Peter Wessel Zapffe
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Philosophical pessimism is a term frequently used to cover the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The term has also been used to describe the position of the Norwegian philosopher Peter Wessel Zapffe, although he clearly states in his philosophical treatise Om det tragiske that pessimism is a term which cannot describe his biosophy partially inspired by Arthur Schopenhauer."--Sholem Stein |
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Peter Wessel Zapffe (December 18 1899-October 12 1990) was a Norwegian author and philosopher. He was born in Tromsø and was well known for his somewhat pessimistic view of human existence. His basic thoughts about the error of human existence are presented in the essay, The Last Messiah (original: Den sidste Messias, 1933). This essay is a shorter version of his best-known work, the philosophical treatise, On the tragic (original: Om det tragiske 1941). He called his brand of thought, biosophy, which he defined as "thinking on life".