ABSTRACT
The contemporary extremist views about nihilism, linked to the historical development of pessimism in the works of Leopardi, Schopenhauer, and Hartmann, claim that life is without hope and that the logical end to nihilism is the destruction of humanity. Its most prominent figure today, David Benatar, takes the view that nihilism means that life is terrible, that none of us are as happy as we think we are, and that the world would be better off if the human race went extinct. This chapter offers a polemic against the way nihilism has been abused by philosophers in order to support extreme pessimism about the human condition.
