g6 PESSIMISM. 



solution Is comparable to circle-squaring, and that 

 hence, from whatever side we attack the difficulty, 

 we are baffled by invincible discords. 



This position is the negation of all the activities 

 that make up life : for they all in different ways 

 assume that life has a meaning, that Its ends and its 

 means are not incommensurable, that it Is not a 

 hopeless and senseless striving that ends in nothing. 

 It is the negation of happiness and goodness, be- 

 cause It asserts that these Ideals are meaningless 

 phantoms Impossible of attainment ; of science, 

 because knowledge is a snare and a delusion, and In 

 the end a fruitless waste of labour ; of philosophy, 

 because It assumes that the world has a meaning 

 which may be discovered, whereas In truth the 

 secret of the universe cannot be unravelled, because 

 the world contains nothing which admits of rational 

 interpretation. 



Thus Pessimism not only Includes all the views 

 we have been considering, Agnosticism which denied 

 the possibility of all philosophy, and Scepticism 

 which denied that of all knowledge, but adds on Its 

 own account a denial of the possibility of all rational 

 conduct. And so, since it cuts at the roots of them 

 all, the possibility of this Pessimism must be the 

 primary consideration, not only of philosophy, but 

 of science, of ethics, and of eudaemonlsm. 



§ 2. And not only Is It possible that the con- 

 stitution of things is intrinsically perverse, but it Is 

 possible for Pessimism plausibly to urge that this 

 is extremely probable. The one thing certain, it 

 may be said, about the world. Is the fundamental 

 discord which runs through all creation. Is the ingen- 

 ious perversity which baffles all effort, is the futil- 

 ity to which all the activities of life are condemned. 



