
Dark Matters
Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering
Hardcover | 1 January 2022
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Hardcover
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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 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 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 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.
About the Author
Mara van der Lugt is lecturer in philosophy at the University of St Andrews, where she specializes in early modern intellectual history and philosophy. She is the author of Bayle, Jurieu, and the "Dictionnaire Historique et Critique."
Industry Reviews
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
ISBN: 9780691206622
ISBN-10: 0691206627
Published: 1st January 2022
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number of Pages: 472
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 24.3 x 16.8 x 3.9
Weight (kg): 0.93
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