Optimists see the world as a positive place.

Optimism is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place. It is the opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best. Positive Attitude can refer to any of the following: Positive Attitude, a hip-hop music group Positive Attitude, the 29th book in the Dilbert comic strip series by Scott Adams Optimism Category: ... In computer science, in the field of databases, optimistic concurrency control, (OCC) is a concurrency control method used in relational databases without using locking. ... Image File history File links WPaskell,MountKearsargeinSpring(JJH-WFP301). ... Image File history File links WPaskell,MountKearsargeinSpring(JJH-WFP301). ... Pessimists see the world as uninviting and cruel. ...

A common conundrum illustrates optimism-versus-pessimism with the question, does one regard a given glass of water, filled to half its capacity, as half full or as half empty? Conventional wisdom expects optimists to reply, "Half full," and pessimists to respond, "Half empty" (assuming that "full" is considered good, and empty, "bad"). Half empty or half full? Is the glass half empty or half full? is a common expression, used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism (half full), pessimism (half empty), realism (that depends on whether you are pouring or drinking), or as a general...

Another paradox sometimes associated with optimism is that the only thing an optimist cannot view as positive is a pessimist. Pessimism, however, as it acts as a check to recklessness, may even then be viewed in a positive light.

Philosophy

Philosophers often link the concept of optimism with the name of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who held that we live in the best of all possible worlds, or that God created a physical universe that applies the laws of physics, a theodicy which Voltaire famously mocked in his satirical novel Candide. The philosophical pessimism of, for instance, Arthur Schopenhauer, provides an opposite pole to philosophical optimism. The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (July 1, 1646 in Leipzig - November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ... The phrase the best of all possible worlds (French:le meilleur des mondes possibles) was coined by the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de lhomme et lorigine du mal (Theodicy). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the singer of the same name, see Voltaire (musician). ... Candide, ou lOptimisme, (Candide, or Optimism) (1759) is a French language picaresque novel by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. ... Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher. ...

The anarchist philosopher William Godwin demonstrated perhaps even more optimism than Leibniz. He hoped that society would eventually reach the state where calm reason would replace all violence and force, that mind could eventually make matter subservient to it, and that intelligence could discover the secret of immortality. (Some express surprise to learn that a freedom-loving anarchist like William Godwin disapproved of suicide, but his disapproval came from his optimistic view of suicide as almost always a mistake.) Much of this philosophy is exemplified in the Houyhnhnms of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ... William Godwin William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English political and miscellaneous writer, considered one of the important precursors of both utilitarian and liberal anarchist thought. ... This article is about living for infinite period of time. ... Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses described in the last part of Jonathan Swifts satiric Gullivers Travels. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and... First Edition of Gullivers Travels Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Vol. ...

Psychology

Overoptimism, or strong optimism, is the overarching mental state wherein people believe that things will more likely go well for them than go badly. Compare this with the valence effect of prediction, a tendency for people to overestimate the likelihood of good things happening rather than bad things. The valence effect of prediction is the tendency for people to simply overestimate the likelihood of good things happening rather than bad things. ... A prediction is a statement or claim that a particular event will occur in the future in more certain terms than a forecast. ...

Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. ...

Personal optimism correlates strongly with self-esteem, with psychological well-being and with personal health. Martin Seligman, in researching this area, criticises academics for focusing too much on causes for pessimism and not enough on optimism. He points out that in the last three decades of the 20th century journals published 46,000 psychological papers on depression and only 400 on joy. In psychology, self-esteem or self-worth is a persons self-image at an emotional level; circumventing reason and logic. ... Martin E.P. Seligman (Albany, New York, 12 August 1942) is an American psychologist and writer. ...

Optimism has been shown to be correlated with better immune systems in healthy people who have been subjected to stress.^[1]

Ideologically convinced optimists may defend failures in their hoped-for outcomes by discussing "misplaced optimism" rather than abandoning optimism altogether.

A number of scholars have suggested that, although optimism and pessimism might seem like opposites, in psychological terms they do not function in this way. Having more of one does not mean you have less of the other. The factors that reduce one do not necessarily increase the other. On many occasions in life we need both in equal supply. Antonio Gramsci famously called for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will": the one the spur to action, the other the resilience to believe that such action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity. Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ) (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. ...

Hope can become a force for social change when it combines optimism and pessimism in healthy proportions. John Braithwaite, an academic at the Australian National University, suggests that in modern society we undervalue hope because we wrongly think of it as a choice between hopefulness and naïveté as opposed to scepticism and realism. For other uses, see Hope (disambiguation). ... The Australian National University, or ANU, is a public university located in Canberra, Australia. ... Look up naïve in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Skepticism (Commonwealth spelling: Scepticism) can mean: Philosophical skepticism - a philosophical position in which people choose to critically examine whether the knowledge and perceptions that they have are actually true, and whether or not one can ever be said to have absolutely true knowledge; or Scientific skepticism - a scientific, or practical...

References

See also

• Positive psychology
• Optimism bias
• Pessimism
• Philosophy
• Perfection
• Psychology
• Mood
• Agathism