| Summary: | Schopenhauer defines happiness as the "successive satisfaction of all of our wanting", and argues that the tendency for it (i) " completely coincides with our existence" - whose essence is the will to live - but (ii) is revealed by knowledge as our biggest mistake and disillusion. On these basis, he argues that (i) the purpose of life is the pursuit of happiness, but (ii) the "real goal" is unhappiness - which is imposed by "destiny" and leads to the self-suppression of the will. We will first introduce both aspects of the pursuit of happiness to then suggest that there is neither contradiction nor unilaterality in the philosopher, but a dualistic view of the fundamental acts of the human essence - the will: (i) self-affirmation - blind and unconditional greedyness for... (complete happiness) - and (ii) self-denial - in which this hedonistic thirst is understood as an error
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