The Pessimum as Optimum

Nemonymous · 04-08-2009

I sense that I am a pessimist -- i.e. trying to synchromesh with a perceived reality of entropy, trying to do this without faith in anything beyond that reality -- then, pehaps pretentiously, transmuting that dross by an alchemy of thought and art into something that I can live with as an Optimum.
The Pessimum as Optimum, indeed.

Nemonymous · 04-08-2009

A debating point rather than necessarily a belief on my part:-

Any pessimism (as a whole spectrum from despair to philosophical objectivity) is a good thing. Something to enjoy - as a concept as well as the inescapably bleak reality* of one's approaching death into nothingness.

*a reality underpinned by a clinical observation of that reality itself rather than by a HOPE that that reality is different from the reality one clinicially observes.
('clinically' means without the obstruction of a Faith etc.)

Russell Nash · 04-08-2009

Allow me to divide your thoughts in two parts.

1. "...approaching death into nothingness". I have a question for you: Would you really like to live forever? I mean, "forever". Knowing that you have to live one more day, and after that day another one more, and there is no exit sign, no suicide, nothing you can do, but live, and live... forever. Wouldn't that be a resemblance of the Christian Hell? And would you rather like to live forever as Des now, or as Des with 25 years old, like people from Riverworld in Farmer's famous novel? Is there anybody on the list that wants to live forever even if this eternal life means absolute suffering forever? The meaning of nothingness is also very relative. Surely you know that our atoms live actually almost forever. And regarding personal identity, the essence of who we are, probably doesn't exist. There is an excellent book by Derek Parfit, "Reasons and Persons". It will probably change your viewpoint of who you are.

2. The second part is pessimism. I think it was when I was reading "Candide" by Voltaire, and long time ago, that I came across the idea that some people like Candide think that the world is going to be a better place one day. That every year we see that life is worth living (two words that I added here because people always use them). I proposed this "Gedanken experimenten": to flip a coin a given number of times, and verify once and for all if this is the best of all possible worlds, or the worst of all, or just one possible outcome. The outcome could be, head or tail (1, 2). There are 8 results, if I flip a coin 3 times.
1-1-1
1-1-2
1-2-1
2-1-1
1-2-2
2-2-1
2-2-2
2-1-2
Which would you say is the best possible outcome on this set? Or the best of all possible worlds for Candide? Well, I would personally choose the outcome with all ones or all twos. Because, we all expect to find ones and twos in the final outcome, but not all ones and all twos. If I flip a coin 20 times (I did it up to 20, and several times) I still have just two outcomes with all ones and all twos but the number of results is even larger, much larger. What did I see at the end? I see that it rarely happens that I have 20 ones straight after flipping the coin 20 times, or 20 twos, but approximately 50 % of ones and 50 % of twos. Conclusion: we don't live in the worst of all possible worlds, nor in the best of all, but rather in a world where sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, governed by chance, in fact I don't see any God deciding the outcome of my coin. Therefore, in a world where one has a 50 % chance to win, or lose, one cannot be pessimistic, but in fact a little bit optimist, because it is not too bad, 50 % chance to get what I want.

simon p. murphy · 04-08-2009

Quote

Any pessimism (as a whole spectrum from despair to philosophical objectivity) is a good thing. Something to enjoy - as a concept as well as the inescapably bleak reality* of one's approaching death into nothingness.

Des, I love what you've written here. What you've here identified is a (seemingly paradoxical) sense of well-being derived from the personal acceptance of reality* as an eternal flood of simultaneously destructive and constructive change. Pessimism (like optimism) carries with it a germ of expectation. The traditional philosophical argument in support of pessimism (as you will have doubtless heard in some form or another) is that 'expect the worst from every moment so that we'll never be caught unprepared, and occasionally, we may even be pleasantly surprised'. But I would (playfully) argue that this pessimistic mode of expectation still suffers from the same problem that faces optimism - Reality never conforms to one's expectations. These modes are fundamentally anticipatory, and both are used instrumentally as strategies to 'flavor' one's perspective. Now here, I will introduce a very ancient psychological alternative, that of the Ch'an tradition of China.

As you may be aware, Ch'an is the Chinese root of Zen. The ancient Chinese sages gave no weight to any anticipatory modes whatsoever. Their 'strategy' (which, they would argue, is the only real option that isn't insanity) is total personal surrender to the unknown, which is at the same time identical with reality (because what is reality but unpredictable change?). It is a way of life which joyously courts the Void at every moment of one's existence.

An old Zen adage:

Above, not a tile to cover the head; below, not an inch of ground for the foot.

It is a total surrender to insecurity, with no expectations for any future, a kind of celebration of emptiness. This perspective typically horrifies many Westerners, because we tend to associate void with death and loss. But Ch'an/Zen lets those preconceptions go. And if you believe over twenty centuries of Chinese literature, they love and revere this surrender - they positively love the void, and yet it seems to scare the crap out of us!

Well, there's a different perspective on the nature of expectation and reality. I'm not a Buddhist, so I'm not trying to sell you anything.

But I do confess I stand in awe of a tradition that seems to transmute the ubiquitous fears of the West into positive delight.

-Simon

Nemonymous · 04-09-2009

Quote Originally Posted by simon p. murphy

But Ch'an/Zen lets those preconceptions go.

Fascinating post, Simon. I'm stil dwelling on it.

Meanwhile, Ch'an/Zen = Cone Zero?

And Alberto's - another fascinating post.

Nemonymous · 04-09-2009

"From the cosmic point of view, to have opinions or preferences at all is to be ill; for by harbouring them one dams up the flow of the ineluctable force which, like a river, bears us down to the ocean of everything's unknowing. Reality is a running noose, one is brought up short with a jerk by death. It would have been wiser to co-operate wih the inevitable and learn to profit by this unhappy state of things - by realising and accommodating death! But we don't, we allow the ego to foul its own nest. Therefore we have insecurity, stress, the midnight-fruit of insomnia, with a whole culture crying itself to sleep. How to repair this state of affairs except through art, through gifts which render to us language manumitted by emotion, poetry twisted into the service of direct insight?"
from 'The Avignon Quincunx' by Lawrence Durrell ('Constance' 1982)

paeng · 04-10-2009

Here's a repost of a reading from Schopenhauer's essay "Studies in Pessimism."

I bought a used hardcover of the work a few weeks ago, together with Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, but have not had time to read them.

About Candide, what I liked was the ending.

Nemonymous · 04-10-2009

Thanks, paeng. That Youtube starts with 'chasing'.

Chasing the Noumenon. We never catch up.

Good Friday is perhaps the only day truly to celebrate a Good Pessimism. And only a thread like this can horror-fictionalise itself as an antecedent to the Noumenon rather than its tail.
des

Caveat: I believe my posts do not necessarily present my true opinions but rather offer discussion points (including this belief itself).
"From the cosmic point of view, to have opinions or preferences at all is to be ill" - Lawrence Durrell

Steve Dekorte · 04-10-2009

Quote Originally Posted by Russell Nash

Therefore, in a world where one has a 50 % chance to win, or lose, one cannot be pessimistic, but in fact a little bit optimist, because it is not too bad, 50 % chance to get what I want.

The real trick to winning is to bet against the optimists (ie casinos) though the pessimist would also observe that such winning strategies tend to become monopolized by rich through the power of the state and sold to the public as being for their own good (a story they swallow because they are optimists).

Nemonymous · 04-11-2009

Quote Originally Posted by Steve Dekorte

the power of the state and sold to the public as being for their own good (a story they swallow because they are optimists).

Indeed, between the Pit and the Pessimum.
Some lovely posts on this thread from everyone...
I've been educated.
des

"Wrzesmian wasn't too popular. The works of this strange man, saturated with rampant fantasy and imbued with strong individualism, gave a most unfavourable impression by inverting accepted aesthetic-literary theories and by mocking established pseudo-truths. His output was eventually acknowledged as the product of a sick imagination, the bizarre work of an eccentric, maybe even a madman. Wrzesmian was an inconvenience for a variety of reasons and he disturbed unnecessarily, stirring peaceful waters. Thus his premature eclipse was received with a secret sigh of relief."
from 'The Area' by Stefan Grabinski