Interesting contrast between Nietzsche's aesthetic justification for existence, which as far as I know you present fairly, and the no-holds-barred pessimism of e.g. Ligotti (who generalizes that life is 'malignantly useless' and who characterizes Nietzsche as a 'perverted pessimist') or Zapffe.
I’m not familiar with those thinkers, but certainly Nietzsche’s relationship with pessimism is complicated. In The Birth of Tragedy, he basically subscribes to Schopenhauer’s pessimism and its negative verdict against individuated existence. He opposes Socratic optimism, which rests on faith in the convergence of truth and moral goodness - a pessimistic instead recognizes the dangers in the unconditional pursuit of knowledge. Nietzsche will later reject his early Schopenhauerian pessimism as a version of decadence and life-denial, but he’ll still entertain the possibility of a “pessimism of strength” that would delight in everything dangerous and questionable about existence.
Interesting contrast between Nietzsche's aesthetic justification for existence, which as far as I know you present fairly, and the no-holds-barred pessimism of e.g. Ligotti (who generalizes that life is 'malignantly useless' and who characterizes Nietzsche as a 'perverted pessimist') or Zapffe.
I’m not familiar with those thinkers, but certainly Nietzsche’s relationship with pessimism is complicated. In The Birth of Tragedy, he basically subscribes to Schopenhauer’s pessimism and its negative verdict against individuated existence. He opposes Socratic optimism, which rests on faith in the convergence of truth and moral goodness - a pessimistic instead recognizes the dangers in the unconditional pursuit of knowledge. Nietzsche will later reject his early Schopenhauerian pessimism as a version of decadence and life-denial, but he’ll still entertain the possibility of a “pessimism of strength” that would delight in everything dangerous and questionable about existence.