Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit

by Joshua Foa Dienstag

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691141121
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/09/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Joshua Foa Dienstag is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Dancing in Chains: Narrative and Memory in Political Theory.

Read an Excerpt

Pessimism

Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit

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By Joshua Foa Dienstag

Princeton University Press

Copyright © 2006 Princeton University Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-691-12552-X

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Chapter One

THE ANATOMY OF PESSIMISM

The idea that a pessimistic philosophy is necessarily one of discouragement is a puerile idea, but one that needs too long a refutation. -Albert Camus

CAN IT really be the case that an entire tradition of thought has gone missing from our standard histories of political theory? A claim like this sounds extravagant on first hearing. In some sense, perhaps, it is extravagant-but not in the way that immediately comes to mind. In attempting to reframe the history of political thought so that pessimism becomes one of its major strands, I will not be arguing for paying attention to a series of writers who have hitherto been wholly unknown. While there certainly are authors, important to identify, who have been unjustly neglected on account of their pessimism, that is not the only, or even the main, story. Instead, I argue that while many of the pessimists are well-known, the nature of their common project (indeed, the very idea that they have a common project) has been obscured. Since pessimism is perceived more as a disposition than as a theory, pessimists are seen primarily as dissenters from whatever the prevailing consensus oftheir time happens to be, rather than as constituting a continuous alternative. The result is that each seems disconnected from the mainstream of the history of political thought. They appear as voices in the wilderness, to put it politely-or to put it less politely, as cranks. While they are often admired for their style, or respected for the critiques they offer, their apparent lack of a "positive project" is made to appear as a badge of second-rank philosophical status. They interest us; but, it is believed, they cannot possibly orient us.

With greater or lesser degrees of respect, then, pessimists have in many cases been dismissed from the upper reaches of the canon of political thought. Or when they are admitted, as in the case of a figure like Nietzsche, they are taken to be radically isolated from other elements in that canon. Nietzsche's philosophy is highly distinctive, of course, but this should not blind us to the ways in which he, like many of the other figures to be discussed here, remains part of a tradition that has itself been rendered invisible. Even as, in recent decades, the traditional list of great works has been strenuously attacked, stretched, revised, and reconsidered, the idea of a pessimistic political theory has not been seriously entertained. There are several reasons for this-but none of them are really barriers to a reconsideration of pessimism. First, as I mentioned above, pessimism is often taken to be a state of mind, rather than a philosophy or philosophical orientation. This is perfectly understandable; there are, of course, happy and unhappy people and they do tend to have different attitudes about the world. But just as theories of progress are not the same thing as a cheerful attitude toward life, neither should pessimism be equated with a foul disposition. Nor is it even true that these attitudes and philosophies are regularly correlated in individuals. John Stuart Mill, for example, was famously optimistic in his belief about the long-term growth of mankind through the continuous application of reason, and he was just as famously depressive and dyspeptic. Schopenhauer, it is often claimed, was pessimistic in both the psychological and philosophical senses. But even were this claim true, Schopenhauer is not the whole of pessimism (though he is often mistaken for it) and, were one to proceed in this way, one could find just as many happy pessimists as sad ones. But I will not be examining the relative cheerfulness of the philosophical pessimists in any detail; nor would I suggest that anyone should do so on behalf of theorists of progress. It will, I hope, be enough to point out here that philosophy and disposition should simply not be confused with one another. The real question is whether I can demonstrate that a pessimistic philosophy, as such, exists. If I do, I hope that its distinctness from depressive attitudes will be granted as a matter of course.

A second reason that pessimistic theory has not been recognized as such is that it is often lumped together with nihilism, cynicism, skepticism, and other like philosophies. Few writers, of course, adopt the label of "nihilist" or "cynic" for themselves (though there are many self-proclaimed skeptics). But these schools of thought are nonetheless named and studied by their critics, usually for their deleterious effects on the species. Without getting into these debates in any detail, I think it is fair to say that, in discussions such as these, the word "pessimistic" is one of a list of adjectives used very loosely to describe any "negative" philosophy, that is, any philosophy opposed to traditional attempts at system-building or the defense of some concrete political order. While pessimism is a negative philosophy, in this sense, with the goal only of fortifying us in a limited existence, it is otherwise not directly related to skepticism or nihilism, which are generally the true objects of attack by those suspicious of negative philosophy. That is to say, insofar as pessimism has been considered at all, it has been rendered an adjunct to skepticism or nihilism. If, therefore, my description of pessimism shows it to be something genuinely distinct from these, then it will have to be considered anew, even by those still inclined to be critical of it.

Finally, the dismissal of pessimism reflects the continuing grip that ideas of progress retain on contemporary consciousness. Though supposedly slain many times (Lewis Mumford called it the "deadest of dead ideas" in 1932), this beast continues to rise from the ashes for the simple reasons that, first, it helps us to make sense of the linear time of our calendar and, second, there is no easy substitute for it. However much it may be denied in principle, in practice the idea of progress is difficult to displace. And from this perspective, pessimism is especially bewildering. Precisely because it asks us to rethink our sense of time, pessimism is an idea that challenges our notions of order and meaning in dramatic ways. Though it may not seem, on the surface, to be an especially political doctrine (it often appears, and is assumed to be, antipolitical), pessimism attacks the roots of modern political orders by denying their sense of time. Pessimism is a substitute for progress, but it is not a painless one. In suggesting that we look at time and history differently, it asks us to alter radically our opinion both of ourselves and of what we can expect from politics. It does not simply tell us to expect less. It tells us, in fact, to expect nothing. This posture, I argue below, while difficult, is not impossible and not suicidal either. It is neither skeptical (knowing nothing) nor nihilistic (wanting nothing). It is a distinct account of the human condition that has developed in the shadow of progress-alongside it, as it were-with its own political stance.

Pessimism, I have been saying, has been hiding in plain sight. Its exemplars could be said to include, among others: Rousseau, Leopardi, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Weber, Unamuno, Ortega y Gasset, Freud, Camus, Adorno, Foucault, and Cioran-to name just a few in what could become a very long list. It could be said to have precursors in figures like Montaigne, Lichtenburg, Pascal, and La Rochefoucauld. And it could be said to have close associates in writers like Sartre, Arendt, Benjamin, Wittgenstein, and Weil. The list would grow considerably longer, of course, if one included poets and fiction writers (e.g., Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, et al.) but here (with one notable exception) we will confine ourselves to works drawn from the philosophical tradition. For whatever reason, the idea of a pessimistic novelist has never been as illegitimate as the idea of a pessimistic philosopher. (It would be an interesting project to determine just why this is so, but one I cannot pursue here.) The former has been as prominent as the latter has been invisible; and so it is only the latter whose existence I am concerned to vindicate.

Nonetheless, I should be clear about the nature of the endeavor undertaken here. In saying that these various philosophers-all modern and European but nonetheless drawn from several centuries and countries-should be collectively understood as pessimists, I shall not attempt to demonstrate that they share a single idea (e.g., that "life is suffering"). That, in any case, is not really a good test for the existence of a school of thought. One would be hard-pressed, I think, to name the single thought shared by, say, all liberal political philosophers or all republicans. Even where a school is said to derive from a single figure (as, say, with Platonists), there is no reason for there to be a single proposition on which all members agree. We are better off, I believe, if we utilize here Wittgenstein's notion of "family resemblance"-his term for a situation in which there is no one element in common but rather "a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing"(Wittgenstein 1958, 32). The various members of a family may all be visibly related to one another without there being a single feature they all share. But, Wittgenstein argues, that does not mean we are mistaken to call them by a single name. In fact, we do this all the time; it is only when we reflect on the practice that we mistakenly demand that each name correspond to a single feature rather than a network of overlapping similarities. Furthermore, he argues, one cannot say exactly where one family ends and another begins. Instead, Wittgenstein suggests the idea of a strand composed of many overlapping filaments: "the strength of the thread does not reside in the fact that some one fibre runs through the whole length, but in the overlapping of many fibres" (Wittgenstein 1958, 32). Likewise, I shall be arguing that pessimism is a strand that has been woven through the history of modern political thought, where many overlapping elements comprise a single trajectory. But this is not meant to set pessimism off from other sorts of political philosophy-modern political thought (to continue the metaphor) is, on this view, just a fabric of many such similarly constituted fibers. In the second half of this chapter, I will elaborate a series of propositions that, I claim, are characteristic of pessimism. Perhaps no pessimist subscribes to all of them, but in order to be a pessimist one must subscribe to several of them. If there is, throughout, an implicit attempt to harmonize these various propositions into a whole, this should be understood as my own effort at a sort of fusion of various horizons. It is not proposed as an interpretation of any of the pessimists in particular, but rather as an attempt to say what the thread of pessimism, built up from a variety of fibers, amounts to.

But pessimism is set off from other modern schools of philosophy (though not all of them) by something else. As I granted above, pessimists generally do not set out a scheme of ideal government structure or principles of justice. Theirs is (for the most part) a philosophy of personal conduct, rather than public order. Since such schemes or principles are, to some, the very essence of a political philosophy, this fact, by itself, has been enough to disqualify the pessimists from serious consideration in some quarters. Recently however, there have been a variety of attempts to rehabilitate such non-system-building philosophy (for it has a long history) under a variety of rubrics. In the first place, there has been renewed interest in those later Hellenistic philosophers grouped under such names as Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans, and Skeptics. These philosophers, it is generally agreed, practiced a sort of philosophy that focused much more on the individual's approach to life than on the structure of the state within which she lived. The very titles of recent works such as Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life and Martha Nussbaum's The Therapy of Desire betray a renewed interest in this style of reasoning while insisting that it is no less a part of the philosophical tradition. Although both Nussbaum and Hadot have been critical of Foucault's attempts, in his late works, to use these same writers in the service of redefining philosophy as a "technique of the self," all parties to these disputes would have to agree that our understanding of political philosophy is wrongly narrowed if we limit it to that which systematizes. In a related development, recent interpretations of Nietzsche have focused on the idea that what is suggested to us in his books is an "art of living" in which we are directed, not to act in a particular way, but to view our actions in the light of criteria both historical and, for lack of a better word, aesthetic. This, in turn, has given rise to varieties of feminism and postmodernism that show a renewed concern with personal conduct, as opposed to government structure. Now, with the exception of Nietzsche himself, very little of this writing is, to my mind, pessimistic. So, if pessimism is indeed, by the very nature of its concerns, set off from such traditional schools of philosophy as liberalism, Marxism, republicanism, and so forth, it is certainly not alone in being so distinguished. Indeed, it is in part the renewed attention being paid to this style of philosophy that makes it easier for us now to recognize the pessimistic tradition in philosophy.

As an antisystematic philosophy, pessimism still needs to be distinguished from other such philosophies, especially such premodern ones as Stoicism and Epicureanism. As will become clear as we proceed, it undoubtedly shares certain elements with these perspectives and is in some sense a descendant of them. Nonetheless, there is a reasonably sharp divide between such earlier philosophies of the self and pessimism, marked out by their different attitudes toward time. Like the idea of progress, and the various philosophies to which it gave rise, pessimism is a modern phenomenon. The word "pessimism" itself (from the Latin pessimus-the worst) came into widespread use only in the nineteenth century. Although the philosophical tradition I will be examining is considerably older than that, it does have an identifiable beginning. Like optimism, pessimism relies on an underlying linear concept of time, a concept that only became a force in Western thinking in the early modern period.

My argument here relies on the fairly common idea (still contested in some quarters) that a transformation in the time-consciousness of Europe sharply distinguishes the modern era from previous ones. While it is surely an oversimplification to say that ancient notions of time were simply "cyclical" while modern ones are purely "linear," it is nonetheless true that there was a change in Western ideas of time that had a profound effect on nearly every element of society, philosophy included. Though there were a variety of ancient views on time (as on any subject), the cyclical view, in different forms, was by far the dominant one. Pythagoras, for example, taught that "events recur in cycles, and that nothing is ever absolutely new" (Kirk, Raven, and Schofield 1983, 238). Stoic cosmology held that "time is passing just as we say the year passes, on a larger circuit," and the world was perpetually destroyed and recreated such that "after the conflagration of the cosmos everything will again come to be in numerical order, until every specific quality too will return to its original state, just as it was before and came to be in that cosmos" (Sambursky 1959, 107; 1956, 201-2). Even Aristotle's more measured discussion of time links it fundamentally to motion, and since the revolution of the heavens is the fundamental motion of the universe, "all other things are discriminated by time, and end and begin as though conforming to a cycle" (Physics 223b27-28). Ancient political theory relied on these views in its descriptions of historical patterns-and of the place of human beings within those patterns. As a result, progress, decline, or even an endless but linear accumulation of experience, played little part in ancient philosophy. Modernity, by contrast (as discussed in greater detail below) has been marked out from the start by a belief in linear time and non-cyclical historical narrative.

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Abbreviations xvii

Part I

Chapter 1 The Anatomy of Pessimism 3

Part II

Chapter 2 "A Philosophy That Is Grievous but True": Cultural Pessimism in Rousseau and Leopardi 49

Chapter 3 "The Evils of the World Honestly Admitted": Metaphysical Pessimism in Schopenhauer and Freud 84

Chapter 4 "Consciousness Is a Disease": Existential Pessimism in Camus, Unamuno, and Cioran 118

Part III

Chapter 5 Nietzsche's Dionysian Pessimism 161

Chapter 6 Cervantes as Educator: Don Quixote and the Practice of Pessimism 201

Chapter 7 Aphorisms and Pessimisms 226

Chapter 8 Pessimism and Freedom (The Pessimist Speaks) 244

Afterword 265

Bibliography 273

Index 283

What People are Saying About This

Tracy Strong

I think this book is successful in what it sets out to do. It is extremely ambitious: it seeks to recast European political thought over the last 300 years and to make that recasting appealing to contemporary readers. I concur with most of the analyses and in all cases they are creative and enlightening.
— Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego

From the Publisher

"It seems that with each passing day the faith in progress becomes less sustainable, less believable, whether one consults environmental, social, or political data. The pessimistic tradition, having confronted the human situation without relying upon this faith, affords us a diverse wealth of resources for going on and even for doing worthy things. Dienstag justifies his dramatic claim that we have been ignoring the pessimistic tradition to our own impoverishment. But his articulation of this tradition, as befits the pessimistic spirit, is provisional and an invitation to others to join in its exploration. There is no other book quite like Dienstag's."—Melissa A. Orlie, University of Illinois

"I think this book is successful in what it sets out to do. It is extremely ambitious: it seeks to recast European political thought over the last 300 years and to make that recasting appealing to contemporary readers. I concur with most of the analyses and in all cases they are creative and enlightening."—Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego

Orlie

It seems that with each passing day the faith in progress becomes less sustainable, less believable, whether one consults environmental, social, or political data. The pessimistic tradition, having confronted the human situation without relying upon this faith, affords us a diverse wealth of resources for going on and even for doing worthy things. Dienstag justifies his dramatic claim that we have been ignoring the pessimistic tradition to our own impoverishment. But his articulation of this tradition, as befits the pessimistic spirit, is provisional and an invitation to others to join in its exploration. There is no other book quite like Dienstag's.
— Melissa A. Orlie, University of Illinois

Editorial Reviews

"These studies are quite insightful. A critic might object that, in attempting to discern the limits of meliorism, pessimism fails to recognize that those limits themselves may be discerned only in hindsight. Pessimism might respond that this is itself another instance of those limits. . . . Highly recommended."

Choice

Winner of the 2006 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers

From the Publisher

There is much to admire in [this] book, especially [its] ambitious scope and original choice of characters. . . . Dienstag's book is a balanced appraisal and a nuanced endorsement of a long tradition in modern thought, that attempts to reframe the history of political thought so that pessimism becomes one of its major strands.

European Journal of Political Theory - Aurelian Craiutu

Pessimism was a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone who is remotely interested in the theme. The author's use of aphorisms at the end of the book was especially stirring, as it was clear that the author was enjoying his subject. Dienstag's work is creative and learned, and even with the critical remarks above, is well argued and will hopefully open up a space where more research into this marginalized tradition will arise.

Metapsychology Online Reviews - Michael Bruce

Dienstag's . . . book is not just a study in political theory but a challenge to its contemporary practice, and for this he deserves our gratitude. . . . [B]old, original and admirable.

American Political Science Review - Ryan Patrick Hanley

Dienstag manages to make Nietzschean pessimism seem attractive—even to optimists.

Review of Politics - Raymond B. Marcin

Dienstag's gallery of incompatibles proves that pessimists can't be made to march in step, even as a coherent philosophical tradition. And the other thing that this densely argued, but always lively and engaging, book successfully proves is that pessimism works best when it drops the arguments in its favor and settles for bitter laughter.

Weekly Standard - Lawrence Klepp

Joshua Foa Dienstag's rich and subtle book blows away . . . facile and narrow-minded understandings of pessimism, which invariably reduce it to little more than a mood or a character trait. Dienstag . . . holds that pessimism is a serious and coherent philosophical perspective. . . . Pessimistm: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit is a work of exact scholarship. . . . [T]he value of the book comes from its brilliant nuances.

Newsday - Scott McLemee

[An] absorbing study. . . . Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit examines the pessimistic tradition in all its variants—cultural, metaphysical and existential—and analyzes the works of some of its chief practitioners. . . . When at his best in making his case for the vitality and pertinence of pessimism, Mr. Dienstag may well cause readers to wonder whether they should take up pessimism as their own philosophy.

Wall Street Journal - Joseph Epstein

The pessimism that Joshua Foa Dienstag seeks to celebrate in his engaging book can be joyful. . . . Philosophical pessimism is an ethic that offers practices to tackle a mistaken belief in human progress. . . . His version of pessimism is of the best sort because it leads to activity.

Times Literary Supplement - Mark Vernon

Mr. Dienstag aims to rescue pessimism from the philosophical sidelines, where it has been shunted by optimists of all ideologies. The book is seductive, because pessimists are generally more engaging and entertaining than optimists, and because, as the author notes, 'the world keeps delivering bad news.' It is almost tempting to throw up one's hands and sign on with Schopenhauer.

The New York Times - Adam Cohen

There is much to admire in [this] book, especially [its] ambitious scope and original choice of characters. . . . Dienstag's book is a balanced appraisal and a nuanced endorsement of a long tradition in modern thought, that attempts to reframe the history of political thought so that pessimism becomes one of its major strands.
— Aurelian Craiutu

European Journal of Political Theory

Pessimism was a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone who is remotely interested in the theme. The author's use of aphorisms at the end of the book was especially stirring, as it was clear that the author was enjoying his subject. Dienstag's work is creative and learned, and even with the critical remarks above, is well argued and will hopefully open up a space where more research into this marginalized tradition will arise.
— Michael Bruce

Metapsychology Online Reviews

Dienstag's . . . book is not just a study in political theory but a challenge to its contemporary practice, and for this he deserves our gratitude. . . . [B]old, original and admirable.
— Ryan Patrick Hanley

American Political Science Review

Dienstag manages to make Nietzschean pessimism seem attractive—even to optimists.
— Raymond B. Marcin

Review of Politics

Dienstag's gallery of incompatibles proves that pessimists can't be made to march in step, even as a coherent philosophical tradition. And the other thing that this densely argued, but always lively and engaging, book successfully proves is that pessimism works best when it drops the arguments in its favor and settles for bitter laughter.
— Lawrence Klepp

Weekly Standard

Joshua Foa Dienstag's rich and subtle book blows away . . . facile and narrow-minded understandings of pessimism, which invariably reduce it to little more than a mood or a character trait. Dienstag . . . holds that pessimism is a serious and coherent philosophical perspective. . . . Pessimistm: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit is a work of exact scholarship. . . . [T]he value of the book comes from its brilliant nuances.
— Scott McLemee

Newsday

[An] absorbing study. . . . Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit examines the pessimistic tradition in all its variants—cultural, metaphysical and existential—and analyzes the works of some of its chief practitioners. . . . When at his best in making his case for the vitality and pertinence of pessimism, Mr. Dienstag may well cause readers to wonder whether they should take up pessimism as their own philosophy.
— Joseph Epstein

Wall Street Journal

The pessimism that Joshua Foa Dienstag seeks to celebrate in his engaging book can be joyful. . . . Philosophical pessimism is an ethic that offers practices to tackle a mistaken belief in human progress. . . . His version of pessimism is of the best sort because it leads to activity.
— Mark Vernon

Times Literary Supplement

Mr. Dienstag aims to rescue pessimism from the philosophical sidelines, where it has been shunted by optimists of all ideologies. The book is seductive, because pessimists are generally more engaging and entertaining than optimists, and because, as the author notes, 'the world keeps delivering bad news.' It is almost tempting to throw up one's hands and sign on with Schopenhauer.
— Adam Cohen

The New York Times

Pessimism is typically understood as a tendency to see and/or expect the worst in all things. Dienstag (political science, UCLA; Dancing in Chains: Narrative and Memory in Political Theory) argues that what is really needed is a philosophic understanding of the term. He acknowledges the negativity of the subject but states that it can still-and profitably-be endorsed "in a certain form." To show this, he examines in detail first the "the greatest pessimists"-e.g., Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emile Michel Cioran. The thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Miguel de Unamuno, and others is then considered in terms of the cultural, metaphysical, and existential elements of their thought as it relates to pessimism. The result is a necessary corrective to the unfettered optimism or faith in progress seen in recent world history. In an afterword, Dienstag addresses the issue of self-contradiction: if pessimism is such a negative concept, doesn't making something positive of it-by writing a book on the subject-make a lie of it? Not when the subject is handled in such a comprehensive, readable, and thought-provoking manner as it is here. Highly recommended for academic collections in philosophy, political science, and intellectual history.-Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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