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MILLENNIAL SAGES IN ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER’S
PHILOSOPHICAL PESSIMISM
Br. Gil Tyrone D. Uy

1.1 Introduction
Humans always strive for what would make them happy in this world. They always want to
satisfy their wants and needs so that in turn, their desire for happiness would be attained. Having a goal
is an example of man’s desire that he needs to achieve. Graduate with a degree, work in an average or
high position, find a spouse, have a family, grow old with sufficient savings. These are just a few
examples of what men and women in society strive to attain. It is believed that when a person is able to
achieve these events, which the researcher would refer to as life’s necessities, the view is that he/she is
successful and in every respect, happy with the life he/she is living.
This societal classification of what makes a person supposedly happy is now seen as something
one has to necessarily achieve in order for someone to be seen as a successful and happy person.
Society classifies people based on their age in what is commonly called ‘Generation’. The
definition of the word Generation is: ‘all the people born and living at about the same time’.1 On
average, there are 4 presently existing generations in which people who are still alive are currently
classified in. These are: Baby Boomer Generation (people born around 1946), Generation X (people
born from 1965 through 1980), and the Generation Y (people born after 1980)2 or widely referred to as
the Millennial Generation.
Focusing on the last two generations, studies have shown that people included in the Generation
X (people born from 1965 through 1980)3 sought happiness in the things around them.4They thought
that happiness would only be achieved if they got what they wanted. These wants range from having
their dream jobs, to earning much money for retirement. Because of this predicament of aiming for too
much, those who failed to achieve what they wanted in life fell into disappointment and aimed for other
goals which they thought could finally bring about their ‘everlasting happiness’. Having this sort of
attitude and behaviour, Generation X is a generation frowned upon by many. Their preference to
material things gained them the negative view that their generation would be one that falls into regret.

1
WEBSTER DICTIONARY FOOTNOTE
2
Pew Research Center, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next (Pew research Center report series, 2010),
Microsoft Edge, Chap. 1, 4.
3
Ibid.
4
The Fall of Materialism: Why More Millennials Aspire to Have Nothing (2015),
https://www.elitedaily.com/life/culture/millennials-minimalists/1256085.
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Looking in the now, the succeeding generation, Generation Y, widely known as the
“Millennials”, were expected to be much more materialistic than their parent generation.5 However, this
proved to be wrong as researches were conducted and have revealed that Millennials are actually
opposite to expectations toward them. Millennials actually have the minimalist attitude which would
mean that they prefer to have less than more.6
Seeing this diversion from the societal traditions and beliefs, one would ask how the Millennial
Generation is able to attain their version of a happy life. Because of the societal view that our aims and
goals in life should be those that are material or, in other terms, earthly; there arises confusion as to
whether the Millennial Generation is actually acquiring happiness from their own style of attaining it. Is
the attitude of the Millennial Generation towards things actually affecting the making of this generation
as a happy one? If so, then how is it supposedly working? Is it a good thing that the Millennial
Generation is practicing a unique attitude?
The view of contemporary society is that the Millennial generation is one of the worst
generations existing. The researcher seeks to explore ideas as to how uncover the other side of the story;
that Millennials are not what the world expects them to be. The research aims to give contributions to
Contemporary Society, The Millennial Generation, and to the Generation that has succeeded them.
It is a misconception that the millennial generation is a materialistic generation. Because of this,
society is often disappointed as to the generation’s aims and views in life. Many say that this generation
could be worse off than the generation which it succeeded. This study will explore various researches
conducted in relation to the paper in order to enlighten the society as to what the millennial generation
truly is.
The Millennial Generation has been mostly affected of this issue. Because of the societal view
towards them, they are being discouraged in their way of living. Enlightening the society as to the true
lifestyle which is being practiced by the generation also contributes to helping the Millennial Generation
rise from the discouragement that they have received from parent generations.7
The discouragement which the Millennial Generation is currently facing should serve as lesson
learned for generations to come. However, not to emphasize much on the bad view that society gives the

5
Holly Ashby, Why Millennials aren’t as Materialistic as People Think (2016),
https://www.thewonderforest.com/2016/12/millennials-arent-materialistic.html.
6
Ibid.
7
Parent Generation means the generations that precede the Millennial Generation: Generation X, and Baby Boomer
Generation.
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Millennials, the succeeding generations should see this as an opportunity to grow among themselves and
to look for their own way in the pursuit of happiness.
This paper will dwell solely on the studies and researches with regards to the verification that:
Generations succeeded by the Millennial Generation and society as a whole are mistaken in labelling the
Millennials as a materialistic generation; and Millennials are not materialistic. The study will focus on
Philosophical Pessimism, specifically on the perspective of Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. The
researcher will be in defence of the notion that Millennials are living idealistic lives rather than
materialistic ones and that they can be classified as somewhat ‘sages’ in the light of Arthur
Schopenhauer’s Philosophy.
This study is part of the researcher’s academic formation, in his venture to be a researcher. This
serves as training in preparation for more researches to come. This will also serve as the researcher’s
contribution to the body of knowledge that would expose the other side of the issue that would support
the idea that millennials are not materialistic; and to somehow prove that Millennials are somewhat
‘sages’ in the light of the Philosophical Pessimism of Arthur Schopenhauer. The researcher aims to, by
some means, support the Millennial Generation in their own endeavour towards seeking happiness.

1.2 Philosophical Pessimism.

“Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was born at Danzig on the 22nd of February. In 1809 he entered the University
of Göttingen to study medicine but later changed to philosophy, becoming an admirer of Plato, at the same
university. He saw that life is a problem and spent time reflecting upon it. In 1811, he went to Berlin to listen to the
lectures of Fichte and Schleiermacher.
From May 1814 until September 1818 Schopenhauer was living at Dresden. It was there that he composed
his main philosophical work, The World as Will and Idea (Die Welt als Willie und Vortsellung). Encouraged by the
fact that his main philosophical work has not passed entirely unnoticed and eager to expound about the world,
Schopenhauer went to Berlin and started lecturing there in 1820. However, this part of his life inevitably failed.
After some wanderings, Schopenhauer settled at Frankfurt on the main in 1833.
After the failure of the Revolution of 1848, a revolution for which Schopenhauer had no sympathy at all,
people were more ready to pay attention to a philosophy which emphasized the evil in the world and the vanity of
life and preached a turning away from life to aesthetic contemplation and asceticism. And in the last decade of his
life, Schopenhauer became a famous man. He died in September 1860.” 8

It is widely recognized that Schopenhauer began the philosophical revolution which gave birth to
the philosophy of pessimism.9 Arthur Schopenhauer claims that “this world itself is the worst of all
possible worlds.”10 The statement can show how gloomy and negative his views are about the world.

8
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 318.
9
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 318.
10
S.J. Odell, On Schopenhauer, ed. D. Kolak (Wadsworth Publications, 2001),
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However, he did not initially use the term “pessimism”. In his book, “The World as Will and Idea”11,
one can get a glimpse of how he chooses to describe the world where people live in as he writes:
“If we were to conduct the most hardened and callous optimist through hospitals, infirmaries, operating theatres,
through prisons and slave-hovels, over battle places and places of execution; if we were to open to him all the dark
abodes of misery, where it shuns the gaze of cold curiosity, he too would certainly see in the end what kind of a
world is this meillur des mondes possibles (best of all possible worlds).”12

Schopenhauer writes this in his book to contradict what Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who is a
well-known optimist of his time, has said that this is the meillur des mondes possibles (best of all
possible worlds).13 Schopenhauer’s counter-argument, saying that this ‘is the worst of all possible
worlds’, goes as follows:
“[P]ossible means not what we may picture in our imagination, but we can actually exist and last. Now this world is
arranged as it has to be if it were to be capable of continuing with great difficulty to exist; if it were a little worse, it
would no longer capable of continuing to exist. Consequently, since a worse world could not continue to exist, it is
absolutely impossible; and so this world itself is the worst of all possible worlds.”14

To put it on simpler words, what Schopenhauer is trying to relay is that if things became “worse”
or “more difficult” for this world, it must cease to exist. Examples given by the philosopher himself is
that: “a small change in the orbit of the planets could de-stabilize the solar system, forces under the
earth’s crust could erupt to destroy it, and a change in atmospheric conditions extinguish all life.”15
Schopenhauer then goes on to say that “the world of now extinct, fossilized creatures was
another world, which must have been worse— worse than the worst of all viable worlds— because it
was not possible for it to continue.”16 This statement would tell us that Schopenhauer puts a distinction
between the present world, in which humans live and the ancient one, in which dinosaurs and other
already extinct creatures once roamed. This distinction serves to mean that the word “possible” as used
by the philosopher could also mean “viable” because if the world is no longer viable for the creatures
living in it, then, chances are, the creatures would cease to exist.

11
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 319.
12
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, quoted in Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,”
in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 319.
13
G.N. Sharma, “Relevance of Arthur Schopenhauer’s Pessimism in Modern Times,” Anthropol Journal, vol. 4
(2016), 1-2, accessed December 15, 2017, DOI: 10.4172/2332-0915.1000170.
14
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, quoted in Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,”
in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 321.
15
Ibid., 321-322.
16
Ibid., 322.
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1.2.1 The Cycle of Suffering and Desire
Man might wonder why he still falls into a state of ((())))) even when he achieves what he
wanted to do so. Even when man has done his best and got exactly what he wanted, his satisfaction
seems temporal and not long after he will seek yet another endeavor to achieve. It would seem that
man’s thirst for desiring is endless and one might question himself: “What more can I do in order to
attain happiness that won’t fade away?” This is a question which Schopenhauer himself tackled and
sought the answer for. It might seem absurd to say but Schopenhauer himself has discovered the answer
as to why man constantly and will inevitably fall into a state of dissatisfaction
In his philosophical pessimism, Schopenhauer asserts: “Everything in life proclaims that earthly
happiness is destined to be frustrated, or recognized as an illusion.”17 He also writes that time distorts
the person’s interpretation of happiness: “happiness lies in the future, or else in the past, and the present
may be compared to a small dark cloud driven by the wind over a sunny plain.”18 What he speaks of is
that people are never happy in the present because when they look at the distant events, they realize that
they have felt happy without appreciating it when it was still presently happening. Or maybe people
anticipate the future events, wherein they expect to feel happiness and satisfaction in events that have
not yet happened. Thus, happiness and satisfaction are both illusory as people are never able to identify
which event in their lives could bring about the happiness that they long so much for; pursuing that so-
called end which people believe to be both “permanent and all resolving.”
Schopenhauer also speaks of happiness as something that one can never satisfy permanently in
this present life when he wrote: “the enchantment of distance shows us paradises that vanish like optical
illusions.”19 Therefore one should reflect upon the fact that when there are certain circumstances that he
wants to come about, these will inevitably become the present; and in that present one would be willing
for another circumstance to come about. Each present always brings with it a desire or wish that is in
need of fulfillment in order to obtain satisfaction that would bring about “happiness”, looking ahead its
own resolution.
“Awakened to life out of the night of unconsciousness, the will finds itself an individual, in an endless and
boundless world, among innumerable individuals, all striving, suffering, erring; and as if through a troubled dream it
hurries back to its old unconsciousness. Yet till then its desires are limitless, its claims inexhaustible, and every
satisfied desire gives rise to a new one. No possible satisfaction in the world could suffice to still its longings, set a
goal to its infinite cravings, and fill the bottomless abyss of its heart.” 20

17
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, vol.3, trans. R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., 1909), Microsoft Reader e-book, chap. 46, .
18
Ibid., 372-373.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid., 372.
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So it is safe to say that there is no absolute satisfaction because every time a person satisfies his
desires, it will always give birth to a new one. An example for this would be when a person sets a goal to
graduate college. Surely, this person thinks that attaining that goal would bring him happiness and
satisfaction but what is not known to him is that the happiness this goal brings with it is only temporary.
When he graduates college, this person will set another goal, possibly finding the perfect job.
This only goes to show how restless human nature is. Man is in an unending search for
what will bring him happiness forever for, in Schopenhauer’s viewpoint, nothing could ever quench his
desires permanently. Man only goes to an endless cycle of suffering and satisfaction. Man will strive
towards some goal and will either attain it or not; the latter being a state of suffering. There are three
possibilities once a goal is not attained. Having not attained a goal, one may continue to strive for it
nevertheless. This is the route back to the original state of striving, which, repeated endlessly, is the
nightmare of Tantalus and other mythical figures whom Schopenhauer is prone to mention:
“[S]o long as our consciousness is filled by our will, so long as we are given up to the throng of desires with its
constant hopes and fears, so long as we are the subject of willing, we never obtain lasting happiness or peace…
Thus, the subject of willing is constantly lying on the revolving wheel of Ixion, is always drawing water in the sieve
of the Danaids, and is the eternally thirsting Tantalus.” 21

Each one of man’s desire, if not satisfied, will always lead to suffering. Schopenhauer argues for
the fact that so long as man wills to desire for something and he is aware of what is lacking, he suffers.
Schopenhauer then gives us a situation wherein having nothing to strive for is equal to the
suffering of having to strive for what lacks: “Suppose the human race were removed to Utopia where
everything grew automatically and pigeons flew about ready to be roasted… then people would die of
boredom or hang themselves.”22 It would be meaningless to live a life having what you desire in an
instant with nothing to strive for anymore.
This situation that Schopenhauer has formulated may be called “the negativity of satisfaction”. 23
One might attain what he strives for but it is not assured that he will receive a positive feeling and it is
because dissatisfaction is equal in receiving all that one desires instantly and having to go through the
suffering of strife to attain a goal which would only bring temporary feelings of happiness.

21
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, quoted in Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,”
in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 328.
22
Ibid., 330.
23
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 331.
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Stuck in the middle of this condition, one might think that it is the solution. However, that is not
how Schopenhauer put it in his book. His solution is actually something that one might not expect if he
has not yet read the thinker’s philosophy.

1.2.2 Schopenhauer’s “Way of Salvation”

Schopenhauer formulated his own solution to the suffering of desire and dissatisfaction and he
calls it the “The Way of Salvation”.24 Not to be mistaken for any religious propaganda, he actually got
this from the Philosophy of Buddhism, which he admired very much and from which he formulated his
viewpoint that “all life is suffering”.25 One might think that Schopenhauer’s solution to the problem of
the world is suicide as it is the only way to escape this “worst of all possible worlds”. Surprisingly, he
actually says not. Schopenhauer does not see suicide as a solution. This is because “if one commits
suicide, then he affirms the will to life for if there was a better world to live in, he would not commit the
act. But since he sees this world as the worst of all possibilities, then he commits the said act.”26

What Schopenhauer actually suggests is the “denial of the will”, a state that altogether alters the
significance of striving and suffering. Schopenhauer writes: “[The] will to life… must be denied if
salvation is to be attained from an existence like ours.”27 This solution, Schopenhauer also got from
Buddhism as monks practice the denial of worldly goods in order to live a meaningful life.28
Schopenhauer advocates a difficult cure to suffering: denial of our essence. If the solution to pessimism
lies in renouncing one’s real self, then the explanation for this must be that being what one is is not
meaningful. It is the rejection of all value in the essence of humanity that roots in Schopenhauer’s
pessimism. He goes on to call those who succeed in the denial of the will to life as ‘sages’ similar to
monks who practice Buddhism and living ascetically.

1.3 Suffering and the Generation X

24
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, vol.3, trans. R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., 1909), Microsoft Reader e-book, chap. 49.
25
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, vol.3, trans. R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., 1909), Microsoft Reader e-book, chap. 47.
26
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 328.
27
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, quoted in Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,”
in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 335.
28
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, vol.3, trans. R.B. Haldane and J. Kemp (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., 1909), Microsoft Reader e-book, chap. 48, 410.
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In the years that have past, the previous generation, Generation X or widely known as the Baby
Bust Generation29, has been found to be savvy, entrepreneurial loners.30 That is to say that they risk
losing and having certain things in order for them to be satisfied. They risk losing and finding jobs,
marriages, etc. This brought about their fall in Schopenhauer’s notion on suffering: they thought that
risking old jobs to look for better ones, breaking away from marriage to find a new partner, etc. would
bring about the happiness that they sought after. The fact is they fall in the cycle of suffering because of
their endless will to want.31 They keep on seeking happiness over these goals and material things
because they think that it would bring them satisfaction. However, the satisfaction that this generation
got was only temporary and because of this, they go ‘job-hopping’ for example, looking for better jobs
when they notice that they are bored of the ones that they currently have.
This is not to say that doing so is already a bad thing, but if one is to use Schopenhauer’s
philosophy in interpreting this situation that the Baby Bust Generation has been through, one would see
that they have fallen for the bait of an endless cycle of suffering. So seeing this in Schopenhauer’s
perspective, one would see how the previous generation, unknowingly, committed the mistake of
seeking happiness in the material things.
This parent generation, the Generation X, sought their version of happiness in the material things
around them. They thought that becoming a materialistic generation would bring about the happiness
which will satisfy them. They thought that having their material aspirations would satisfy their longing
for happiness. The researcher thinks that they are wrong because if we are to view Arthur
Schopenhauer’s Philosophical Pessimism, they fall right in the cycle of unending suffering. 32 Seeing
through the lens of the pessimistic philosopher, Generation X will not satisfy their desire since

1.4“Un-Materialistic” Millennials
Millennials’ is an abused term, misused to the point where it’s often mistaken for just another
meaningless buzzword. Unfortunately, many of the claims made about millennial characteristics are
simplified, misinterpreted or just plain wrong, which can mean real differences get lost.33 There have
been a lot of misconceptions as to the attitude which the Millennials follow. These misconceptions or

29
Pew Research Center, Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next (Pew research Center report series, 2010),
Microsoft Edge, Chap. 1, 4.
30
Ibid.
31
Christopher Janaway, “Schopenhauer’s Pessimism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (The Press
Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 1999), 327.
32
Ibid.
33
Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, Millennial Myths and Realities, www.ipsos-mori.com/millennials
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34
myths are that Millennials are: materialistic, narcissistic, and lazy. Misconceptions aimed towards this
generation not only prevails but also are widely accepted by the majority of society which has resulted
in the discouragement of the Millennials in achieving their own goals in life. The Millennials are tyring
to discover their own path towards attaining happiness, deviating from the vision of their parent
generation.

1.4Philosophical Pessimism and the Millennial Attitude

34
Ibid.