Weltschmerz : pessimism in German philosophy, 1860-1900 / Frederick C. Beiser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beiser, Frederick C., 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pessimism--Germany--History--19th century.

Pessimism.

Philosophy, German--19th century.

Philosophy, German.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Frederick C. Beiser presents a study of the pessimism that dominated German philosophy from the 1860s to c. 1900: the theory that life is not worth living. He explores its major defenders and chief critics, and examines how the theory redirected German philosophy away from the logic of the sciences and toward an examination of the value of life.

Contents:

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Preface; Contents; Introduction: The Problem of Pessimism; 1. Pessimism as Zeitgeist; 2. Intellectual Background; 3. Philosophy and the Meaning of Life; 4. Pessimism in the History of Philosophy; 1: The Schopenhauer Legacy; 1. Schopenhauer's Influence; 2. The Puzzle of Existence; 3. Schopenhauer and the Identity Crisis of Philosophy; 2: Reconstructing Schopenhauer's Metaphysics; 1. The Problem of Metaphysics; 2. The Rehabilitation of Metaphysics; 3. Self-Knowledge of the Will; 4. Metaphysics of the Will; 5. Transcendental Idealism?; 3: Schopenhauer's Pessimism

1. The Dangers of Pessimism2. The Modern Silenus; 3. Arguments for Pessimism; 4. Life as Suffering; 4: The Illusion of Redemption; 1. The False Promise of Deliverance; 2. Affirming and Denying the Will; 3. Practical Reason and Redemption; 4. Paths to Redemption; 5. Protestantism without Theism; 5: Julius Frauenstädt Apostle and Critic; 1. An Independent Disciple; 2. Conversion to Schopenhauer; 3. Schopenhauer and the Materialism Controversy; 4. Doubts about Pessimism; 5. Revisions and Corrections; 6: The Optimism of Eugen Dühring; 1. A Positivist and Optimist; 2. Logical Foundations

3. Logic of the Question4. Theory of Value; 5. Reckoning with Schopenhauer; 6. Death; 7. The Political and Economic Dimension; 8. A System of Philosophy; 9. Replacing Religion; 7: The Optimistic Pessimism of Eduard Von Hartmann; 1. A Fashionable Pessimist; 2. The Unconscious; 3. A New Religion; 4. First Principles; 5. Settling Accounts with Hegel; 6. Foundations of Realism; 7. Eudemonistic Pessimism; 8. Evolutionary Optimism; 8: The Pessimism Controversy, 1870-1890; 1. The Eye of the Storm; 2. Two Classic Objections; 3. Hartmann versus the Neo-Kantians and Dühring; 4. Two Female Allies

5. The Whip of Cords6. A Hyperontology?; 7. The Nature of Pleasure; 8. A Pessimist Counterattack; 9. The Value of Work; 10. Aesthetic Redemption; 11. Love; 9: Mainländer's Philosophy of Redemption; 1. The Heroic Pessimist; 2. Life and Philosophical Education; 3. The Gospel of Redemption; 4. Mainländer and the Young Hegelian Tradition; 5. Philosophical Foundations; 6. The Death of God; 7. Ethics; 8. Theory of the State; 9. Communism, Patriotism and Free Love; 10: The Pessimistic Worldview of Julius Bahnsen; 1. An Original and Powerful Worldview; 2. The Making of a Pessimist

3. The Disciple of Schopenhauer4. Literary Debut; 5. Foundations of Pessimism; 6. Hartmann's Review of Bahnsen; 7. In Defence of Realism; 8. Philosophy of History; 9. Hartmann's Offensive against Bahnsen; 10. A Tragic Worldview; 11. Prayers of a Pessimist; 12. Real Dialectic; 13. Ethics and Politics; 14. The Pessimist as Tragic Hero; Bibliography; Primary Sources; Secondary Sources; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-882265-0

0-19-182207-8

0-19-108134-5