The Defeat of the Living

The essay is an attempt to outline the different perspectives from which one can be philosophical about the phenomenon of despair today. Despite deliberately rejecting systematicity in principle, this essay relies on two main axes in understanding despair as a philosophical problem: one axis groups different approaches to the question of whether any definition of despair is possible. On the other axis we look for some (by no means all, of course) approaches to understanding despair that are revealed by history and philosophy. Based on these axes, the essay touches on such topics as: various types of despair, despair and despondency, religious and atheistic, rational and mystical reflection of despair, despair and defeat, social mechanisms of creating and overcoming despair, the unnoticed «pessimistic turn» of the mid-20th century and the role of thinkers of the Frankfurt School in creating and justifying this turn.