Cosmic Pessimism

Cosmic Pessimism

Author: Eugene Thacker

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2016-03-01

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 1937561879

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“We’re doomed.” So begins the work of the philosopher whose unabashed and aphoristic indictments of the human condition have been cropping up recently in popular culture. Today we find ourselves in an increasingly inhospitable world that is, at the same time, starkly indifferent to our species-specific hopes, desires, and disappointments. In the Anthropocene, pessimism is felt everywhere but rarely given its proper place. Though pessimism may be, as Eugene Thacker says, the lowest form of philosophy, it may also contain an enigma central to understanding the horizon of the human. Written in a series of fragments, aphorisms, and prose poems, Thacker’s Cosmic Pessimism explores the varieties of pessimism and its often-conflicted relation to philosophy. “Crying, laughing, sleeping—what other responses are adequate to a life that is so indifferent?”


Pessimism

Pessimism

Author: Joshua Foa Dienstag

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-02-17

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1400827485

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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 powerful 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 persuasively 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. The goal--of both the pessimistic spirit and of this fascinating account of pessimism--is not to depress us, but to edify us about our condition and to fortify us for life in a disordered and disenchanted universe.


Nietzsche, Wagner and the Philosophy of Pessimism

Nietzsche, Wagner and the Philosophy of Pessimism

Author: Roger Hollinrake

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-11-01

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1135175225

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Nietzsche’s relationship with Wagner has long been a source of controversy and has given rise to a number of important studies, including this major breakthrough in Nietzsche scholarship, first published in 1982. In this work Hollinrake contends that the nature and extent of the anti-Wagnerian pastiche and polemic in Thus Spake Zarathustra is arguably the most important factor in the association between the two. Thus Wagner, as the purveyor of a particular brand of Schopenhauerian pessimism, is here revealed as one of the principle sources – and targets – of Zarathustra. Whilst addressed primarily to students of German Literature, this book will also be of interest to musicians, philosophers and students of the history of culture and ideas.


Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz

Author: Frederick C. Beiser

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0198768710

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Frederick C. Beiser presents a study of the pessimism that dominated German philosophy from the 1860s to c. 1900: the theory that life is not worth living. He explores its major defenders and chief critics, and examines how the theory redirected German philosophy away from the logic of the sciences and toward an examination of the value of life.


Nietzsche's Struggle Against Pessimism

Nietzsche's Struggle Against Pessimism

Author: Patrick Hassan

Publisher:

Published: 2023-11

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1009380311

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On what grounds could life be made worth living, given its abundant suffering? Friedrich Nietzsche was among many who attempted to answer this question. While always seeking to resist pessimism, Nietzsche's strategy for doing so, and the extent to which he was willing to concede conceptual grounds to pessimists, shifted dramatically over time. His reading of pessimists such as Eduard von Hartmann, Olga Plümacher, and Julius Bahnsen-as well as their critics, such as Eugen Dühring and James Sully-has been under-explored in the secondary literature, isolating him from his intellectual context. Patrick Hassan's book seeks to correct this. After closely mapping Nietzsche's philosophical development on to the relevant axiological and epistemological issues, it disentangles his various critiques of pessimism, elucidating how familiar Nietzschean themes (e.g. eternal recurrence, aesthetic justification, will to power, and his critique of Christianity) can and should be assessed against this philosophical backdrop.


THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY (Classical Art vs. Nihilism)

THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY (Classical Art vs. Nihilism)

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2023-12-12

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13:

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This carefully crafted ebook: "THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "The Birth of Tragedy" subtitled as "Hellenism and Pessimism" is a work of dramatic theory which discusses the history of the tragic form and introduces an intellectual dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Nietzsche believed that in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, poet, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations of his work. In the Western philosophy tradition, Nietzsche's writings have been described as the unique case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project.


NIETZSCHE: Beyond Good and Evil, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Hellenism & Pessimism

NIETZSCHE: Beyond Good and Evil, Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Hellenism & Pessimism

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-11-25

Total Pages: 613

ISBN-13:

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"Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None" chronicles the fictitious travels and speeches of Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastrianism. Zarathustra contains the famous dictum "God is dead" and the concept of the "Übermensch" (overman or superman). In "Beyond Good and Evil" Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense and blindly accepting dogmatic premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an affirmative approach. "The Birth of Tragedy or, Hellenism and Pessimism" is a work of dramatic theory which discusses the history of the tragic form and introduces an intellectual dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Nietzsche believed that in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations of his work.


The Kantian Foundation of Schopenhauer's Pessimism

The Kantian Foundation of Schopenhauer's Pessimism

Author: Dennis Vanden Auweele

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1351721607

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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Note on References -- Introduction -- 1 Schopenhauer's Philosophical Pedigree -- 2 Schopenhauer on Knowledge -- 3 Schopenhauer's Metaphysics -- 4 Schopenhauer on Ethics and Action -- 5 Schopenhauer's Philosophy of Religion -- 6 Schopenhauer's Aesthetics -- 7 Schopenhauer's Ascetics -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index


Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Hellenism & Pessimism – 3 Unbeatable Philosophy Books in One Volume

Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Hellenism & Pessimism – 3 Unbeatable Philosophy Books in One Volume

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Publisher: e-artnow

Published: 2017-04-17

Total Pages: 679

ISBN-13: 8026876229

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"Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None" chronicles the fictitious travels and speeches of Zarathustra, the founder of Zoroastrianism. Zarathustra contains the famous dictum "God is dead" and the concept of the "Übermensch" (overman or superman). In "Beyond Good and Evil" Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of lacking critical sense and blindly accepting dogmatic premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an affirmative approach. "The Birth of Tragedy or, Hellenism and Pessimism" is a work of dramatic theory which discusses the history of the tragic form and introduces an intellectual dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Nietzsche believed that in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations of his work. In the Western philosophy tradition, Nietzsche's writings have been described as the unique case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project