Pessimism, when boiled down to its base, is simply the opposite of optimism. While this may seem like a "No, really?" statement, optimism, if boiled down the same, becomes much less than the sunny disposition it is assumed to be. Optimism is the belief that this world is the best of all possible worlds; therefore pessimism is the belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds.
Despite this rather negative assertion, pessimism is actually quite a bit more cheerful than its basis would lead you to believe, and vice versa for optimism.
Let's start with optimism. If our current world, with all of its problems, is the best of all the worlds, then there is no room for improvement in society or even the hope of improvement. Instead, one must simply grin and bear whatever is happening. Rather depressing, isn't it?
Pessimism, on the other hand, forces one to accept that what is happening, whether on the personal level or on a more global scale, is not the best thing that could be happening, and is, in fact, the worst. What this acceptance does is leave ample room for improvement and provides hope, not for myself and the betterment of my personal world, but rather hope for the world of future generations.
I have to say, Zoe, if you're a pessimist you're also a lot more pleasant and cheerful than a lot of "optimists" I've known.
ReplyDeleteI still think meliorism is the better alternative to both: the world is neither as good nor as bad as it can be, and it falls to each of us to try and figure out how to take a sad song and make it better. With your endorsement of hope for the future, I think you may be a meliorist too.
I really loved this post about pessimism. The cartoons really helped as a visual aide. As well as pointing out that pessimists are not all the negative connotations that the word implies.
ReplyDeleteSo this is Part 2 of my post, but I'm doing in the comments because blogspot has once again deleted me from the list of authors for this blog. Please enjoy the second half of my Pessimism post:
ReplyDeleteAs previously discussed, pessimism is actually positive, if boiled down to its core value. However, there are several variations of pessimistic philosophies that exhibit the negative view of pessimism.
First up is Nihilism. Nihilism does not have a singular founder, but can be found in the works of both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Essentially, nihilism is the belief that life lacks any and all intrinsic value. In other words 'What's the point?' This particular philosophy does not really connect with my previous statements about positive pessimism, but view nihilists in another light. If life has no direct purpose, that is, if there is no set thing a human is meant to accomplish with their life, then there are no mistakes to be made and no failures to be had. One is now free of the constraints of expectations and, instead of being good, can just be.
The second philosophy of pessimism is stoicism. Founded by Zeno, the stoics of antiquity believed in a balanced universe comprised of monistic physics, logic, and naturalistic ethics, with a heavy emphasis on ethics. Essentially, life was about finding an ethical middle ground between human freedoms/free will and cosmic will/predestination. Modern day stoics are more on the negative side of pessimism. A modern Stoic will anticipate every possible wrong outcome of an event, and then plan for when things go wrong, and then probably plan for when their plans go wrong. They are the Batmen of philosophy: Always have a plan, a backup plan, and a backup plan for the backup plan.
There is a third pessimistic philosophical option. DECIDE FOR YOURSELF! That's right! it is not required that you fall in line with a preexisting philosophy of life. I personally take it each day at a time, expecting something to go wrong, but not worrying about it before hand. In the words of New Scamander (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), "I never worrying, for it only makes it twice as bad."