Philipp Mainländer

In his central work, Die Philosophie der Erlösung (The Philosophy of Redemption or The Philosophy of Salvation)^[4] — according to Theodor Lessing, "perhaps the most radical system of pessimism known to philosophical literature"^{[Note 1]} — Mainländer proclaims that life is of negative value, and that "the will, ignited by the knowledge that non-being is better than being, is the supreme principle of morality."^{[Note 2]}

Politics and Political Life[edit]

Despite his pessimism, Mainländer could be categorized as something of a political optimist. Outlined in his Philosophy of Redemption is the image of a future society akin to a global socialist state. This "final state," as described by Mainländer, is the penultimate step of the Will-to-Death metanarrative, as Mainländer believes that upon the satiation of all human desires, these humans will understand the triviality of existence (specifically, that the pleasures this satiation brought does not outweigh the negative value of existence), and subsequently move towards the extinction of themselves (and possibly life as a whole). ^[21]


The politics of Mainländer may have played a profound role in the philosopher's suicide. Letters written to his sister, Minna Batz, imply that there was an indecision on his behalf as to whether suicide would be beneficial, or if he could work as a political leader in the German Social Democratic Movement taking place within Germany at the time, in an effort to aid in accelerating society towards the aforementioned "final state." In a letter to his sister, he writes:


"If I am not to seek death with pleasure, after this fruit has ripened, lacking any motive, I must enter into the realm of social democracy, which will allow me to become exhausted and dazed, so as not to listen to the seductive voices of this longing for absolute rest, and to achieve redemption forever. [...] Whether I shall prefer the repose of death to all this [active political life], and seal my doctrine with it, I do not know for the moment." ^[22]


The letters exchanged between them imply that Mainländer was seeking external support in the form of his sister's blessing for his political career, but due to opposing political beliefs, she refused to bestow it. ^[23] Despite this, Mainländer wrote that he would seek political activism without her blessing, and yet was found dead by hanging within a short period of time, proving that he had gone back on his original decision. ^[24]