Key Takeaways:

  • In today’s society, being happy and having an optimistic attitude are social expectations that weigh heavily on how we live and the choices we make.
  • This is why if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical system that can help us achieve it.
  • Compassion for living beings And as in the case of existentialism, despair and angst are not necessarily defining aspects of philosophical pessimism.
  • Pessimism has a long history in philosophy, dating back to the ancient Greeks.
  • It’s unrealistic to think we should always look at the bright side of events.
  • The expectation to be happy therefore becomes a struggle against the very nature of life.

In today’s society, being happy and having an optimistic attitude are social expectations that weigh heavily on how we live and the choices we make. 

Some psychologists have pointed out how happiness has evolved into an industry. In turn, this has created what I call a  happiness imperative, the social expectation that we should all aspire to happiness. 

But this can be an obstacle to happiness. This is why, as a researcher in philosophical pessimism, I argue that if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical systemthat can help us achieve it. 

While pessimism in the psychological sense is a tendency to focus on bad outcomes, philosophical pessimism isn’t fundamentally about outcomes. Rather, it’s a system that purports to explain the origins, prevalence and ubiquity of suffering. 

Even if I adopt a cheerful and positive attitude towards life (thereby not making me a psychological pessimist) I can still be a philosophical pessimist because I can continue to believe that existence is generally filled with suffering.

All about angst?

French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre is sometimes seen as a gloomy philosopher who deals with existential angst, dread and generally dark, depressive topics. He’s also been associated with pessimism, but this is largely due to misunderstandings of his work.

Black and white photo of a man in a study with pipe.
French author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, seen here in his Paris study in 1948, wanted people to assume responsibility for the lives they create. (AP Photo)

In 1945 Sartre wanted to dispel these mistaken impressions. In a public lecture called Existentialism is a Humanism, he argued that existentialism, properly understood, is a philosophy about freedom and assuming responsibility for our choices and for the lives we create. We are free — or in existentialist terms, we are condemned to be free

Sartre believed we have no essence, and therefore must create and build one for ourselves. So while all this can certainly cause feelings of angst and despair in some, this needn’t be the case. 

Compassion for living beings

And as in the case of existentialism, despair and angst are not necessarily defining aspects of philosophical pessimism

Pessimism has a long history in philosophy, dating back to the ancient Greeks. An early myth tells us that the satyr Silenusrevealed to King Midas that the greatest thing any human could hope for was to never have been born and that the second best thing was an early death. 

But the German 19th-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhaueris considered by philosophers to be the first modern western writer who treated pessimism systematically in his work. 

Schopenhauer’s philosophical pessimism is motivated by compassion and concern for all humans — though to be precise, this compassion extends to all living beings, not just humans. This is one of the important differences with existentialism. 

Condemnation of existence

In Schopenhauer’s pessimism, we find a clear condemnation of existence. As he put it, “work, worry, toil and distress are indeed the lot of almost all human beings their whole life through,” and “one can also conceive of our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful calm of nothingness.” 

Oil painting of a man.
Portrait of Schopenhauer, circa 1815.(Wikipedia)

And in case he is not clear enough on his condemnation of existence, he also says “the world is simply hell, and human beings are on the one hand its tortured souls and on the other hand its devils.” 

As a consequence, for Schopenhauer, nonexistence is preferable to existence. This means that given the option of existing or not existing, not coming to be is the best choice. In this he echoes Silenus, but — and this is important — once we are here, the best we can do is adopt a life attitude that keeps us away from desires and wants. It is in our interest to stop pursuing things, including happiness. 

Not about destroying life

In no case would he, or any other pessimist philosopher, advocate anything like crazy omnicide — actively and directly taking steps to destroy all life — as some mistakenly believe.

Ultimately, the pessimism of Schopenhauer depends entirely on his metaphysical views about the nature of existence itself — the essence of which is what he called will

For our purposes, it’s enough if we understand will as a sort of force that underlies, conditions and motivates everything that exists. As such, everything that is, exists to want endlessly — and never attain any durable satisfaction. 

The bright side

Given that the world we live in forces us to deal with pandemics, economic problems, wars and climate change it can seem overwhelming that we are supposed to be happy. It’s unrealistic to think we should always look at the bright side of events. 

A sunny sky.
It’s unrealistic to think we should always look at the bright side. (Shutterstock)

And even if we choose to do so, it is still the case that, according to pessimism, we exist to want and desire endlessly. In light of this, the happiness imperative comes into conflict with the essence of existence (Schopenhauer’s will) because satisfaction isn’t possible. The expectation to be happy therefore becomes a struggle against the very nature of life.

This is why when society expects us to be happy, and blames us if we are not, positivity becomes toxic.

If we find ourselves unable to live up to the happiness imperative, we can feel inadequate and like failures. 

Pessimism can offer philosophical tools to better understand our place within existence. It can help us come to terms with the idea that refusing to relentlessly pursue happiness is perhaps the most reasonable attitude.

Contributor

Recently Published

Key Takeaway: Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing investment by making professional financial insight and portfolio management accessible to everyone. AI-powered robo-advisers, such as Betterment and Vanguard, are democratizing investment and providing tailored advice to a new generation of investors. With 31% of gen Zs and 20% of millennials using robo-advisers, the financial industry is adapting […]
Key Takeaway: Nasa’s Artemis program is set to return astronauts to the Moon and establish a permanent orbiting laboratory by the end of the decade. As humanity’s footprint expands, a new field emerges: astroforensics. Space presents a unique and harsh environment for forensic investigations, with altered gravity, cosmic radiation, extreme temperatures, and oxygen-providing climate systems. […]

Top Picks

Key Takeaways: Stock market enthusiasts often claim to predict financial market trends with great accuracy, but this is not possible due to the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of the environments in which we make daily decisions. Human cognition tends to favor a reductionist approach to information processing, sometimes called “tunneling,” which can lead to biased […]

Trending

I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […]

Join our Newsletter

Get our monthly recap with the latest news, articles and resources.

Login

Welcome to Empirics

We are glad you have decided to join our mission of gathering the collective knowledge of Asia!
Join Empirics