Dark matters : pessimism and the problem of suffering / Mara van der Lugt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lugt, Mara van der, 1986- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Good and evil--History.

Good and evil.

Pessimism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (467 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]

Summary:

An intellectual history of the philosophers who grappled with the problem of evil, and the case for why pessimism still holds moral value for us todayIn the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers engaged in heated debates on the question of how God could have allowed evil and suffering in a creation that is supposedly good. Dark Matters traces how the competing philosophical traditions of optimism and pessimism arose from early modern debates about the problem of evil, and makes a compelling case for the rediscovery of pessimism as a source for compassion, consolation, and perhaps even hope.Bringing to life one of most vibrant eras in the history of philosophy, Mara van der Lugt discusses legendary figures such as Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, and Schopenhauer. She also introduces readers to less familiar names, such as Bayle, King, La Mettrie, and Maupertuis. Van der Lugt describes how the earliest optimists and pessimists were deeply concerned with finding an answer to the question of the value of existence that does justice to the reality of human suffering, but how they were fundamentally divided over what such an answer should look like.A breathtaking work of intellectual history by one of today's leading scholars, Dark Matters reveals how the crucial moral aim of pessimism is to find a way of speaking about suffering that offers consolation and does justice to the fragility of life.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction Philosophy in a Minor Chord

Chapter 1 The Complaint: Bayle and Malebranche on Physical Evil

Chapter 2 The Optics of Optimism: Leibniz and King Respond to Bayle

Chapter 3 Of Hope and Consolation: Voltaire and the Deists

Chapter 4 When Stoicism Meets Pessimism: La Mettrie and Maupertuis

Chapter 5 The Dispositional Problem of Evil: David Hume

Chapter 6 The Art of Suffering: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Chapter 7 The Failure of Theodicy: Immanuel Kant

Chapter 8 The Flute-Playing Pessimist: Arthur Schopenhauer

Chapter 9 Dark Matters: Pessimism as a Moral Source

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Main Primary Sources

Other Primary Sources

Secondary and Modern Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691226156

9780691206622

0691206627

OCLC:

1269268816