List of philosophical pessimists

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[1][2] 30 March 1830 7 December 1881 German
— David Benatar[3][4][5] 8 December 1966 — South African
Ray Brassier[6][7][8] 22 December 1965 — British
The Buddha[9][10]: 130  c. 563 BC c. 483 BC Indian
Julio Cabrera[11][12][13] 1944 — Argentinian
Albert Camus[14][15][16][17] 7 November 1913 4 January 1960 French
Albert Caraco[18] 8 July 1919 7 September 1971 French-Uruguayan
Emil Cioran[15][19]: 396  8 April 1911 20 June 1995 Romanian
— David E. Cooper[20] 1 October 1942 — British
— Hegesias[21][19] c. 290 BC c. 290 BC Greek
Drew Dalton[22] ? — American
Baltasar Gracián[19] 8 January 1601 6 December 1658 Spanish
John Gray[23][7][17] 17 April 1948 — English
Eduard von Hartmann[1][4][5][2] 23 February 1842 5 June 1906 German
— Ulrich Horstmann[24] 31 May 1949 — German
Omar Khayyam[25] 18 May 1048 4 December 1131 Persian
Giacomo Leopardi[1][15][19]: 396  29 June 1798 14 June 1837 Italian
— Thomas Ligotti[10][7][17][19]: 405  9 July 1953 — American
Al- Ma'arri[25] December 973 May 1057 Arab
Philipp Mainländer[1][2] 5 October 1841 1 April 1876 German
Carlo Michelstaedter[26] 3 June 1887 17 October 1910 Italian
Friedrich Nietzsche[15][5][19]: 396  15 October 1844 25 August 1900 German
Olga Plümacher[1][2] 27 May 1839 c. 15 June 1895 German
Blaise Pascal[15][19]: 396  19 June 1623 19 August 1662 French
Arthur Schopenhauer[27][28][4][5] 22 February 1788 21 September 1860 German
— Agnes Taubert[1][2] 7 January 1844 8 May 1877 German
— Eugene Thacker[29][7][8] ? — American
— Herman Tønnessen[30] 24 July 1918 2001 Norwegian-Canadian
Miguel de Unamuno[31][15] 29 September 1864 31 December 1936 Spanish
Peter Wessel Zapffe[32][33][4] 18 December 1899 12 October 1990 Norwegian

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Beiser, Frederick C. (2016). Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860–1900. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-876871-5. OCLC 929590292.
  2. ^ a b c d e Sully, James (1877). Pessimism: A History and a Criticism. London: Henry S. King & Co.
  3. ^ Benatar, David (2017). The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-063381-3.
  4. ^ a b c d Coates, Ken (2016). Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar. First Edition Design Publishing. ISBN 978-1506-902-40-1.
  5. ^ a b c d Prescott, Paul (2012). "What Pessimism Is" (PDF). Journal of Philosophical Research. 37: 337–356. doi:10.5840/jpr20123716.
  6. ^ Brassier, Ray (2007). Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230522046.
  7. ^ a b c d Schmitt, Mark (2023). Spectres of Pessimism: A Cultural Logic of the Worst. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3031253515.
  8. ^ a b Stewart-Kroeker, Peter (2023). Nihilism: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Now. Open Philosophy 6 (1):178-95.
  9. ^ Sully, James (1877). Pessimism: A History and a Criticism. London: Henry S. King & Co. p. 38.
  10. ^ a b 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Camus, Albert (2018). The Myth of Sisyphus. Translated by O'Brien, Justin. New York: Vintage International. ISBN 978-0-525-56700-4. OCLC 1076457902.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Dienstag, Joshua Foa (2009). Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14112-1.
  16. ^ 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ a b c 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.
  18. ^ Caraco, Albert (1982). Le bréviaire du chaos (in French).
  19. ^ a b c d e f g van der Lugt, Mara (2021). Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-20662-2.
  20. ^ Cooper, David E. (2024). Pessimism, Quietism and Nature as Refuge. Agenda Publishing. ISBN 978-1788217705.
  21. ^  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.
  22. ^ Dalton, Drew M. (October 15, 2023). The Matter of Evil: From Speculative Realism to Ethical Pessimism. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0810146402.
  23. ^ Gray, John (2007). Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374270933.
  24. ^ Horstmann, Ulrich (1985). Das Untier: Konturen einer Philosophie der Menschenflucht (in German). Suhrkamp. ISBN 978-3518376720.
  25. ^ a b 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.
  26. ^ Michelstaedter, Carlo (2004). Persuasion and Rhetoric. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300104349.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Thacker, Eugene (July 17, 2018). Infinite Resignation. Repeater. ISBN 978-1912248193.
  30. ^ Herman Tønnessen - Happiness is for the Pigs: Philosophy versus Psychotherapy (1966)
  31. ^ Unamuno, Miguel de. The Tragic Sense of Life. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  32. ^ Zapffe, Peter Wessel (2004) [1933]. "The Last Messiah". Philosophy Now. No. 45. Translated by Tangenes, Gisle R. pp. 35–39. ISSN 0961-5970.
  33. ^ Zapffe, Peter Wessel (2024). On the Tragic. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-1-636-67488-9.


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