It's kind of ironic you mentioned this, I was just reading today that Millennial's are now considered the therapy generation.

I don't have any philosophical insights other than a sort of alternative-pragmatism. Meaning, I myself, replace therapy with hobbies and other recreational sorts of interests. Examples include anything that offers an adrenaline rush, endorphin high; riding dirt bikes, jetskiis, performing music, etc. and/or on the other side of the spectrum; meditation, hot tub, sunlight, boating, nude sunbathing, nature, etc...

If nothing else it's way to fellowship and stay connected.

I spent most of last year trying to figure that out, and wrote my answers down here.

Homeostasis is an option, as long as there is a desire to maintain it?

Forrest....that's pretty rockin dude! Love the website!!!

How much of Confucianism is in your philosophy? Or major influences?

Thanks. I'm starting a beta read of the whole thing in another thread if you'd like to participate.

Very little. I'm not particularly familiar with Confuscianism and didn't find much inspiring in what I have read of it. Major influences (on that particular topic) are Pragmatism, Absurdism, Buddhism, Stoicism, the Greek cardinal virtues and four temperaments, theological noncognitivism, the Christian Serenity Prayer, and the Acceptance and Commitment school of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy.

Wow, that's quite a mouthful. My attention span will have to be worked on to focus on the gist of your philosophy.

I am in that boat as well, so I wonder if the category of human beings under consideration aren't just supposed to accept burden and discontentment as part of life, and deal as anyone in their situation - through resilience and endurance. Then again, this may appear contrary to the spirit of the question, i.e. why have resilience and endurance?

P.S.: I wonder if loving and being loved isn't supposed to change that attitude. On one hand, love means caring, which implies suffering. On the other hand, caring is investment in life and a sense of purpose.

You're here; we're here. Get used to it. Really, because...

In every so many ways, the world is an unsatisfactory place.
Happiness is probably not in the cards.
Nobody asked to be here, but here we are--for a while.
The cosmos doesn't care.

One can flail away at the unfairness of life's ingravescent inimicalities, but they are not going to go away. So Schop, find a place that is not too awful and endure the bad situation. It will all be over before you know it.

why have resilience and endurance? — simeonz

Because it doesn't make a bad situation worse by figuratively ramming one's head into a virtual brick wall.

The cosmos doesn't care. — Bitter Crank

That is interesting. It seems like absurdism, but I wonder what specifically do you mean by the "cosmos doesn't care". That is, you do care, and you are part of the cosmos. So, some part of the cosmos cares. Just not an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent part of it.

Because it doesn't make a bad situation worse by figuratively ramming one's head into a virtual brick wall. — Bitter Crank

I know that the OP specifically wanted a non-suicidal option, but rationally speaking, if things are that bad, why not just check out. It doesn't appear a detrimental move from that point of view. Unless the person has a family that they don't want to betray and abandon.

I wonder if loving and being loved isn't supposed to change that attitude. On one hand, love means caring, which implies suffering. — simeonz

I feel the need to briefly elaborate here, only because this quote from cognitive science stays with me to this day:

'All he knows is that he is desperate for love. What he doesn't know is, that he will continue to strive [after he finds love].'

We are Beings who are never satisfied; we are trapped in a life of striving (or doing). Much like in our stream of consciousness. After one need is satisfied, it's replaced with another. I say, why not channel the energy...…..

Try and have some fun if boredom is really that excruciating.

So barring cliched suicide responses and an appeal to therapy, is there any philosophical insights for people who simply dont like the premises of life?

It's difficult to compare the premises of life to anything else because the premises of life are all we know. I think disliking the premises of life is akin to, if not the same as, disliking the premises of oneself.

you do care — simeonz

Who is it that is repeating these lies and slanders about me?

Well, sure, I care--a little bit, anyway; medication helps. But the cosmos definitely doesn't give a rat's ass that I care. The reason is that the cosmos can't care. The spheres are all silent. They spin. End of their story.

if things are that bad, why not just check out. — simeonz

Damned if I know. But I wasn't proposing suicide, anyway. I was merely suggesting one way that one can avoid making the situation worse.

My personal view: Only the most insensitive, unimaginative dolt would think this is a wonderful world after a careful perusal of life as we know it. Not just for us, but for everything else. But there is a time to rip off scabs and a time to refrain from ripping off the scabs on our wounds. Schop seems to be a serial scab ripper, if he even leaves his wounds alone long enough for a scab to form.

barring cliched suicide responses — schopenhauer1

Shirley there must be fresh and novel methods!

More than anything, from my psychoanalysis of Schopenhauer (and Nietzsche too), is that they wanted empathy to dominate human affairs.

And it does. We don't send people who want to kill themselves to prison!

'All he knows is that he is desperate for love. What he doesn't know is, that he will continue to strive [after he finds love].' — 3017amen

Oh. He knows. :) The strife actually increases. But with this kind of strife, there is a sense of purpose. The burden is even greater, but this kind of burden may fill the sense of vacuousness of one's existence.

We are Beings who are never satisfied; we are trapped in a life of striving (or doing). Much like in our stream of consciousness. After one need is satisfied, it's replaced with another. — 3017amen

This kind of consummation approach to love may not be the caring devoted love that I talk about, but I may be wrong. I think that love - romantic or platonic - is supposed to make a person invest effort in someone else's well-being. It is still egotism, but not driven by consummation.

So barring cliched suicide responses and an appeal to therapy, is there any philosophical insights for people who simply dont like the premises of life? — schopenhauer1

Then you can look for and find some other ones, or failing that create your own..

Enjoy! Life is for enjoying!

Well, sure, I care--a little bit, anyway; medication helps. But the cosmos definitely doesn't give a rat's ass that I care. The reason is that the cosmos can't care. The spheres are all silent. They spin. End of their story. — Bitter Crank

I understand. I just wanted to suggest that maybe the problem isn't that the universe is not sufficiently emotive, but that emotion is not what counts towards fixing its colossal issues.

My personal view: Only the most insensitive, unimaginative dolt would think this is a wonderful world after a careful perusal of life as we know it. Not just for us, but for everything else. — Bitter Crank

Some people just don't concern themselves with life in general, but pursue personal happiness. Some of them are decent people. They just have a different focus in life. That doesn't detract from your statement, which means something different and I agree with it. But I am just saying that not everyone who likes living is the village idiot.

Wrong on two counts.

Emotion comes first.

Every profession works for...society

Creativity may be a decent conduit through which to sublimate ones suffering.

I see abstract thought combined with rudamentary logic as the highest expression of creativity.

Don't ask me why, as you need to figure that out.

You need to be more specific about what exactly you don't like. I can't discern it just from you mentioning "the premises of life."

Then you need to readjust your expectations. Or be forever unhappy.

How do you do that?

The premises of life: an ever ambiguous concept. However, they have plagued humanity for centuries. Firstly, I think it highly important to question what these premises may be; does one first take issue with suffering, with meaning or with the meaning of suffering? All three are intriguing paths, though the last option seems to be the most relevant here.

However, before I tread further, I must begin with the assertion (and source of solace) that it is perfectly justifiable and indeed natural to find quarrels with the premises of life. Biologically and emotionally, it is cruel. We are born, we age and we die. However, the sequestered depths of the question lie in the concept of value; if we take such issue with the premise of life, why live?

I am not going to offer a deeper, hidden insight into the preconceived meaning of life, for I do not believe there to be such. However, I will proffer that meaning is important. If we suffer and know not whence or why, we merely exist in the temporal, chaotic world. It is only when we are removed from this, when we suffer and find meaning in the suffering, that we truly live.

Unleash your inner existentialist. We may take issue with the way life is and see no meaning or logic behind it, but if this is so, the importance lies not in this area, but in creating one's own meaning.

As Nietzsche once said: 'To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering.'

From a philosophical perspective, I suggest research into Camus' Myth of Sisyphus or Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra.

But I am just saying that not everyone who likes living is the village idiot. — simeonz

Of course; I agree. Actually, I rather enjoy living; I don't agree with Schopenhauer1's consistently (and long-time) downbeat view. I used to feel pretty crappy about life-as-we-know-it, and as far as I can tell, life is at least as crappy as it was 20 years ago. But I feel better about life. Why? Don't know, really. I just started feeling better, one year, and it has continued on for the last 7.

But still, even though

In every so many ways, the world is an unsatisfactory place.
Happiness is probably not in the cards.
Nobody asked to be here, but here we are--for a while.
The cosmos doesn't care. — Bitter Crank

I am presently happy. That may change at any time -- bad things can happen that spoil the pleasant garden party.

How do you do that? — Wallows

I don't think there's one way to do it. It starts with recognizing and learning to accept things you cannot change. But how you get there? Up to each individual, but mostly with practice, I think.

loving and being loved — simeonz

This is the solution. Well, half of it: the other half is learning and teaching. Let both goodness and truth flow into you and out of you, through you, and you will become meaningful to the world and it will become meaningful to you.