To understand Mainländer's philosophy we must first understand Schopenhauer as he was a great influence on Mainländer.
The world is full of suffering and pain, this suffering and pain makes us question why we must endure this. Schopenhauer believes that all of this is because of the "Will". This "Will" encompasses everything from humans, to animals and to the world. This "Will" is unchanging and will forever exist, never to be satiated. This is why life is predominantly suffering because this "Will" that drives us can never be appeased, nothing will truly make us eternally happy. Life mostly alternates between pain and struggle as we try to satiate our desires or boredom when we have no desires. And this "Will" has no meaning, because in the end you do not reach anything.
Schopenhauer believed that there were only two solutions, one being temporary and the other being permanent (to an individual). The first solution is to temporarily silence the "Will" by indulging in arts, philosophy, etc. While the second, permanent, solution is to follow a life of asceticism to live in a calm state of resignation.
This is why the world is not built by some God which has carefully designed a plan for all of humanity but is run by an unchanging and unstoppable "Will". Because of this there is no meaning in history because in all periods of history the "Will", just as it occurs today, led humans to the same sufferings with no apparent meaning.
Now let us move to Mainländer and his ideas.
The death of God
Mainländer believed that everything was once singular and unified, he calls this God. But because non-existence is preferable to existence, God knew that he had to cease existing but could not "commit suicide". So God broke himself into multiple pieces in the hopes that one day those pieces would rot out and reach their goal: nothingness.
The individual "Will"
Mainländer believed in Schopenhauer's "Will" but deviated from it with his own ideas. To Schopenhauer the "Will" is singular and that by silencing the individual "Will" one only silences part of the unified "Will". Mainländer disagreed with this by stating that because the singular being (God) broke himself into multiple pieces, he broke his singular and unified "Will" into multiple individual "Wills". Because the "Will" is individual and not unified, by silencing one's "Will" you silence it forever. This is why Mainländer believed that death is a better solution to temporarily silencing the "Will" or asceticism by recognizing death as salvation.
Because there are no true desirable pleasures in life that will truly make us happy he praised the nothingness of death, seeing death as the only true desirable pleasure.
Mainländer believed in egoism, that what is best for someone is what truly makes them happy. But because life is nothing but pain and suffering death is the only thing that will make them truly happy. Thus a will-to-death is the path to true happiness and with this knowledge one can transform his illusory will-to-live into a will-to-death.
This is the enlightened self-interest, one that will align one with the will-to-die as opposed to the ignorant self-interest which wants to capitalize on the illusory will-to-live.
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If you want to read more of Mainländer there is sadly a roadblock. All of his works, including his magnum opus, have not been translated into English (although I read somewhere that it's translation is in the work). There is hope for Spanishcels though since his magnum opus "Die Philosophie der Erlösung" has been translated into Spanish.
The world is full of suffering and pain, this suffering and pain makes us question why we must endure this. Schopenhauer believes that all of this is because of the "Will". This "Will" encompasses everything from humans, to animals and to the world. This "Will" is unchanging and will forever exist, never to be satiated. This is why life is predominantly suffering because this "Will" that drives us can never be appeased, nothing will truly make us eternally happy. Life mostly alternates between pain and struggle as we try to satiate our desires or boredom when we have no desires. And this "Will" has no meaning, because in the end you do not reach anything.
Schopenhauer believed that there were only two solutions, one being temporary and the other being permanent (to an individual). The first solution is to temporarily silence the "Will" by indulging in arts, philosophy, etc. While the second, permanent, solution is to follow a life of asceticism to live in a calm state of resignation.
This is why the world is not built by some God which has carefully designed a plan for all of humanity but is run by an unchanging and unstoppable "Will". Because of this there is no meaning in history because in all periods of history the "Will", just as it occurs today, led humans to the same sufferings with no apparent meaning.
Now let us move to Mainländer and his ideas.
The death of God
Mainländer believed that everything was once singular and unified, he calls this God. But because non-existence is preferable to existence, God knew that he had to cease existing but could not "commit suicide". So God broke himself into multiple pieces in the hopes that one day those pieces would rot out and reach their goal: nothingness.
The individual "Will"
Mainländer believed in Schopenhauer's "Will" but deviated from it with his own ideas. To Schopenhauer the "Will" is singular and that by silencing the individual "Will" one only silences part of the unified "Will". Mainländer disagreed with this by stating that because the singular being (God) broke himself into multiple pieces, he broke his singular and unified "Will" into multiple individual "Wills". Because the "Will" is individual and not unified, by silencing one's "Will" you silence it forever. This is why Mainländer believed that death is a better solution to temporarily silencing the "Will" or asceticism by recognizing death as salvation.
Because there are no true desirable pleasures in life that will truly make us happy he praised the nothingness of death, seeing death as the only true desirable pleasure.
Mainländer believed in egoism, that what is best for someone is what truly makes them happy. But because life is nothing but pain and suffering death is the only thing that will make them truly happy. Thus a will-to-death is the path to true happiness and with this knowledge one can transform his illusory will-to-live into a will-to-death.
This is the enlightened self-interest, one that will align one with the will-to-die as opposed to the ignorant self-interest which wants to capitalize on the illusory will-to-live.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to read more of Mainländer there is sadly a roadblock. All of his works, including his magnum opus, have not been translated into English (although I read somewhere that it's translation is in the work). There is hope for Spanishcels though since his magnum opus "Die Philosophie der Erlösung" has been translated into Spanish.
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