List of philosophical pessimists

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List of philosophers who have notably expressed philosophically pessimistic views in their works and contributed to its history.

List

Image Name Date of birth Date of death Nationality
Julius Bahnsen.jpg
Julius Bahnsen [1] [2] 30 March 18307 December 1881German
Ernest Becker LCCN2014701399.jpg
Ernest Becker [3] [4] : 158–159 27 September 19246 March 1974American
— David Benatar [5] [6] [7] 8 December 1966— South African
Ray Brassier (14545186664) (cropped).jpg
Ray Brassier [8] [9] [10] 22 December 1965— British
Buddha in Sarnath Museum (Dhammajak Mutra).jpg
The Buddha [11] [12] [4] : 130 c. 563 BCc. 483 BCIndian
Julio Cabrera.jpg
Julio Cabrera [13] [14] [15] 1944 — Argentinian
Albert Camus, gagnant de prix Nobel, portrait en buste, pose au bureau, faisant face a gauche, cigarette de tabagisme.jpg
Albert Camus [16] [17] [18] [19] 7 November 19134 January 1960French
Albert Caraco (cropped).jpeg
Albert Caraco [20] 8 July 19197 September 1971French-Uruguayan
Cioran in Romania.jpg
Emil Cioran [17] [21] : 396 8 April 191120 June 1995Romanian
— David E. Cooper [22] 1 October 1942— British
— Hegesias [21] [23] c. 290 BCc. 290 BCGreek
Drew dalton.jpg
Drew Dalton [24] ? — American
Gracian Graus.jpg
Baltasar Gracián [21] 8 January 16016 December 1658Spanish
Brainwash Festival 2015 - John Gray (3) (cropped).jpg
John Gray [9] [19] [25] 17 April 1948— English
Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann (Photographic portrait).jpg
Eduard von Hartmann [1] [2] [6] [7] 23 February 18425 June 1906German
— Ulrich Horstmann [26] 31 May 1949— German
Hakim Omar Khayam - panoramio.jpg
Omar Khayyam [27] 18 May 10484 December 1131Persian
Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837) - ritr. A Ferrazzi, Recanati, casa Leopardi.jpg
Giacomo Leopardi [1] [17] [21] : 396 29 June 179814 June 1837Italian
— Thomas Ligotti [9] [4] [19] [21] : 405 9 July 1953— American
Al-Ma'arri by Khalil Gibran (cropped).png
Al- Ma'arri [27] December 973May 1057Arab
P.Mainlander (cropped).jpg
Philipp Mainländer [1] [2] 5 October 18411 April 1876German
Carlo Michelstaedter.jpg
Carlo Michelstaedter [28] 3 June 188717 October 1910Italian
Nietzsche187a.jpg
Friedrich Nietzsche [7] [17] [21] : 396 15 October 184425 August 1900German
Portrait of Olga Plumacher.png
Olga Plümacher [1] [2] 27 May 1839c. 15 June 1895German
Blaise Pascal Versailles.JPG
Blaise Pascal [17] [21] : 396  [29] 19 June 162319 August 1662French
Arthur Schopenhauer by J Schafer, 1859b.jpg
Arthur Schopenhauer [6] [7] [30] [31] 22 February 178821 September 1860German
— Agnes Taubert [1] [2] 7 January 18448 May 1877German
— Eugene Thacker [9] [10] [29] ? — American
— Herman Tønnessen [32] 24 July 19182001Norwegian-Canadian
Miguel de Unamuno Meurisse 1925.jpg
Miguel de Unamuno [17] [29] [33] 29 September 186431 December 1936Spanish
Portrait of Peter Wessel Zapffe (cropped).jpg
Peter Wessel Zapffe [6] [34] [35] 18 December 189912 October 1990Norwegian

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Beiser, Frederick C. (2016). Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860–1900. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-876871-5. OCLC   929590292.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Sully, James (1877). Pessimism: A History and a Criticism. London: Henry S. King & Co.
  3. ↑ Becker, Ernest (2007). The Denial of Death. Free Press. ISBN   978-1-4165-9034-7.
  4. 1 2 3 Ligotti, Thomas (2011). The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. New York: Hippocampus Press. ISBN   978-0-9844802-7-2. OCLC   805656473.
  5. ↑ Benatar, David (2017). The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-063381-3.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Coates, Ken (2016). Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar. First Edition Design Publishing. ISBN   978-1506-902-40-1.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Prescott, Paul (2012). "What Pessimism Is" (PDF). Journal of Philosophical Research. 37: 337–356. doi:10.5840/jpr20123716.
  8. ↑ Brassier, Ray (2007). Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-0230522046.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Schmitt, Mark (2023). Spectres of Pessimism: A Cultural Logic of the Worst. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-3031253515.
  10. 1 2 Stewart-Kroeker, Peter (2023). Nihilism: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Now. Open Philosophy 6 (1):178-95.
  11. ↑ Sully, James (1877). Pessimism: A History and a Criticism. London: Henry S. King & Co. p.  38.
  12. ↑ Cooper, David E. (2018). Animals and Misanthropy. Routledge. p. 6. ISBN   978-1138295940. Schopenhauer, for example, inherited from the Buddha a pessimistic view of the world as an arena of suffering.
  13. ↑ Cabrera, Julio (2019). Discomfort and Moral Impediment: The Human Situation, Radical Bioethics and Procreation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN   978-1-5275-1803-2. OCLC   1078636651.
  14. ↑ Casey, M. (2019) “Book Review: Discomfort and Moral Impediment by Julio Cabrera (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 2019)”, Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College, (VI), pp. 91–97. doi: 10.6017/dupjbc.v6i1.11741.
  15. ↑ Cabrera, Julio (2020). La Forma del Mundo: Ensayo sobre la muerte del ser. Elementos de Metafilosofía Primera [The Form Of The World: Essay on the death of being. Elements of the First Metaphilosophy.] (in Spanish). Ed. do Autor. ISBN   978-6500084023. Archived from the original on 2025-04-14.
  16. ↑ Camus, Albert (2018). The Myth of Sisyphus. Translated by O'Brien, Justin. New York: Vintage International. ISBN   978-0-525-56700-4. OCLC   1076457902.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dienstag, Joshua Foa (2009). Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-14112-1.
  18. ↑ Simpson, David. "Albert Camus (1913—1960)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved 2025-06-30. He also studied Schopenhauer and Nietzsche—undoubtedly the two writers who did the most to set him on his own path of defiant pessimism and atheism.
  19. 1 2 3 Tripathi, R. L. (2025). The Paradox Of Human Existence: Pessimism, Meaning And The Limits Of Progress. International Journal of Creative Thoughts Research 13 (6):19.
  20. ↑ Caraco, Albert (1982). Le bréviaire du chaos (in French).
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 van der Lugt, Mara (2021). Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-20662-2.
  22. ↑ Cooper, David E. (2024). Pessimism, Quietism and Nature as Refuge. Agenda Publishing. ISBN   978-1788217705.
  23. ↑ Wikisource-logo.svg  Laërtius, Diogenes. "Socrates, with predecessors and followers: Hegesias (subsection of Aristippus)"  . Lives of the Eminent Philosophers . Vol. 1:2. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
  24. ↑ Dalton, Drew M. (October 15, 2023). The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism. Northwestern University Press. ISBN   978-0810146402.
  25. ↑ Gray, John (2007). Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN   978-0374270933.
  26. ↑ Horstmann, Ulrich (1985). Das Untier: Konturen einer Philosophie der Menschenflucht (in German). Suhrkamp. ISBN   978-3518376720.
  27. 1 2 Rozveh, Nasser Ghasemi (2013). "The Comparative Survey of Pessimism in Abul Ala Al-Maarri and Hakim Omar Khayyam Poems" (PDF). Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research. 3 (3): 405–413. ISSN   2090-4304. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2024.
  28. ↑ Michelstaedter, Carlo (2004). Persuasion and Rhetoric. Yale University Press. ISBN   9780300104349.
  29. 1 2 3 Thacker, Eugene (July 17, 2018). Infinite Resignation. Repeater. ISBN   978-1912248193.
  30. ↑ Schopenhauer, Arthur (2010) [1818]. Welchman, Alistair; Janaway, Christopher; Norman, Judith (eds.). The World as Will and Representation. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511780943. ISBN   978-0-521-87184-6.
  31. ↑ Schopenhauer, Arthur (2018) [1844]. Welchman, Alistair; Janaway, Christopher; Norman, Judith (eds.). The World as Will and Representation. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9780511843112. ISBN   978-0-521-87034-4.
  32. ↑ Herman Tønnessen - Happiness is for the Pigs: Philosophy versus Psychotherapy (1966)
  33. ↑ Unamuno, Miguel de. The Tragic Sense of Life . Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  34. ↑ Zapffe, Peter Wessel (2004) [1933]. "The Last Messiah". Philosophy Now. No. 45. Translated by Tangenes, Gisle R. pp. 35–39. ISSN   0961-5970.
  35. ↑ Zapffe, Peter Wessel (2024). On the Tragic. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. ISBN   978-1-636-67488-9.


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