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In Defense of Optimism
Thinking need not be a dreary and useless ivory tower
Introduction
In discussions of philosophy, optimism is often set up in contrast to pessimism, with the implication that people and worldviews are divisible into optimistic ones and pessimistic ones. Worldviews affect our thoughts, actions, and character, so the question “optimism or pessimism?” — which I might reframe as “optimism or cynicism? — is an important one. This sort of binary opposition, although seemingly a layman’s problem, is hardly accidental. Such seemingly rudimentary questions remind us that philosophy is a universal if not always shared task, and that thinking deeply is an important part of being human.
In relation to my stated object — a defense of optimism — the history of philosophy might be set up against the philosophy of history. Once we have considered these two points of departure, we may be able to make some sense of the problem at hand, the concern of optimism.
On the History of Philosophy
The history of philosophy is perhaps as depressing as the history of anything else — that is, that of kings, emperors, dictators, and autocrats; of wars and the rise and fall of empires; of slavery, racism, and discrimination; of the slow and bloody march of democracy and…
