On Optimism, Part II

Does optimism outweigh pessimism? To answer this question one begins to ask one’s self questions like ‘Is optimism more useful than pessimism?’, ‘Is optimism a moral imperative?’ etc. Here we are using scales to define the relation of optimism to pessimism but we haven’t grasped which scale(s) to use.

The scales:
(1) The categorical imperative; a moral maxim applicable to anyone in similar situations;
(2) The scale of historical necessity; a phenomenon appears out of the workings of history;

The first scale is inadequate but so is the second. ‘Historical necessity’ — those features of living that are defined by collective agency — demands that some situations generate an attitude of pessimism or optimism. We this in Western society where we confront death similarly, but we also confront death on individual grounds. This is where the element of the ethical appears — actions within our control. Varying degrees of confrontation unravel: the grand-collective, the social group, and the personal — each with growing freedom of action.

Pessimism forces humanity to confront the nitty-gritty: death, dirt, tragedy, and melancholy. It is at its core a reflexive attitude unlike optimism which is only superficially reflexive. In literature this movement manifest itself in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The life of Raskolnikov picks up in a squalid flat with meagre food amidst poverty, disease, and ever-present unattainable desires. After his crime Raskolnikov confronts himself and the inescapable humanness of human life — in Hegel’s terms reflection into self. The Hegelian movement from fundamental pessimism or pessimistic being into essential pessimism is straightforward but the conceptual pessimism is not pessimism as such. Before it can reach the level of concept it must wrestle with optimism — and continually so. Where optimism gains the missing element of reflection (the Subjective) from this duel pessimism gains the element of hope (the Idea).

Pessimism is no longer pessimistic — it is confrontational with death and drama, yes, but it now has this element of hope — what Cornel West calls ‘tragicomic hope’. The belief that through all this darkness, all these murky waters that we will find a way to sustain ourselves as long as we have the will to act.