An Essay on the Rise of Historical Pessimism in the Nineteenth Century

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Abstract
As indicated by the attribute “historical,” this essay is not concerned with evaluations on metaphysical grounds of life and the universe. Statements by philosophers to the effect that this is the best of all possible worlds, or that “life is a business the returns for which do not cover the costs by any means,” may indeed become objects of historical inquiry. After all, what has not become “historicized” these last hundred years! But investigations of that kind are not likely to yield any great results. Metaphysics, like mathematics, is all but timeless.A good deal more closely related to historical and political categories are certain fundamental ideas regarding the nature of man. It has been observed that “the pessimistic view of human nature is, and has always been, the deepest sense of a conservative argument.” The inverse is true of a philosophy of progress, which is almost invariably based on an intrinsically optimistic evaluation of human nature. We shall have to touch occasionally upon that interdependence of metaphysical and politico-historical thought in the course of this inquiry. Our chief interest, however, centres on different problems.

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