PESSIMISM, a word of modern coinage, denoting an attitude of hopelessness towards life, a vague general opinion that pain and evil predominate in human affairs (from Lat. pessimus, worst) It is the antithesis of "optimism," which denotes the view that on the whole there is a balance of good and pleasure, or at least that in the long run good will triumph. Between optimism and pessimism is the theory of "meliorism," according to which the world on the whole makes progress in goodness. The average man is pessimist or optimist not on theoretical grounds, but owing to the circum stances of his life, his material prosperity, his bodily health, his general temperament. Perhaps the most characteristic example of unsystematic.pessimism is the language of Ecclesiastes, who con cludes that "all is vanity." Pessimism and optimism have, however, been expressed in sys tematic philosophical forms, a brief summary only of which need here be given. Such systems have been elaborated chiefly by modern thinkers, but the germs of the ideas are found widely spread in the older Oriental philosophies and in pre-Christian European thought.
Oriental pessimism, at least as understood by Europeans, is best exemplified in Buddhism, which finds in human life sorrow and pain. But all pain and sorrow are incidental to the human being in his individual capacity. Let who will cast aside the "Bonds," the "Intoxications," the "Hindrances," and tread the Noble Eight fold Path (see BUDDHISM) which leads to Nirvana, and attain the ideal, the "Fruit of Arahatship," which is described in terms of glowing praise in the Pali hymns. This, the original doctrine of the Buddha, though not adopted in the full sense by all his followers, is in fact at least as optimistic as any optimism of the West. To call it "pessimism" is merely to apply to it a characteristically Western principle according to which happiness is impossible with out personality. The true Buddhist on the contrary looks forward
with enthusiasm to this absorption into eternal bliss. However, Western Christian mysticism has never been a stranger to this concept.
Passing over the Italian Leopardi we may notice two leading modern pessimists, Schopenhauer and von Hartmann. Schopen hauer emphasizes the pessimistic side of Hegel's thought. The uni verse is merely blind Will, not thought; this Will is irrational, purposeless and therefore unhappy. The world being a picture of the Will is therefore similarly unhappy. Desire is a state of un happiness, and the satisfaction of desire is therefore merely the removal of pain. Von Hartmann's doctrine of the Unconscious is in many respects similar to Schopenhauer's doctrine of the Will. The pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartmann does not, however, exclude a certain ultimate mysticism, which bears some analogy to that of Buddhism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—See James Sully, Pessimism: A History and a Criticism (1877) ; Caro, Le Pessimisme au xixe siecle (1878) ; Saltus, The Anatomy of Negation (1886) ; Tulloch, Modern Theories on Philosophy and Religion (1884) ; William James, The Will to Believe; Diihring, Der Werth des Lebens (1865) ; Meyer, Weltelend and Weltschmerz (1872) ; E. Pfleiderer, Der moderne Pessimismus (1875) ; Agnes Taubert (Hartmann), Der Pessimismus und seine Gegner (1873) ; Gass, Optimismus und Pessimismus (1876) ; Rehmke, Die Philos. des Weltschmerzes (1876) ; Huber, Der Pessimismus (1876) ; von Golther, Der moderne P. (1878) ; Paulsen, Schopenhauer, Hamlet, Mephistopheles (1900) ; Kowalewski, Studien zur Psychologie des P. (1904) •