"Better than life in the ideal state is complete tranquillity and deliverance, which comes only with death. Why, though, bother with creating the ideal state if we can have death now? Mainländer answers: though he personally can find redemption in all political conditions, so that he does not need to bother with the ideal state, the same is not true for the masses, who need to live in the ideal state before they find redemption. Why, though, must they first live in such a state? To that question Mainländer responds somewhat cryptically: before we turn against life, we must learn to enjoy all that it has to offer. Only he who attempts to enjoy all the rotten fruits of this earth will see through its emptiness and discover for himself the true value of death."
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Academics from GermanyPoets from GermanyPhilosophical pessimistsAntinatalistsPhilosophers from Germany
Original Language: English
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p. 228.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philipp_Mainl%C3%A4nder
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Philipp Mainländer
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