Philosophical pessimism in the context of "Arthur Schopenhauer"

Continental philosophy is a group of Western philosophies first prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantian tradition of focusing on the individual and society. Continental philosophy includes German idealism, phenomenology, philosophical pessimism, existentialism (and its antecedents, such as the thought of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche), hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, French feminism, psychoanalytic theory, posthumanism, speculative realism, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as well as some Freudian, Hegelian, and Western Marxist views.

There is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Prior to the twentieth century, the term "continental" was used broadly to refer to philosophy from continental Europe. A slightly narrower use of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers since the second half of the 20th century, who use it as a convenient catch-all term to refer to a range of thinkers and traditions outside the movement known as analytic philosophy. The term continental philosophy may mark merely a family resemblance across disparate philosophical views; a similar argument has been made for analytic philosophy.

Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann (23 February 1842 – 5 June 1906) was a German philosopher, independent scholar and writer. He was the author of the influential Philosophy of the Unconscious (1869). Von Hartmann's notable ideas include the theory of the Unconscious and a pessimistic interpretation of the "best of all possible worlds" concept in metaphysics.

Philipp Mainländer (German: [ˈmaɪ̯nlɛndɐ]; 5 October 1841 – 1 April 1876) was a German philosopher and poet. Born Philipp Batz, he later changed his name to "Mainländer" in homage to his hometown, Offenbach am Main.

In his central work, Die Philosophie der Erlösung (The Philosophy of Redemption or The Philosophy of Salvation) — according to Theodor Lessing, "perhaps the most radical system of pessimism known to philosophical literature" — Mainländer proclaims that life is of negative value, and that "the will, ignited by the knowledge that non-being is better than being, is the supreme principle of morality."

Peter Wessel Zapffe (/ˈzæpfə/; Norwegian: [ˈsɑ̂pfə]; 18 December 1899 – 12 October 1990) was a Norwegian philosopher, author, artist, lawyer and mountaineer. He is often noted for his philosophically pessimistic and fatalistic view of human existence. His system of philosophy was inspired by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as his firm advocacy of antinatalism. His thoughts regarding the error of human life are presented in the essay "The Last Messiah" ("Den sidste Messias", 1933). This essay is a shorter version of his best-known work, the philosophical treatise On the Tragic (Om det tragiske, 1941).

Emil Cioran (/ˈtʃɔːrɑːn/; Romanian: [eˈmil tʃoˈran] ; French: [emil sjɔʁɑ̃]; 8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. In 1937, Cioran moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in seclusion with his partner, Simone Boué, until his death in 1995.

Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is an American horror author, lay philosopher, and writer. His writings are rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have been described by critics as works of philosophical horror, often formed into short stories and novellas in the tradition of gothic fiction. The worldview espoused by Ligotti in his fiction and non-fiction has been described as pessimistic and nihilistic. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction."

Wild animal suffering is suffering experienced by non-human animals living outside human care or control, arising from natural processes. Sources of harm include disease, injury, parasitism, starvation and malnutrition, dehydration, exposure to weather and natural disasters, killing by other animals, and psychological stress. Assessments of scope emphasize the very large numbers affected and the mechanisms that produce it, including natural selection, high-fecundity reproductive strategies (r-selection), high juvenile mortality, and population dynamics.

Religious, philosophical, and literary sources have variously explained, justified, accepted, or criticized harm in nature, with some advocating compassion or intervention and others defending non-intervention or the value of natural processes. Treatments appear in Christianity and Islam, and in Eastern traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism; in religious contexts, it has been linked to the problem of evil and theodicy. Eighteenth-century figures include Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, and Johann Gottfried Herder; nineteenth-century discussion features Lewis Gompertz, pessimist philosophers, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Stephens Salt; twentieth-century contributors include J. Howard Moore, William Temple Hornaday, and Alexander Skutch. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the topic has featured in scholarship in animal ethics and environmental ethics, including work by Peter Singer, Jeff McMahan, Yew-Kwang Ng, Clare Palmer, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, Steve F. Sapontzis, Stephen R. L. Clark, J. Baird Callicott, Holmes Rolston III, David Pearce, Alasdair Cochrane, Kyle Johannsen, Catia Faria, Brian Tomasik, and Oscar Horta, in dedicated university and think tank programs, and in the work of advocacy organizations and research institutes.