I attempt to present a more holistic and more detailed account of Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophical premises and their implications. The discussion begins with Schopenhauer's claim that the world is representation and with the discovering of the Will. It continues by examining the implications of the Will, which leads to the argument against existence itself.

From the literature on Schopenhauer, it seems that he suggested only three ways of life to contend with the Will. I argue for a fourth, which is intended for the common person. A way that Schopenhauer himself lived by. The fourth way of life is derived from a broader reading of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, that is, reading his philosophy as ways of life. The other three ways relate to the three plains on which life enfolds: relations between the individual and objects, (...) the relations between the individual and other individuals, and the relations between the individual and herself. The fourth way involves all three. (shrink)