Life is Hard Chapter 4: Failure (Addison McCammon, Section 3)

 The Philosophy of Failure

    Whether it be big or small, failure is woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. No matter the obstacle, failure still leaves an acutely painful impact on all of us. The problem is that we are unable to see failure as an inevitable part of life, or the stepping stone to success. In our heads, we build up failure as this insurmountable, devastating loss, but we don't have to think about it that way. 

Why does failure impact us so acutely? The Psychology of Failure

    Experiencing failure threatens our self-image and self-confidence. Additionally, your relationship and level of investment to the task at hand can also affect how much you’re impacted by failing. The theory goes that those more heavily invested in a task, such as a higher-level class, are more open to critical feedback as a means for improvement, while those in the lower-level class would prefer positive feedback to help stay motivated. It could also be that those more advanced students are just more adjusted to failure. Regardless, it’s much more straightforward to learn from out success rather than our failures. When we fail, it’s often hard to see what exactly we did wrong which makes it harder for us to single out how to improve for next time.

Life is Hard: How to Change Our Thinking 

    Kieran Setiya goes into detail about how to overcome failure by explaining the Life as Narrative view and the importance of living in the present in his book Life Is Hard.

Life as a Narrative

    When one has a narrative view of life, they believe that life must form a coherent, linear story. To see one’s life as a narrative arc, heading for a climax that it may or may not reach, is to see it as a potential failure. When you live this way, your life then becomes squeezed into a single moment, which is then defined by its outcome. 

“A life can’t really succeed or fail at all; it can only be lived.” Joe Moran

    All lives are an assortment of small successes and failures, and we are not defined by them. What really defines our life are the infinite mundane joys and simple pleasures that fill up the everyday- our beliefs, good deeds, hearty conversations, and companionship- and it is in these moments we truly feel what it means to be alive. Here Setiya  makes one major claim: Don’t let the lure of the dramatic arc distract you from the digressive amplitude of being alive.

Living in the Present:

    If life is not a narrative in which we are defined by our failures, then how do we escape the constant throws of failure? Setiya argues it’s by doing it for the love of the game, or simply living in the present. To begin, let’s look at Aristotle, who divided activities into two main categories:

Telic activities, which aim at terminal states, they are finished and

 thus exhausted (think: walking to the store)

Atelic activities, which aim not at termination and cannot be exhausted. 

They have no limit, no outcome whose achievement brings them to an end 

(think: platonic or romantic relationships)

 

To escape the devastation of failure then, one must understand that “happiness lies not in happiness but only in the attempt to achieve it” - Dostoevsky 

    Dostoevsky’s argument is that the value lies in atelic activities: in the process not the project. When you value the process, your relation to the present, and to failure, is quite different. To put it simply, valuing the process can insure us against failure.

Various Philosophers on Failure:

    Seitya is not the first to contemplate failure in this way, many other philosophers have discussed their views on failure and how to overcome it.

    Socrates believed that only true failure comes from giving up:  “Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen” 

    Friedrich Nietzsche once said that a great error is worth more than a multitude of trivial truths. A truly great mistake is one that we can learn from, where we gain new understanding from explaining why it is an error. Furthermore, he argued that embracing failure is key to growth and achieving greatness through ‘will to power’ Nietzsche's theory of the "will to power" is a fundamental concept suggesting that the primary driving force in all living things is not merely survival, but the drive to grow, overcome resistance, and assert power over oneself and one's environment. In the following quote, Nietzsche argues that failure is simply part of the game of life and you mustn't let it shake you, 

“Shy, ashamed, awkward, like the tiger whose spring has failed—thus, you higher men, have I often seen you slink aside. A cast which you made had failed. But what does it matter, you dice-players! You had not learned to play and joke as one must play and joke! Do we not ever sit at a great table of joking and playing? And if great things have been a failure with you, have you yourselves therefore—been a failure? . . . Be of good cheer; what does it matter? How much is still possible! Learn to laugh at yourselves, as you ought to laugh!”

    Georg Hegel viewed failure not as a final end, but as a necessary, dynamic part of progress that drives its development. For Hegel, every failed project or mistake holds a lesson and is an essential moment for truth and progress. Every challenge forces us forward, whether in history, knowledge, or self-development.

    The philosophy of stoicism accepts that external events are often beyond our control, however we do have complete control over our own actions and judgments. This way, the focus shifts from the outcome to the internal response.

“You have power over your mind- not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength” - Marcus Aurelius

Stoics practice envisioning the worst case scenario as a way to be prepared for all possible outcomes. In this way, there is no such thing as failure—simply outcomes.

A stoic must make the most of an unpleasant outcome because they see failure as just an opportunity. Failure is a chance to be better, to do better, to start over, to reevaluate,  or to practice virtue (like patience or kindness). 

    In all, philosophers generally agree that the only way to overcome failure is to not only accept it as an inevitable part of life, but to see the good within it. When failure becomes a positive means for growth, it no longer has the ability to overpower us. 

Discussion Question

1. Have you ever failed at something important to you? What was it and how did you overcome it?