Not much literature on these different but similar philosophical attitudes. It seems that a nihilist would be exteme and a pessimist rather moderate. And a cynic would be optimistic compared to the other two.
Why haven’t there been any films, plays or novels in which three main characters hold these personality traits? I wonder what a conversation between them would look like. Do you have any examples that might illustrate the difference of a cynic from a nhilist? I know there are many Dopers here that are cynics (quite a few notable ones) but I’m thinking not necessarily of the philosophical positions and practices of the Cynics but of modern day cynicism and pessimism in general.
In terms of evolutionary theory, similar to Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene, which population group would prevail - the cynics, the pessimists, or the nihilists?
In ordinary conversational usage, a cynic is someone who has been disappointed by/has low expectations of other people. A pessimist has a negative view of life in general, while a nihilist believes that life has no inherent meaning.
A cynic might say “No one’s going to give me a birthday present, or if they do it’ll be something cheap and thoughtless.” A pessimist might say “It’s bound to rain, after all, it is my birthday. I’ll probably get stuck in traffic too.” A nihilist might not attribute any significance to his birthday at all, as it was only an arbitrary date on which his meaningless existence happened to begin.
That said, a nihilist could in theory be quite cheerful. The belief that there’s no inherent meaning in the world or any objective standard of morality isn’t necessarily a gloomy one. A cynic wouldn’t necessarily have a negative attitude towards life in general, and might even sometimes be pleasantly surprised by other people’s behavior. It’s the pessimist who’s bound to be miserable company.
In terms of success my money would be on the cynics, because you can’t bet on the nihilists caring enough to try. Cynics generally have high standards, it’s just that other people disappoint them. The nihilists might want to try to improve themselves or achieve goals for their own sake, or they might figure that since there’s no objective meaning in anything they might as well just watch TV. The pessimists aren’t really in the running.
Well they aren’t really apples and apples, so I think it would be a category mistake to try to place them all on a single linear scale.
Pessimism is less a belief system than an attitudinal disposition which colours your outlook on the possibility of benign progress for any particular subject matter. The word is relatively neutral. So whilst there certainly is such a thing as critical pessimism, it is an entirely contingent whether your pessimism is informed or not. So pessimism itself has no appreciable content - in terms of carrying an inherent critique. Indeed, you could argue that general pessimism is just a kind of reflexive cognitive or behavioural dysfunction.
You could make some of the same points about cynicism. But here, the word cynic does arguably have some vestigial content - dating back to the Greek school of cynicism. The original cynics were precursors to stoics in terms of critiquing excessive materialism, and they had a Buddhist-like belief that suffering was rooted in the false culture and convention of desire. The modern word still retains at least the same out-group heterodox flavour.
Nihilism is different. Nihilism generally means an epistemological and meta-ethical posture about the possibility of morality, and it usually implies strong scepticism about the utility or coherence of whole domains of inquiry like metaphysics. You can be a nihilist about a certain specific subject as well. It’s basically a null position.
As above, it’s important not to conflate nihilism with adjectival attitudes or emotions. A nihilist could show consistent interpersonal comity, optimism and an overall cheery disposition. Nothing about nihilism is inherently depressed. It’s just usually assumed that such a level of necessary arbitrariness in your ontological beliefs would dispose the believer to such feelings and expressions.
It does seem the pessimist stands out. But the pessimist would stand out in a group of optimists… is it just that there is a finer distinction between the cynic or the nihilist and the optimist?
Like anybody cares enough to read your silly thread. And no one would reply, even if they did read it. And even if they did reply, the reply would only have meaning to them, not to anyone else.
Do you think cynics and pessimists will eventually turn into nihilists, ie. “things are incapable of sucking or not sucking because there is no meaning to either sucking or not sucking”?
Being a cynic implies caring in some way. A cynic has standards- of course they are frequently violated, but they are there- they’re the very definition of cynicism. A cynic has low expectations, but they are rooted in rationality.
This is why I think cynicism and nihilism are a tough combo and cynicism is unlikely to be a “gateway drug” to nihilism. Pessimism might be, in the sense that “Everything will end up poorly so why should I even try/care”. The cynics I know pride themselves in their steely reticence, it defines their engagement with the world. Cynicism is certainly caring, in a way.
A cynic is an unbeliever in his society’s pieties.
A pessimist expects things to go wrong.
A nihilist believes in “nothing” on some level, such as the absence of transcendent moral meaning.
Cynics are not necessarily nihilists. It is possible to think that men are dogs while believing in a greater truth. Arguably, “men are dogs” is an aspect of greater truth.
Nihilists are not necessarily pessimists. A pessimist thinks things will go wrong. A nihilist doesn’t care. A cynic, perhaps, thinks society is only making things worse & that’s why things go wrong.
