Here are a few basic truths: life is essentially meaningless; your hard work won’t dictate where your life goes; you will be struck down by death; and your loved ones and your achievements will whither and turn to dust. A grim way to look at things perhaps. But a long line of philosophers, starting with the Stoics, have seen wisdom in taking a dim view. As Alain de Botton points out, a pessimistic outlook reduces our expectations, our envy, our disappointment, and it creates room for emotional upside and healthier life decisions. The talk (which features a sing-along to Elton John at the 29 minute mark) runs 38 wisdom-filled minutes, and it’s presented online by The School of Life, a London-based institution co-founded by de Botton in 2008. A big thanks to Miguel for sending this our way…
Related Content:
Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (also by Alain de Botton)
Unfortunately AdB could find the rusty nail in an ocean of cheerios. Making a virtue of misery is one thing – cringing in fear at all of life is something else.
@asgerd “cringing in fear at all of life is something else…” i don’t think he was saying that in any way whatsoever.
If you follow him for any length of time, that’s the (or my, at least) abiding impression. And I think there IS a good element of that here too.
Seneca’s pessimism as an strategy to scape from deception falls in the same problem of optimism, it creates a fiction, it creates a distance between our perception and reality. I think Nietzsche was more in the right track (is there any?) since he encourages to face the truth, as painful as might be. Also encourages the creative nature of suffering. I wonder if seneca had also assigned such features and if so, what emphasis they had in his overall philosophy.
Like his audience, I found AdB’s ‘sermon’ most enjoyable with not a few little insights along the way.
His points are well made; some of them salutary.
I have read some of his books but this is the first time I have heard him speak. He has a dryness that I actively like.