Pessimism philosophy, ethic, spirit - Dienstag, Joshua Foa (Princeton University Press, 2006)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-282) and index
The anatomy of pessimism -- "A philosophy that is grievous but true": cultural pessimism in Rousseau and Leopardi -- "The evils of the world honestly admitted": metaphysical pessimism in Schopenhauer and Freud -- "Consciousness is a disease": existential pessimism in Camus, Unamuno, and Cioran -- Nietzsche's Dionysian pessimism -- Cervantes as educator: Don Quixote and the practice of pessimism -- Aphorisms and pessimisms -- Pessimism and freedom (the pessimist speaks)
Pessimism claims an impressive following--from Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to Freud, Camus, and Foucault. Yet "pessimist" remains a term of abuse--an accusation of a bad attitude--or the diagnosis of an unhappy psychological state. Pessimism is thought of as an exclusively negative stance that inevitably leads to resignation or despair. Even when pessimism looks like utter truth, we are told that it makes the worst of a bad situation. Bad for the individual, worse for the species--who would actually counsel pessimism? Joshua Foa Dienstag does. In Pessimism, he challenges the received wisdom about pessimism, arguing that there is an unrecognized yet coherent and vibrant pessimistic philosophical tradition. More than that, he argues that pessimistic thought may provide a critically needed alternative to the increasingly untenable progressivist ideas that have dominated thinking about politics throughout the modern period. Laying out grounds for pessimism's claim that progress is not an enduring feature of human history, Dienstag argues that political theory must begin from this predicament. He shows that pessimism has been--and can again be--an energizing and even liberating philosophy, an ethic of radical possibility and not just a criticism of faith. --From publisher's description