Worse than the best possible pessimism? Olga Plümacher's Critique of Schopenhauer
Worse than the best possible pessimism? Olga Plümacher's Critique of Schopenhauer
Olga Plümacher (1839–1895) published a book entitled Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in 1884. It was an influential book: Nietzsche owned a copy, and there are clear cases where he borrowed phraseology from Plümacher. Plümacher specifies philosophical pessimism as comprising two propositions: ‘The sum of displeasure outweighs the sum of pleasure’ and ‘Consequently the non-being of the world would be better than its being’. Plümacher cites Schopenhauer as the first proponent of this position, and Eduard von Hartmann as the thinker who has developed it to its fullest potential. She heavily criticizes Schopenhauer in many respects, not for being a pessimist, but rather for not achieving as good a pessimism as he might have done, on the following major grounds: that his account of pleasure as merely privative is implausible, that he has a confused account of individuation, that his retention of a Christian notion of guilt is gratuitous, that he lapses into the self-pitying subjectivity of the condition she calls Weltschmerz, and that his philosophy leads to quietism, and is thus inferior to von Hartmann’s combination of pessimism and optimism, which allows for social progress.
Nietzsche, Pessimism, Plümacher, Schopenhauer, von Hartmann
Janaway, Christopher
61c48538-365f-416f-b6f7-dfa4d4663475
18 February 2021
Janaway, Christopher
61c48538-365f-416f-b6f7-dfa4d4663475
Janaway, Christopher
(2021)
Worse than the best possible pessimism? Olga Plümacher's Critique of Schopenhauer.
British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
(doi:10.1080/09608788.2021.1881441).
Abstract
Olga Plümacher (1839–1895) published a book entitled Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in 1884. It was an influential book: Nietzsche owned a copy, and there are clear cases where he borrowed phraseology from Plümacher. Plümacher specifies philosophical pessimism as comprising two propositions: ‘The sum of displeasure outweighs the sum of pleasure’ and ‘Consequently the non-being of the world would be better than its being’. Plümacher cites Schopenhauer as the first proponent of this position, and Eduard von Hartmann as the thinker who has developed it to its fullest potential. She heavily criticizes Schopenhauer in many respects, not for being a pessimist, but rather for not achieving as good a pessimism as he might have done, on the following major grounds: that his account of pleasure as merely privative is implausible, that he has a confused account of individuation, that his retention of a Christian notion of guilt is gratuitous, that he lapses into the self-pitying subjectivity of the condition she calls Weltschmerz, and that his philosophy leads to quietism, and is thus inferior to von Hartmann’s combination of pessimism and optimism, which allows for social progress.
Text
Worse than the best final revision de-anonymised
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 January 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 18 February 2021
Published date: 18 February 2021
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© 2021 BSHP.
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Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Nietzsche, Pessimism, Plümacher, Schopenhauer, von Hartmann
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Local EPrints ID: 446626
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446626
ISSN: 0960-8788
PURE UUID: 7f807ac9-53be-4f34-8ada-17cc3b7a6374
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Date deposited: 16 Feb 2021 17:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:54
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