Pessimism

Pessimism
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 313
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781400827480
ISBN-13 : 1400827485
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Pessimism by : Joshua Foa Dienstag

Download or read book Pessimism written by Joshua Foa Dienstag and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


Pessimism Related Books

Pessimism
Language: en
Pages: 313
Authors: Joshua Foa Dienstag
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-02-17 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Pessimism claims an impressive following--from Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to Freud, Camus, and Foucault. Yet "pessimist" remains a term of abuse--an
Weltschmerz
Language: en
Pages: 312
Authors: Frederick C. Beiser
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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 e
Cosmic Pessimism
Language: en
Pages: 47
Authors: Eugene Thacker
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-03-01 - Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“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
Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Pessimism
Language: en
Pages: 301
Authors: Tobias Dahlkvist
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007 - Publisher: Uppsala Universitet

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Kantian Foundation of Schopenhauer's Pessimism
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: Dennis Vanden Auweele
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-04-21 - Publisher: Taylor & Francis

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Note on References -- Introduction -- 1 Schopenhauer's Philosophical Pedigree -- 2 Schopenha