Author Topic: A Philosophy of Failure  (Read 537 times)

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Nation of One

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A Philosophy of Failure
« on: April 11, 2016, 01:14:13 pm »
Goodbye Blue Mondays

Goodbye Blue Mondays was the alternate title of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, a novel that starts off with using more honest language in describing the history of the United States, such as referring to "pilgrims" as "sea pirates" and referring to chattel slaves as "farm equipment".

But this thread is not about Kurt Vonnegut or an attack on the myths about the "discovery of the New World and Manifest Destiny".  The phrase, "Goodbye Blue Mondays!" was taken from an advertizement about dishwashers and washing machines ... It celebrated the victory over the dreary chores of what then was called a "house wife". 

I thought of it because, while my strategy for enduring the pointlessness of existence has been to study (and actually relearn things I supposedly learned years ago), I find it difficult to feel too enthusiastic about what I am doing.  I can't seem to motivate myself this Monday, not even to eat food. [THANK GOD FOR BANANA PLANTATIONS!]

So I am allowing myself to goof off by adding more purposeless content to this insignificant little message board in an effort to preserve hand-written notebooks for less reflective record keeping about more technical details.

This thread will start out about the idea of developing a philosophy of failure in a spirit of defeatism and depressive realism.  What motivated this idea?   Well, I found myself saying to myself, "I have to somehow eliminate the requirement for happiness and contentment in this Experiment in Continued Mathematics Self-Education, or else I won't be motivated to continue when I am generally depressed and cantankerous."

I want to be able to forge ahead even when I don't see the point, when I am feeling this "WHY BOTHER?" theme resonating with everything I touch.  Happiness can't be a requirement for "studying mathematics as a way to endure time." 

Hence, I need to develop or discover a Philosophy of Failure.

The spread of depression is partly a side-effect of our addiction to happiness. Conversely, understanding why we are so miserable should liberate us from being too miserable about it. We can feel good about feeling bad. In other words, we need a decent philosophy of failure to save everyone from thinking what failures they are.

So, as most of us do these days when we are brainstorming, I typed the following into a search engine:

"happiness is not a requirement for studying advanced mathematics"

I then followed a link to an article Against happiness: Why we need a philosophy of failure

Senor Matrin cites Freud.  Mr. Martin is perplexed by a local psychiatrist in Hawaii claiming that Hawaii sucks.  To him, this would be like Holden witnessing me say something like, "Math sucks."

Quote
Freud himself didn’t actually say that Hawaii sucks, but he came close. In Civilization and its Discontents, Freud argues that there are three reasons we are so miserable and they all have something to do with disappointed expectations.

His enemies of happiness are:

(a) religion, especially Christianity for pushing the idea of heaven;

(b) 18th-century voyages of discovery—for raising unrealistic expectations of heaven on earth;

(c) finally (so self-critically!) psychoanalysis itself, which seems to dangle in front of you the notion that everything can be fixed.

I would add another: (d) the pharmaceutical industry (and illicit chemical ****tails similarly).


That got my attention ... something I can investigate while eating the last two bananas while pretending I am some kind of depressed chimpanzee with excessive consciousness trying to figure out why he's procrastinating in getting down to business with his daily studies.

I read through the article in full, but only found "From Voltaire to Wittgenstein, the point of philosophy has been to pop the balloon of excessive optimism."

OK.  Then the article ended.  That's it?

Another article in the list contained the words "happiness" and "mathematics" but not in the manner I was looking for:  The British amateur who debunked the mathematics of happiness

I'll be thinking about my need of a philosophy of failure, despair, etc ... and how such a philosophy might be conducive to transcending the demand for happiness so I can just accept the frustration and confusion that goes hand in hand with stretching the mind.

Do you think that Schopenhauer's (and Cioran's) is a philosophy of failure?





« Last Edit: April 12, 2016, 01:15:23 am by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

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Holden

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Re: A Philosophy of Failure
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2016, 11:17:39 pm »
I would theirs a philosophy of metaphysical failure,you see ,if we were to say that our problems are economic,social or psychological,then the gorts would respond that these problems are just "our" problems and can be resolved.
But they are not.They are metaphysical in nature.

Mine is an ancient melancholy.My body is metaphysically fractured.
In your post called"Unwritable Books",you quote Cioran:
Quote

“Your book is a failure.” —- “No doubt, but you are forgetting that I wanted it to be one, and that it could hardly be a success otherwise.”

What do you think he meant by that?
La Tristesse Durera Toujours                                  (The Sadness Lasts Forever ...)
-van Gogh.

Nation of One

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Re: A Philosophy of Failure
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2020, 10:46:58 pm »
This is a great question.  My lack of a response may have indicated that a response was not easily articulated.

It is not easy to dismiss Cioran, if you understand him.  

Aha, and the flip-side of this would be that it is easy to dismiss Cioran if you don't understand him.  I have not dismissed Cioran.  Does this imply that I understand him?

"Your book is a failure.” —- “No doubt, but you are forgetting that I wanted it to be one, and that it could hardly be a success otherwise. "

Using our own parlance, could he be saying that he wants the gorts to despize his writing?

That has to be it, right?

Robert M. Pirsig insinuates something similar in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance when he suggests that his failures may be seen as his greatest successes.

Another way to explain it:  Suppose one is born into a cruel and materialistic culture which rewards obedience, greed, and ignorance.   In historical perspective, those who failed to thrive in such a society will be viewed as having lived with more grace than those on the top with all the social status and power --- although this stance is ridiculed by the "suck-ce$$ gurus" as a victim mentality.

What is your take on it, my friend, Holden?
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~