Abstract
It is commonplace, in philosophy and in everyday life, to think that suffering, understood as a kind of negative affective experience, is bad. Nevertheless, the case can be made that suffering, in certain instances and circumstances, has considerable value. Indeed, it seems plausible that we would be considerably worse off if we didn’t experience things like pain and remorse, hunger and shame. Those who are insensitive to pain don’t live very long, after all. And those who are incapable of feeling negative emotions such as guilt and shame will find it very difficult to form and function in social relationships that are central to a happy life. By the same token, we think that we ought to experience other negative emotions: we ought to grieve when a loved one dies, and that despair is appropriate when our dreams are shattered. Reflection on these cases might incline us to the view that suffering is not always and everywhere bad, but can in many instances be good. In this paper I want to extend this positive perspective on the value of suffering, by examining the idea that suffering is necessary for wisdom.
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Notes
- 1.
These biographical details, sometimes referred to as the ‘legend’ of the ‘historical Buddha’, and presented by the poet Ashvaghosha in the Buddhacarita or The Acts of the Buddha, relate a number of occasions where Gautama Buddha’s suffering has significant moral effects. I’ve discussed these details, and the general line in this chapter, in more detail in Brady (2018).
- 2.
For an excellent account of Aristotle on phronesis, see Russell (2009, Ch. 1). Many of the paradigmatic elements of wisdom to be discussed below resemble the parts or capacities that Russell thinks are components of phronesis on Aristotle’s view.
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- 6.
Cf. Davies (2012). He writes: “Schopenhauer said that any increase in our awareness is paid for with suffering”, p. 128.
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- 8.
See Ronald de Sousa: “[P]aying attention to certain things is a source of reasons” (de Sousa 1987, p. 196).
- 9.
See Clark and DavidWatson, who write that “triggered by environmental events, emotions act as salient internal stimuli that alert the organism to the need for further information gathering and action” (Clark and Watson 1994, p. 131; My italics). On my view, this need is best served through the consumption of attention in negative emotional experience.
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Brady, M.S. (2019). Learning from Adversity: Suffering and Wisdom. In: Candiotto, L. (eds) The Value of Emotions for Knowledge. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15667-1_9
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