Life Is (Not) Great

Six Philosophers That Hated Existence

Suffering creature, born for a day, child of accident and toil, why are you forcing me to say what would give you the greatest pleasure not to hear? The very best thing for you is totally unreachable: not to have been born, not to exist, to be nothing. The second best thing for you, however, is this — to die soon. (The Wisdom of Silenus)

The world is a wonderful place, life is good, it is better to be alive than to be dead — so goes the prevailing wisdom of the ages. But not all agree. Including some philosophers. And some of them have even hated life with a passion.

Exactly how much of their sour judgements of reality stem from subjective emotional reactions — as some led particularly unlucky lives — and how much from pure philosophical inference is hard to tell. Suffice it to say, however, that they all thought of themselves as seeing the world as it truly is — which for them was a ghastly and meaningless place full of pain and suffering.

A word of warning. The extreme pessimistic views of the philosophers in question make other so-called pessimists, such as Nietzsche (who, though nihilistic, was actually the opposite of a pessimist) or Camus, appear like mere choirboys in comparison. This may also explain their relative obscurity for most people presumably do not read philosophy in order to be told that life is terrible and that we should abandon all hope; in fact, it is usually for the exact opposite of reasons. As such, this article is more or less the exact opposite of the usual “inspirational” drivel that you will find copied throughout most of the internet.

Read at your own risk.