The pessimism controversy or pessimism dispute (german: Pessimismusstreit) is a largely forgotten intellectual controversy that occurred in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, starting in the 1860s and ending around the beginning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Philosophers who took part included

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

Eugen Dühring Eugen Karl Dühring (12 January 1833, Berlin21 September 1921, Nowawes in modern-day Potsdam-Babelsberg) was a German philosopher, positivist, economist, and socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism. Life and works Dühring was born in Be ...

Eduard von Hartmann Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, was a German philosopher, independent scholar and author of '' Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). His notable ideas include the theory of the Unconscious and a pessimistic interpretation of the "best of al ...

, neo-Kantians,

Agnes Taubert Agnes Marie Constanze von Hartmann (; 7 January 1844 – 8 May 1877) was a German writer and philosopher, known for her 1873 book ''Pessimism and Its Opponents'' and its contribution to the pessimism controversy in Germany. Biography Taubert wa ...

Olga Plümacher Olga Marie Pauline Plümacher (née Hünerwadel; 27 May 1839 – 1895) was a Russian-born Swiss-American philosopher and scholar. She engaged with the philosophies of the German philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Eduard von Hartmann, and publis ...

and critics of Hartmann. The controversy first arose as a response to

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

's growing posthumous public recognition in the 1860s. This led to the publication of a wide array of criticisms, attacking his

pessimism Pessimism is a negative mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empt ...

. The publication of von Hartmann's ''

Philosophy of the Unconscious ''Philosophy of the Unconscious: Speculative Results According to the Induction Method of the Physical Sciences'' (german: Philosophie des Unbewussten) is an 1869 book by the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann. The culmination of the speculations an ...

'', in 1869, which reaffirmed and further developed Schopenhauer's doctrine, reinvigorated the controversy. Hartmann published a great number of articles and four books in response to his critics, throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Agnes Taubert (Von Hartmann's wife) published ''Pessimism and Its Opponents'', in 1873, in response to criticism of her husband, which had a strong influence on the controversy. The German-American philosopher Amalie J. Hathaway has been described as an unrecognised contributor to the controversy.

References

Controversies in Germany Cultural history of Germany German Empire Philosophical pessimism {{Germany-hist-stub Philosophy controversies

See also

References