Published October 12, 2022 | Version v1
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Does Schopenhauer accept any positive pleasures?

  • 1. University of Chicago

Description

Schopenhauer repeatedly claims that all pleasure is negative, and this view seems to play key roles throughout his work. Nonetheless, many scholars have argued that Schopenhauer actually acknowledges certain positive pleasures. Two major arguments have been offered for this reading, one focused on the link between Schopenhauer's view of pleasure and Plato's, and one focused on Schopenhauer's distinction between two components of aesthetic pleasure. I argue that neither way of motivating the positive pleasure reading succeeds. Both overlook a key aspect of Schopenhauer's account: namely, his suggestion that there are two distinct kinds of negative pleasure, pleasures of satisfaction and pleasures of distraction. When Schopenhauer claims that all pleasure is negative, he means it.

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1111/ejop.12830
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:5046

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Arts & Humanities Division
Department(s)
Philosophy