Pessimism is the only coherent life philosophy

[Guest]

I would say its important not to confuse function and meaning like you do there near the end of your post @Zagadka. Its precisely because we can assume functions without meaning that is the cause of much modern strife. 

[Guest]

Then you subscribe to at least one tenet of philosophical pessimism. 

[Guest]

That's cool. At least you've thought it through instead of simply following things blindly. Better than most people these days. 

[Gloomy]

I agree that life has no meaning, but that isn’t necessarily negative or pessimistic. If anything I find it liberating that no meaning or purpose is foist on me.

[Guest]

Meaninglessness is quite liberating. 

[DarkStormyKnight]

The hardcore pessimist right here is enjoying this conversation. Nihilism for the win!

[gisiebob]

wouldn't pessimism be just as arbitrary as any other ideal as rejecting the different constructs we make our lifes around is just as much of a construct?

[kenny.]

ooh this is all very interesting. i like to think of myself as more of a realist, but i think when you try to look at things as they are, you begin to realize that pessimism is almost a natural response. so on that, i guess i can kind of agree on, but there's definitely more to it than just that. though, i am a pretty hardcore existentialist fellow.

[Howard]

I glanced at the post once, read it more closely after and I like this thread. I'm not sure if what I have to say is coherent or not because I want to react to various posts.

First, I see pessimism/optimism as an outlook of life rather than a philosophy because, amongst other things, most philosophies, may it be nihilism, existentialism or stoicism all have a healthy dose of each. I find optimism more pragmatic than pessimism because if you have the outlook that whatever you will attempt will necessarly fail, what is the point of attempting anything? I would be better off to think that my actions can have a positive outcome to stay motivated.

Existentialism was mentionned a few times on this thread and I would like to add on to it. Nietsche semt to ponder the meaning of Life as a whole where as Sartre looked at the meaning of one's existence, hence existentialism. We can define the meaning of our individual like by being true to one's self and we become that person by making choices. At times it seems there are no choice to be made but those times are actualy times when choices are difficult to make. In other words, the freedom that comes from the ability of making choices is actualy a boon, not a gift.

I'm not a fan of nihilism, so I never documented myself much on it so I'll just skip that one. One thing that I'm not too proud of is that I'm a bit of a hedonist : I flee experiences that are painful to me (negative) and embrace the ones that provide me pleasure (positive). Hence, hedonism has both optimist and pessimist outlook on things. I'm not too proud of being a hedonist because hedonism does not explain things like sacrifice, that is putting up with a negative situation to later have more positive later than the road.

I'd like to introduce stoicism to this thread. I find it to be the most spiritual philosophy when it comes to optimism-pessimism. When in a negative situation, one should accept it and remain calm nonetheless, bearing the ill with dignity. When in a positive situation, one should remain prudent. Prudence is the cardinal virtue of stoicism.

To sum up what I think, though I do agree with different viewpoints, I think when it comes to optimism and pessimism, stoicism gives the advantage of retaining one's dignity in tough times and not go overboard in good times. Close second, I'd rank existentialims because it dictates one should remain true to themselves no matter what the situation through their choices.