Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Misanthropy and Pessimism: Philosophy's Darker Views of Human Nature

Misanthropy and Pessimism: Philosophy's Darker Views of Human Nature

Aiguafreda, Quim

Paperback

Series: Philosophy Without Footnotes: Ethics & the Good Life

Philosophy

ISBN13: 9798173019691
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 9 2026
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.49 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What if misanthropy is not merely a bad mood, but a philosophical judgment?

Misanthropy and Pessimism explores the thinkers who questioned humanity's flattering self-image. From Plato, Diogenes, Hobbes, and Schopenhauer to Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, and Arendt, it examines recurring doubts about reason, morality, conformity, cruelty, vanity, power, and progress.

The book also looks beyond individual philosophers to the habits of the species itself: tribalism, hypocrisy, self-deception, bureaucracy, war, consumerism, the treatment of animals, and environmental destruction. Again and again, human beings prove capable of recognizing their own failures while remaining impressively committed to repeating them.

Is humanity genuinely improving? Are our worst traits exceptional, or simply ordinary traits given the right conditions? Can pessimism be intellectually serious without collapsing into despair?

A philosophical examination of humanity's darker tendencies-and of the long tradition of thinkers who suspected that our opinion of ourselves may be somewhat generous.

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