noun
definition
A general belief that bad things will happen.
definition
The doctrine that this world is the worst of all possible worlds.
definition
The condition of being pessimal.
Examples of pessimism in a Sentence
It is pessimism that says, "We are doomed."
Oriental pessimism, at least as understood by Europeans, is best exemplified in Buddhism, which finds in human life sorrow and pain.
But the gloom of Juvenal's pessimism is unlighted by hope.
Pessimism, therefore, depends upon the individual point of view, and the term is frequently used merely in a condemnatory sense by hostile critics.
Vincenzo Gioberti published in 1843 his famous treatise Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani, a work, which, in striking contrast to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues.
The pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartmann does not, however, exclude a certain ultimate mysticism, which bears some analogy to that of Buddhism.
He directs this spirit of revolt also against the sources of his own inspiration; he turns bitterly against Wagner, whose intimate friend and enthusiastic admirer he had been, and denounces him as the musician of decadent emotionalism; he rejects his "educator" Schopenhauer's pessimism, and transforms his will to live into a "Will to Power."
But even at this stage of his career the pessimism of his later writings began to manifest itself, together with a susceptibility to morbid fears which led him to keep loaded weapons always at his bedside.
Exceptional to this general rule, however, is a mood of pessimism which sometimes overtakes youths on the threshold of manhood.
From Alecsandri there is a natural transition to his great rival, who was also his superior in depth of thought and in mastery of form and language, the great poet of pessimism, Mihail E Eminescu (q.v.).
Anthero de Quental, the chief of the Coimbrans, enshrined his metaphysical neo-Buddhistic ideas overshadowed by extreme pessimism, and marked the stages of his mental evolution, in a sequence of finely-wrought sonnets.
Although von Hartmann is a pessimist, his pessimism is by no means unmitigated.
The advent of Christianity, with its categorical assertion of future happiness for the good, to a large extent did away with pessimism in the true sense.
The murder of Kotzebue by Karl Sand, however, shocked him out of his extreme revolutionary views, and from this time he tended, under the influence of the writings of Hamann and Herder, more and more in the direction of conservatism and romanticism, until at last he ended, in a mood almost of pessimism, by attaching himself to the extreme right wing of the forces of reaction.
He started authorship with a book of verse in 1888, after which time he led a reaction against realism and pessimism, and has turned back to a rich romantic idealism in his novels of Endymion (1889) and Hans Alienus (1892), and in his stories (1897) of the time of Charles XII.
He delights that Charles finds his pessimism so corrosive of his own hopes.
The Cyrenaic ideal was, of course, utterly alien to Christianity, and, in general, subsequent thinkers found it an ideal of hopeless pessimism.
Zerzan's unrealistic optimism is merely the flipside of the pessimism that comes with defeat.
It expresses a deep-seated pessimism about the potential of art to effect radical change.
Nevertheless, Hill is exaggerating what he sees as Loach's growing pessimism.
We will never know enough about the complex dynamics of our planet to justify a solid pessimism about the future.
Hobbes and Cavendish shared pessimism about human nature, and an anxiety about ethical and linguistic relativism.
They have tended to generate pessimism, and words more than action.
Such profound pessimism disables the power of Hudson's trenchant criticisms of Wired magazine.
The general mood of the Chinese petty bourgeoisie changed rapidly from extreme optimism to extreme pessimism.
Little House expertly tapped into this vein of cultural pessimism.
The truth of Nature is force; the truth of will is rational desire; the truth of life is neither the optimism of Leibnitz and Hegel, nor the pessimism of Schopenhauer and Hartmann, but the moderatism of Aristotle.
Epitaphs reflect an almost universal pessimism about life beyond the grave.
Indeed it does much to sustain the deepest pessimism.
Is Gordon Brown the Labor leader to dispel such pessimism?
The lack of shared experiences means that Basildon Man finds his personal optimism transformed to social pessimism behind his back.
But there's a danger that once again the reaction will be a knee-jerk pessimism.
Amid the pessimism, however, Parker is able to provide a timely pick-me-up.
Implications Too much of the debate about the Internet is based on naive utopianism or paranoid pessimism.
Rodney looks upon his brothers dodgy dealings with an air of pessimism, usually well-founded, yet he always somehow ends up getting involved.
Pessimism suggests a third objection.
It has been truly said that such optimism is a profound relative pessimism.
The Iranian optimism has been replaced here by a strong pessimism.
Between optimism and pessimism is the theory of "meliorism," according to which the world on the whole makes progress in goodness.
Pessimism and optimism have, however, been expressed in systematic philosophical forms, a brief summary only of which need here be given.
Pessimism is naturally connected with materialist, optimism with idealist, views of life.
This success was largely due to the originality of its title, the diversity of its contents (von Hartmann professing to obtain his speculative results by the methods of inductive science, and making plentiful use of concrete illustrations), the fashionableness of its pessimism and the vigour and lucidity of its style.
This pessimism and want of faith limited and defined the form in which religious enthusiasm should manifest itself, and prescribed as a condition of successful effort the adoption of pseudonymous authorship. The apocalyptic writer, therefore, professedly addressed his book to future generations.
This conception sets us free from the antithesis of optimism and pessimism.
Some observers lay the blame at th door of Buddhism, a creed which promotes pessimism by beget ting the anchorite, the ascetic and the shuddering believer ii seven hells.
This is the refutation of pessimism, which ultimately agrees with optimism in making pleasure the standard of value.
Worse than confirming my darkest thoughts, it told me that my cynical pessimism is as starry-eyed idealism to the reality.
Pessimism turns into a weariness of the world and all the world 's business.
The prevention of personality disorders is an area surrounded with pessimism and controversy.
Too much red can induce feelings of anger and pessimism.