Human wisdom according to Arthur Schopenhauer is an art of ordering our lives in a manner that will enable us to achieve the maximum satisfaction and pleasure. Human wisdom is concerned with achieving and maintaining happy existence among humans. Human wisdom is universal as the author implies when he says that over the ages the wise have always said the same things.
This essay is about exploiting and understanding the scope of human wisdom. The paper will be looking at the philosophy employed Arthur Schopenhauer in his article âthe wisdom of lifeâ. He splits his presentation of the human wisdom into three classes that, according to him, influence human wisdom. This essay will discuss the three classes of human wisdom, namely, Personality, Property, and Position.
According to the author, the difference in humans is based on the three classes. Personality represents who or what a man is, while property represents a man’s possession. The position represents a manâs ratings among fellow men, which are the value placed on a person by others.
This can be seen from the honor that a man is regarded or the rank or reputation a person holds in the society. To begin with, personalities differ from one individual to the other. This means that we have limited control over it and these are characteristics placed on individuals by nature. Human personality influences the happiness or sadness of humans more than the other two classes.
The other two classes have less impact on happiness or sadness of a human because they arise from factors of human influence. The personality or natural causes include characteristics that are given to an individual freely by the Mother Nature which we have no control over.
They include things like a child born with a great mind, a good heart, being born in a wealthy family and many other situations that we did not have anything to do with their occurrence. However, the author argues that happiness received from Mother Nature is less satisfying than the happiness an individual can give him or herself.
A man is made of something inside of him that acts as a force that drives him to achieve certain goals. The force that works within the individual is greater than the forces that influence him or her from other external avenues. The inner constitution of an individual gives him or her greater satisfaction and defines who he or she is in relation to his or her character.
This is so because the inner self influences inward satisfaction, sensations, desires, and thoughts as the author indicate. People face different circumstances even if we share the same environmental surroundings. Every individual looks at the world differently from each other and the approach we give life really matters.
When people hear about the good things and the success in other peoplesâ lives, they naturally wish that their lives would take the same route. Generally, human beings focus only on the outcome and results they see but the truth is the results of a personâs life are directly influenced by their approach to life.
Mental attitude is fundamental to the human success and achievement of great satisfaction. Melancholic characters will tend to create big scenarios out of small issues that are very petty to a sanguine man. The author summarizes this by indicating that every event caused by two main components which are the subject and the object.
The objects include external factors that influence human actions and they may be the same but the subject, which is the internal factors, may differ. Two people may face equal the same challenges or situations in life but their approach towards the same will vary hence yielding different results.
The most important thing in a man is the constitution of his or her consciousness. Internal characteristics of a man may vary and change the way each one of us view life and his disparities are responsible for the differences we have in terms of positions, wealth and other social parameters.
Health is part of our human life that can be termed as a sign of wealth as it outweighs all other forms of wealth. A poor man who is in good health is happier than a wealthy man who is in bad health conditions.
The author summarizes this by saying that what a man carries along and experiences when he or she is alone is more important than what he she can get rid of. Health is one of the inner effects of a human being and it cannot be wished away or averted in any way in the event that it suffers. Jealousy and covetous characters will always suffer regardless of whether they acquire all the riches in the world or not.
Therefore, the basic and fundamental element of lifeâs happiness and satisfaction is our internal character, which is our personality. With this knowledge, wisdom demands that in order for an individual to achieve the utmost satisfaction with his or her life, he or she must work on maintaining their health.
This includes working on their personal internal characteristics to cultivate the most profitable characters that would enhance satisfaction. The author asserts that health even in its highest profitability cannot offer a human being the utmost happiness. What really influences human happiness is what a person has internally with regard to character and personality.
The chief element of a manâs health is therefore embodied in what the man has inside of him or her. What a man has more impacts on a person’s happiness that what a man has. This also surpasses the happiness caused by his ranks and positions as viewed by others. There are people who are highly held in the society and who command unimaginable respect from their peers but inside they are not happy.
Receiving attention from people does not necessarily come along with happiness. Many public figures suffer within themselves and lack satisfaction in their public lives. True happiness and satisfaction is only cultivated by what a person has internally rather than the external factors.
The author has shown in the article the simple ways that human beings can achieve the greatest satisfaction from within themselves. The world has wrongly viewed success as an external aspect but according to the author, the contrary is true.
His argument is quite practical because it is proven that most people who in the public eye are very successful and happy have confessed on the contrary. Therefore, this undermines the thought that material success is the fundamental of happiness. On the contrary, simplicity and health are the greatest wealth anyone can have.