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The Anatomy of Pessimism: Outline of a Neglected Tradition
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Dienstag 18 8/26/04
always be in the long-run) positive, pessimism has found little grounds for this confidence and much evidence for the reverse conclusion.
Pessimists do not deny the existence of ‘progress’ in certain areas – they do not
deny that technologies have improved or that the powers of science have increased. Instead, they ask whether these improvements are inseparably related to a greater set of costs which often go unperceived. Or they ask whether these changes have really resulted in a fundamental melioration of the human condition. This often results, as my title for this section suggests, in a conception of history as following an ironic path, one that appears, on the surface, to be getting better when in fact it is getting worse (or, on the whole, no better). Again, the reasoning which supports this view varies among the pessimists, but not so greatly as to obscure the common sentiment.
It was the contention of Plato, and many philosophers following him, that true
knowledge and true happiness must be coterminous. In the myth of Er which concludes the Gorgias, for example, it is the philosopher himself who is judged, not just the most virtuous, but the happiest of men, both in this world and the next. To the pessimists, this is a fundamental mistake on the part of the philosophical tradition, one it is largely too late to set right. Reason has its benefits but, from a pessimistic perspective, happiness is simply not among them. Indeed, in its destruction of illusions, reason is actually productive of unhappiness.
It is this which makes reason, progressively (as opposed to instantaneously)
harmful of human felicity. When humans became self-conscious, they had taken a great leap from the animal condition, but they were still relatively ignorant creatures. But they were not to remain so. Little by little, illusions and mistakes are overcome by reason. Leopardi narrates this process in the bleakly comic “History of the Human Race”: Jove creates human beings and continually strives to make them happy. But humans remain perpetually dissatisfied with mortal existence despite the god’s efforts to make it pleasant. Finally, Jove becomes exasperated with their demands and resolves “to set all mercy aside and to punish the human species for ever, condemning it for all future ages to a wretchedness far worse than that of the past. For this purpose [Jove] decided not only to send Truth down among them for a while, as they asked, but to give her eternal abode among them; and removing those lovely phantoms which he had placed here below, to make her alone the perpetual moderator and mistress of the human race.” At this point, the other gods protest, since this act will surely make the humans too god-like.
Jove disabused them of this opinion by pointing out that … [Truth] must inevitably have the same effect on men as on the Gods. But whereas she was wont to show the immortals their beatitude, to men she would entirely reveal and continually hold before their eyes their own wretchedness … one can imagine what terrible damage will be caused to men by the presence of this genie. Nothing will seem truer to them than the falsity of all mortal things; and nothing solid, but the emptiness of all but their own griefs. For these reasons they will be deprived even of hope; with which, from the very beginning until the present day, more than any other pleasure or comfort, they have sustained their lives. And hoping for nothing, nor seeing any worthwhile end to all their toils and endeavors, they will fall into such neglect and abomination of all industrious, not to say magnanimous works, that the usual habits of the living will scarcely differ from those of the dead and buried. But in this loss and despair they will not be able to prevent that craving for immense happiness, innate in their spirits, from stinging and cruciating them as much worse than before as it will be the less impeded and distracted by the variety of their concerns and the impetus of action. (OM 41-42)
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| | Authors: Dienstag, Joshua. |
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Dienstag 18 8/26/04
always be in the long-run) positive, pessimism has found little grounds for this
confidence and much evidence for the reverse conclusion.
Pessimists do not deny the existence of ‘progress’ in certain areas – they do not
deny that technologies have improved or that the powers of science have increased.
Instead, they ask whether these improvements are inseparably related to a greater set of
costs which often go unperceived. Or they ask whether these changes have really
resulted in a fundamental melioration of the human condition. This often results, as my
title for this section suggests, in a conception of history as following an ironic path, one
that appears, on the surface, to be getting better when in fact it is getting worse (or, on the
whole, no better). Again, the reasoning which supports this view varies among the
pessimists, but not so greatly as to obscure the common sentiment.
It was the contention of Plato, and many philosophers following him, that true
knowledge and true happiness must be coterminous. In the myth of Er which concludes
the Gorgias, for example, it is the philosopher himself who is judged, not just the most
virtuous, but the happiest of men, both in this world and the next. To the pessimists, this
is a fundamental mistake on the part of the philosophical tradition, one it is largely too
late to set right. Reason has its benefits but, from a pessimistic perspective, happiness is
simply not among them. Indeed, in its destruction of illusions, reason is actually
productive of unhappiness.
It is this which makes reason, progressively (as opposed to instantaneously)
harmful of human felicity. When humans became self-conscious, they had taken a great
leap from the animal condition, but they were still relatively ignorant creatures. But they
were not to remain so. Little by little, illusions and mistakes are overcome by reason.
Leopardi narrates this process in the bleakly comic “History of the Human Race”: Jove
creates human beings and continually strives to make them happy. But humans remain
perpetually dissatisfied with mortal existence despite the god’s efforts to make it
pleasant. Finally, Jove becomes exasperated with their demands and resolves “to set all
mercy aside and to punish the human species for ever, condemning it for all future ages
to a wretchedness far worse than that of the past. For this purpose [Jove] decided not
only to send Truth down among them for a while, as they asked, but to give her eternal
abode among them; and removing those lovely phantoms which he had placed here
below, to make her alone the perpetual moderator and mistress of the human race.” At
this point, the other gods protest, since this act will surely make the humans too god-like.
Jove disabused them of this opinion by pointing out that … [Truth] must inevitably have
the same effect on men as on the Gods. But whereas she was wont to show the immortals
their beatitude, to men she would entirely reveal and continually hold before their eyes
their own wretchedness … one can imagine what terrible damage will be caused to men
by the presence of this genie. Nothing will seem truer to them than the falsity of all
mortal things; and nothing solid, but the emptiness of all but their own griefs. For these
reasons they will be deprived even of hope; with which, from the very beginning until the
present day, more than any other pleasure or comfort, they have sustained their lives.
And hoping for nothing, nor seeing any worthwhile end to all their toils and endeavors,
they will fall into such neglect and abomination of all industrious, not to say
magnanimous works, that the usual habits of the living will scarcely differ from those of
the dead and buried. But in this loss and despair they will not be able to prevent that
craving for immense happiness, innate in their spirits, from stinging and cruciating them
as much worse than before as it will be the less impeded and distracted by the variety of
their concerns and the impetus of action. (OM 41-42)
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