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Dr. Grobstein posed this question at the conclusion of Tuesday’s lecture “was Darwin an optimist or a pessimist?”  Unfortunately we did not discuss it on Thursday but it was an interesting question and I have a few thoughts.  The first issue that must be addressed is to define what optimism and pessimism mean.  This is where it gets interesting: in the traditional, religious, sense optimism is the idea that there are greater rewards to come.  It is an open ended view of life where there is always room for great, perhaps illogical, improvement from the present condition.  On the same basis pessimism would then be the belief that everything will remain the same, no outside force will intervene, and there will be no great improvement, catharsis or final judgment to lift the worthy. 

When Darwin is viewed through this religious lens then he is certainly a pessimist.  I strongly doubt Darwin would have considered himself one however.  Darwin's theory had no place for God's final punishment or reward, Darwin placed the responsibility for having a good, fulfilling life solely on the person living it.  Everybody is equal in birth and equal in death, what occurs between them defines the person.   The idea of a great equalization after death is diametrically opposed to Darwin's theory.  Some may view this interpretation as supporting atheism but I argue that it is humanist.  Darwin's theory does not invalidate the idea of God; it is possible to believe in both God and Darwin.  What Darwin rejects is the idea that a poor life will be repaid afterwards.  He does not reject the idea of an afterlife as a whole but rather values each life based on what is achieved during it.

In this sense Darwin is an optimist.  He views each person as being able to determine their own happiness and destiny.  He rejects the notion that a person (or a group of people) should be satisfied with hardship and prejudice because there is some greater prize waiting.  Darwin places the burden of a rich life on the person actually living it.  Thus the answer to prejudice is not to simply hope for change, but to seek it with all of our energy and intellect.  The lives are ours, and we must take full responsibility for them.