PREFACE ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv ABBREVIATIONS xvii PART I CHAPTER ONE: The Anatomy of Pessimism 3 PART II CHAPTER TWO: "A Philosophy That Is Grievous but True": Cultural Pessimism in Rousseau and Leopardi 49 CHAPTER THREE: "The Evils of the World Honestly Admitted": Metaphysical Pessimism in Schopenhauer and Freud 84 CHAPTER FOUR "Consciousness Is a Disease": Existential Pessimism in Camus, Unamuno, and Cioran 118 PART III CHAPTER FIVE: Nietzsche's Dionysian Pessimism 161 CHAPTER SIX: Cervantes as Educator: Don Quixote and the Practice of Pessimism 201 CHAPTER SEVEN: Aphorisms and Pessimisms 226 CHAPTER EIGHT: Pessimism and Freedom (The Pessimist Speaks) 244 AFTERWORD 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 INDEX 283
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
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".
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 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 [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 A necessary corrective to the unfettered optimism or faith in progress seen in recent world history... [C]omprehensive, readable, and thought provoking. Library Journal 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 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 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 Dienstag manages to make Nietzschean pessimism seem attractive--even to optimists. -- Raymond B. Marcin Review of Politics
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