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Overview
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers engaged in heated debates on the question of how God could have allowed evil and suffering in a creation that is supposedly good. Dark Matters traces how the competing philosophical traditions of optimism and pessimism arose from early modern debates about the problem of evil, and makes a compelling case for the rediscovery of pessimism as a source for compassion, consolation, and perhaps even hope.
Bringing to life one of the most vibrant eras in the history of philosophy, Mara van der Lugt discusses legendary figures such as Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, and Schopenhauer. She also introduces readers to less familiar names, such as Bayle, King, La Mettrie, and Maupertuis. Van der Lugt describes not only how the earliest optimists and pessimists were deeply concerned with finding an answer to the question of the value of existence that does justice to the reality of human suffering, but also how they were fundamentally divided over what such an answer should look like.
A breathtaking work of intellectual history by one of today's leading scholars, Dark Matters reveals how the crucial moral aim of pessimism is to find a way of speaking about suffering that offers consolation and does justice to the fragility of life.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780691226149 |
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Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
Publication date: | 09/26/2023 |
Pages: | 472 |
Sales rank: | 626,946 |
Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction: Philosophy in a Minor Chord 1
The Problem of Evil 3
Pessimism and Optimism 9
Maps and Methods 14
The Question 20
A Note of Caution 23
Chapter 1 The Complaint: Bayle and Malebranche on Physical Evil 28
Categories 30
Strategies 33
Malebranche's Monsters 36
Bayle's Balances 42
A Theodicean Turn? 58
Complaint and Consolation 62
Chapter 2 The Optics of Optimism: Leibniz and King Respond to Bayle 67
Definitions 68
The Challenge of Pessimism 71
Rising to the Challenge 73
The Thought Experiment 83
The Argument from Suicide 87
The Misery of the Damned 89
The Optics of Optimism 94
Pessimism 100
Chapter 3 Of Hope and Consolation: Voltaire and the Deists 103
Pope and Prior 112
Jenyns and Johnson 119
Voltaire's Volte-Face? 126
The Philosopher's Earthquake 131
Candide, or Optimism 138
The Complications of Hope 145
Chapter 4 When Stoicism Meets Pessimism: La Mettrie and Maupertuis 148
'But We Shall Be Anti-Stoics!': La Mettrie 152
Calculating Evils: Maupertuis 160
Optimistic Pessimism? 172
Pessimistic Optimism? 175
La Mettrie Strikes Back 179
Stoicism and Suicide 184
Chapter 5 The Dispositional Problem of Evil: David Hume 187
A Fragment on Evil 190
Dialogues concerning Natural Religion 193
'The Sceptic' 210
The Consolations of Philosophy 217
'Of Suicide' 222
Humean Pessimism 229
Chapter 6 The Art of Suffering: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 232
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality 235
The Letter to Voltaire 246
Emile 260
Rousseau versus the Pessimists 277
Chapter 7 The Failure of Theodicy: Immanuel Kant 284
'Heil uns, wir sind!': The Optimistic Kant 286
A Last Attempt at Theodicy? 290
The Essay on Theodicy 294
The Clear Eyes of Maria von Herbert 325
Chapter 8 The Flute-Playing Pessimist: Arthur Schopenhauer 334
The Case for Pessimism 339
Round One: 'The Dark Abodes of Misery' 341
Round Two: Theodicy Revisited 347
Round Three: Parerga and Paralipomena 355
The Reasons for Pessimism 361
The Problems of Pessimism 386
Chapter 9 Dark Matters: Pessimism as a Moral Source 395
Why the Dark Matters 398
Happiness and the New Suffering 401
The Point of Pessimism 406
Fragility 410
Hopeful Pessimism 414
Acknowledgements 417
Bibliography 419
Main Primary Sources 419
Other Primary Sources 424
Secondary and Modem Sources 428
Index 443
What People are Saying About This
“Dark Matters is history of philosophy at its best—scholarly, argumentative, and lively. Van der Lugt traces the ways in which the problem of theodicy—of justifying the works of God in a world full of evil—was transformed across the eighteenth century into the choice between optimism and pessimism, understood not as psychological expectations of the future but as philosophical alternatives in the face of suffering.”—John Robertson, University of Cambridge“This beautifully written and carefully argued book deploys a hermeneutics of sympathy for those philosophers who wonder whether life is worth living at all. The effects are a kind of alchemy: while one contemplates the most awful thoughts, van der Lugt’s expert and gentle guidance creates the joy that comes from knowing one is not wholly alone in the world.”—Eric Schliesser, University of Amsterdam“A remarkable work. Dark Matters engages its reader in a very personal way with questions that are central to human experience. This beautifully written book vividly brings out the ways in which what philosophers call ‘the problem of evil’ is not merely an intellectual puzzle but also a challenge to beliefs about what makes life worth living.”—James A. Harris, University of St Andrews“Welding a subtle analysis of philosophical pessimism to a brilliant genealogy of the early modern problem of evil, this book is a genuine tour de force: faced with the ‘ultimate questions,’ philosophy, as it turns out, still matters.”—Wiep van Bunge, author of From Bayle to the Batavian Revolution: Essays on Philosophy in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Republic"A major work in the history of ideas and an unusual pleasure to read. Dark Matters is a book with the power to make people think differently about their lives."—Ritchie Robertson, author of The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680–1790"Dark Matters is an engaging and accessible study in intellectual history and philosophy. Van der Lugt convincingly argues that pessimism at its best leads us to a morality centered on compassion."—John P. Wright, author of Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature": An Introduction