Pessimism, Quietism and Nature as Refuge - by David E Cooper

About the Book

How do we, as individuals, accommodate a pessimistic and misanthropic view of the world? If the human condition is impossible to ameliorate, then how should we live? To bring about the wellbeing and happiness we seek, argues Cooper, requires a quietism that seeks refuge from the everyday human world in nature.

Book Synopsis

How do we, as individuals, accommodate a pessimistic and misanthropic view of the world? If the human condition is impossible to ameliorate, then how should we live? How do we bring about the wellbeing and happiness we seek in the face of such overwhelming evidence that our condition is and will remain very bad indeed and owes significantly to our own entrenched failings?

In this thoughtful and insightful book the philosopher David E. Cooper explores this fundamental dilemma. He rejects an activist commitment to radical improvement of the human condition, and instead advocates quietism as a way to live as well and as happily as we can. This quietist position, which draws on Buddhist and Daoist ideas as well as those from western philosophy, is supplemented by finding refuge from the everyday human world in a "place" both "other" and "better" than that world. Such places of refuge, Cooper argues, are best found in natural environments.

Refuge in nature, whether a garden or a wilderness, cultivates an attunement to, or a sense of, the way of things, and thereby invites assurance of being "in the truth" and the enjoyment that such assurance fosters. The quietist who finds refuge in nature lives as well as and as happily as anyone can do who accepts the negative verdict on the human condition.

Review Quotes

The arguments are timely. The past ten years have made it hard to be optimistic about humanity ... Taking the bleakness of the future as a premiss ... Cooper lays out our options.--Kieran Setiya, Times Literary Supplement

Cooper's book does a good job of forcing the reader to question what it means to try to live justly in a fundamentally unjust society--and whether it is even possible to do so.--Public Seminar

Pessimism, Quietism, and Nature as Refuge offers us an interesting, complex, provocative, and richly informed characterization of a certain kind of religiously informed moral life. Philosophers of religion will find many rich themes - pessimism and misanthropy; nihilism and disquiet at the human condition; the virtues and aspirations of moral quietism; the diversity of our vices and failings and the complexities of suffering; the subtle links, found in some forms of 'nature mysticism', between aesthetic appreciation, natural environments, and religious sensibility; the many ways recognizably human forms of life can be informed by a doctrine of mystery. Moreover, the book exemplifies, to a remarkable degree, the importance of a historical, humane, 'multicultural' style of philosophizing. Cooper's claims should be taken up and investigated by philosophers, theologians, and religious studies scholars, as well as by historians of pessimism and advocates and critics of misanthropy. ... Cooper's book, with its wise, learned engagement with philosophers, religious thinkers, poets, novelists, environmentalists, misanthropes, and pessimists, should help that effort. By drawing on thinkers from a range of world traditions, he has offered an excellent defence of something that seems increasingly forgotten in this world - 'the wisdom of the quietist dispensation'.--Ian James Kidd, Religious Studies

A personal, provocative, and important new book ... makes an alarmingly eloquent case for a misanthropic pessimism that will force reflection on the conditions for living well ... He deals with dark topics, yet with a light touch ... wonderfully rich in literary and philosophical allusions ... Cooper is an unwavering and subtle mentor who puts us in touch with ancient wisdom in a rich language that derives from many traditions, bringing them into conversation with each other.--Michael McGhee, Los Angeles Review of Books

David E. Cooper defends a pessimistic misanthropic outlook on the human condition. Any honest reckoning with the realities of being human feeds a deep sense of disquiet. The wise response, however, is to reject nihilistic despair and activist commitments to 'save the world'. Drawing on eastern and western philosophers, poets, writers, and environmentalists, Cooper urges us to take seriously more quietist possibilities - ones disguised by the relentless bright-siding optimism rhetoric of the world. The quietist lives under no illusions about the scope of their powers and the depth of the world's problems. Cooper elaborates moral quietism and shows its attractions to modern people striving to live humanely within an inhumane world. Readers attracted to quietism will find the book inspirational and a very welcome corrective to the monopolisation of moral discourse by activist attitudes and ambitions.--Ian James Kidd, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Nottingham

This important and finely crafted book takes us from a pessimistic conception of the human condition to the cultivation of a kind of religious sensibility. Drawing on a range of sources from the Buddha and the Daoist sage Zhuangzi to Michel de Montaigne and Rainer Maria Rilke, Cooper offers a compelling picture of nature's significance as a place from which to seek refuge from pessimistic disquiet and defends an approach in which examination of one's own life is key. A fascinating and enlightening read.--Fiona Ellis, Professor of Philosophy, University of Nottingham

This is a remarkable book. Cooper harnesses his tremendous erudition ranging across worldwide philosophical thought and cultures to present a timely antidote to hubristic unrealistic plans - that take various forms, economic, scientific, moral, ecological - to manage the entire world, so that the misanthropic pessimistic conditions of humankind may be vastly improved or eliminated, and in addition he addresses critically other responses. In so doing he argues for another way we as individuals may more truthfully and realistically live and deal with the human condition. It is a virtuoso performance.--John Shand, Open University, author of Philosophy and Philosophers

About the Author

David E. Cooper is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Durham University. He has been a visiting professor at universities in the USA, Canada, Malta, South Africa, China and Sri Lanka. He has been president of the Aristotelian Society and chair of the Mind Association. His recent books include Senses of Mystery: Engaging with Nature and the Meaning of Life (2017) and Animals and Misanthropy (2018). He has also written a number of novels and short stories.