andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> I'd like to generate some
> (rationaly based) optimism of the will. Pessimism of
> the mind is all too easy to come by.
A poem keeps echoing in my mind that is relevant here, but I can't remember the words or the poet (as it echoes in my mind the metric is vaguely Marvellian). It asserts -- if I could only remember the damn thing -- what I want to say better than I can.
Optimism of the will is NOT something that is added to pessimism of the intellect. (Two don't combine into one.) Optimism of the will is grounded in, is an expression of, pessimism of the intellect. (One divides into two.)
And I think I disagree with you that "pessimism of the mind" is all that easy to arrive at. As illustrated on this list, pessimism of the intellect seems mostly to boil down to a vulgar empricism, expressing itself in ranting and raving against people as stupid, immoral, hopeless, etc. A grounded pessimism has to be based on the assumption that people are rational. E.g., evangelicals or "fundies" are not sick nor vicious nor stupid: like everyone else, they are only trying, under difficult circumstances, to make as much sense as they can of their experience.
Carrol