Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism

Patrick Hassan (Cardiff University)

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English

Cambridge University Press
30 May 2025

Philosophy; Ethics & moral philosophy; History of ideas

On what grounds could life be made worth living, given its abundant suffering? Friedrich Nietzsche was among many who attempted to answer this question. While always seeking to resist pessimism, Nietzsche's strategy for doing so, and the extent to which he was willing to concede conceptual grounds to pessimists, shifted dramatically over time. His reading of pessimists such as Eduard von Hartmann, Olga Plümacher, and Julius Bahnsen—as well as their critics, such as Eugen Dühring and James Sully—has been under-explored in the secondary literature, isolating him from his intellectual context. Patrick Hassan's book seeks to correct this. After closely mapping Nietzsche's philosophical development on to the relevant axiological and epistemological issues, it disentangles his various critiques of pessimism, elucidating how familiar Nietzschean themes (e.g. eternal recurrence, aesthetic justification, will to power, and his critique of Christianity) can and should be assessed against this philosophical backdrop.

By: Patrick Hassan (Cardiff University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009380294
ISBN 10: 100938029X
Pages: 290
Publication Date: 30 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Dr. Patrick Hassan is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Cardiff University. He is the author of Schopenhauer's Moral Philosophy (2021) and a number of articles on Nietzsche's and Schopenhauer's ethical thought.

Reviews for Nietzsche's Struggle against Pessimism

'In place of a superficial acceptance or rejection, Patrick Hassan nuances in a fruitful and quite original way Nietzsche's critical engagement with the varieties and historical iterations of pessimism. A rare combination of historical erudition and analytic precision, this is an essential book on a core topic in Nietzsche studies.' Anthony Jensen, Providence College 'Nietzsche's critique of pessimism has often been framed as a response to Schopenhauer. Hassan usefully expounds the wider intellectual context and shows philosophical sensitivity in reconstructing the thought of the now-lesser-known figures that Nietzsche was in dialogue with, beyond just Schopenhauer.' Andrew Huddleston, University of Warwick