Pessimism, coping, and contemplation

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality…”

First, a confession of sorts: I admit that I’m not terribly charmed by the Pessimist school of philosophy. A little Schopenhauer, to name the most prominent in the pack, goes quite a long way with me. With that caveat aside, I intend here to focus on a few ideas taken from the Norwegian Pessimist philosopher, Peter Wessel Zapffe (1899–1990). Zapffe, it must be said, belies the picture of what one might expect from a “pessimist” – and, in fact, he even went one step further, calling himself on occasion a “nihilist.” But, despite these ominous descriptions, he not only was a philosopher, but – counter-intuitively, it could be said – also a lively humorist (his wit has even been described as “burlesque” in style), a mountaineer (as was also his friend and fellow philosopher, Arne Næss), a literary critic, and an environmentalist of some note. To his credit, his philosophical pessimism happily never warped his character into the mold of the stereotypical sour and misanthropic crank. He seems to have remained adventurous, lively, and entertaining throughout his career. And yet, he was deeply moved by what he saw as the great tragedy of human existence.