Schopenhauer’s Pessimism

Janaway, Christopher

doi:10.1017/ccol0521621062.011

Cited by 42 publications

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“…Given the parallel between God's reasons in the free-will defence and in Ivan's characterization, it follows that Ivan shows great affinity with Schopenhauer. It is not that Ivan necessarily accepts Schopenhauer's glum description of pleasure as the mere absence of suffering or would agree with his striking claim that even any amount of suffering would mean it would be better if we humans had never been (see Janaway (2000) ). However, by rejecting the architect's job, Ivan effectively endorses a similar pessimism about this world as it is, since, according to Ivan, given the existence of one child who endured horrendous suffering, it would be better that the world had never been 12…”

Section: Part Three: Does Moral Anti-theodicy Entail Philosophical Pementioning

confidence: 98%

Moral critique and defence of theodicy

Shearn

2013

Rel. Stud.

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In this essay, moral anti-theodicy is characterized as opposition to the trivialization of suffering, defined as the reinterpretation of horrendous evils in a way the sufferer cannot accept. Ambitious theodicy (which claim goods emerge from specific evils) is deemed always to trivialize horrendous evils and, because there is no specific theoretical context, also harm sufferers. Moral anti-theodicy is susceptible to two main criticisms. First, it is over-demanding as a moral position. Second, anti-theodicist opposition to least ambitious theodicies, which portray God's decision to create as an 'all-or-nothing' scenario, requires a moral commitment to philosophical pessimism. Thus anti-theodicists should not be quick to take the moral high ground. However, this should not encourage theodicists, since theodicies may well be self-defeating in so far as they attempt to provide comfort. IntroductionThis is an essay about moral anti-theodicy -objections to the practice of theoretical theodicy on moral grounds. Such objections have been presented by both atheists and theists. Therefore, this essay is not concerned with the attempt to solve or prove the problem of evil. Rather its aim is to assess anti-theodicy as a moral argument.I have not given a fine-grained account of the great variety of theodicies on offer. The most important distinction in the essay is that of most or least ambitious theodicies, since this refers to the sort of explanation or reasons a theodicy tries to give (see Trakakis (), f.). Thus Hick and Plantinga are in the same 'lowambition' category, although they disagree in several important ways. It turns out that the morality of theodicy depends significantly on how ambitious a theodicy is.Religious Studies (2013) 49, 439-458

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Section: Part Three: Does Moral Anti-theodicy Entail Philosophical Pementioning

confidence: 98%

Moral critique and defence of theodicy

Shearn

2013

Rel. Stud.

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“…61–62), Janaway (1994, pp. 96–97), Migotti (1995, p. 651, n 13), Janaway (1999, p. 332), Dahlkvist (2007, pp. 49–51), Cartwright (2008, pp.…”

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“…322–330), Young (1987, pp. 56–57), Janaway (1994, p. 97, 1999, pp. 331–332, 333–334), Reginster (2005, pp.…”

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“…518–519), Janaway (1994, pp. 96–97, 1999, p. 332), Dahlkvist (2007, p. 51), Vanden Auweele (2017, p. 136), and McDermid (2017, p. 119) explicitly interpret the compensation argument along these lines, while Simmel (1907, p. 89/1986, p. 64) and Cartwright (1988, p. 62, n 2) merely suggest that it is meant to draw support from the negativity thesis. Some dissent comes from Young (1987, pp.…”

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A thousand pleasures are not worth a single pain: The compensation argument for Schopenhauer's pessimism

Simmons

2020

European J of Philosophy

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Pessimism is, roughly, the view that life is not worth living. In chapter 46 of the second volume of The World as Will and Representation, Arthur Schopenhauer provides an oft‐neglected argument for this view. The argument is that a life is worth living only if it does not contain any uncompensated evils; but since all our lives happen to contain such evils, none of them are worth living. The now standard interpretation of this argument (endorsed by Kuno Fischer and Christopher Janaway) proceeds from the claim that the value—or rather valuelessness—of life's goods makes compensation impossible. But this interpretation is neither philosophically attractive nor faithful to the text. In this article, I develop and defend an alternative interpretation (suggested by Wilhelm Windelband and Mark Migotti) according to which it is instead the actual temporal arrangement of life's goods and evils that makes compensation impossible.

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“…17 17 For greater detail on Schopenhauer's ‘romantic pessimism’ see Foster (1999), Magee (1983), Janaway (1999), Simmel (1986), Soll (1998) and Tanner (1992). A range of authors have drawn attention to the philosophical dimensions to Antonioni's cinema.…”

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Landscapes of deliquescence in Michelangelo Antonioni'sRed Desert

Gandy

2003

Trans Inst British Geog

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The cinematic landscape provides a rich opportunity to explore cultural representations of place, space and nature. This essay focuses on the depiction of landscape in Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert (1964). Previous approaches to the critical interpretation of landscape in the cinema of Antonioni have been characterized by three principal weaknesses: a narrow emphasis on formalist and auterist lines of influence between different branches of the visual arts; an attachment to exceptionalist characterizations of the Italian cinematic landscape; and a transhistorical interpretation of existential themes such as alienation. In this essay we shall consider two neglected themes: the significance of the technological sublime for the aesthetic experience of industrial landscapes; and the impact of abstract expressionism on Antonioni's cinematic vision. We will counter simplistic categorizations of Antonioni's work by considering the complexity of the relationship between the cinematic landscape and wider developments in twentieth-century modernism. The essay concludes by locating Red Desert at a unique juncture in the development of modernist conceptions of nature and landscape. key words landscape cinema modernity Italy Michelangelo Antonioni

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Schopenhauer’s Pessimism

Cited by 42 publications

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Moral critique and defence of theodicy

Moral critique and defence of theodicy

A thousand pleasures are not worth a single pain: The compensation argument for Schopenhauer's pessimism

Landscapes of deliquescence in Michelangelo Antonioni'sRed Desert

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