Pessimism and Eternity: A Dialogue between Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

Bringing into dialogue the philosophical systems of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche cannot do without investigating pessimism and eternity – issues to which both thinkers attached great significance. The authors analysed in this essay, Martin Morgenstern and Christopher Janaway, partly touch on such issues. Unfortunately, both perpetuate the long-standing opposition between Schopenhauer’s supposed hopeless pessimism and Nietzsche’s life-affirming philosophy. In contrast, I will show how this opposition is no longer tenable. During aesthetic contemplation, Schopenhauer’s genius finds a way to take an interest in the world despite its evils. The genius exhibits a passionate engagement with knowledge, allowing aesthetic affects to come into play, just as Nietzsche’s artist intensifies and multiplies the affects to achieve a more comprehensive perspective on reality. The shared attitudes of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche towards knowledge reveal deep and often overlooked connections among their philosophical systems. It is in the realm of aesthetics that pessimism and eternity can come together.