![]() He thought it was a mistake to think that people can be happy in this world, since happiness is no more than a transient illusion. His treatment of happiness is in line with this bleak picture. Schopenhauer painted our world as on the brink of destruction and any changes that one could think of that would make the world worse, would either mean the end of the world or turn out to be an improvement. In his major work Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The world as will and representation) he not only defends the idea that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds, but takes the view that this is demonstrably the worst of all possible worlds. The prime defender of the negative view is the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Optimists believe that happiness is within reach and pessimists tend to think of happiness as something rare or only temporary. ![]() These opposing views are reflected in ideas about happiness. Optimists think of the earth as a place that is hospitable to the aims and aspirations of human beings, pessimists think of the world as hostile or indifferent. ![]()
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