The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Sunday, December 31, 2017

A defense of optimism

Not Leibnitz's extravagance but the far more limited claim that "the good in this state of existence preponderates over the bad."

Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1839, chapter 6.

Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation, was published in 1819.

Schopenhauer made an extravagant case that human life, at least, was for each and every one of us a losing game, on hedonist terms.

Historically, most hedonists, though not all - Google Hegesias, "the death persuader" - , have agreed with Epicurus and Henry Sidgwick against Schopenhauer that life is generally and for most of us, for a good while, at least, choiceworthy.

It has been speculated Hegesias was influenced by Buddhism.

About Schopenhauer there is no need for speculation.

(And a very amusing attack on aristocracy in the same chapter.)

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