Optimism vs. Pessimism

[~Sophia~]

Isn't the rational person the one who expects the most likely outcome?

In a sense, yes. Two groups of factors are relevant: those within our control (influenced by our personal choices) and those which are not (nature and other's choices - the outside circumstances).

Some people do have objective grounds for pessimism because, for example, they do not take charge of their life, live without purpose, or engage in self sacrifice. The most likely outcome will be negative and thus that is what one should expect in that context. But those are not rational choices to begin with.

I was assuming a position of rational approach to life (when the within our control is grounded in reason). In such case, is pessimism and optimism equally valid as a general disposition; as an outlook on life on a very broad scale. I think not. My rationale is the following (of course open to criticism).

The non-man-made is neutral and we are technologically advanced enough that our survival is not much affected by the forces of nature. In terms of the man-made, facts point out to a strong belief in the power of good in the world. Truth has the advantage of being true and life and flourishing are conditional on making choices in correspondence to reality (in sync with the truth). The pressure, if you will, is toward the good. Life is conditional and humans do not find values readymade - they have to create them. Flourishing life depends on a continuous pursuit of values. Life demands rationality to the degree that is allowing us to survive. It can further be observed, however, that most people want much more than just to survive. Their goals at every step demand more rationality because that is the only path to their achievement. All of those lead to the conclusion that it is not reasonable to expect bad as a default when it comes to the man-made. Certainly my experience confirms it. The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority.

I do not believe that two opposite evaluations about reality can be equally valid. A is A.

Edited January 5, 2009 by ~Sophia~

[agrippa1]

Not sure if you're just being funny, but this is obviously not true. They are opposites: an optimist is one who expects the best out of life, a pessimist is one who expects the worst. How pessimistic to believe that optimism is mistaken!

It's one of my favorite cardinal rules for engineering. An engineer must be an optimist, in that he must believe that "it" can work, and that he can make "it" work. But a successful engineer must be a pessimist, and anticipate all the things that can go wrong to keep "it" from working, so to be forearmed against the inevitable pitfalls.

A pessimist with no optimism will never try to accomplish anything. An optimist with no pessimism will try but never succeed.

A rational person is both - he hopes for the best in life, but also plans for the worst.