pessimism

Pessimism

Pessimism (厭世主義, Pessimism), or a pessimistic view, is a school of thought that interprets the world or life as ugly and painful. Philosophical pessimism denotes an anti-optimistic worldview or ethical perspective.

A representative thinker is Schopenhauer.

Bertrand Russell's Evaluation

Schopenhauer was exceptionally free from nationalism, and as thoroughly as he knew German writers, he was also proficient in English and French writers. His influence on artists and literary figures who pursued a more reliable philosophy than other philosophers was immense. Schopenhauer developed his philosophy by emphasizing the concept of the "will." Yet although Schopenhauer made the will the foundation of metaphysics, he regarded it as ethically evil. Such an evil will was bound to be hostile to the pessimist. (omission) Schopenhauer's theory of the will was accepted by many philosophers, especially actively by Nietzsche in Germany, the French philosopher Henri Bergson, the American philosopher John Dewey, and the American psychologist William James. Rousseau and Kant had prepared similar theories of the will, but Schopenhauer was the philosopher who first proclaimed such a pure theory of the will.

Topics: Schopenhauer,Ideology
Category: Wiki/Term