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An optimist and a pessimist, Vladimir Makovsky, 1893. Researchers operationalize the term "optimism" differently depending on their research. As with any trait characteristic, there are several ways to evaluate optimism, such as the Life Orientation Test (LOT), an eight-item scale developed in 1985 by Michael Scheier and Charles Carver.
Voltaire was the first European to be labeled as a pessimist by his critics, in response to the publication and international success of his 1759 satirical novel Candide; [40]: 9 a treatise against Leibniz's theistic optimism, refuting his affirmation that "we live in the best of all possible worlds."
Philosophical pessimism is a philosophical tradition which argues that life is not worth living and that non-existence is preferable to existence. Thinkers in this tradition emphasize that suffering outweighs pleasure, happiness is fleeting or unattainable, and existence itself does not hold inherent value or an intrinsic purpose.
The words "economic pessimism" appeared in newspapers at least 29,000 times, according to Google. And yet our standard of living increased 20-fold. Being an optimist doesn't mean I don't think bad ...
One could easily imagine an unhappy optimist, and a happy pessimist. Accusations of pessimism may be used to silence legitimate criticism. The economist Nouriel Roubini (who introduces himself as Dr. Doom) was largely dismissed as a pessimist, for his dire but to some extent accurate predictions of a coming global financial crisis, in 2006.
Pessimism is deeply rooted in our biological makeup. It's also one of the reasons many people don't live up to their potential. It turns out that our brains weren't designed for the modern world.
Image Name Date of birth Date of death Nationality Julius Bahnsen [1] [2]: 30 March 1830: 7 December 1881: German Ernest Becker [3]: 27 September 1924: 6 March 1974
Josiah Stamp is often given credit for introducing it in a 1935 speech, but although he did help to popularize it, a variant regarding a car's gas tank occurs in print with the optimism/pessimism connotations as early as 1929, and the glass-with-water version is mentioned simply as an intellectual paradox about the quantity of water (without ...