Cultural Pessimism and Therapy
B.Contestabile admin@socrethics.com First version 2008 Last version 2010
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Table of Contents
2 Pessimistic Models of History 2.1 Definition 2.2 Cosmic Cycles 2.3 Social Cycles 2.4 Determinism 2.5 Disillusion 2.6 Self-Destruction 3 Nihilism 3.1 Russian Nihilism 3.2 The Moral Ideal of an Empty World 3.3 Nietzsche 3.4 Radical Nihilism 3.5 Postmodern Nihilism 4 Pathogenic Responses to Pessimism 4.1 Overview 4.2 Alienation 4.3 Obsession 4.4 Fatalism 4.5 Aggression 5.1 Overview 5.2 Types of Philosophers 5.3 The Therapy of Alienation 5.4 The Therapy of Obsession 5.5 The Therapy of Fatalism 5.6 The Therapy of Aggression 6 Relation to Cultural Critics 6.1 Indications 6.2 Diagnosis 6.3 Cultural Therapy
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Starting point Starting point are some quotes which have reached publicity in the discussion about realistic worldviews: 1. “An optimist is a contemporary who is insufficiently informed.” (author unknown) 2. “Optimism is cowardice.” (Oswald Spengler) 3. Optimism has to be condemned as “not only absurd, but also as infamous thinking, indeed”, as bitter mockery of the nameless sufferings of mankind” (Arthur Schopenhauer)
Type of Problem 1. What are the historical roots of cultural pessimism? 2. What are the historical and actual remedies to overcome pessimism?
Roots of pessimism The historical roots of cultural pessimism are 1. long-term chronicles of wars, social cycles and human suffering 2. the loss of religious scenarios of redemption
Remedies There are four conflicting types of philosophical therapies. Following a well-known exponent of each type:
1) Normative Therapies Normative therapies are directed against the kind of suffering, which is caused by passions. The interests of the individual (the struggle for love and power) are morally degraded. The pessimistic worldview is overcome by changing the perception of the world. a) Buddha: Indicated, if a culture suffers from an excess of activity and corresponding mental exhaustion. Culture can be healed, if a majority of individuals decides to spend more time on inner peace and reflection. b) Spinoza: Indicated, if a culture is threatened by irrationality, anarchism and chaos. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people admits to reason and accepts the moral value of self-control and rational cooperation.
2) Individualistic Therapies Individualistic therapies are directed against the suffering, which is caused by the suppression of passions. The interests of the individual are morally defended. The pessimistic world view is simply ignored by falling back on biological resources. The unconscious is always optimistic. a) Freud: Indicated, if a culture suffers from neurotic symptoms. A neurotic culture can be healed, if a majority of people gets insight into their unconscious. b) Nietzsche: Indicated if a culture suffers from uniformity, stagnation and passivity. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people rediscovers critical thinking, individuality and creative competition.
Currently (neurotic) depression seems to be the most significant cultural disease: An alternative to treating millions of depressive people could be to change the cultural conditions which produce depression. It shouldn’t be forgotten that pessimism is the result of experiences and that depressions often represent a mechanism to protect the individual. Before removing a depression it is commendable to understand its message. The hidden sense of cultural depression could be to protect humanity from excessive expansionism. It is a peaceful kind of resistance and simply says that culture goes the wrong way. Depressive people don’t have the energy to revolt. They just disengage and drop out.
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Starting point
In the year 1755 - the ground rocked in Portugal; an event as innumerable others before. But with one peculiarity: it happened on All Saint's Day at the hour of holy mass. Alone in Lisbon 30 churches collapsed and the rubble buried the gathered faithful. The earthquake, the following great fires, and the Tsunami-waves claimed tens of thousands of casualties. Was it God's punishment for the "idolatry" of Catholic veneration of saints? In fact, there have been voices that said so or correspondingly. But not even three weeks later the earth quaked also in Boston, a centre of American Puritanism, and demolished 15.000 houses. Also the interpretation as "Allah's revenge" was pointless, since the big Al-Mansur-Mosque in Rabat had collapsed too. Now one had recourse to the "original sin". Voltaire, infuriated at the utmost, answered with his famous poem "About Lisbon's Catastrophe, or: An Examination of the Axiom 'Everything is Good' ", and triggered by it worldwide discussions, that have not stopped up to this day. Yes, at present (2005) in the commemoration year of Auschwitz, Armenia, Dresden and Hiroshima and with the last natural disasters they make for new zeniths (Structure and Dynamic of the Cosmos, Ludwig Ebersberger)
The following quotes have reached publicity in the discussion about realistic worldviews:
1. “An optimist is a contemporary who is insufficiently informed.” (author unknown)
2. “Optimism is cowardice.” (Oswald Spengler)
3. Optimism has to be condemned as “not only absurd, but also as infamous thinking, indeed”, as bitter mockery of the nameless sufferings of mankind” (Arthur Schopenhauer)
Type of problem
1. What are the historical roots of cultural pessimism?
2. What are the historical and actual remedies to overcome pessimism?
2. Pessimistic Models of History
2.1 Definition
1. Cultural pessimism is a variety of pessimism, as formulated by what is nowadays called a cultural critic.
2. Pessimism, from the Latin pessimus (worst), is the decision to evaluate, perceive and view life in a generally negative light. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed.
3. Philosophical pessimism is the similar but not identical idea that life has a negative value, or that this world is as bad as it could possibly be.
4. A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. There is significant overlap with social criticism and social philosophers.
(Cultural pessimism, Wikipedia)
The definitions of optimism and pessimism didn’t change since Leibniz:
1. Those who find a purpose in our life, and an order in the universe, which conforms to this purpose, are optimists
2. Those who don’t see a purpose are pessimists
[Svevo, 155]
In this paper we concentrate on radical versions of pessimism like the denial of free will and the anticipated destruction of culture. We will neglect, however, pessimistic visions of the society’s structure (injustice, abuse of power etc.) like conspiracy theory.
2.2 Cosmic Cycles
Universal history
Universal History might be much older than we have imagined. The Greek scheme of the Generations of the Gods appears to be a universal record of a succession of very different cultures over an enormous period of time. This idea of Universal History within cosmic cycles and periods of time is presented by Nonnos of Panopolis in his Dionysica. Notions of the extreme antiquity of intelligent and technologically advanced humankind are supported by the many inexplicable anomalous finds in archaeology which are too advanced to fit in with the place of their discovery. Also, one cannot explain away the extremely accurate and sophisticated cosmological cycles (with the extreme length, into millions of years) of the Aryan-Vedic, and also the Maya cultures. These figures would be meaningless were it not for the extreme accuracy of their forecasts of astronomical events, such as the transits of Venus across the face of the sun in 2005 and 2012. For astronomical facts see www.quakestar.org (The Origin of Culture and Civilization, T.K.Dietrich)
Indian philosophy
Cosmic time is infinite and cyclical in the Indian tradition.
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Mahayurga, |
Kr.tayuga, |
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Tretâyuga, |
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Dvâparayuga, |
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Kaliyuga, |
The world we are familiar with is that of our Mahâyuga, or æon. This is divided into the Kr.tayuga of 4800 years, the Tretâyuga, of 3600 years, the Dvâparayuga, of 2400 years, and the Kaliyuga, of 1200 years. These decline in quality as well as in length, and can be characterized as the golden, the silver, the bronze, and the iron ages, respectively. We are in the Kaliyuga, which is supposed to have begun around 900 BC, at the time of the climactic battle in the Mahâbhârata. However, it has now obviously been much more than 1200 years since then, so the reckoning now is that the 12,000 years of the Mahâyuga are not ordinary human years, but "years of the gods," which are 360 human years. Thus, the Mahâyuga is 4,320,000 years long, and the Kaliyuga 432,000. In those terms, the Kaliyuga is supposed to have begun, still with the battle in the Mahâbhârata, on 18 February 3102 BC (identified by the Arab historian al-Bîrûnî [973-1048]).
The Kaliyuga is an age of decline and decadence, with the Pân.d.avas preserving as much good as they could from the previous yuga. This is rather like Tolkien's sense, in The Lord of the Rings, that great things are passing away (like the Elves), but as much good is preserved as possible. At the end of the Mahâyuga will be some sort of Apocalypse, either destroying the world or renewing it in some less catastrophic sense (Cycles of Time in Hinduism and Buddhism).
The Mahajurgas add up to kalpas, which are also a basic unit in the Buddhist cosmology. Kalpas add up to the Life of Brahma. After a Life of Brahmâ, all karma is annihilated. But Brahmâ is reborn, born from a lotus that grows from the navel of the sleeping Vishnu.
Maya Cycles
Like the Aztec and Inca who came to power later, the Maya believed in a cyclical nature of time. The rituals and ceremonies were very closely associated with celestial/terrestrial cycles which they observed and inscribed as separate calendars. The Maya priest had the job of interpreting these cycles and giving a prophetic outlook on the future or past based on the number relations of all their calendars. They also had to determine if the "heavens" or celestial matters were appropriate for performing certain religious ceremonies (Maya, Wikipedia)
Multiverses
The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of reality. The different universes within the multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes or dimensions. Multiverses have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, astronomy, philosophy, theology, and fiction (…).
The earliest known records describing the concept of a multiverse are found in ancient Hindu cosmology, in texts such as the Puranas. They expressed the idea of an infinite number of universes, each with its own gods, inhabitants and planets, and an infinite cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths of a universe, with each cycle lasting 8.4 billion years. The belief is too that the number of universes is infinite (Multiverse, Wikipedia)
Heath death
The heat death is a possible final state of the universe, in which it has "run down" to a state of no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion or life. In physical terms, it has reached maximum entropy (…). What happens after this is speculative. It's possible a Big Rip event may occur far off into the future, or the Universe may settle into this state forever, achieving true heat death. Extreme low-energy states imply that localized quantum events become major macroscopic phenomena rather than negligible microscopic events because even unimaginably small perturbations would make the biggest difference in this era, so there is no telling what may happen to space or time. It is perceived that the laws of "macro-physics" will break down, and the laws of "quantum-physics" will prevail. (Heat death, Wikipedia)
In some recent cosmological theories the creation and death of our universe is not a unique process. New universes spontaneously emerge from the world of quantum-physics.
2.3 Social Cycles
Definition
Social cycle theories are one of the earliest social theories in sociology. Unlike the theory of social evolutionism, which views the evolution of society and human history as progressing in some new, unique direction(s), sociological cycle theory argues that events and stages of society and history are generally repeating themselves in cycles. Such a theory does not necessarily imply there cannot be any social progress (Social Cycle Theory, Wikipedia)
Predecessors
1. Interpretation of history as repeating cycles of Dark and Golden Ages was a common belief among ancient cultures. Giorgio de Santillana, the former professor of the history of science at MIT, taught that over thirty ancient cultures held this view and associated the changing of the ages to the precession of the equinox. It was the dominant world belief prior to the Darwinian era which requires a linear viewpoint and discounts any mention of a long ago Golden Age.
2. The more limited cyclical view of history defined as repeating cycles of events was put forward in the academic world in the 19th century in historiosophy (a branch of historiography) and is a concept that falls under the category of sociology. However, Polybius, Ibn Khaldun, and Giambattista Vico can be seen as precursors of this analysis. The Saeculum was identified in Roman times. In recent times, Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar has used the ideal of social cycles
(Social Cycle Theory, Wikipedia)
Classical Theories
1. Among prominent historiosophers important is Russian philosopher Nikolai Danilewski (1822-1885), who in Rossiia i Europa (1869) differentiated between various smaller civilizations (Egyptian, Chinese, Persian, Greece, Roman, German, and Slav, among others). He wrote that each civilisation has a life cycle, and by the end of 19th century the Roman-German civilisation was in decline, while Slav civilisation was approaching its Golden Age (Social Cycle Theory, Wikipedia)
2. William James Durant (1885-1981) was an American philosopher, historian, and writer, best known for his 11-volume work The Story of Civilization.. In his extensive studies on civilization he realized that humans don’t change behavior in the course of time. In “Lessons of History” (1968) he mentions in particular the ineradicable drive to lead wars. “War is a historical constant and neither civilization nor democracy was capable eliminating it from the world. In the 3400 years of known history there were only 268 years without war.” (Fesselnde Philosophie, Deutschlandradio)
3. Similar theory was put forward by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) who in the Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes) (1918) also expected that the Western civilisation was about to collapse. The Decline of the West includes the idea of the Muslims being Magian, Mediterranean civilizations of the antiquity such as Ancient Greece and Rome being Apollonian, and the modern Westerners being Faustian, and according to its theories we are now living in the winter time of the Faustian civilization. His description of the Faustian civilization is where the populace constantly strives for the unattainable—making the western man a proud but tragic figure, for while he strives and creates he secretly knows the actual goal will never be reached (The Decline of the West, Wikipedia)
4. Spengler's obscure thoughts, intuitionalism and mysticism were easy targets for his critics. All attempts to find the meaning of history had been denounced by the positivists and neo-Kantians of the late nineteenth century as irresponsible metaphysical speculation. This attitude did not change but was perhaps even hardened after the rise of neo-positivism and analytic tradition. One of the exceptions was the Austrian/British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), who shared Spengler's cultural pessimism, and confessed once that he felt "intensely the terrible degeneration that had come over the human spirit in the course of only a hundred years." (Oswald Spengler)
5. Towards the end of the 20th century, cultural pessimism surfaced in a prominent way. The very title of Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000) challenges the reader to be hopeful.
(Cultural pessimism, Wikipedia)
Sociological cycle theories
1. The first sociological cycle theory was created by Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in his Trattato di Sociologia Generale (1916). He centered his theory on the concept of elite social class, which he divided into cunning 'foxes' and violent 'lions'. In his view of society, the power constantly passes from 'foxes' to 'lions' and vice versa.
2. Sociological cycle theory was developed by Pitirim A. Sorokin (1889-1968) in his Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937, 1943). He classified societies according to their 'cultural mentality', which can be ideational (reality as spiritual), sensate (reality is material), or idealistic (a synthesis of the two). He has interpreted the contemporary West as a sensate civilisation dedicated to technological progress and prophesied its fall into decadence and the emergence of a new ideational or idealistic era
(Social Cycle Theory, Wikipedia)
Modern theories
1) One of the most important recent findings in the study of the long-term dynamic social processes was the discovery of the political-demographic cycles as a basic feature of complex agrarian systems' dynamics. The presence of political-demographic cycles in the pre-modern history of Europe and China, and in chiefdom level societies worldwide has been known for quite a long time and already in the 1980s more or less developed mathematical models of demographic cycles started to be produced. At the moment we have a very considerable number of such models
2) Recently the most important contributions to the development of the mathematical models of long-term ("secular") sociodemographic cycles have been made by Sergey Nefedov, Peter Turchin and Sergey Malkov. What is important is that on the basis of their models the authors have managed to demonstrate that sociodemographic cycles were a basic feature of complex agrarian systems (and not a specifically Chinese or European phenomenon). The basic logic of these models is as follows:
a) After the population reaches the ceiling of the carrying capacity of land, its growth rate declines toward near-zero values.
b) The system experiences significant stress with decline in the living standards of the common population, increasing the severity of famines, growing rebellions etc.
c) As has been shown by Nefedov, most complex agrarian systems had considerable reserves for stability, however, within 50–150 years these reserves were usually exhausted and the system experienced a demographic collapse (a Malthusian catastrophe), when increasingly severe famines, epidemics, increasing internal warfare and other disasters led to a considerable decline of population.
d) As a result of this collapse, free resources became available, per capita production and consumption considerably increased, the population growth resumed and a new sociodemographic cycle started.
3) It has become possible to model these dynamics mathematically in a rather effective way. Note that the modern theories of political-demographic cycles do not deny the presence of trend dynamics and attempt at the study of the interaction between cyclical and trend components of historical dynamics. Modern social scientists from different fields have introduced cycle theories to predict civilizational collapses in approaches that apply contemporary methods that update the approach of Spengler, such as the work of Joseph Tainter suggesting a civilizational life-cycle. In more micro-studies that follow the work of Malthus, scholars such as David Lempert have presented "alpha-helix" models of population, economics, and political response, including violence, in cyclical forms that add aspects of culture change into the model. Lempert has also modeled political violence in Russian society, suggesting that theories attributing violence in Russia to ideologies are less useful than cyclical models of population and economic productivity
(Social Cycle Theory, Wikipedia)
2.4 Determinism
Definition
1) Determinism is a philosophical concept which assumes that all events occur according to established laws and are completely pre-defined by these laws. There is no genuine contingency and no miracle. Even human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences (Determinism, Wikipedia).
2) Free will
a) The compatibilist concept says that free will and determinism are compatible ideas
b) The libertarian concept claims that free will it is incompatible with determinism
(Compatibilism and Incompatibilism, Wikipedia)
3) Indeterminism: According to the Copenhagen interpretation quantum mechanics is causal but not deterministic. Determinism implies causality but not vice-versa. Indeterminism in physics is no argument for free will in humans; see Eine interdisziplinäre Betrachtung zur Unfreiheit.
Modern perspectives on determinism
The following reflections exclude the level of quantum mechanics.
1. In emergentist or generative philosophy of cognitive sciences and evolutionary psychology, (libertarian) free will does not exist. However an illusion of free will is experienced due to the generation of infinite behaviour from the interaction of finite-deterministic set of rules and parameters. Thus the unpredictability of the emerging behavior from deterministic processes leads to a perception of free will, even though (libertarian) free will as an ontological entity does not exist.
2. As an illustration, the strategy board-games chess and Go have rigorous rules in which no information (such as cards' face-values) is hidden from both players and no random events (such as dice-rolling) happen within the game. Yet, chess and especially Go with its extremely simple deterministic rules, can still have an extremely large number of unpredictable moves. By analogy, emergentists or generativists suggest that the experience of free will emerges from the interaction of finite rules and deterministic parameters that generate infinite and unpredictable behavior. Yet, if all these events were accounted for, and there were a known way to evaluate these events, the seemingly unpredictable behavior would become predictable.
3. Dynamical-evolutionary psychology, cellular automata and the generative sciences, model emergent processes of social behavior on this philosophy, showing the experience of (libertarian) free will as essentially a gift of ignorance or as a product of incomplete information
(Determinism, Wikipedia)
2.5 Disillusion
Lost paradises
1. The paradise in the Book of Genesis is a repetition of daily life without its painful conditions. It is the ideal of an agricultural society, i.e. a life undisturbed by crop failure, famine, illness and death [Hahn, 110]. Different concepts of paradises mirror different societies.
2. Some paradises represent better states in the here and now, i.e. they represent memories of better times or expectations of a better future. In societies with a complex structure, the concepts can even differ within the same society. The general rule is the following: Social classes in decline glorify the past and vice-versa. The belief in progress, which is typical for the age of enlightenment, mirrors the collective advancement of the bourgeoisie; the romantic glorification of the past is the swan song of the disempowered aristocracy [Hahn, 115]. Happiness is located in a place where society hasn’t arrived yet or in a place where society was long time ago.
3. The New Testament says: “No one has seen the paradise that is afforded to those who love the Lord”. This kind of paradise is abstract to an extent which makes it impossible to even attempt a falsification. On the other hand it is hardly attractive for non-philosophers and non-theologians which are deeply in sorrow about their daily life. Abstract paradises are made for religious virtuosos (Max Weber) [Hahn, 119].
All paradises have one thing in common: once they are unmasked as wishful thinking, they are lost forever.
Paradoxical utopias
Utopias have a certain potential to replace paradises, but they encounter a paradox: The more a utopian society improves our living conditions, the more painful death becomes. Death is bearable
1. if it sets an end to suffering
2. if we identify ourselves with a group and the group survives
3. if we feel that we have seen whatever there is to see
All these conditions are satisfied in simple societies, but not in the current visions of individualistic high-tech societies.
A technological victory over death leads to paradoxical consequences as well [Hahn, 121-124].
2.6 Self-Destruction
Butterfield (1900-1979)
In his influential book, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931), Herbert Butterfield made a strong case against the “Wiggish” view that history involves progressive evolution toward where we are now. This picture is often another form of ethnocentric projection, and in fact changes of many sorts occur for many reasons (Relativism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Postmodernism
A characteristic of postmodernism is the loss of optimism, as compared to the age of enlightenment.
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) was an Austrian zoologist, animal psychologist, ornithologist and Nobel Prize winner. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology (…) Lorenz predicted the relationship between market economics and the threat of ecological catastrophe. In his 1973 book, Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins, Konrad Lorenz addresses the following paradox:
All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favor humanity's destruction (Konrad Lorenz, Wikipedia)
1. There are strong indications that many technological risks are systematically underestimated as well as natural risks. One reason for this phenomenon might be that optimism improves the Darwinian fitness. For more arguments see Perception of human extinction risk.
2. Technologies involving unfamiliar risks and unpleasant secondary effects are usually imposed by threats of war and (economical) competition. The struggle for (economical) survival explains why technological innovation accelerates even in areas of high risk.
The system develops a (probably increasing) potential for self-destruction.
Quantitative estimations
1) Estimated probability of complete destruction before 2100 A.D. = 50%, according to Martin Rees, Our Final Hour
2) Estimated probability of complete destruction before 2500 A.D. = 30%, according to John Leslie, The End of the World.(p.146)
For more information on this issue see: On the Perception of Risk and Benefit.
For a list of movies dedicated to the subject of self-destruction see Das Untier und seine Verantwortung, Kap.VIII.2
3.1 Russian Nihilism
Origin
Though the term nihilism was popularized by the novelist Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), it was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743 – 1819), who used it to characterize rationalism, and in particular Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) "critical" philosophy in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism, and thus should be avoided and replaced with a return to some type of faith and revelation ( fideism) (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
Russian nihilism
1. Beginning with the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725), many in the Russian elite were fascinated by the technological, artistic, and intellectual achievements of Western Europe: "During the 1820s and 1830s Russian thought was influenced powerfully by several waves of German Romantic idealism and then the philosophy of Hegel, both of which raised the concept of distinct national identity and of “inevitable” historical progress…". After the Crimean War (1853–56) however the Nihilists rejected the German-influenced liberals of the 1830–40s generation, decrying previous reforms as ineffective (Nihilist Movement, Wikipedia)
2. The Nihilist movement was an 1860s Russian cultural movement which rejected existing authorities and values. After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the Nihilists were known throughout Europe as proponents of the use of violence as a tool for political change (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) in The Brothers Karamasov created the central idea of the Omelas parable.
Russian nihilism was followed by the Russian Revolution (1905) and Marxism-Leninism (1920s).
Comparison with anarchism
Nihilist political philosophy saw existing religions, political institutions, and morality as opposed to freedom. Unlike anarchists, the Nihilists did not reject the State; they believed that the right sort of rulers would make the right sort of changes to society. The Nihilists did not advocate belief in nothing, they believed in liberating human beings from existing creeds and practices via an appeal to objective values (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
Comparison with skepticism
Nihilism differs from skepticism in that skepticism allows for the possibility of religion, but demands empirical evidence for religious claims. Additionally, skepticism does not necessarily come to any conclusions about the reality of moral concepts nor does it deal so intimately with questions about the meaning of an existence without knowable truth (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
3.2 The Moral Ideal of an Empty World
Buddhism
In summa: die Welt, wie sie sein sollte, existiert; diese Welt, in der wir leben, ist nur ein Irrtum, - diese unsere Welt sollte nicht existieren (…). Welche Art von Mensch reflektiert so? Eine unproduktive leidende Art; eine lebensmüde Art [Nietzsche 1885, 402]
1. Nietzsche reasons like a minister for propaganda, who tries to sell the product “life”. But he cannot plausibly explain why the suffering people who are tired of life should get up, go to work and buy his product.
2. It is well possible that Buddhism emerged in the historical context of lost battles and loss of power, or new weapon technology and foreseeable losses. But the fatigue of war also expresses a kind of knowledge. Why should we devaluate or even repress this knowledge? In order to construct an ethics of survival? If yes, then we should at least reflect the employer we are serving.
Der Glaube, dass die Welt, die sein sollte, wirklich existiert, ist ein Glaube der Unproduktiven, die nicht eine Welt schaffen wollen, wie sie sein soll [Nietzsche 1885, 402]
From the Buddhist point of view we cannot create the world “as it should be” by means of power. The will to power is rather a meaning which is taken over from biology, a meaning which legitimizes and perpetuates suffering. The belief in a spiritual world doesn’t have a scientific basis but, in the case of Buddhism, evidentially reduces suffering.
Buddhism is far from radical nihilism for two reasons:
1. It maintains a highly developed system of values similar to virtue ethics.
2. Buddhism emerged out of the Hindu tradition where the meaning of Brahman is quite different from the Western understanding of an empty world. A Buddhist’s life is embedded in a religious context which is hardly accessible to Western atheists. In popular Buddhism the Nirvana is rather associated with an abstract interpretation of heaven, than with a cold and empty world.
Negative utilitarianism
For a definition of negative utilitarianism see Negative Utilitarianism and Justice. The original version of this ethical theory attempts to minimize suffering and doesn’t assign moral value to happiness (unless it prevents suffering).
The most controversial strategy to implement negative utilitarianism is a violent reduction of the population-size. A radical pursuit of this thought could lead to the extermination of humanity or life as a whole. There is a major disagreement between negative and classical utilitarianism (see Introduction to utilitarianism, utilitarian.org) on behalf of extermination:
1) A negative utilitarian believes that, if it was possible to exterminate all life in the universe instantly and painlessly and permanently, it would be correct and ethically required that we do so in order to prevent any future cases of suffering
2) A classical utilitarian might decide either way, depending on his estimation of the relative amounts of future suffering and happiness.
3.3 Nietzsche
The relativity of moral value
Moral valuation is a kind of interpretation (…). Who is interpreting? – our emotions [Nietzsche 1885, 184]
Was sind unsere Wertschätzungen und moralischen Gütertafeln selber wert? Was kommt bei ihrer Herrschaft heraus? Für wen? In Bezug worauf?
- Antwort: für das Leben. Aber was ist Leben? Hier tut also eine neue, bestimmtere Fassung des Begriffs „Leben“ not. Meine Formel dafür lautet: Leben ist Wille zur Macht [Nietzsche 1885, 184]
What is lacking here is a distinction between the biological and cultural level. Whereas the biological mechanisms are relatively well known, the cultural ones are largely unexplained. It is unclear if our value systems and moral rules finally serve the biological utility function (replication of genes) or if a more complex function is at work. Nietzsche’s formula “Life = Will to Power” can be identified with the biological utility function, but on the cultural level it is probably too reductionistic.
Was bedeutet das Wertschätzen selbst? weist es auf eine andere, metaphysische Welt zurück oder hinab wie noch Kant glaubte? (…) Antwort: das moralische Wertschätzen ist eine Auslegung, eine Art zu interpretieren. Die Auslegung selbst ist ein Symptom bestimmter physiologischer Zustände, ebenso eines bestimmten geistigen Niveaus von herrschenden Urteilen: Wer legt aus? – Unsere Affekte [Nietzsche 1885, 184]
It is probably true that interpretations are driven by emotions. But emotions can be reflected and weighed against each other, as disclosed (amongst others) by Spinoza. Ethical goals are the result of more or less reflected preferences.
In den Wertschätzungen drücken sich Erhaltungs- und Wachstums-Bedingungen aus. Alle unsere Erkenntnisorgane und –Sinne sind nur entwickelt in Hinsicht auf Erhaltungs- und Wachstums-Bedingungen. Das Vertrauen zur Vernunft und ihren Kategorien, zur Dialektik, also die Wertschätzung der Logik beweist nur die durch Erfahrung bewiesene Nützlichkeit derselben für das Leben: nicht deren „Wahrheit“ [Nietzsche 1885, 348]
1. This is applied Darwinism. An ethical position which says that all decisions which serve life are morally good and vice versa is not true but useful (for life). Indian philosophy knows a more flexible valuation. One-sided life-friendly ethics prevails because it improves the Darwinian fitness of its adherents. Life friendliness explains the success of the revealed religions and the success of Freud’s theory in the present. At the same time, this life-friendliness is the reason for the increase in suffering which is inseparably tied to the expansion of life (First Noble Truth of Buddhism). Consequently one could invert Nietzsche’s reflection and say: The Buddhist statement is true in fact, but not useful for life.
2. Nietzsche is mistaken if he assumes that evolution could in no case be directed against life. Systems theory has shown that, in complex systems, new properties may emerge spontaneously. The process of cognition which is directed towards life itself opens up new possibilities and increases the freedom of action (Example: voluntary euthanasia).
3. Nietzsche is right insofar, as life claims a final say respectively an interpretive predominance similar to the catholic pope. The ones who don’t comply are excommunicated, i.e. excluded from the community (of survivors). This interpretive predominance was broken thru in the Indian philosophy and then successively reintroduced by Aristotle, the Stoics, Spinoza and Nietzsche. Freud, although he postulated a general drive to die (which is probably untenable), questioned the moral value of life only in outlines (e.g. in his cultural pessimism).
God is dead
A major cause of Nietzsche's continued association with nihilism is his famous proclamation that "God is dead." Nietzsche believed that, without God humanity is left with no epistemological or moral base from which we can derive absolute beliefs.
But, according to Nietzsche, the denial of absolute values doesn’t imply the devaluation of human life and the denial of the world as it is. The value of life is more profound than the values assigned by reason and idealism:
Any philosophy that devalues the world around us by privileging some ideal or utopian world necessarily devalues human life and is a threat for humanity's future. This warning can also be taken as a polemic against 19th and 20th century scientism (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
The truth
Nietzsche's philosophy shares with nihilism a rejection of any perfect source of absolute, universal and transcendent values (…). However, recognizing the chaos of nihilism, he advocated a philosophy that willfully transcends it. Furthermore, his positive attitude towards truth as a vehicle of faith and belief distinguishes him from the extreme pessimism that nihilism is often associated with (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
„Die wahre und die scheinbare Welt“ – dieser Gegensatz wird von mir zurückgeführt auf Wertverhältnisse [Nietzsche 1885, 348]
The mathematical-physical representation of reality is surely a construction of our cognitive apparatus, but not an arbitrary one. Insofar it has a different (higher) cognitive status than religious interpretations of reality. But, as history has proven, verifiable claims can always be replaced by non-verifiable ones, if strong enough interests are at work. Insofar the “truth” is defined by moral values (which are driven by interests).
3.4 Radical Nihilism
Definition
Whereas Russian nihilism rejected traditional values (in anticipation of new ones) and Nietzsche promoted new values (a kind of biological fundamentalism), radical nihilism denies the existence of any moral value.
1. A nihilist is a man who thinks of “the world as it is” that it ought NOT to be, and of “the world as it ought to be” that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: the pathos of IN VAIN is the nihilists' pathos (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, The Will to Power, section 585)
2. Stanley Rosen identifies Nietzsche's equation of nihilism with "the situation which obtains when everything is permitted." Nietzsche asserts that this nihilism is a result of valuing "higher", "divine" or "meta-physical" things (such as God), that do not in turn value "base", "human" or "earthly" things. But a person who rejects God and the divine may still retain the belief that all "base", "earthly", or "human" ideas are still valueless because they were considered so in the previous belief system (such as a Christian who becomes a communist and believes fully in the party structure and leader). In this interpretation, any form of idealism, after being rejected by the idealist, leads to nihilism.
3. Nietzsche considered faith in the categories of reason, seeking either to overcome or ignore nature, to be the cause of such nihilism. "We have measured the value of the world according to categories that refer to a purely fictitious world". He saw this philosophy as present in Christianity (which he described as 'slave morality'), Buddhism, morality, asceticism and any excessively skeptical philosophy
(Nihilism, Wikipedia)
Christianity is not the result of thinking in the categories of reason, but attempts to overcome nature as well as idealism.
The loss of sense
Dies ist die europäische Form des Buddhismus, das Nein-tun, nachdem alles Dasein seinen Sinn verloren hat [Nietzsche 1885, 47]
The loss of sense is a topic within Western philosophy and shouldn’t be associated with Buddhism. From the Buddhist point of view life is a learning process and therefore endowed with sense. Buddhists aren’t radial nihilists, but recognize a highly developed system of values similar to virtue ethics. Radical nihilism is a likely reaction of believers who lose their faith and atheists who lose their optimism. Buddhists aren’t deceived because they don’t wait for redemption or technological miracles.
Eine gewisse geistige Ermüdung, durch den langen Kampf philosophischer Meinungen bis zur hoffnungslosesten Skepsis gegen Philosophie gebracht, kennzeichnet ebenfalls den keineswegs niedrigeren Stand jener Nihilisten [Nietzsche 1885, 47]
The challenge for Western ethics consists in not throwing overboard its value systems, if the Buddhist world view with its cyclic destructions proves to be more realistic. The cultural diversity of ethical systems and the fact that conflicting values exist even within the same individual doesn’t necessarily lead to skepticism. It can also be seen as a challenge to make aware the conflicting interests (which cause conflicting values) and develop new values on a higher level of insight.
Es ist ein Gradmesser von Willenskraft, wie weit man des Sinnes in den Dingern entbehren kann, wie weit man in einer sinnlosen Welt zu leben aushält: weil man ein kleines Stück von ihr selbst organisiert. [Nietzsche 1885, 403]
The capability to create sense has little to do with willpower. But it has a lot to do with the capability to mobilize biological resources.
Deceived idealism
According to Nietzsche, radical nihilism is caused by deceived idealism:
Ich bin voller Argwohn und Bosheit gegen das, was man „Ideal“ nennt: hier liegt mein Pessimismus, erkannt zu haben, wie die „höheren Gefühle“ eine Quelle des Unheils, d.h. der Verkleinerung und Werterniedrigung des Menschen sind [Nietzsche 1885, 61]
Nietzsche provides a one-sided view on ethial ideals and platonic ideals. An ideal is timeless, i.e. it protects us from the suffering caused by transience. By the participation in timeless values we become virtually immortal. The emotional attachment to the ideal creates a second identity in a place of refuge. Buddhism offers a place of refuge which is close to reality and therefore cannot fail.
Dieselbe Spezies Mensch, noch eine Stufe ärmer geworden, nicht mehr im Besitz der Kraft zu interpretieren, des Schaffens von Fiktionen, macht den Nihilisten. Ein Nihilist ist der Mensch, welcher von der Welt, wie sie ist, urteilt, sie sollte nicht sein, und von der Welt, wie sie sein sollte, urteilt, sie existiert nicht. Demnach hat Dasein (handeln, leiden, wollen, fühlen) keinen Sinn: das Pathos des „Umsonst“ ist das Nihilisten-Pathos (…) [Nietzsche 1885, 403]
1. Russian nihilism rejects traditions but is willing to create new values. A Russian nihilist may be faithless but not aimless and not tired of life at all.
2. A negative utilitarian is not radical as well, because he/she promotes a clear moral value. Even classical utilitarians consider the empty world to be the best state of affairs, if the estimated accumulated suffering exceeds the accumulated happiness and if there is no optimistic outlook like bioethical abolitionism. A utilitarian doesn’t know the pathos “in vain”. The goal to improve the state of affairs (as far as possible) remains in any case. Negative utilitarians in particular are driven by the motivation to reduce suffering.
3.5 Postmodern Nihilism
1. Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) wrote briefly of nihilism from the postmodern viewpoint in Simulacra and Simulation, where he theorizes about the lack of distinction between the real world and simulations. He maintains that in postmodern age, the simulation will precede the original and the distinction between reality and representation will break down.
2. Baudrillard and others have called postmodernity a nihilistic epoch, and some Christian theologians and figures of religious authority have asserted that postmodernity and many aspects of modernity represent the rejection of God, and therefore are nihilistic (…).
3. Postmodern and poststructuralist thought deny the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning, a 'decentralization' of authorship, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and the ideals of humanism and the Enlightenment (…)
(Nihilism, Wikipedia)
One of the issues of postmodern nihilism is the manipulation of feelings (values) by medicaments and the media.
4. Pathogenic Responses to Pessimism
4.1 Overview
Thesis:
The (narrow) social environment has a similar influence on the individual as the (wide) cultural environment, i.e. it is friendly and allows self-expansion or it is depreciative and asks for self-restriction. The reactions to a pessimistic cultural perspective therefore resemble the reactions to a pessimistic social perspective.
In the following diagram
1. the character traits (ditention, dominance etc.) are taken from experimental social psychology [DTV, 213]
2. the pathogenic reactions to cultural pessimism (alienation, aggression etc.) are linked to these traits.
|
Ethical ideals Self-restriction |
Biological needs Self-expansion |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4.2 Alienation
Mainländer (1841-1875)
1) Philipp Mainländer was a German poet and philosopher (…). In his central work Die Philosophie der Erlösung (The Philosophy of Redemption) —according to Theodor Lessing “perhaps the most radical system of pessimism known to philosophical literature” —Mainländer proclaims that there is no higher meaning in life, and that “the will, ignited by the perception that non-being is better than being, is the topmost principle of all morale.” (…)
2) Mainländer described the discovery of Arthur Schopenhauer’s central work The World as Will and Representation as a penetrating revelation.
3) In 1875 after a period of obsession with philosophical work, Mainländer declared himself exhausted, worked-out and ineffably tired and his mental collapse — which has been compared to the collapse Nietzsche would suffer only years later — became apparent. Eventually, descending into megalomania and believing himself to be a messiah of social democracy in the night on April 1st, 1875, Mainländer hanged himself in his residence in Offenbach. A pile of voucher copies of The Philosophy of Redemption, which had arrived the previous day, had served as a pedestal. He was thirty-four years old.
(Philipp Mainländer, Wikipedia)
Cioran (1911-1955)
1. Emil Cioran was a Romanian philosopher and essayist (…). Exhausting his interest for conservative philosophy early in his youth, Cioran denounced systematic thought and abstract speculation in favor of indulgence in personal reflection and passionate lyricism (…). Pessimism characterizes all of his works, which many critics trace back to events of his childhood (…).
2. His works often depict an atmosphere of torment and torture, states that Cioran experienced, and came to be dominated by lyricism often prone to expressing violent feelings (…). Preoccupied with the problem of death and suffering, he was attracted to the idea of suicide, believing it to be an idea that could help one go on living, an idea which he fully explored in On the Heights of Despair. The theme of human alienation, the most prominent existentialist theme, presented by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, is thus formulated, in 1932, by young Cioran: "Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?" (…).
3. He was a thinker passionate about history; widely reading the writers that were associated with the period of "decadent". One of these writers was Oswald Spengler who influenced Cioran's political philosophy in that he offered Gnostic reflections on the destiny of man and civilization. According to Cioran, as long as man has kept in touch with his origins and hasn't cut himself off from himself, he has resisted decadence. Today, he is on his way to his own destruction through self-objectification, impeccable production and reproduction, excess of self-analysis and transparency, and artificial triumph.
4. William H. Gass called Cioran's work "a philosophical romance on the modern themes of alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease".
(Emil Cioran, Wikipedia)
4.3 Obsession
Petrarch (1304-1374)
Biography
Francesco Petrarca, known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet, and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. He is often popularly called the "father of humanism" (…) Petrarch is credited with developing the sonnet. His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poems (Petrarch, Wikipedia)
Francesco Petrarca was the most celebrated writer of his day, and his influence on Western thought and literature has been immense and enduring (…) Shakespeare’s sonnets, for example, would never have emerged without the sonetti and canzoni (…). Petrarch has long been called the founder of Renaissance humanism, showing the way to a monumental revival of antiquity and refocusing attention on philology and history. He also inaugurated the early modern development of moral philosophy. (Petrarch and the Philosophy of Passion)
Passion
On April 6, 1327, Good Friday, after giving up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the Rime sparse ("Scattered rhymes") (…) Laura may have been Laura de Noves, the wife of Count Hugues de Sade (ancestor of the Marquis de Sade). (…) Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him for the very proper reason that she was already married to another man (…). Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and the mystic Christian, making it impossible to reconcile the two, his quest for love a hopeless, endless agony (Petrarch, Wikipedia)
Dark Ages
The Dark Ages is a term in historiography referring to a period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning (…). The concept of a Dark Age was created by the Italian scholar Petrarch in the 1330s as an age which separated his own from the riches of classical antiquity and was originally intended as a sweeping criticism of the character of Late Latin literature. Popular culture has further expanded on the term as a vehicle to depict the Middle Ages as a time of backwardness, extending its pejorative use and expanding its scope (Dark Ages, Wikipedia).
Is it defensible to construct a relation between Petrarch’s description of cultural decline and his hopeless erotic obsession? It is more plausible to assume that he transferred his personal pessimism to the interpretation of culture than vice-vice versa. Nevertheless it is possible that the classical antique culture would have made it easier for a man in his position to realize his erotic dreams, than a Roman Catholic socialization. The term pessimism doesn’t necessarily address the destruction of culture; it can also address the persistence (or worsening) of an oppressive culture. Platonic obsession and pathological narcissism are undesired side-effects of excessive self-control.
Sade (1740-1814)
Biography
Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Marquis de Sade, was a French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography. He was a philosopher of extreme freedom (or at least licentiousness), unrestrained by morality, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life (…). Much of his writing was done during his imprisonment (Sade, Wikipedia)
Appraisal and criticism
Numerous writers and artists, especially those concerned with sexuality, have been both repelled and fascinated by de Sade.
1. Simone de Beauvoir (in her essay Must we burn Sade?, published in Les Temps modernes, December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of freedom in Sade's writings, preceding modern existentialism by some 150 years. He has also been seen as a precursor of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in his focus on sexuality as a motive force. The surrealists admired him as one of their forerunners, and Guillaume Apollinaire famously called him "the freest spirit that has yet existed".
2. Pierre Klossowski, in his 1947 book Sade Mon Prochain ("Sade My Neighbor"), analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of nihilism, negating both Christian values and the materialism of the Enlightenment.
3. One of the essays in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) is titled "Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality" and interprets the ruthless and calculating behavior of Juliette as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment. Similarly, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan posited in his 1966 essay "Kant avec Sade" that de Sade's ethic was the complementary completion of the categorical imperative originally formulated by Immanuel Kant.
4. In his 1988 Political Theory and Modernity, William E. Connolly analyzes Sade's Philosophy in the Bedroom as an argument against trend of earlier political philosophers, notably Rousseau and Hobbes, and their attempts to reconcile nature, reason and virtue as basis of ordered society.
5. In The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography (1979), Angela Carter provides a feminist reading of Sade, seeing him as a "moral pornographer" who creates spaces for women. Similarly, Susan Sontag defended both Sade and Georges Bataille's Histoire de l'oeil (Story of the Eye) in her essay, "The Pornographic Imagination" (1967) on the basis their works were transgressive texts, and argued that neither should be censored.
6. By contrast, Andrea Dworkin saw Sade as the exemplary woman-hating pornographer, supporting her theory that pornography inevitably leads to violence against women. One chapter of her book Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1979) is devoted to an analysis of Sade. Susie Bright claims that Dworkin's first novel Ice and Fire, which is rife with violence and abuse, can be seen as a modern re-telling of Sade's Juliette.
(Sade, Wikipedia)
Sado-masochism is based on the tension between excessive control and loss of control. Consequently it is promoted by two aspects:
1. a culture which demands a high degree of self-control
2. radical nihilism, i.e. the complete loss of moral value
4.4 Fatalism
Fatalism is usually seen as a pessimistic world view (Fatalismus, Wikipedia) so that the two terms are closely linked. But fatalism is also a possible reaction to pessimism, because it discharges the individual from responsibility. To be fatalist means to accept anticipated negative events. If the future were bright, there wouldn’t be usage for the term fatalism.
Ockham (1285-1349)
Theology co-operated heartily at pessimism already from the late Middle Ages. So for example the "philosopher with the razor", the Franciscan friar Wilhelm of Ockham (1285-1349) - regardless of his (as such modern) conceptions in the so-called 'universalia argument' - cut any relation of the natural human drives and primeval longings to the Ten Commandments, which had been dictated, as it were, arbitrarily by God and could have run also quite differently.
Well, the Catholic theology has never wholly accepted that opinion, but it caused nevertheless a lot of confusion, the more so, as one - especially in circles of reformed theologians - downright tried to outdo each other. From the concern one might diminish God's greatness and majesty one left to man not a single tiny thread of good in its own right. One even denied man the control of its own free will, because every event had already been predestined in God's omnipotence and prescience - a determinism which was in no way inferior to Newtons (1643-1727) mechanistic world view (Structure and Dynamic of the Cosmos, Ludwig Ebersberger)
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist (Shakespeare, Wikipedia)
Shakespeare’s great tragedies are dominated by a hopeless fatalism, which is far more pessimistic than the purifying agonies of Greek tragedy, and almost utterly godless (…). Sometimes his tragic heroes speak of life as ruled by fate inhuman, unpredictable, and meaningless; and sometimes, more bitterly, cry out against vicious mankind which is unfit to live, and cruel gods, who kill us for their sport. That much of this hopeless gloom came from Shakespeare’s own hart, no one can doubt; but he found it expressed decisively and eloquently in the Stoical pessimism of Seneca (The Classical Tradition, Gilbert Highet, 2009, p.207).
It is likely that Shakespeare was first impressed by tragic events and then turned towards fatalism and not vice-versa.
4.5 Aggression
Hartmann (1842-1906)
Biography
1) Eduard von Hartmann was born in Berlin, and educated with the intention of a military career. He entered the artillery of the Guards as an officer in 1860, but was forced to leave in 1865 because of a knee problem (Eduard von Hartmann, Wikipedia)
2) Because of his knee problem, Hartmann was doing most of his work in bed while suffering great pain (Eduard von Hartmann, Internet Encyclopedia)
Collective annihilation
Human life labors under three illusions:
1) that happiness is possible in this life, which came to an end with the Roman Empire
2) that life will be crowned with happiness in another world, which science is rapidly dissipating
3) that happy social well-being, although postponed, can at last be realized on earth, a dream which will also ultimately be dissolved.
Man's only hope lies in "final redemption from the misery of volition and existence into the painlessness of non-being and non-willing." No mortal may quit the task of life, but each must do his part to hasten the time when in the major portion of the human race the activity of the unconscious shall be ruled by intelligence, and this stage reached, in the simultaneous action of many persons volition will resolve upon its own non-continuance, and thus idea and will be once more reunited in the Absolute. (Eduard von Hartmann, Internet Encyclopedia)
In The Self-Destruction of Christianity and the Religion of the Future (1874), Hartman predicts that humanity will come to a collective realization of the futility of their atheistic fates, and choose to bring about their collective annihilation (Investigating Atheism, University of Cambridge)
Hartmann could also be classified under the term alienation. But the project of collective annihilation violates the rights of those, who are not willing to commit suicide and is therefore an aggressive response to pessimism.
Provisional affirmation of life
Von Hartmann is a pessimist, but not an unmitigated one. The individual's happiness is indeed unattainable either here and now or hereafter and in the future, but he does not despair of ultimately releasing the Unconscious from its sufferings. He differs from Schopenhauer in making salvation by the negation of the Will-to-live depend on a collective social effort and not on individualistic asceticism. The conception of redemption of the unconscious also supplies the ultimate basis of Von Hartmann's ethics. We must provisionally affirm life and devote ourselves to social evolution, instead of striving after a happiness which is impossible; in so doing we shall find that morality renders life less unhappy than it would otherwise be. Suicide and all other forms of selfishness are highly reprehensible. (Eduard von Hartmann, Wikipedia).
Horstmann (*1949)
1. Ulrich Horstmann is a German literary scholar and writer.
2. In 1983 Ulrich Horstmann became known for his treatise The Beast, in which he promoted a philosophical position which was diametrically opposed to the peace movement Zeitgeist of those years: He advocated a philosophy of "escape of mankind" which aims for an early self-destruction of the human race by means of the accumulated nuclear weapons found in arsenals around the world. He pushed the pessimism and misanthropy of his mentor Schopenhauer to the extreme. Horst's work was not, as some had suspected, a particularly bitter satire, as was shown by the author's subsequent publications which were written with an attitude of nihilism and extreme distaste for the world.
3. Horstmann puts forth the theory that mankind has been pre-programmed to eliminate itself in the course of history—and also all its memory of itself—through war (thermonuclear, genetic, biological), genocide, destruction of it's sustaining environment, etc.
(Ulrich Horstmann, Wikipedia)
5.1 Overview
Religions have a therapeutic effect but violate the reality principle. Philosophical therapy is based on the assumption that a realistic world view causes the least suffering in the long run. There is, however, a difficulty in the interpretation of the term realistic. Our attitude influences the result, as has been shown in cases of self fulfilling prophecy. There is e.g. no doubt that Christianity produced countless charitable institutions and gained an immense merit in helping the poor and the desperate. Unfortunately, a historical analysis reveals that imperturbable faith also develops undesired side effects.
The best compromise is probably a strategy of small step improvements [Popper, 158] without relying on utopias. It is unreasonable to claim that the global situation cannot change for the better; but it is a matter of intellectual honesty to admit, that it can also turn for the worse. The future is simply unpredictable.
Following a table which shows the relation between the pathogenic responses to pessimism (chapter 4) and philosophical therapies
1) Alienation can be seen as an undesirable form of social disengagement, obsession as an undesirable form of social engagement.
a) The therapy of obsession requires disengagement
b) The therapy of alienation requires (social) engagement
2) Aggression can be seen as an expression of power, fatalism as an expression of powerlessness.
a) The therapy of fatalism requires a gain in power
b) The therapy of aggression requires a renouncement to power
Concerning the terms normative and individualistic therapies see Über die Wissenschaftlichkeit der philosophischen Therapie
|
Normative therapies
|
Individualistic therapies |
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Alienation Mainländer Cioran
Therapy of Obsession Buddha Insight meditation
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Aggression Hartmann Horstmann
Therapy of Fatalism Nietzsche Existential therapy |
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Fatalism Ockham Shakespeare
Therapy of Aggression Spinoza Rational emotive therapy
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Obsession Petrarch Sade
Therapy of Alienation Freud Psychoanalysis
|
5.2 Types of Philosophers
The different types of therapies correlate with different types of philosophers (see Propheten, Richter, Narren, Ärzte) and map the conflicts between them
1. The zany type is related to ditention. He/she considers society from a distance.
2. The judge type is related to compliance. The law stands above the individual.
3. The prophet type is related to dominance. The knowledge about the future makes the prophet a natural leader.
4. The medic type is related to affiliation. His/her interest is care.
|
zany ditention Buddha |
prophet dominance Nietzsche
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judge compliance Spinoza
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medic affiliation Freud |
5.3 The Therapy of Alienation
Freud (1856-1939)
Works
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physician who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through a particular form of dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. He is also renowned for his redefinition of sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life which is directed toward a wide variety of objects, as well as his therapeutic techniques, including the use of free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires (Freud, Wikipedia)
Cultural pessimism
Sigmund Freud could be described as a pessimist who shared many of Schopenhauer's ideas. He saw human existence as being under constant attack from both within the self, from the forces of nature and from relations with others. The following quote, from Civilization and its Discontents, is perhaps the best example of his pessimism:
We can cite many such benefits that we owe to the much despised era of scientific and technical advances. At this point, however, the voice of pessimistic criticism makes itself heard, reminding us that most of these pleasures follow the pattern of the "cheap pleasure" recommended in a certain joke, a pleasure that one can enjoy by sticking a bare leg out from under the covers on a cold winter's night, then pulling it back in..... What good is a long life to us if it is hard, joyless and so full of suffering that we can only welcome death as a deliverer? (Pessimism, Wikipedia)
Therapeutic concept
Freud’s well known slogan “We can change neurotic misery into real misery” makes clear that he had no intention to solve psychic problems by means of positive outlooks. Happiness should be attained by reverting to the biological resources and not by utopias. The unconscious simply ignores the future. Freud’s biography illustrates that it is possible to be an optimist in personal matters and a pessimist with regard to the future of society.
Individualist anarchism (19th century)
Definition
Individualist anarchism comprises several traditions which hold that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority." Individualist anarchism is supportive of property being held privately, unlike the social/socialist/collectivist/communitarian wing which advocates common ownership. Individualist anarchism has been espoused by individuals such as William Godwin, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Josiah Warren, and Murray Rothbard (Individualist Anarchism, Wikipedia)
The goal of individual anarchism is to get free from oppressive institutions, traditions, habits and technology. Individual anarchism is the therapy of individual resistance and revolt. It is a predecessor of the hippie movement and doesn’t count on technological redemption. Individual anarchism promotes decentralized structures, flat hierarchies and a manageable environment. Cultural pessimism is seen as a result of oppression and not as a result of social and cosmological forecasts.
Influences
1. The major goal of individualist anarchism consists in not being controlled and dominated by others, a priority which was strongly promoted by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). The idea was also associated with Karl Marx (1818-1883) until Marxism-Leninism created a new form of totalitarian oppression.
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) the founder of Transcendentalism encouraged David Thoreau’s talent and early career
(Emerson, Wikipedia)
3. The fact that technology creates new hierarchies and dependencies was analyzed by the philosophers of the Frankfurt School (Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno u.a.), the founders of the Critical Theory in the 1930s. The Critical Theory attempted to integrate Freud’s idea of man with Marx’ critique of capitalism.
Karl Popper believed that the school did not live up Marx's promise of a better future:
"Marx's own condemnation of our society makes sense. For Marx's theory contains the promise of a better future. But the theory becomes vacuous and irresponsible if this promise is withdrawn, as it is by Adorno and Horkheimer."
(Frankfurt School, Wikipedia)
The Frankfurt school wasn’t interested in Marx’ philosophy of history. It concentrated on the analysis of existing mechanisms and didn’t count on utopias.
4. Haffman’s Rabe united a group of writers and cartoonist known under the name Neue Frankfurter Schule (1981). Some of them thought of changing society and produced political caricatures, others tended towards cynicism and retreat. Cynicism is a hostile philosophy compared to individualist anarchism, but the two groups united in a coalition against the common enemy (which they saw in actual and upcoming forms of oppression).
5. The Frankfurt school is presently rediscovered by the techno-negative adherents of Green anarchism. These groups refuse the incapacitation of ordinary people by specialists. They also refuse utopias like transhumanism.
Cavell (*1926)
Works
1) Stanley Cavell is an American philosopher. He is the Walter M. Cabot Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University.
2) Although trained in the Anglo-American analytic tradition, Cavell often engages in dialogue with the continental tradition. He is well known for his inclusion of film and literary study into philosophical inquiry.
3) Cavell has written extensively on Ludwig Wittgenstein, J. L. Austin, and Martin Heidegger, as well as on the American Transcendentalists Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He has been associated with an approach toward interpreting Wittgenstein sometimes known as the New Wittgenstein.
(Cavell, Wikipedia)
Therapeutic concept
1) Cavell’s concept can be associated with the terms philosophical psychoanalysis and moral perfectionism.
a) Philosophical psychoanalysis works without a specific expert language and without being fixed on Freudian concepts like the Oedipus complex.
b) For a definition of Cavell’s perfectionism see Moralischer Perfektionismus und Gerechtigkeit.
2) Cavell promotes in terms of philosophy what Dylan expressed in terms of music: liberate emotions, find your own voice and communicate with others. He believes that cultural pessimism can be overcome by active participation in the political process.
3) Cavell is the inventor of cinematherapy or movie therapy.
5.4 The Therapy of Obsession
Buddha (ca. 5th century B.C.)
There are some common threads to almost all Buddhist branches:
1. All accept the Buddha as their teacher.
2. All accept the Middle Way, Dependent origination, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, in theory, though in practice these have little or no importance in some traditions.
3. All accept that both the members of the laity and of the Sangha can pursue the path toward enlightenment (bodhi).
4. All consider Buddhahood to be the highest attainment (…). According to Theravada, a Buddha is someone that had discovered the path all by himself and taught it to others.
(Buddhism, Wikipedia)
Buddhism and intellectualism
1. According to the scriptures, in his lifetime, the Buddha refused to answer several metaphysical questions. On issues such as whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the self, complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death etc, the Buddha had remained silent. One explanation for this is that such questions distract from practical activity for realizing enlightenment. Another is that such questions assume the reality of world/self/person.
2. In the Pali Canon and numerous Mahayana sutras and Tantras, the Buddha stresses that Dharma (Truth) cannot truly be understood with the ordinary rational mind or logic: Reality transcends all worldly concepts. The "prajna-paramita" sutras have this as one of their major themes. What is urged is study, mental and moral self-cultivation, faith in and veneration of the sutras, which are as fingers pointing to the moon of Truth, but then to let go of ratiocination and to experience direct entry into Liberation itself.
(Buddhism, Wikipedia)
Therapeutic concept
1. Buddhism obviously found a way how to cope with pessimistic models of history. The physical world of Buddhism develops in a cyclic manner but individual redemption doesn’t depend on these cycles. The individual overcomes pessimism by moving to a different state of consciousness. If we associate this approach with the term mysticism, then most non-Buddhists wouldn’t associate it with mental illness.
2. The everyday life of a Buddhist is characterized by the Middle Way. It could be called risk-averse but doesn’t ask for self-destructive asceticism.
Cynicism (ca. 4th century B.C.)
Origin
1. Various philosophers, such as the Pythagoreans, had advocated simple living in the centuries preceding the Cynics (…).
2. Perhaps of importance were tales of Indian philosophers, known to later Greeks as the Gymnosophists, who had adopted a strict asceticism together with disrespect for established laws and customs.
3. However, the most immediate influence for the Cynic school was Socrates (470-399 B.C.) Although he was not an ascetic, he did profess a love of virtue and an indifference to wealth, together with a disdain for general opinion (…)
4. The story of Cynicism traditionally begins with Antisthenes, (445-365) who was an older contemporary of Plato and a pupil of Socrates (…)
5. Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 B.C.) adopted Antisthenes teachings and embraced the ascetic way of life, adopting a lifestyle of self-sufficiency (autarkeia), austerity (askēsis), and shamelessness (anaideia). He became known as "the Dog" which is the likeliest derivation of the word "Cynic." (Cynic, Wikipedia)
Modern cynicism
1. Nearly 2000 years after certain Greek philosophers first embraced classical cynicism, 17th and 18th century writers such as Shakespeare, Swift, and Voltaire, following in the traditions of Geoffrey Chaucer and François Rabelais, used irony, sarcasm, and satire (which had never gone out of fashion) to ridicule human conduct and revive cynicism. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary and cinema figures such as Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, H.L. Mencken, and W.C. Fields used cynicism as way of communicating their low opinions of certain manifestations of human nature.
2. By 1930, Bertrand Russell — in the essay On Youthful Cynicism — could describe the extent to which (in his view) cynicism had penetrated parts of Western mass consciousness, and could note particular areas partially deserving of cynicism: religion, country (patriotism), progress, beauty, truth.
(Cynic, Wikipedia)
A Cynic doesn’t depend on optimism because he doesn’t take part in the struggle for survival and procreation. Radical cynics undermine all attempts to create sense and promote a kind of humor which lives on the liberation from attachments.
Cynicism is not mentioned here because it created a specific form of therapy, but because of its influence on Arthur Schopenhauer.
Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Works
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. Schopenhauer responded to and expanded upon Immanuel Kant's philosophy concerning the way in which we experience the world. His critique of Kant, his creative solutions to the problems of human experience and his explication of the limits of human knowledge are among his most important achievements. His metaphysical theory is the foundation of his influential writings on psychology, aesthetics, ethics, and politics which influenced Friedrich Nietzsche, Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud and others (Schopenhauer, Wikipedia)
Pessimism
After the earthquake of Lisbon 1755 also the faithful who were loyal to the church began to wonder whether not only nature but also fate was blind, if there too not any spirit or god had a leading function. There arose a pessimism that was eloquently expressed by Schopenhauer: "Look at this world of poor beings under the respect that they only exist for some time by devouring each other - and you will admit that a god who got the idea to change itself into such a world must really have been troubled by Satan." As the work of a demon it were "the worst of all possible worlds", hence any form of optimism had to be condemned as "not only absurd, but also as infamous thinking, indeed", as "bitter mockery of the nameless sufferings of mankind" (Structure and Dynamic of the Cosmos, Ludwig Ebersberger)
The influence of Indian philosophy
1) Schopenhauer read the Latin translation of the Upanishads (…). He was so impressed by their philosophy that he called them 'The production of the highest human wisdom', and considered them to contain superhuman conceptions.
2) A key aspect of Schopenhauer's thought is the investigation of what makes man less than reasonable. This force he calls "Wille zum Leben" or Will (lit. will-to-life), by which he means the forces driving man, to remain alive and to reproduce, a drive intertwined with desire. This Will is the inner content and the driving force of the world. For Schopenhauer, Will had ontological primacy over the intellect; in other words, desire is understood to be prior to thought (…). Schopenhauer felt this was similar to notions of purushartha or goals of life in Vedanta Hinduism.
3) In attempting to solve or alleviate the fundamental problems of life, Schopenhauer was a rare philosopher who considered philosophy and logic less important (or less effective) than art, certain charitable practices ("loving kindness", in his terms), and certain forms of religious discipline. Schopenhauer concluded that discursive thought (such as philosophy and logic) could neither touch nor transcend the nature of desire — i.e., Will. In The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer proposed that humans living in the realm of objects are living in the realm of desire, and thus are eternally tormented by that desire. The role of desire in Schopenhauer is similar to the role of Kāma, sensual gratification, which is treated as one of the goals of life relating to the second stage of life in the Hindu tradition.
4) Many Europeans, in the 1830s and 1840s, including Schopenhauer himself, found a correspondence between Schopenhauerian thought and the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Similarities centered on the principles that life involves suffering, that suffering is caused by desire, and that the extinction of desire leads to salvation. Thus three of the four "truths of the Buddha" correspond to Schopenhauer's doctrine of the will. In Schoepenhauer's philosophy, denial of the will is attained by either:
a) Personal experience of an extremely great suffering that leads to loss of the will to live; or
b) Knowledge of the essential nature of life in the world through observation of the suffering of other people.
However, Buddhist Nirvana is not equivalent to the condition that Schopenhauer described as denial of the will.
5) The identification of compassion as the true moral incentive was a central aspect of Schopenhauer's mission, a aspect which also points to Buddhism
(Schopenhauer, Wikipedia)
Metaphysics
1. For Schopenhauer, the aesthetic viewpoint is more objective than the scientific viewpoint precisely because it separates the intellect from the will in the form of art (…). The intellect allows man to suffer because it brings the suffering or pain of the world into a more vivid consciousness. Logically speaking then, the more intellectually-inclined person suffers most (…)
2. Aesthetic contemplation for Schopenhauer translates into an immediate objectification of the will. He employs a Platonic allegory to demonstrate that all existence is ultimately futile since it can be fundamentally characterized by a want of satisfaction that can never be attained. This want is otherwise known as happiness (…)
3. Moreover, philosophy is not necessarily a pursuit of wisdom but, rather, it can be viewed as a means for interpreting the personal experiences of one's own life. Schopenhauer maintained that desire produces suffering and, thus, one ought to be wary of the torturous effects of hedonism.
4. The wild and powerful drive to reproduce causes suffering or pain in the world. For Schopenhauer, one way to escape the suffering inherent in a world of Will was through art. Through art, Schopenhauer thought, the thinking subject could be jarred out of their limited, individual perspective to feel a sense of the universal directly—the "universal" in question, of course, was the will (…)
5. According to Daniel Albright "Schopenhauer thought that music was the only art that did not merely copy ideas, but actually embodied the will itself."
6. While Schopenhauer's philosophy may sound rather mystical in such a summary, his methodology was resolutely empirical (…)
(Schopenhauer, Wikipedia)
Psychology
Schopenhauer was perhaps even more influential in his treatment of man's psychology than he was in the realm of philosophy (…).
He gave a name to a force within man which he felt had invariably precedence over reason: the Will to Live (Wille zum Leben), defined as an inherent drive within human beings, and indeed all creatures, to stay alive and to reproduce.
Schopenhauer refused to conceive of love as either trifling or accidental, but rather understood it to be an immensely powerful force lying unseen within man's psyche and dramatically shaping the world:
"The ultimate aim of all love affairs ... is more important than all other aims in man's life; and therefore it is quite worthy of the profound seriousness with which everyone pursues it. What is decided by it is nothing less than the composition of the next generation ..."
These ideas foreshadowed and laid the groundwork for Darwin's theory of evolution and Freud's concepts of the libido and the unconscious mind (Schopenhauer, Wikipedia)
Therapeutic concept
1) For Schopenhauer, the way to escape suffering is (in analogy to Indian philosophy) by moving to a different state of consciousness. But in contrast to Indian philosophers, Schopenhauer doesn’t attempt to reach the Buddhist Nirwana or the Hindu Brahman. The goal is to identify with the life force, represented in specific forms of art, especially music (see Arthur Schopenhauser’s aesthethics). Consequently Schopenhauer can be associated with approaches like music therapy and art therapy.
2) The occupation with art is more risky than meditation (because it creates a dependency) but it allows active behavior. The passive consumption of art is related to the Bhakti path of liberation insofar, as it uses an outside object of devotion.
3) The everyday life of Schopenhauer is characterized by risk-aversion (similar to the life of a Buddhist) but not by self-destructive asceticism.
5.5 The Therapy of Fatalism
Nietzsche (1844-1900)
The Overman
Nietzsche advocated a remedy for nihilism's destructive effects and a hope for humanity's future in the form of the Übermensch (English: overman), a position especially apparent in his works Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist. The Übermensch is an exercise of action and life: one must give value to existence by behaving as if one's very existence were a work of art. Nietzsche believed that the Übermensch "exercise" would be a necessity for human survival in the post-religious era (…)
Master morality
Another part of Nietzsche's remedy for nihilism is a revaluation of morals — he hoped that we are able to discard the old morality of equality and servitude and adopt a new code, turning Judeo-Christian morality on its head (…). The only true sin to Nietzsche is that which is aimed at the expression of one's power over oneself. Virtue, likewise, is not to act according to what has been commanded, but to contribute to all that betters a human soul. Nietzsche attempts to reintroduce what he calls a master morality, which values personal excellence over forced compassion and creative acts of will over the herd instinct, a moral outlook he attributes to the ancient Greeks. The Christian moral ideals developed in opposition to this master morality, he says, as the reversal of the value system of the (Roman) elite social class (Nihilism, Wikipedia)
Nietzsche is not a radical nihilist. Similar to the Russian nihilists, Nietzsche advocates destruction only as a means to establish a new order. The new order promotes a Darwinian kind of cultural evolution, driven by (unconscious) biological forces and therefore closer to nature than Buddhism or Christianity.
Therapeutic concept
1. Competition plays an important role in Nietzsche’s concept of psychic health. He refers to the agonal nature of the Hellenistic culture, where events like the Ancient Olympic Games had a religious dimension. Although Nietzsche counts on the unconscious as a driving force, he strives to transcend the biological goal. Sport contests have a therapeutic effect and culturally transform aggression. But in Nietzsche’s view they are also a metaphor for the eternal battle implied in evolution.
2. A different interpretation of master morality is simply the secular worldview. According to Nietzsche the fight for truth (and for the dominance of truth) has a therapeutic effect in all areas of life, because it makes the individual stronger. The denial of utopias relates Nietzsche to Existential therapy
5.6 The Therapy of Aggression
Stoicism (4th century B.C. – 2th century A.D.)
History
1. Zenon the Stoic (340-260 B.C.), originally a cynic, founded a school of philosophy in the Stoa of Athens and combined the cynical doctrine with concepts of Heraklit and Aristoteles. Because of this historical development there are many relations between Stoicism and Nicomachean ethics.
2. Stoicism was influenced by Buddhist and Jain thoughts [Kolm, 1982].
For more information on the history of Stoicism see The Principles of Non-Violence and Disengagement.
Ethics
Stoicism can be interpreted as a twofold strategy to deal with a superior combatant (nature)
1. Reorient aggression against the self (asceticism)
2. Identify with the combatant (declare nature to be divine)
Asceticism is an attempt to gain power over the fate, by becoming independent from inner disturbances (passions) and independent from the outside world.
1. Inner world
The Stoics looked upon the passions as essentially irrational, and demanded their complete extirpation. They envisaged life as a battle against the passions, in which the latter had to be completely annihilated. Hence their ethical views end in a rigorous and unbalanced asceticism (Stoicism, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
As far as passions are a part of the self, i.e. a part of the personality and uniqueness of an individual, one can say that their extirpation has a destructive trait.
2. Outside world
Asceticism can be interpreted as a fictitious adaptation to a scarce environment, a kind of exercise for times of privation or war, as demonstrated by the Spartans.
The Stoic Eudaimonia corresponds to the Hindu Moksha but differs in its spiritual dimension. The accordance with the world as it is and the emphasis on asceticism makes Stoicism strong with respect to survival value. For a comparison with Buddhism see The Principles of Non-Violence and Disengagement.
Pantheism
The cornerstone of Stoicism is a positive interpretation of the world. The natural laws (the Stoic logos) are associated with divine intentions and moral value. Because of the equation of nature and god, whatever happens in this world is good and just. If nature is just, then adaptation is the rational answer. Late Stoicism demonstrated the weak point of this concept:
1. The Stoics’ dilemma is that apatheia and its cognitive basis would seem to be at odds with the sort of risk-taking loyalty and courage a Stoic hero is said to possess. Stoic friends and spouses must live in such a way that the death or departure of the other will not cause grief [Nussbaum, 500]
Stoicism encourages people to bear the most horrible wars and environments. The horror is not questioned but the individual who can’t endure it.
2. The concept collapses as soon as the optimistic worldview cannot be maintained. Discipline and sacrifices loose their sense. It is difficult to maintain a worldview where suffering is considered to be a misinterpretation of the data. The Stoic view increases suffering in the long run (because it is risk-tolerant) and then requires an even stronger effort to positively interpret the data
The Stoics (and later Spinoza) comply with the interpretative power of biology (which presents itself disguised as pantheism). They remove the core problem of theodicy and the implied psychic conflict, but they also remove the corresponding freedom of action. If the world is divine, then there is no escape.
Therapeutic concept
If Stoicism is freed from its pantheistic background it is still a valuable concept. Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) uses Stoic ideas without declaring natural laws to be morally good and without declaring all events in this world to be right. The therapy consists in confronting people with reality. Perception has to be adapted in such a way, that it doesn’t prevent finding solutions.
Spinoza (1632-1677)
Works
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is also considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists (Spinoza, Wikipedia)
Metaphysics
Spinoza was a thoroughgoing determinist who held that absolutely everything that happens occurs through the operation of necessity. For him, even human behaviour is fully determined, with freedom being our capacity to know we are determined and to understand why we act as we do. So freedom is not the possibility to say "no" to what happens to us but the possibility to say "yes" and fully understand why things should necessarily happen that way. By forming more "adequate" ideas about what we do and our emotions or affections, we become the adequate cause of our effects (internal or external), which entails an increase in activity (versus passivity). This means that we become both more free and more like God. However, Spinoza also held that everything must necessarily happen the way that it does. Therefore, there is no free will.
Ethics
1) Some of Spinoza's philosophical positions are:
a) Good and evil are related to human pleasure and pain.
b) Everything done by humans and animals is excellent and divine.
c) All rights are derived from the State.
d) Animals can be used in any way by people for the benefit of the human race, according to a rational consideration of the benefit as well as the animal's status in nature.
2) Encapsulated at the start in his Treatise on the Improvement of the Understanding (Tractatus de intellectus emendatione) is the core of Spinoza's ethical philosophy, what he held to be the true and final good. Spinoza held a relativist's position that nothing is intrinsically good or bad, except to the extent that it is subjectively perceived to be by the individual. Things are only good or evil in respect that humanity sees it desirable to apply these conceptions to matters. Instead, Spinoza believes in his deterministic universe that, "All things in nature proceed from certain necessity and with the utmost perfection." Therefore, nothing happens by chance in Spinoza's world, and reason does not work in terms of contingency.
3) In the universe anything that happens comes from the essential nature of objects, or of God/Nature. According to Spinoza, reality is perfection. If circumstances are seen as unfortunate it is only because of our inadequate conception of reality. While elements of the chain of cause and effect are not beyond the understanding of human reason, our grasp of the infinitely complex whole is limited because of the limits of science to empirically take account of the whole sequence. Spinoza also asserted that sense perception, though practical and useful for rhetoric, is inadequate for discovering universal truth; Spinoza's mathematical and logical approach to metaphysics, and therefore ethics, concluded that emotion is formed from inadequate understanding. His concept of "conatus" states that human beings' natural inclination is to strive toward preserving an essential being and an assertion that virtue/human power is defined by success in this preservation of being by the guidance of reason as one's central ethical doctrine. According to Spinoza, the highest virtue is the intellectual love or knowledge of God/Nature/Universe.
4) In the final part of the "Ethics" his concern with the meaning of "true blessedness" and his unique approach to and explanation of how emotions must be detached from external cause in order to master them presages 20th-century psychological techniques. His concept of three types of knowledge - opinion, reason, intuition - and assertion that intuitive knowledge provides the greatest satisfaction of mind, leads to his proposition that the more we are conscious of ourselves and Nature/Universe, the more perfect and blessed we are (in reality) and that only intuitive knowledge is eternal. His unique contribution to understanding the workings of mind is extraordinary, even during this time of radical philosophical developments, in that his views provide a bridge between religions' mystical past and psychology of the present day.
5) Given Spinoza's insistence on a completely ordered world where "necessity" reigns, Good and Evil have no absolute meaning. Human catastrophes, social injustices, etc. are merely apparent. The world as it exists looks imperfect only because of our limited perception.
(Spinoza, Wikipedia)
The influence of Indian philosophy
1. Possibly the deductive method in Spinoza’s Ethics was influenced by the four Noble Truths of Buddhism. The Noble Truths contain the core idea of a step by step derivation of right behavior from psychological insights. The idea to change the perception of the world instead of the world itself is at the core of Buddhism.
2. Spinoza's philosophy also seems to have some traits in common with that of Advaita Vedanta, a sampradhya or school of thought in Hinduism, especially as expounded by Adi Shankara. These Indian philosophers from the 8th and 11th centuries respectively emphasize the notion of one reality (substance here), Brahman and the notion of attributes (which could be construed as an interpretation that is similar to that of Spinoza). Although Schopenhauer was the first European to have access to Hindu scripture, the question arises as to whether Spinoza may have had access to Indian philosophical texts (Spinoza, Wikipedia)
An Indian influence is plausible insofar as cultural exchange took place in the centers of trade. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands and his father was a successful importer/merchant. It is also known, that Baruch was of a critical, curious nature.
The influence of Stoicism
1. Spinoza's philosophy has much in common with Stoicism insofar as both philosophies sought to fulfill a therapeutic role by instructing people how to attain happiness (or eudaimonia, for the Stoics). However, Spinoza differed sharply from the Stoics in one important respect: he utterly rejected their contention that reason could defeat emotion. On the contrary, he contended, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion. For him, the crucial distinction was between active and passive emotions, the former being those that are rationally understood and the latter those that are not. He also held that knowledge of true causes of passive emotion can transform it to an active emotion, thus anticipating one of the key ideas of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.
(Spinoza, Wikipedia)
The influence of Spinoza on Tschirnhaus’ Medicina mentis was investigated by Detlev Pätzold in Ist Tschirnhaus Medicina mentis ein Ableger von Spinozas Methodologie?
Therapeutic concept
1) With respect to the elimination of irrational (in the terminology of Spinoza inadequate) preferences Spinoza takes a similar position like Stoicism. He tends to declare risky preferences like hatred and aggression as inadequate. The (low-risk) insight into mathematical and physical laws is related to divine emotions. Aggression and war can be avoided, if everybody gets insight into the rationality of peaceful cooperation.
2) A detailed description of the therapeutic concept can be found in
a) Hampe Michael (2004), Rationale Selbstbefreiung, in Klassiker der Philosophie heute, Reclam (21 pages)
b) Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata (1677), German translation (568 pages)
6. Relation to Cultural Critics
6.1 Indications
If global suffering increases or humanity approaches a self-inflicted catastrophe, then we may have to consider culture to be the patient. In such a case it is inconsequent to work therapeutically with individuals without at the same time analyzing the culture which continuously produces new invalids. An example of therapy-oriented cultural critics is Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1930)
The therapy of a culture is a complex interaction of individual and societal changes:
1. It is a cumulative effect of numerous individual therapies
2. It is reflected in the educational system, the media and various cultural activities.
What are the indications for a specific philosophical therapy?
Therapy of alienation
1) Psychoanalytic therapies are indicated, if a culture suffers from neurotic symptoms. A neurotic culture can be healed, if a majority of people gets insight into their unconscious. There is no need to promote utopias.
2) Individualist anarchism has a tendency to disrespect theory. The practical search for ones “true self” is thought to have a therapeutic effect.
3) Cavell’s philosophical therapy is an alternative to Freud’s psychoanalysis. Cavell hopes on ethical progress by improving democracy. Open democratic discussions have much in common with his therapeutic concept on the individual level.
Therapy of obsession
1) A therapy in the Buddhist sense is indicated, if a culture suffers from an excess of activity and corresponding mental exhaustion. Culture can be healed, if a majority of individuals decide to spend more time on inner peace and reflection.
2) Cynicism, as well as individualist anarchism, has a tendency to disrespect theory. The disengagement from the battle for survival and procreation is thought to have a therapeutic effect.
3) Schopenhauer’s therapy is an alternative to the Buddhist therapy.
Therapy of fatalism
Nietzsche’s therapy is indicated if individuals are oppressed by religions and ideologies. It may also be indicated, if a culture suffers from uniformity, stagnation and passivity. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people rediscovers critical thinking, individuality and creative competition. Individuals who have gone thru Nietzsche’s therapy (overmen) dominate the others by means of their master morality. This idea is close to Russian nihilism and represents a major difference to individualist anarchism. In order not to establish a new form of oppression, domination would have to be interpreted as specialization, i.e. as a mutual domination without anybody being in the top position (like different specializations in a free market). Such a concept is compatible with high-tech cultures, in contrast to individualist anarchism which criticizes the domination of humans by technology. In a high-tech culture the overman could be the result of transhumanism (although Nietzsche aimed more at transcendence in art than in science).
Therapy of aggression
1) A Stoic therapy (e.g. Rational Emotive therapy) is indicated, if a culture is threatened by irrationalism, anarchism and chaos. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people adopts the moral value of self-control and rational cooperation (the value of law and order). The concept proves to be of special importance, if the world view turns from optimism to pessimism. In such a situation it may be hard to communicate that there is no better alternative to reason.
2) Spinoza’s therapy is an alternative to the Stoic therapy.
Conflicts
The four above described classes of therapies are in competition and create the following kinds of conflicts:
1. Conflict between therapies serving individualism and therapies strengthening the community
2. Conflict between therapies for dominance and affiliation (e.g. Nietzsche’s perfectionism versus the Hippie movement)
3. Conflict between life-friendly and retreat-oriented therapies
Given this structure of the problem it is evident
1. that we have to consider culture as a whole and can’t concentrate on a specific symptom
2. that treating a symptom may disturb the balance in such a way that new problems arise in different areas of society.
6.2 Diagnosis
Currently (neurotic) depression seems to be the most significant cultural disease:
Depression is the leading cause of disability as measured by YLD (Years lost due to disability)
By the year 2020, depression is projected to reach 2nd place of the ranking of DALYs (lost years of healthy life) calculated for all ages, both sexes (WHO, Depression)
We classify (neurotic) depression under the terms
1. alienation, because it implies a partial or total disengagement from social and political life
2. fatalism, because depressive people lose control over their own destiny
But couldn’t alienation and fatalism be a “normal” reaction to the current environment? The idea that depression could make sense and that it has a certain claim on normality is relatively new (see Gesund sein ist gar nicht so normal, Daniel Hell). If a significant part of the population is (at least temporarily) affected by depressions, then we have to analyze the environment rather than the patient: If depression is allowed and reflected, it can show a way out of misery, whereas the treatment with medicaments circumvents change (severe depressions are excluded here, they have to be treated with medicaments).
Many depressions presumably represent a mechanism to protect the individual [Hell].
An alternative to treating millions of depressive people could be to change the cultural conditions which produce depression. But what are these conditions? Why is the therapy of passion (obsession and aggression) more important in the Ancient world than the therapy of depression? Moral demands certainly led to neurotic disorders at the times of Buddha and Epictetus but didn’t reach epidemic significance.
Thesis 1
Technological development and secular world views are responsible for the higher occurrence of major depressive disorders in the present.
Technological development:
Depression could have to do with
1. the required degree of sublimation.
2. the awareness that technological risks have reached a critical limit.
3. the incapacitation by complex systems and technologies. There is a growing anxiety about this loss of control and a presentiment that it could make humans dispensable.
Secular world views:
1. Religions and utopias are a source of consolation. Pessimistic secular world views imply a loss of transcendence and spirituality. Depression is possibly a psychological regulative in secular societies and replaces Moksha, the letting go of all attachments.
2. Modern perspectives on determinism are not encouraging. Although the future isn’t predefined, it cannot be controlled. Libertarian free will seems to be an illusion.
The demand for discipline (due to the turning away from natural forms of living) is added to the moral demands for self-control. If depressions increase and there is no way out, society is in a similar position as a suffering individual: Fantasies of self-destruction (like the ones described in chapter 4.5) start to emerge and spread out. But let’s assume that a new religious movement or a renaissance of traditional religions slows down technological development. In such a case we might experience that our diagnosis was incomplete and that we didn’t even get to the root of the problem:
Thesis 2
There are just too many people in this world. Depression has to do with the degree of competition. All explanations mentioned above are of secondary nature. Excessive competition leads to an inhuman rise in the level of standards and to unreasonable (technological) risk-taking.
1. If this diagnosis is correct, then the therapeutic treatment of depressions could have undesirable side-effects. The increase of the world population also increases aggression and obsession, and the therapy of depressions could enforce this tendency. Depressions may prove to be the smaller evil.
2. Even if it could be shown that small nomadic cultures (where each new member of the group is welcome) produce the least number of depressive people it is very unlikely that this insight would have any practical consequences. We cannot put the wheel of history in reverse. It seems that cultural evolution follows certain logic (groups of hunters, agriculture, industrialization, etc.) and peaks in the vision of eternal life. The goal to lead a natural life contradicts the goal to extend lifetime. There is just a choice between two different kinds of suffering (unnatural life or early death) but not an easy solution.
6.3 Cultural Therapy
The basis for a cultural therapy is a minimal consensus on a concept of justice, which ties the contradicting and interdependent goals together. First we look at an example in history which illustrates a possible solution for conflicting goals.
Hinduism
Hinduism is the oldest known culture overcoming the pessimistic world view. The Hindu coped with determinism and the vision of cosmic destruction for more than 3000 years. The model roughly looks as follows:
|
Ditention |
Dominance
|
|
Compliance
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Affiliation
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The four Hindu aims in life correspond to the four classes of therapies.
1. Ditention: Cosmic cycles are not relevant for the mental state of individuals. Human life is imbedded in a religious context. The goal of humanity is not to survive cosmic cycles but to transcend reality and unite with Brahman. Buddhism and other retreat-oriented philosophies are naturally integrated into Hinduism. An orthodox Hindu retreats from the community at the end of his/her life.
2. Compliance: Societal life is ruled by a god-given law and therefore characterized by stability. Hindu philosophers cope with determinism by means of a metaphor. They see themselves as actors on the world stage, playing a role which is assigned by an unknown screenwriter.
3. Dominance: Within each social class (caste) it is legitimate and desirable to improve wealth and influence.
4. Affiliation: Within each social class it is legitimate and desirable to have friends, partners and children and to enjoy life.
How did the Hindus integrate the conflicting goals?
1. Individual goals (Artha, Kama, Moksha) are subordinated to the goal of the community (Dharma). The religious foundation of the law (the doctrine of reincarnation) makes it easier to accept the injustice of the caste system.
2. Moksha is considered to be the major individual goal. This implies a high tolerance with respect to strokes of fate.
3. Domination is preserved to males within the family. Again justice is sacrificed in favor of stability and again this tradition is supported by a religious background.
The Hindus overcome cultural pessimism by a utopia as well as the revealed religions. The utopia is to finally be united with Brahman after numerous cycles of reincarnation. From a scientific point of view the reincarnation of individual souls is implausible but the abstract Brahman is a more realistic vision than a peopled heaven. The moral affirmation of life’s joys and the advantages of social stability might explain why the injustices of the Hindu society were accepted for such a long time.
Conclusion:
1. The conflict between the goals (therapies) is solved by a religiously justified hierarchy. The society doesn’t fall into depression because the religion not only provides a utopia, but also respects the biological needs of the believers
2. There wasn’t an expansion of the population and a scarcity of resources in the history of Hinduism which could be compared to the present situation. But retreat-oriented therapies which serve as a corrective to expansion are part of the Hindu tradition.
Rawls Theory of Justice
The contemporary candidate for an integrated concept is Rawls’ Theory of Justice.
The Hindu model is related to Rawls’ Theory of Justice insofar as the concept of the original position can be interpreted as a contemporary form of reincarnation ethics (see Negative Utilitarianism and Justice)
Following a diagram which maps the Hindu aims in life to a social-liberal democracy:
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Religious liberty |
Economic liberty
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Side constraints
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Individual liberty
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The term Dharma has a different meaning in the two models of course, but as soon as Rawls principles are called reasonable and reason gets an absolute priority, the claim for universal validity is similar to the one of a god-given law. The concept of the original position (which is at the basis of the constitution) represents a link between philosophy, religion and psychotherapy. The decision-maker behind the veil of ignorance can be associated with a divine authority.
The caste system is in diametrical opposition to Rawls’ principal of equal opportunity, but equal opportunity is a fiction. In a system of free markets the more talented have better opportunities and create new social classes. These classes are defined by specializations (as the original Hindu castes) and guarantee specific privileges, wealth and social prestige. The redistribution of wealth in the form of a tax system doesn’t change much in this hierarchy. Talent-redistribution by a free choice of marriage partners is much more effective.
Comparison Hinduism/Rawls
On what grounds can we say that Rawls’ concept represents an ethical progress as compared to the Hindu model? The reincarnation of individual souls has no scientific basis. Rawls’ concept is compatible with science (the reincarnation of genes) whereas the Dharma isn’t.
Since laws are derived from the concept of the original position, the worst-off are much better protected in Rawls’ theory. The differences in talent, wealth, reputation and gender have theoretically no influence on legal disputes and proceedings. Justice and wealth are only two of many factors contributing to happiness but it is plausible to assume that people in the First World are happier (in the average) than people in the ancient Hindu society.
However, at a closer look this happiness has its peril. The inversion of Freud’s slogan says that high-tech culture transforms real misery into neurotic misery, a slogan which is perfectly illustrated by the MAD-doctrine. It is easily forgotten that peace in the First World is based on the phenomenon of nuclear deterrence and not on ethical insight (as Spinoza was hoping). Actual suffering in the First World may be the lowest ever, but potential suffering may be the highest ever because of previously unknown technological risks (see On the Perception of Risk and Benefit). The mental state of the First World corresponds to a person who unwillingly takes account of reality.
Pathogenic expansion is characterized by aggression and obsession, pathogenic contraction by alienation and fatalism. Depression is a pathogenic and therefore undesirable reaction to the environment, but from a holistic point of view the depressive people might be right (to retreat). Under this assumption it is questionable to stimulate depressive people by means of medicaments and psychotherapy. We should rather look for therapeutic forms of contraction (like Buddhism) than for therapeutic forms of expansion. In contrast to the Hindu culture, we lack such a tradition. Rawls’ theory allows retreat-oriented world views, but in practice they don’t play an influential role in society. In order to correct the (biological) ideal of unlimited expansion, we would have to replace it by the (cultural) ideal of risk-aversion. In practice this means to change culture in pragmatic small steps and measure the development of different kinds of suffering (using empirical methods like happiness economics). With regard to population ethics such an approach is described in The Procreation of Risk.
It makes sense to fight depression, but not without reflecting the causes. Epidemic depression has something to say about the outside world.
Roots of pessimism
The historical roots of cultural pessimism are
1. long-term chronicles of wars, social cycles and human suffering
2. the loss of religious scenarios of redemption
Remedies
There are four conflicting types of philosophical therapies. Following a well-known exponent of each type:
1) Normative Therapies
Normative therapies are directed against the kind of suffering, which is caused by passions. The interests of the individual (the struggle for love and power) are morally degraded. The pessimistic worldview is overcome by changing the perception of the world.
c) Buddha: Indicated, if a culture suffers from an excess of activity and corresponding mental exhaustion. Culture can be healed, if a majority of individuals decides to spend more time on inner peace and reflection.
d) Spinoza: Indicated, if a culture is threatened by irrationality, anarchism and chaos. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people admits to reason and accepts the moral value of self-control and rational cooperation.
2) Individualistic Therapies
Individualistic therapies are directed against the suffering, which is caused by the suppression of passions. The interests of the individual are morally defended. The pessimistic world view is simply ignored by falling back on biological resources. The unconscious is always optimistic.
a) Freud: Indicated, if a culture suffers from neurotic symptoms. A neurotic culture can be healed, if a majority of people gets insight into their unconscious.
b) Nietzsche: Indicated if a culture suffers from uniformity, stagnation and passivity. Culture can be healed, if a majority of people rediscovers critical thinking, individuality and creative competition.
Currently (neurotic) depression seems to be the most significant cultural disease: An alternative to treating millions of depressive people could be to change the cultural conditions which produce depression. It shouldn’t be forgotten that pessimism is the result of experiences and that depressions often represent a mechanism to protect the individual. Before removing a depression it is commendable to understand its message. The hidden sense of cultural depression could be to protect humanity from excessive expansionism. It is a peaceful kind of resistance and simply says that culture goes the wrong way. Depressive people don’t have the energy to revolt. They just disengage and drop out.
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