about anything. \u00a0The music he listened to was usually without words or lyrics. \u00a0Mozart not Rap. \u00a0He thinks that music speaks in a language that can and does put us more at peace with ourselves.<\/p>\n

The fourth suggestion is the most challenging. \u00a0Hold your breath\u2014the best we might do is lose the will to live. \u00a0Schopenhauer thinks perhaps the best of all the remedies for the disease called life and its agonies would be to reach a condition of calm and tranquil passivity where our individual wills do not torment us anymore. \u00a0We don\u2019t allow anything to matter to us, even our very selves. \u00a0It is his view that the loss of the will to live is not the same as the desire to commit suicide. \u00a0He is suggesting that we reach a benign and mellow point where things don\u2019t matter anymore, even yourself.<\/div>\n

In summary the human predicament is that we are victims of life. \u00a0Life itself is the disease and we need a cure from that disease and all the knowledge in the world will not bring about a cure. Schopenhauer brings a very strongly negative and pessimistic element into European philosophical thinking. \u00a0He believes that the best we can accomplish is to find whatever peace of mind we can. \u00a0This requires a disengagement from the painful cycle of desire and satisfaction of desires.<\/p>\n

Schopenhauer proposed a thought experiment in which you go to a cemetery and knock on any tombstone and ask the person there if they want to be alive again and his conclusion was that none of the dead would want to be alive again. \u00a0Nietzsche would contradict Schopenhauer on this point by saying, if you lived well, if you lived life to its fullest, you would be willing to live it again an innumerable number of times. \u00a0This was Nietzsche\u2019s law of eternal recurrence. \u00a0That one must embrace and affirm life to the point that we would want to live it all over again an infinite number of times exactly the same way.<\/div>\n
Schopenhauer was very taken with Buddhist beliefs. \u00a0He was the major influential figure who brought Buddhist thinking to the West in a way that made it spread. \u00a0The message of Buddhism is that life is suffering and to be alive is to suffer. \u00a0Buddha said, \u201cAll is suffering.\u201d \u00a0Suffering is brought about by desire and desire does have a cure and the cure is to lose our attachment to our desires. \u00a0It is this disengagement that Schopenhauer recommends.<\/div>\n
I believe that Schopenhauer\u2019s will is just another term to describe the \u201cnatural man.\u201d \u00a0The natural man came into existence because of the Fall of Adam. \u00a0The Fall brought into the human condition pain and suffering, death, as well as a host of appetites and passions that are unrelenting. \u00a0As soon as they are satisfied, we are comfortable for a short moment only to be striving to satisfy those cravings again.<\/div>\n

Schopenhauer\u2019s remedies are: aesthetic contemplation, cultivating sympathy for our fellow beings, good music, and disengagement from our attachments and desires are similar to many admonitions from the scriptures. The scriptures teach us that we should be willing to bear one another\u2019s burdens, mourn with those who mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort and to deny ourselves of all ungodliness.<\/p>\n

I am fascinated that Schopenhauer who is considered the most atheistic and pessimistic of all the philosophers recommends similar remedies to life\u2019s struggles contained in ancient and modern day scriptures. \u00a0Despite his pessimism, there is much to benefit from understanding the following quotes of Schopenhauer.<\/div>\n

– Scott Allen<\/a> – info@taxdebtadvisors.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The time between the moment you decide to resolve your IRS problem and when you get a settlement can be excruciating. \u00a0Scott Allen E.A. of Tax Debt Advisors has the expertise to help you through the IRS maze and will get the best settlement option available. \u00a0Scott offers a free Arizona initial consultation and can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}