| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 259 pages) : illustrations (color) |
| Summary |
Philosophical optimists maintain that the world is optimally arranged and is accordingly valuable, and that the existence of human beings is preferable to their nonexistence. Philosophical pessimists, by contrast, would prefer human nonexistence, considering the world to be in a woeful condition and ultimately valueless. This text examines the longstanding debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. Mor Segev examines how Schopenhauer criticizes the optimism he locates in the Hebrew Bible and in Spinoza for being unable to square the presumed perfection of the world and its parts, including human life, with the suffering and misfortunes observable in them, and for leading to egoism and thereby to cruelty |
| Notes |
Also issued in print: 2022 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed April 18, 2023) |
| Subject |
Optimism -- History
|
|
Pessimism -- History
|
|
Optimism
|
|
Pessimism
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780197634103 |
|
0197634109 |
|
