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3 results

  • Introduction

  • Patrick Hassan, Cardiff University
  • Book:
    Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism
    Published online:
    02 November 2023
    Print publication:
    16 November 2023, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces the problem of pessimism, its intellectual and social origins, and where Nietzsche fits into the ‘pessimism dispute’ of 1860–1900. It argues that the current secondary literature on Nietzsche has tended to overlook the historical context in which he was writing, often treating his thoughts on pessimism in isolation from the texts beyond those of Schopenhauer that he was reading on the matter. The chapter ends by laying out the structure of the forthcoming chapters.

  • Chapter 1 - The Varieties of Pessimism

  • from Part I - Nietzsche’s Intellectual Context and Early Reception of Pessimism
  • Patrick Hassan, Cardiff University
  • Book:
    Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism
    Published online:
    02 November 2023
    Print publication:
    16 November 2023, pp 21-65

  • Summary

    This chapter aims to disentangle some the different views that have often been associated with the term ‘pessimism’. This includes the claims that (1) there is no historical progress; (2) this world is the worst of all possible worlds; (3) happiness is impossible; and (4) life is not worth living. The last thesis is identified as the central concern of the ‘pessimism dispute’, and three different justifications for it are presented. The final section of the chapter considers the expression of pessimism throughout human history and culture, with special attention paid to Schopenhauer’s analysis of religion.

Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism
  • Patrick Hassan
  • Published online:
    02 November 2023
    Print publication:
    16 November 2023
  • 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.