A Recent Conversation on Pessimism
Friend: It’s worthless to read philosophers like Pascal, Schopenhauer, and Hume.
Amigo: Why?
Friend: Because their writing is pessimistic.
Amigo: What is your objection to philosophical pessimism?
Friend: Pascal is pessimistic about our ability to focus on what really matters in life. Hume doubts our ability to live rationally. And Schopenhauer is a pessimist about the meaning and value of human life.
Amigo: It looks like you’re familiar with these thinkers. But what exactly is your concern about pessimism?
Friend: I disagree with it!
Amigo: Are you suggesting that thinkers with whom you disagree are worthless to read?
Friend: Well, no.
Amigo: Do you have any other problem with pessimism?
Friend: I don’t like it.
Amigo: Why not?
Friend: It’s depressing. These thinkers deliver too much bad news about human life.
Amigo: But what if their claims are true? Wouldn’t you prefer to be aware of the truth, even if it contains bad news?
Friend: I don’t know. I guess it depends on the news.
Amigo: Suppose you’re planning to spend tomorrow at the beach. The forecast calls for heavy rain for two hours, but fair skies the rest of the day. Wouldn’t you prefer to access this information so that you can plan accordingly, say, by bringing an umbrella?
Friend: Well, yes. But that news, though disappointing, is bearable.
Amigo: Suppose instead that you have invested a large sum of money, but the investment falls through and you lose all of it. Wouldn’t you prefer to learn the news of your loss so that you are aware of it and can make whatever arrangements are appropriate?
Friend: Perhaps not. In this case, ignorance might be bliss.
Amigo: Would you say, then, that it’s better to be ignorant of very bad news, but it might be better to learn of mildly bad news?
Friend: Perhaps so.
Amigo: And if Schopenhauer is right that human existence is vain, and that, echoing the writer of Ecclesiastes 1:2, “This vanity finds expression in the whole way in which things exist”? (First line of On the Vanity of Existence)
Friend: It would be better not to know this. Better for me, anyway.
Amigo: Well, in any case, we don’t know this, though it might be true.
Friend: And it might be false. Who knows?
Amigo: True enough.