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I have tried to present my views regarding these two seemingly related phenomena.

(a) Thinking that Life is not worth living

When one "thinks" that life is not worth living, that is a product of their mind, of their thinking. It is driven by external circumstances that lead them to this conclusion, regardless of the fact whether or not life is, actually, worth living. Most of the time, this external factor is pain, although I cannot think of any other factors presently. We say that life is not worth living because "something". This "something" is an external factor, and not a property of ours.

(b) Being unable to bear the pain of existence

When someone is unable to bear the pain of existence, that is a result of their innate nature, or their own "incapability". This is not due to any conclusion they arrive at about the futility of existence. This "incapability" to bear the pain of existence comes from one's own judgement about oneself. I decide that I am unable to bear the pain of existence because pain makes me uncomfortable, and the degree to which we can tolerate comfort is subjective. Thus, is it more "real" in a way.

However, if one says that their life is unbearably painful, thus it is not worth living, they would be assigning the "lack of pain" to be the only measure by which we can decide the worthiness of life, which would be wrong. Pain is a phenomenon that makes life hard, but we cannot say that its lack thereof would give life meaning. This is because the "lack of pain" is not a yardstick by which we can judge the worthiness and meaningfulness of life, due to the fact that life cannot be assigned any objective meaning.

Please correct any fallacies in my argument, I am a novice in philosophy.

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  • it's kinda interesting that you took that order of headlines, because I would have assigned them the complete other way around "if you can't bear the pain of existence" you'd feel an external pressure upon you and just going on is too much, while "thinking that live is not worth it" sounds more like the result of introspection and not finding a motivation for yourself.
    – haxor789
    Commented Jun 25 at 9:31
  • "I find the pain of this dental procedure unbearable" is different from, "stop drilling, I'm getting out of the chair now", yes? The first is a report, the second states a decision, which might have nothing to do with pain. Also, it would depend on the particular "pain of existence" they refer to.
    – Scott Rowe
    Commented Jun 25 at 10:49
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    This is not an appropriate site to publish "am I right" or "please discuss my ideas" questions. There are other philosophy sites specifically devoted to such discussions where you would get much better interactions.
    – David Gudeman
    Commented Jun 25 at 13:46
  • @haxor789 It is indeed quite interesting how changing the order of the headlines changes the perspective of the problem. I had not noticed this before. Thank you for this.
    – vorpal
    Commented Jun 26 at 2:46
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    @ScottRowe I understand. Thank you.
    – vorpal
    Commented Jun 26 at 2:46

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In a) since things are happening in the mind, it's an internal state, not an external one. The mind may reflect external things, but the reflection is a personal experience.

In b) you are basically describing suffering. Suffering is the product of the identification of the self with what is happening to the self. And this is that main goal of all religions and spiritual teachings in general : to eliminate suffering.

Another (close to, but not the same) approach to suffering is Nietzsche’s challenging aspect of suffering:

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

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